Welcome home

So, the suitcase is unpacked, the laundry washed and folded (hung?), and all the "extra stuff" that decorated the middle of our bedroom floor for 3 nights is also put away. What am I doing??? This is way too organized.....but, yes, the trip is now a memory, or should I say many wonderful memories. Now, the prayers intensify for our friends in Romania, especially those on the committee for human rights and dignity. One of the things I discovered while there and have forgotten to write about is that when a baby is stillborn in Romania, it does not receive either a birth or a death certificate! In fact, most times it is burned or given to a lab for scientific research! Heartbreaking for you and me.....gotta be absolutely the worst kind of hell for the parents to go through.
Saw a sign in the Timisoara airport as we began our flights back home, "inhumane treatment is not human rights". I have promised to pray diligently for the Committee for Human Rights and Dignity, and those of my friends who are part of it.....wish you would too. Think I've written this before, but it bears repeating...the Romanian people will need a LOT of support and encouragement from us and the other participating European countries to stand firm on these issues. Another thing y'all could pray for is that babies are not allowed to be given to orphanages (most of which are now run by Christians) until age 2. Many orphanages have babies dropped off on their doorsteps and are required by law to surrender them to the hospitals...where, of course they will be given inferior food and inferior care...they just lie there....no hugs or any kind of human interaction. We're hoping that this committee will be able to change this law.
What to write about? As I try to ease back into daily life here, it's sometimes more of a rude awakening and culture shock to be back in the States. I'm all about relationships, so I guess it's no surprise to me that I sometimes feel as if I "fit in" better in most other countries where people actually just sit and talk to other people, and care about them, not what they do. Who I am is NOT what I do! I'm not a gadget freak or anything like that.....yes, I just got a new Blackberry, mostly because my other cellphone's camera broke and my contract was up.....but just today, Terry and I were lamenting the fact that there are umpteen ways of communicating with people and still it's just about impossible to get some people to return a phone call! Or an email. John Maxwell wrote a whole book about it...seems like everyone is "into" communication, yet very few of us really connect with people. It's annoying to see people with their heads down, constantly texting or facebooking on their I-phones (or Blackberries) instead of conversing. I've actually had it happen to me! 2 people in a Starbucks booth (we were waiting for some more to join us) .....just me and one other person who decided it was okay to ignore the human and just interact with a gadget. I'm not sayin' it's rude, I'll leave that to someone older than me. I guess all these "modern vehicles" are an inevitable part of progress...just wishing and hoping that people do not forget/neglect that God created us to live in relationship with each other, not just to be facebook or twitter friends! Big difference....just sayin'.

The "afterglow"

Well, we have all changed out of our Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes, back into jeans, contacts out, and as you can tell, I must be at S'bucks if I'm sending this. What a day this has been! Seems like few of us slept soundly....except for Dr. John and Mary.
Breakfast was a bit more subdued than yesterday, probably because most of us were feeling the solemnity of what we were about to witness. Beni, Dr. John and Mary all left early to take the tour of the Palace. The rest of us had already done so on previous trips, so we stayed back to get ready at a more leisurely pace. I did some more "practicing"....just listening to the hymns and reading over my music. Eugenia, Lisa, Carla and I left together around 11-ish....and proceeded to circle the Palace about 3 times before we found the proper parking gate! Just as we got parked, Beni, John and Mary emerged from their tour, and we also met up with Brian, Puiu and Doina.....all walking into the entrance together, surrendering our passports and bags to be searched.
We arrived in plenty of time to sit around, but as we all agreed, better to sit around than to rush in at the last minute.
Conversation still came easily for most of us. Puiu and Doina are dear people who don't talk much...with the grief they have just endured, losing their young son just about a year after his wedding, it's no wonder they are quiet. Brian is a fascinating Welshman and I have enjoyed talking with him because we've visited many of the same places. Lisa has spent many practice periods cutting and working on her speech....Eugenia is always just sweet and quiet, and Carla runs us all! (well, someone has to). Of course we also harass her about it.
Finally we are motioned to go into the room with the huge round table and I think I counted about 66 of us sitting at the table, as well as some guests in chairs in the corner. There are booths for the translators, headphones and microphones at everyone's place. As with any trip to a foreign country, we think we need to be flexible but as one person put it, "flexible is too rigid! You must be fluid!" If I get any more fluid, I'm going to just slip away down the drain one day! I was supposed to do a 30-minute concert before the meeting, but, after all, we ARE in Romania. Does anything begin on time? I submit that it does not! At least, this meeting didn't. So, along with Eunice's computer somehow freezing up, we only had time for one song before we started. As I always pray for God to choose the songs and in what order, somehow "What a Friend we Have in Jesus" found its way onto the stand. I use that term loosely because I have no idea what the contraption was on which I clothespinned the music! But my violin case had to be set on the bottom of this thing just to keep it from falling over! This hymn was my mom's favorite, and it just seemed the right way to begin. Later on, Mary and John Isch both said that was a "God thing" because at the last minute, Mary had been asked to read a letter from a New Jersey Senator who couldn't be here, and she was just panicked....she does not do foreign languages, and there were so many Romanian names in this letter, she was certain she'd never get through it. She said my song reminded her to just "take it to the Lord in prayer". So, thank You Lord that You chose that hymn!
There were so many people who spoke, and most of them far exceeded their original 10-minute limit......at one point Marius Dugulescu, the moderator, asked everyone to cut down to 5 minutes. Well, that really worked! NOT. So we went about an hour past our 3pm coffee break. Beni felt badly that the opening didn't go so well, computer-wise so he told me I should just play at the beginning of the next part - we would just look for another computer. Leo saved the day for us, and both Beni and I have promised to pray 3 times a day for a wife for him....so he let us use his computer!!! This time, before we began the second half, I played "It is Well with my Soul", "Amazing Grace", and "How Great Thou Art"....they're each fairly long, so it was over 15 minutes of music, which everyone seemed to enjoy....in fact, I had several people just standing around me taking pictures, moving to another side for another one.....calling home on their cell phones so a wife or husband could listen!
Carla said there was very loud applause when I finished. I'm not even sure I heard it. I was so relieved that the computer didn't freeze up, and God just moved my fingers to the right notes. The second portion went quicker.....well, we were already about an hour late......so Marius asked everyone to limit to 3 minutes. Poor Lisa had already cut so much of her speech I worried about her trying to cut out any more. John, on the other hand, had asked Beni several times, and Beni told him not to cut anything. About halfway through John's sermon (because that's exactly what it was!) I saw Beni say something to Lisa, who said something to Mary, who wrote something on a piece of paper and push it over to John, who looked at it and kept on going! He was havin' a come-to-Jesus meetin' and nothin' was gonna stop him. It was glorious and when he did finish, everyone broke out in spontaneous applause. It seems that everyone there was blatantly pro-life and they were making the most of this moment. Marius then said he was going to ring a bell at the 2-minute mark and people would have to stop. He's young, though, and most people went a bit beyond, but tried to be sensitive to the lateness of the hour.
Has anyone noticed I didn't say a thing about lunch? Just checking to see if you're really reading this :)
Probably about 5pm....an hour and a half later than the original ending time, we did finish and were escorted downstairs into a lovely room with a beautiful buffet, where everyone was encouraged to interact with the others.....it was literally almost 8pm when the last of us left the room.....just for fun, I've got a picture of a sign that says tourists aren't allowed past a certain point.....but guess who went past that point???! Hey, not just me.....all of us did on our way to the food!
Carla and I drove John and Mary back to the University, and then servant-hearted Carla asked me if I wanted to come to the mall so I could tell you all about this wonderful day and try to communicate with Terry. Thank you again for your prayers..... none of us could have done it without the power of God flowing through us, and again, we all feel so honored to have been invited here to be a part of this Committee launch. It's late.....I'm tired, Carla is waiting......good night everyone......and please remember to pray for our long car trip tomorrow. Beni has to go to a funeral of a Dugulescu family friend, so he's going the opposite direction.....John and Mary fly to Vienna, and everyone else will be leaving for their respective homes.....new friends, new brothers and sisters, new ideas, new day for this beautiful country! Good night.