Roosters and Soccer With a Serious Note

Well, you know you’re on a missions trip when your alarm clock fails to wake you up, but instead you are awakened by a rooster crowing.
As I write this, I’m riding on a bus headed to the village of Frata. God is already doing an amazing work in Frata. Already we have had three people accept Christ. Two of which I was privileged to witness. We went into a small house in the village of Frata to pray and lay hands on an elderly couple that was sick. We went into the house and prayed for the lady, who had a heart condition, and the man, who was blind, Then our translator, Mihi, started conversing with them. Not understanding much Romanian, we couldn’t tell exactly what he was saying, but we could tell that he was sharing the gospel. Eventually both of them prayed to receive Christ..
Then we go from a language that I can’t understand to a language everyone understands: sports! Our group has had a great time playing soccer (football) in multiple different locations. First at the hotel, there is a courtyard outside our hotel where the guys from our group and the translators have been playing soccer during free time. They don’t have goals, but they have been putting two rocks where the goal posts should be, and the rule is that the goal is not good unless it is below the goalie’s waist. Playing on concrete is not always a great idea, because well played soccer can result in people landing on the ground, as Matthew, Ryan, Joseph, Tyler, Story, and one of the translators (Emanuel) can tell you. We also played in a road/driveway in the village Frata. This spot had it’s own difficulties. Everything from wet mud, horse and buggies, and fist sized rocks to step on. Even Layman slid in the wet mud when he tried to illegally slide tackle someone and take their legs out from under them. That person jumped out of the way, but Evan fell in the mud. He should have known that he was in way over his head. He had to wear his muddy shirt the rest of the day. The last location we have played is a small school in the village of Frata. We have a small grass and gravel field where we played. This was the only location that actually had goals. They usually play Americans vs. Romanians. We managed not to get killed in the first game… final score 1-1. The second game was a different story. In the second game, America beat Romania 4-1, including scores by such big names as Joseph Wampler, Tom Johnson (PK), and several others. Our guys all started waving their shirts in the air and singing America’s national anthem after the game was over. Ha-ha.
Until next time,
MrZchuck