Romanian Castles

Romania is an OLD place. For those of us from the US, whose national history began less than 350 years ago, it is hard to comprehend the ancient-ness of Romania's past. This past week we were able to visit two of Romania's beautiful castles. Here a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

 

Riding the train!

 

Peles Palace - the castle of the last king of Romania (ousted by the Communists in 1947)

 

 

 

We stayed in this cute little "pensiune" on Wednesday night.

 

 

Bran Castle (also known as Dracula's Castle)

 

 

Above the courtyard of Bran Castle

 

"Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken."

 

 - Psalm 62:1-2

Eastern Orthodoxy

While walking around Bucharest today, we visited the main Eastern Orthodox church for Romania. This is the church where the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church lives. Romania is about 87% Eastern Orthodox - a religion that emphasizes the impenetrable holiness of God through visual symbols (icons) and tradition. Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in the Bible + Tradition, while at the same time elevating Tradition above Scripture. Here is a short video displaying some of what we saw:

Here is a pretty decent resource to check out some of the similarities and differences between Roman Catholics, Protestants (so-called because they "protested" several of the practices of the Catholic Church; Baptists fall into this category), and Eastern Orthodox: http://christianityinview.com/comparison.html.
For further information on what we personally believe, see http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp.


“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."

-Acts 17:24-27

We are here!!!

We arrived safely in Bucharest last night, barely making all of our flights (our first plane was delayed), and all of our bags arrived with us...except Jessica's guitar.  She was worried, but the lady in Lost & Found assured her that a driver would bring it in the morning, which he did.  It was such a relief to have all of our belongings.  Our friend Ryan picked us up at the airport, and he even brought us dinner!  It has been so sweet of our friends here to go to such great lengths to take care of us - another family brought us dinner tonight.  Ryan and his wife also stocked our refrigerator, so we were able to cook our own breakfast this morning.  Here are some pictures of our send-off by Jessica's family and our first full day in Bucharest:

 

Jessica's sister, Christa, came over to watch the WVU football game.

 

 

 Visiting with Jessica's "PAL" Fran from church.

 

 

We probably won't have Chinese food for a while...so it was fun eating out with Amanda.

 

 

Both of Jessica's grandfathers - PawPaw & Papa.

 

 

All of our baggage at the airport counter - 8 bags!

 

 

Saying goodbye to Jessica's parents at the airport.

 

 

Cameron cooking our first breakfast in our new home!  (still slightly jet lagged...)

 

 

Good morning!  I know we look a little rough...I promise we each
showered and changed clothes after breakfast. 

 

 

While exploring on our street, we stopped a little cafe for lunch.

 

 

Where am I going to put all these clothes???  (Don't worry - they are all put away now.)

 

 

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity."

 - Proverbs 17:17