Author: Violeta
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Rain
After a month of surviving the scorching sun, it’s raining. There’s a mist in the air like in San Francisco, carried over by winds from the Chinteni valley. It smells like wood-fire smoke washed by rain. The sky is grey and heavy with texture. I had no idea I loved rain so much. The first…
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The gift of friendship
A lot has happened this week. Too much. A lot of it great. Much of it just challenging. At times it felt like the ground is shifting from under my feet, and not just due to one earthquake. We had a game night at church, then a psalms-and-pancakes-get-together at Flaviu and Ema, then a baby…
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You can’t lie in a poem
Climbing up the mountain though the Psalms, at Palatca, a flat green valley surrounded and protected by woods, tall young trees, young oaks, we started with our present state. No better place to start than with the present (at the base), facing up our current pain, fear or joy. After our morning team meeting, after…
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First Monday
One day I will write a book. It will pour out like a summer storm with thunder and volume of water. But for now, slowly I am staring to process what happened at the camp. I translated 6-8 hours a day, and I wish that everything that was filtered so carefully through my brain would…
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Keep real and write poems
It is hard to capture into words what happened these past two weeks in Palatca. With the first group, a young church, in so much need for love, grace and truth, and a professor, servant leader in need of healing, the pbc team ministered to the lost, the unchurched. It was a healing time and…
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Camp Intermission
It was intense, rich, teary, bonding, grace-filled and healing for many so far. Jon took lots of pictures with his awesome huge camera, but here and there we got to capture moments from the first camp. Now the cluj team is about to begin their adventure in the mountains.
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8 years together… and pbc is about to land in Cluj
After a sizzling hot day, past dinner time the wind started to blow frantically and the air chilled. One has got to love the moody weather. The second team from pbc this year, a wonderful mix of 10 people, will spend two weeks with us. This time I worried less about logistics, and I shared…
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The wisdom of saying no
I decided this weekend, with the help of a friend, to take a week off from people. There is always a way to multitask and do more, meet with more people, facilitate and coordinate get-togethers. I get energized by the one on one connections, but I often catch myself trying to mix and match meetings…
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Day trip to Panticeu
We had a unique experience in the village 30 km up the road. It was hot and dusty, but this is where you eat the best food, at the Prunean family. We saw how the woods are cleaned and pruned and we witnessed the cutting of the tree chosen for us, for our Altmannhaus desk.…
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Living in the now and not yet
It’s a foggy Wednesday morning. I slept well. Conrad woke me up as usual with hot delicious coffee. It rained heavily last night and the ground is still wet. It smells heavenly: the grass, the flowers, the crops, even the cows whose milk we savor fresh every morning. Conrad is meeting with the Liviu and…
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The drama of appearance, status and the stories in-between
We go for walks every day. Even if it rains. …Up the hill, filling our lungs with crisp fragrant wet air. It’s delicious. Life is so different than it was 6 months ago. Oh so different. And I wonder how much of that has to do wit he fact that it gets dark at 11…
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First week back to reality
We are launching one big website this week. Two more are almost ready to launch, and Conrad and I put in 10 hours a day, of entering and organizing content, retouching and getting everything in perfect order for the launch. Also, our breaks from the intense staring at the computer were facilitated by the aerobie…