Category: Romanian Life

Six Months

by Julie Peters///By Julie, Reflection, Reminiscence, Romanian Life, Uncategorized

Six months ago I put on a white dress. Then some pretty music played and I took my Daddy’s arm and walked down an aisle. Then I made the second most important commitment of my life to the most important person in my life.

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Sam told me today. In some ways when I think back to that day I feel like I have blinked and six months have passed!

Six months is not a very long time, but it is still enough time to grow incredibly close to a person, grow as a person myself, and learn countless lessons. I have been asked how it was going from a long distance relationship to the close relationship of marriage. So far it has been absolutely wonderful and full of blessings. We have already gone through so much during our six months together so far and I am excited to see, Lord willing, what the future holds.

Sam and I knew each other three days shy of one year when he got down on one knee and took the first step in our commitment to each other, and nine days later he was on a plane to Romania. We were apart for nine months during our engagement expect for two weeks right in the middle. The majority of our relationship was long distance, and although we were able to communicate very well through letters, text messages, emails, phone calls, and FaceTime sessions, we could not wait to actually be together every single day. I can remember talking about it through computer screens, daydreaming together about seeing each other when we wake up every day, running together, or just getting to talk in person whenever we had something to discuss.

Although I never would have chosen for it to be so, I think we grew a lot from our lengthy long-distance relationship. We learned how to communicate when apart and work through difficulties. We also grew to appreciate being together. Even now we still pause sometimes to say, “I can’t believe we are together! This is so much fun!” I hope we never lose the excitement of being together, no matter what we are doing. I hope we can always hold on to just a little bit of this feeling.

Although in some small ways the last six months have been harder than I anticipated, in a huge way it has been so much better than I ever could have imagined. I imagined that marriage would be blissful, but I did not understand what a blessing it is as well. God’s plan for everything is always the best, and I realize a little more every day how perfect His plan for marriage is.

Date night in downtown Craiova

So far during our marriage we have been through a lot. For seven weeks after we got married we lived with my parents and traveled all over the States for Sam to preach and give reports to various congregations. Then we moved to Romania and lived with Sam’s parents for a little while before getting our own apartment in Severin. Three months later we moved two hours away to Craiova to start a church here. We have been so many places, met so many people, and had so many amazing experiences together. We have also gone through some hard and stressful days and many, many tears (at least on my part!), but the hard times have just helped us draw closer.

When I look back on the past six months, at all the joy, smiles, and laughter, along with the stress and sadness I am amazed at how far we have come. We know each other so much better and we are remarkably closer than we were six short months ago, and that thought excites me. If I have witnessed so many blessings already, and I am learning more every day, I cannot imagine what blessings years of marriage must hold. I pray we will continue to draw closer to God and closer to each other, and that our marriage will be a tool in accomplishing God’s will for our lives!

Difficulties

by Julie Peters///By Sam, Reflection, Romanian Life
“The wives are the ones who really go through the difficulty. They are the real heroes.” I heard this statement as one man was giving a missionary report. I thought, “What do the wives do? How can they be called the heroes?” Well, after the last 4 months I am learning what he meant. Living in a different country is disorientating. The culture is unusual. The way of life is unfamiliar. The attitudes are different. Julie is facing this all and I’m trying to help. Going through this, I have thought about how to think about difficulties and want to share some thoughts that have helped me.
 
Our first few months were difficult. At first Julie would share her trials with me and I would try to think of ways to encourage her. I know guys like to problem solve rather than empathize so I was trying to listen. Though I didn’t know what to say, it was hard for me to keep quite. I thought it would be more encouraging to say something wrong than to say nothing at all. I said things like “It would get better” and “God is our rock, we just need to trust.” Then some days got better and some days got worse.
Eventually my line “things would get better” had to stop because things weren’t getting better. It has been 4 months already and things are just as hard as they were before. Also, the line “God is our rock, we just need to trust,” had to go. First, if you know Julie, then you know she has trust and she is not lax about faith. Secondly, the line had to retire because it assumed with more trust everything would get better. This idea is dangerous because of its corollary: if things are bad, then you are not trusting. This is not true. This is not biblical. 
After studying the Lament Psalms in my seminary class this week I began to realize how comforting they are. In these psalms the writer tells God of his distress and then he calls on God for help. Calling out to God in distress, a kind of complaining, is biblical and it can be used as a device to depend on God. Sadly, we often portray faithful Christians as those who have everything figured out. Yet Lament Psalms show us we can be confused, feel hopeless, and still place faith in God. We don’t have to suffocate by the expectation of internal harmony; we can be have hope in spite of our strife. So I think the right way to think of difficulties is that it is okay. It is okay for things to be difficult. God will either take away the difficulty or he will give you the strength to bear it. People who overcome difficulties are heroes. While I am here in Romania, not suffering in comparison to Julie, I can say she is the real hero. She is conquering much every single day. 

Our New Home

by Julie Peters///By Julie, Romanian Life

We now live in Craiova!

We knew our contract for our current apartment ran out on November 3; so about two weeks before that deadline we began looking for apartments in Craiova. We did not know how quickly we would be able to find something, but thankfully we knew we could live with Sam’s parents again until we found a place.

One Wednesday night before our normal weekly trip to Craiova I looked at apartments online and made a detailed list of different places I thought would work, their addresses, price, and distance from the city center. But when Sam began calling the owners on Thursday morning every. single. one said the apartment was not available. I’m still not exactly sure what happened or why the apartments were still on the website, but maybe something was just lost in translation. After our study we got back on the website and began searching more, hoping to look at some places before we left since we only made the two hour trip to Craiova once a week typically. Sam found a listing that looked like it might work! The pictures looked nice and the description said it was very near the center, which is just what we were looking for! It was also in our price range, so we called the owner and we were able to make an appointment to go see it.

As we made our way there we were surprised at how long it took to get there, and it was not very near the center at all. The apartment was nicely furnished, just as we saw in the pictures, but it had a very heavy smoke smell in the whole apartment, especially in the bedroom. I was sorry to be picky, but I really did not think we would be able to get the smell out and make it work.

We still had a little over a week left though, so we made plans to try again the next Thursday.

However, on Monday Sam randomly decided to look at new listings on the website. I was in the kitchen cooking or cleaning and I heard him talking on the phone. He had found a new listing near the center, but there were no pictures. The agency working for the owner sent him a video of the interior and when Sam showed it to me I could not believe it. It was near the center, reasonably priced, and extremely nice! Sam called back the agency and told them we were interested, but there was already someone else who was scheduled to look at the apartment that afternoon. Sam told them that if he did not want it that we would be there the following day to see it.

The rest of that day and Tuesday morning was back and forth. The other man did not want it, then he did. Then the owner did not want to rent to him because he could not speak Romanian. Since we cannot speak very well either we did not think there was a chance of us getting to rent it. But Sam tried and sent an email to the owner, telling her our story of why we are in Romania, explaining our Romanian speaking abilities, and asking her to let us rent from her. The next morning the agency called saying the owner agreed to rent to us, before even having met us! We began packing right away and brought a load up to Craiova that afternoon.

We feel incredibly blessed for everything to have fallen in place so nicely and we are so thankful to God for answering prayers and helping us through it all!

Here is a tour of our new home!

This is the entryway/foyer when you first walk in the door.

This is our lovely kitchen! It is a little smaller than our last kitchen, but it is all really nice and I have enjoyed cooking in it so much so far.

This table can be extended to twice the length, so when we have guests we bring it into the living room and extend it, but when it is in the kitchen it is extra counter space while I’m cooking.

Here is our living room! Since we just moved here and we are just getting started we have been having worship services and Bible studies in our apartment. The spacious living room with lots of seating has been great for that and we are really thankful.

I also have my desk in the living room, which I have really enjoyed. If we ever need this table it can be easily cleared off and moved, but it is nice not having to clean up my books and papers for every meal.

This is Sam’s desk in our bedroom. He has also enjoyed having a real desk. So far this set-up has been working really well for both of our studies.

Here is our bed! We love our “Peters” pillow and tree painting with S+J on the tree.

So far we are settling in nicely in Craiova! Now that the apartment is all unpacked and cleaned it is nice to have a comfortable place to go while we are getting used to everything. We are still taking a trip once a week back to Severin to stay with Sam’s parents and meet with the brethren there. For the first two weeks we drove there on Saturday, spent the night and worshipped with the brethren in Severin Sunday morning, then come back to Craiova for our services at 5:00. Last week we traveled to Severin on Friday and Sam’s parent’s came back with us to spend the day in Craiova and return on the train.

Right now we are encouraged and excited to be here in Craiova and we pray our work here will be pleasing and glorifying to God!

 

Adventures in Language Learning

by Julie Peters///By Julie, Romanian Life

From homemade flashcards to learning websites to movies, books, dictionaries, and grammars, Sam and I have tried many different methods to learn Romanian. All at once.

All these methods were helpful. Sam could carry on a very decent conversation in Romanian, and while I was still afraid to actually speak it I could understand a lot of what I heard. Each time we had a Bible study I learned new Bible terms from my parallel Bible and I could pick up words here and there in conversation. The most helpful learning tools for me were making my own flashcards on Quizlet from a word list I got from Gabriel Wyrner’s Fluent Forever and using Duolingo and Memrize every day. It would take me about thirty minutes every day, but along with my online classes and everything else we had going on I felt like that was a decent amount. Plus I was exposed to it every time I did anything outside of our apartment.

In an attempt to get more serious about our learning Sam created a learning schedule for us. Every Wednesday he prepared a Romanian lesson on a topic such as articles, pronouns, verbs, etc, and it was helpful for both of us. We also each read a chapter in Colloquial Romanian each week and on Sunday night we did all the exercises from the chapter as our “test.”

This all worked well, and we really were learning. But it was still very hard. Sam was much farther ahead of me and could speak a lot more, but for me it was still exhausting to try to understand what I was hearing, what the verb tenses were, and what adjective form goes with what noun (and does it go before or after?). It was easy for me to get discouraged and think I would never learn the language or be able to connect with people. I would then go do my flashcards, learn a few new words, and continue with my day.

One night, as we like to do often, Sam and I made coffee and sat down to watch a TED talk. That night we chose to watch one about learning a new language from two guys who learned four languages in one year, three months per language. Their trick? Do not speak English. Even if you must look up every single word, do not speak English. This forces you to learn your normal vocabulary and become comfortable with it.

When the video ended I looked over at Sam and asked, “Nu Engleza?” (No English?). “Da,” he replied, “numai Romaneste” (yes, only Romanian). We proceeded to talk about our plan and determine what the rules and parameters would be (and we used Google Translate to speak in Romanian to make our plans) and decided that this was what we needed to learn Romanian. We could only speak in English in our bedroom on our bed, or if we are in a situation where we cannot go to our bed and we have something important to say. We have not stuck to this rule 100%, but so far we have been pretty close!

Although we have not been doing this experiment for very long we are already seeing the benefits. I am more comfortable with speaking Romanian when before I was much more hesitant to try to pronounce the words. We have found that some words and phrases are so natural for us to say that we use them even when we’re talking in English. It is still easy to get discouraged, but we are definitely learning a lot and staying encouraged most of the time.

Learning a new language is hard, but it is also very exciting!

Encouragement and Evangelism

by Julie Peters///By Julie, Romanian Life

“If you’re discouraged, go pass out some flyers. It is so encouraging to spread the gospel and work for God.” As Sam gave reports to congregations in America this summer he exhorted the brethren to find encouragement by working for God. Although I have not necessarily been discouraged lately, I have recently been encouraged by the spreading of God’s good news and the work done for Him in Romania.

Four evangelists from America made a two-week trip to Romania earlier this month and we were blessed to spend one of the weeks with them. It was a crazy, busy, absolutely full week. By the end of the week we were exhausted, but extremely encouraged.

Monday night the men arrived from Constanta, Romania, to Drobeta-Turnu Severin. We all met that night to share a meal, fellowship, and fold hundreds of flyers about the gospel. It was a wonderful, relaxing way to begin the week.

Folding Flyers for Brasov

The men spent Tuesday morning passing out invitations for the Gospel meeting that evening. I spent Tuesday morning cleaning our apartment and cooking lots of food for everyone to come over for lunch. All the preparation was worth it to have our living room full of people, sitting wherever they could find a seat, eating and enjoying one another’s company together.

The Gospel meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday night was successful, with many visitors, a full church building, and two great lessons each night.

We had a full building each evening!

We have continued to study Acts every Wednesday, and this Wednesday was no different. It was encouraging to have a larger group for the study and discussion!

Acts Study

Thursday morning two evangelists, one translator, and Sam’s parents began the long trip to Brasov where they spent two days passing out flyers, talking to people, and having a Bible study each night. The other two evangelists joined Sam and I in Craiova where we did the same thing.

On the way to Craiova

In preparation Sam and I had made several trips to Craiova, securing a room for the studies, passing out flyers, getting an ad in the newspaper, and putting up several posters.

“Would you like a flyer?”- Eugene and Sorin

The study was set to begin at 6:00 p.m. and at 5:55 we were still all standing outside, waiting for anyone to come. Trying not to be discouraged, we simply said we had done all we could do, and whether or not any visitors came we would still have a study. However, at 5:58 a woman walked up and asked where the study was. Soon after we began the study six more people walked in, and we were able to meet, talk to, and get contact information from most of them.

Taking a Little Break

Evening Study

We spent Friday in a similar manner; walking around the city passing out flyers and talking to people. That night we had five visitors, who were all different from the previous night. Again, we had two great lessons from God’s word and gained new contacts from people interested in the gospel.

Sunday morning all the evangelists split up to preach at different nearby villages and the church in Severin. Sam and I went with one of the men to the village of Lac. I had actually never been to a village before, so it was a neat experience and I’m thankful I got to go. Afterwards we enjoyed an authentic Romanian meal, then returned to Severin for services that evening.

The Congregation at Lac

Romanian Lunch

As I mentioned in the previous post, Sam and I are planning prayerfully to move to Craiova in about two weeks. Last year when Sam was facing some discouragement here in Severin he began doing some work in Craiova. To his knowledge there was not a faithful church in the city of approximately 300,000 people. Slowly the work turned into regular bi-weekly trips to have a Bible study in a local library on the gospel of Luke. Due to various circumstances and the way the work was going in Craiova, when Sam and I first arrived in Romania together we talked about moving to Craiova in the near future. We began advertising more and making more frequent visits, planning to move there in January after we return from visiting the States for Sam’s brother’s wedding. As the work continued to progress in Craiova and our current apartment contract was about to be finished, we made the decision to move next month instead.

These visits and studies have been extremely encouraging to us and we are excited to move and continue the work in Craiova. We understand that it will be difficult to move away from Sam’s parents and the familiarity of Severin, and try to start a new work from scratch, but we will only be two hours away from Severin and able to visit often, probably even once a week. With God’s help and wisdom and advice from others we are ready to begin this next step in our journey.

Casa Noastra (Our Home)

by Julie Peters///By Julie, Romanian Life

Recently I posted a question on Facebook asking what you all would like to read on our blog. Thank you so much to everyone who answered! We will try to write a post on each suggestion.

I know I posted several weeks ago that we found an apartment and I posted a few pictures, but here is an official “tour” of our home. We were so blessed to find this apartment. We found it quickly, it is bigger than we expected to find for our budget, and our landlord let us sign a contract for only three months.

The first couple of days after we signed our contract and began moving in were a bit overwhelming. We love our apartment, but it is pretty old and when we first moved in it was very dirty and there were several things we did not realize were broken. We went room by room, moved things around and scrubbed every surface, then we moved in our things. Now every time I clean I get things just a little cleaner than before. Also, we have been blessed with a great landlord who has been so prompt in repairing everything for us. Our first week we were almost constantly having repairmen at our house, but now everything works very well and we are thankful!

Our three month contract for this apartment will be up on November 3, and we have decided not to renew it. We have been thinking and praying about it for some time now, and we are going to move to Craiova, a city about two hours away from Severin. Before very long I hope to have another post to share with you about our new home!

Here is a tour of our home.

This is our hallway when you first come in the door. We live on the top floor of our apartment (third floor) in apartment nine.

Here is our living room/dining room/office! Sam uses the desk on one side and I sit at the table. All my things fit in a basket, so when we need to eat at the table I just move it somewhere else. This is where we eat when we have company, and a lot of the time Sam and I will also eat at this table if I’ve been cooking for a while and the kitchen is hot.

Here is our kitchen! I was prepared to have a tiny kitchen, but we were very blessed to find an apartment with a really nice-sized kitchen! I love cooking in it every day.

Here is our kitchen table we also eat at sometimes. When I took this picture a while back (not long after we moved in) Sam had just given me some flowers 🙂

I learned to cook in a nice kitchen with a gas stove, and I remember telling Mama I would have to get used to an electric one because I did not expect to have a gas stove any time soon! However, I am excited that our apartment has a nice gas stove! It does not have an electrical starter, so we keep a lighter in the cabinet above it. There is a big gas tank in the cabinet next to the stove, so whenever I want to cook or heat something I twist on the gas and light the stove. There is also a little door in the bottom of the oven that I open to light the fire in the bottom if I ever want to bake something. There is no temperature settings and I still haven’t gotten an oven thermometer yet, but so far I have been to bake potatoes, muffins, and bread with no problems!

I brought several little things over here that people have given me and they definitely help our apartment feel more homey! The towel on the oven was given to me by a a wonderful couple Sam and I stayed with as we traveled all over the place this summer. The apron (you can see it better in the first picture) was given to me by my best friends Cassie and Bailey, and Bailey also made me the potholders hanging to the left of the stove as a wedding present. Finally, the little embroidery hoop hanging above the sink was given to me by my sister Olivia. She made it for me for being in her wedding. It has little embroidered cacti and it says “Live Simply.”

Here is one last picture of our kitchen. I love the shelf above the sink where we keep everything in canisters, such as rice, beans, oatmeal, mamaliga, and coffee.

Here is our bedroom! My cousin gave us the “Peters” pillow as a wedding gift, so we used that to choose our bedding. Olivia painted us the picture hanging above our bed and gave it to us last year when Sam got to come visit during winter break. It is a tree that looks like it has a heart carved on it with “S+J” in the middle.

This is our home! We have enjoyed it so much, and I know it will always be special to us as our first apartment together.

~ Julie Peters

12 Hours

by Julie Peters///Romanian Life, Running, Travel

At 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning an alarm went off for two sleepy people in a very warm bed. We got up, made coffee, packed up a few remaining things we didn’t pack the night before, and by 4:30 we were on the road to Timișoara. It was about a three and a half hour drive to Parcul Copiilor, or the Children’s Park, in which there was a paved one-kilometer track. Sam would run around that track all day.

Getting Ready

Start!

Some time ago Sam signed up to run the S24H race and he has been training for several weeks. Runners could sign up to run 12, 24, or 48 hours around the approximately one-kilometer track! Sam signed up for the 12-hour race, and at 9:00 a.m. he began running his first lap.

Sam’s First Ultra, January 2016

Back in January 2016, right after Sam and I started dating (actually, I’m not even sure we had officially started saying we were dating yet…), Sam ran his first ultra-marathon. An ultra-marathon is any distance longer than a marathon (26.2) and the LongHaul Ultra was 100 kilometers, or 62 miles. Although several people had planned on coming to support him at different times, as the race drew nearer no one else was going to be able to come. The night before I cooked sweet potatoes for Sam to eat during the race and packed my backpack with schoolbooks and bananas. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, as it was Sam’s first ultra and I wasn’t really sure how to help him. We both remember it being a little awkward because we were still getting to know each other. I wasn’t always sure what he needed and he wasn’t sure how to ask me for something. Overall, however, it was a great experience. Sam did an excellent job in his first ultra, finishing first with a time of 10:25, and I enjoyed getting to be around him all day and offer him some type of help.

As we prepared for this race we both thought back to his first ultra and joked that it was going to be “just like old times,” but even better because we’re married now 🙂 Again, I prepared him food the night before and packed by backpack with books and we set off for the race together.

Sam’s Tent

Each runner had a designated place in a tent along the course, so I had a nice place to set up all our bags and a picnic table to sit at while Sam ran around and around. In the morning it was overcast and cold, which was great for the runners, but I was freezing. I am perhaps a little more sensitive to the cold than normal people, because there were people around me wearing short sleeved shirts and my lips were blue and I couldn’t feel my feet! I walked all around the park to try to find a patch of sun and warm up. I actually enjoyed exploring all the neat things in the park though, and I was wishing Leah and Sam (my younger siblings) could be there to see it all as well!

s24h.ro

Sam did great the first few hours. He would give me a thumbs up and a smile every time he went around, and every few laps he would ask me to refill his water bottle or get him some food. Around four hours I was still freezing, so I made sure Sam would be okay for a little while and I went to the car to get out of the wind and try to thaw. When I came back a few minutes later I asked Sam how he was doing and he said he was a little discouraged. He asked me to walk with him, so we began walking around the loop together. He got me some hot coffee at one of the aid stations and we walked a whole lap together. He was not sure why he was running, he felt bad that I was so cold, and he didn’t know if he wanted to finish. I told him not to worry about me being cold, because I really had warmed up and I did not want him to stop his race for me! I told him I didn’t want him to get injured or to do something he didn’t want to, but if he felt like he could finish I would be there for him and support him whatever he decided to do.

s24h.ro

We finished walking the lap and he told me, “I’m just going to try to run a few more laps and then I’ll decide what to do.” And he went off to run some more. A few minutes later he stopped again to change his shoes, but this time he was much more encouraged. He was ready to keep going and finish what he had started.

While Sam ran around and around the track all day I was able to read a lot and write in my journal in between getting things for or helping Sam. I also walked around a lot to different parts of the park and watched Sam run by at different parts of the track. If I ever saw him walking I would just go up to the track and start walking with him. I told him I was his “personal crew and stalker.” 😉

While I read my Bible two people came up to me and asked me what I was reading. One of them just said, “Oh, the Bible,” and walked away. However, another man, who actually shared a tent with Sam, struck up a long conversation with me. He was struggling in his race, so he sat down to rest for a while and we talked about the Bible, the Old Testament and the Sabbath day, “types” of Christians, and also why I was in Romania, where Sam preached, and why I wanted to learn Romanian. I always think it is neat to meet new people with things in common wherever I am, even at a race in Romania. Since the runners went around and around a one-kilometer track I was able to see them all several times and I began to learn their names and which ones were feeling good or struggling. It was interesting to watch everyone’s progress and I enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the race and the attitudes of all the runners.

s24h.ro

At some point Sam decided that he just wanted to get to 62 miles (his previous longest distance), then walk the rest of the time. He would run a mile and a half or two, then I would walk a lap with him. He continued to run and walk until he finished 62 miles in ten hours and twenty-four minutes, a minute faster than his time for his first ultra! After that he began walking and I walked several laps with him. However, as the time got closer to twelve hours he was ready to run again and he began running a lap or two in between our walks until the end.

At 9:00 p.m., when the clock hit twelve hours, Sam had run 110 kilometers, or 67.58 miles. He did it! I am so proud of him for finishing. He pushed through discouragement, pain, and exhaustion and finished what he began. Sam is one of the most disciplined and hard working people I know and he inspires me every day the way he always works so hard and never gives up, whether he is running a race, working on a project, studying, or evangelizing. I am so blessed to get to work with him and beside him, and I constantly learn from him to try harder and work harder.

s24h.ro

12 hours. 110 laps. 67.58 miles. 1 very disciplined, inspirational person.

~ Julie Peters

Cozonac

by Julie Peters///Recipe, Romanian Life

(photo from www.cozonaculdolofan.ro)

Recently Sam made a new learning schedule for us to study the Romanian Language and the book of Acts, and we will probably write about it more in a future post. We wanted to make sure we actually follow the schedule and complete the assignments every week, so we came up with a way to motivate ourselves each week. If we complete the week’s schedule by Saturday night, we get to have a date on Sunday night.

This week we completed our assignments, so our date Sunday night was to bake cozonac together to give to friends and watch part of Mary Poppins, which was dubbed in Romanian!

Cozonac is a traditional Romanian dessert, sometimes called Christmas bread or Easter bread, but it is eaten all year-round. It is sold at many of the pastry shops that are everywhere, and after I had it for the first time I recognized its distinct smell as we passed by the pastry shops.

I found several recipes in Romanian, and this is the one we used. I got it from this blog, and here I have translated it into English and added the standard system measurements as well.

Ingredients:

1 kilogram flour (8 cups)

300 g sugar (1 ½ cups) divided

10 g yeast (1 TBS)

200 ml warm milk (slightly over a cup)

2 tsp salt

100 g butter (7 TBS) melted

5 TBS oil

5 eggs

200 g walnuts (about 2 cups), ground finely

80 g raisins (1/2 cup)

5 TBS cocoa powder

2 tsp rum extract

1 TBS lemon juice

1 tsp orange extract

Steps:

  1. Put all the flour in a large bowl and create a well in the center.
  2. Mix the warm milk, yeast, and about a tablespoon of sugar in the well and let it proof for about 10 minutes, or until it is all thick and bubbly.
  3. While the yeast is proofing separate the five eggs and set the whites aside for now
  4. When the yeast is done proofing, add the egg yolks, melted butter, oil, salt, and half of the sugar and mix very well. You will probably have to add 1-2 more cups of warm water to get everything mixed, but you don’t want soupy dough.
  5. This recipe does not require kneading, but to make sure everything is very well mixed you may have to knead it just a little.
  6. Separate the dough into four parts and cover with a damp towel and let it rest for one hour.
  7. While the dough is resting you can make the filling. Beat the egg whites until they are peaked, then add the ground walnuts, raisins, cocoa powder, flavorings, and the rest of the sugar
  8. After the dough is done resting roll out each piece one at a time into a large rectangle, spread a quarter of the filling on it, and roll it up
  9. After you have done this twice, twist two rolls together and put it in a grased loaf pan. This is one loaf of cozonac!
  10. Repeat this for the second loaf and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C (350 F) for 35-50 minutes (we baked ours much closer to 50 minutes)
  11. Let cool, slice, and enjoy!

~ Julie Peters

Trip to Brașov

by Julie Peters///Romanian Life

“Did you ever imagine you would have so much fun?” Dad asked us at one point on our trip to Brașov. Our trip was a lot of fun, and I never imagined I would be here in Romania to have such an experience!

Ready to go!

We began our trip Thursday morning. Sam recently got a car to make trips such as these, and it was so nice to be able to leave on our own schedule and make stops along the way as opposed to being tied to the train schedule, and it was significantly cheaper to buy gas than to buy four train tickets.

On the way there we passed by Bran Castle, or “Dracula’s Castle,” and decided to make a stop. It was very interesting and enjoyable to walk around and see and read about the castle.

Bran Castle

A secret staircase in the castle

We got into Brașov Thursday night, and we spend all day Friday in the city. The city of Brașov is absolutely beautiful! It is surrounded by mountains and the hilly streets are lined with pretty, quaint houses. There are also a few parks and universities in the city with amazing campuses and gardens. We had a list of tasks to complete by the end of the day, but walking around the city made it very enjoyable.

Brașov

We went to the police department, the newspaper office, the city hall, the library, and many other places as well. That evening we had a study in the city square on “Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?” There was also a jazz festival going on, so we just said we had three thousand people show up to our study! Although it was only the four of us studying together by a fountain, it was very encouraging.

Study in the Piața Sfantului

Saturday morning we drove about an hour away to Ceia, where Dad, Sam, and I planned to run a race. Sam and I were signed up to do the marathon and Dad signed up that morning to do the semi-marathon (half).

I was nervous before we started because I had no idea what to expect, but I knew it was on trails up a mountain and it would be long and difficult. I was still excited as we began on the beautiful course.

Excited to start

This was by far the most beautiful and adventurous course I’ve ever run. It was also the most difficult. At about mile five I started questioning my decision to run, but I was trying to stay optimistic. At mile nine I hit a low and I told Sam I didn’t know how I could finish. At this point we were running/walking through a creek down in a rocky gorge, having to run through water, sand, and over rocks and logs. I had also started to feel a little pain in my leg, but I dismissed it and kept going.

Running through the rocks and water

After we got out of the creek we began going up almost constantly. We got out of the woods and into an open grassy field up the side of a mountain. It was breathtakingly beautiful! Even though we were basically walking and I was exhausted, I enjoyed the view of this part of the marathon so much.

Trudging up the mountain

Then the trail began going straight up, and we had to use our hands to climb up rocks. My leg had gradually begun to hurt more, and at this point it was painful to lift it, making climbing extremely difficult. I was being stubborn and trying to push through, but Sam had me stop and rest for a bit on the side of the mountain. The longer I rested the more I did not want to continue, and the more I realized I wasn’t sure I could continue. So we decided to stop at mile fifteen.

Due to my stubbornness and pride, deciding not to finish was very difficult. Part of me wanted to finish what I started and not admit that I couldn’t do it, but part of me knew there was almost no way I could finish. It was discouraging, but it is better now. I am taking a few days off for my leg to heal and I hope to try another trail marathon someday! Just not any time soon.

After we decided to stop–almost to the top!

We returned to Severin late that night, exhausted, but happy to be back. This was the first time I left Severin since I arrived here, and coming back it felt like home. I was so excited to get back to our apartment and sleep in our own bed, and as soon as I saw the familiar streets of Severin it felt like coming home.

Our trip was productive, exciting, and crazy, and it was so much fun.

~ Julie Peters

Worshipping in a Different Language

by Julie Peters///Romanian Life

The first time I worshipped with brethren here in Romania was on a Wednesday night, the day after I first arrived. Our plane had landed ten minutes after midnight Tuesday nigh, so Sam and I stayed in Bucharest for a couple of nights before we came here to Severin. The class that night was entirely in Romanian and I struggled to follow the Bible passages, not knowing the Romanian names for Bible books and not being very familiar with Romanian numbers yet. I was also exhausted from traveling and jet lag and I found paying attention to something I could not understand very difficult. At the end of the class one of the brothers prayed, and I realized I had not even thought about not being able to understand and pray with the congregation, but I just prayed myself as the congregation prayed together.

I was overwhelmed that night for many reasons, but I remember being particularly overwhelmed because I had not really realized what worshipping with brethren in a different language would be like, or how difficult it would be. Of course I knew everything would be in Romanian, but I had not thought about it much; I was thinking about so many other things instead.

Thankfully, it is much better now, and I hope it will continue to only get easier. It helps a lot that I understand more and more Romanian every day. At first I could recognize a handful of words and there was a chance I could figure out what was being said, but now I can almost always pick up enough to figure out what people are talking about, even if I don’t know every exact word they say. Worshipping in a language that I don’t really know is definitely a challenge, but I never fail to be encouraged by my brothers and sisters every time we meet, and I pray God is glorified.

Singing

The first time I tried to sing Romanian hymns was a challenge. Romanian is a pretty phonetic language, so reading and pronouncing it is not too difficult once you know the alphabet and pronunciations. I found it hard, however, to focus on correctly pronouncing everything, singing the right tune, and trying to figure out what I was singing all at the same time! It may have been better for me not to sing and instead figure out what the song was saying and focus on that, but I thought it would be more encouraging to others for me to sing. I just hope they didn’t mind my attempts at pronouncing all the Romanian words. Now I can usually recognize enough words to think about what I’m singing, and I have also started to translate some of the hymns we sing often. This way I can know for sure what I’m singing about and focus on that instead of trying to figure out what to focus on.

Listening and Learning

As we walked home on the first Sunday I told Sam that my next goal was to learn the books of the Bible in Romanian and make sure I knew all my numbers. That night I made a Quizlet of the New Testament books and reviewed my numbers. I was so excited the next Wednesday night when I turned to all the song numbers by myself! I am also slowly getting used to the Romanian names for the books in the Bible, so I am able to follow along during lessons, even if they are completely in Romanian. I have a bilingual Bible with Romanian and English, so I also try to follow along in Romanian to hopefully learn a little more. Whenever Sam preaches he has a translator, so I have the benefit both of hearing his sermon and hearing it in Romanian, which also helps me learn. Dad is starting to preach more in Romanian, but he always emails us his notes in English and Romanian so we can understand what he is saying. I am so thankful for the several opportunities I have to go to several studies throughout the week, both for the chance to study the Bible and learn with others, and to have another chance to hear everything being translated into Romanian.

Teaching

A couple of weeks ago Sam and I attempted to have a VBS–type event for kids. We wrote the material, gathered supplied, and advertised our Bible Week on Facebook, with posters all over Severin, and by passing out about 800 fliers. Unfortunately no one from the city came, but we learned a lot during the process. A friend of ours who is a member of the church in Severin came every day to translate if anyone came for us to teach. Rebecca, Sorin’s daughter (Sorin is a member of the Severin congregation and the translator) came on two days. On the first day I taught her the days of creation, and the second day a visiting Christian from America taught her about Moses. One of the many benefits from our Bible Week experience was that I felt a lot more comfortable with teaching here with a translator.

Last Sunday I began teaching Bible class for Rebecca, only this time it was a little different because I did not have a translator. However, with the help of Google Translate, a Romanian Bible storybook, and lots of pictures, we were able to make it work. Since Rebecca is only three I decided to continue to review the days of creation for a few more weeks, then we will move on to something else, although she is already pretty good at knowing what God did on each day!

Overall, worship in a different language is difficult, but it is getting better. I am learning more and more of the language every day and I pray I will continue to learn. Again, I am always encouraged when I worship with my brothers and sisters in Romania, and I am constantly reminded of the great blessing we have in God’s family. Even in another country with a different language I am connected to so many people through God’s amazing family.

~ Julie Peters