New friends are treasures

By Rick Pummel
Received Monday, April 20, 2009 at 2:51 p.m. Pacific

It is very late Monday night. We are privileged this evening to stay in a wonderful hotel. Last night we (my wife, Estee, my son, Colin, and I) had an even greater privilege, to stay in the home of one of our young Romanian singers.

He checked with his parents and then invited us a couple days ago to stay at his house. Last night after arriving in town with the choir, his much older brother picked us up and drove us out to their parents’ home in a small village several kilometers outside the town where the choir was staying.

We were received VERY warmly and were immediately sat down to a supper prepared just for our family and the boy. Neither of his parents spoke any English, and our Romanian is extremely limited. So, he was kept quite busy translating. We had a wonderful evening together, asking about each other’s country, sharing stories, and so on. We shared pictures of the area around our home, which actually looks rather similar to the terrain surrounding their village.

I was taken back to my days as a student missionary (SM) due to the absence of an indoor toilet. Their bath arrangement was a definite improvement over my experience as an SM, as they had an indoor bath tub with water heated very nicely by a wood burning water heater. The water heater added a nice, cozy warmth to the room.

The morning found us refreshed and invigorated by the wonderful fresh air, the sounds of the chickens and nearby turkeys, and the warm glow of the sunrise. After a very beautiful breakfast of fresh vegetables, boiled farm fresh eggs in cream sauce and homemade bread, we were taken on a tour of their large greenhouse and their 20 or so beehives.

We then were forced to say goodbye to our new found friends, and were sent back to town with someone else, who had hosted Doug Woods for the night.

I thank God that the boy felt so loved and comfortable around us that he went so far as to bring us home. I pray that God’s love may always shine through us and overshadow any differences of culture, race, class, etc.

Nice hotels are a nice treat for a night, but the treasure of new Christian friends is golden and enduring.