9 1/2 Hours of church...

We arrived safely in Ploiesti around 7 a.m. Sunday morning. (much to the relief of our Romanian cabinmate, I'm sure.) Eduard picked us and up, we found a nice hotel, and the three of us got settled in. None of us slept more than 3 or 4 hours on the train. This is us after we arrived:

We had just enough time to shower and get ready for church before Eduard came to pick us up. We attended church at the baptist church in Ploiesti with Eduard and his family. Eduard leads a choir there. 

This Sunday was special because this church was celebrating Thanksgiving. The first service was their normal 2 hour Sunday morning service. Which was very nice, but for us running on little sleep, it got a little difficult towards the end. But as we very much learned throughout our stay in Ploiesti, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). And He proved that to us over and over and over and over again. 

We had communion during the first church service, which was really cool to experience in a different culture. The Pastor read from the same passage that dad uses from Corinthians about the Lord's table. 

The Pastor and some men of the church broke the loaf of bread and passed it out

After the first service, the church had a dinner where they served a traditional Romanian dish: Sarmale. 

After the dinner, there was an hour break, and Eduard and his daughter Ligia took us around different parts of Ploiesti city. Then we headed back to church for the Thanksgiving service. 

This is us at the dinner. Each place we went to, our contact person was told to look for the three blonde girls. 

During this service, we were able to see different areas of Eduard's church - the choir sang, people sang solos, the children sang, and the teenagers sang. It was cool to see the many different areas of the church. We all had a good time, despite the complete exhaustion that was befalling the three of us. But again, God gave us the strength and grace we needed to carry on with what He called us to do.

After the 2 1/2 hour Thanksgiving service, it was time to pile in the car and head out to Boldesti, to the gypsy church. Eduard also lead a choir there, and they were phenomenal. One of the teenagers translated the service for us. At the end of the service the gypsy pastor asked us to sing for them. Well, on the spot, we couldn't really think of anything but Amazing Grace, which the congregation ended up singing with us. Then we sang a few songs with the gypsy choir, which for me was an AMAZING experience. We sang the Hallelujah chorus, and a few other songs that they had learned in English. 

A lot of the girls there were around our age, and many of them spoke English. We ended up spending another 45 minutes after the service just talking with them and having a great time fellowshipping together. 

I think of all our experiences on this trip, some of our favorites where at the gypsy church that evening in Boldesti.

We finally made it back to our hotel room at about 10:30 that night, after stopping for dinner. We were beyond the point of exhaustion, and basically fell into bed.

As I said before, God truly showed us the meaning of giving us grace in our hour of need. He was our strength when ours was floundering. He was our peace when we had none.

Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive and find grace to help in the time of need."

Thankful for the Strength He Provides,

Ali