Thanks to Learning from Sophie for the challenge of having a structured blog. I hope to do that this year and, certainly, to be more regular with my blogs in 09 than I was in 08. Here are some ideas for themes:
- Travel blog of destinations from last year's trips: Transylvania, Maramures, Budapest, Bremen
- Book reviews:The Kite Runner, The Shack, The Gift, I am Legend and any more I may well have forgotten about
- Jesus' authority in a world without it
- Coffee...and cafe musings and ratings
- Biblical character sketches - not majorly theological but things that have excited and stretched me as I have thought about them
At the turn of the year I made some of my usual resolutions to be more disciplined in 2009, to exercise more, to eat less, and so on - but I have been doing more thinking these last few weeks about what it means to me to make and break resolutions over and over. Check out Rob Waller's challenging article, from Jan 1st, on resolutions and his thoughts on transformation - Romans 12:2 style. It's a useful exercise to make resolutions but how often does it become another performance treadmill for us? There is a thought provoking sermon at the MBC web-site (Growing in Faith, from Jan 4th). How often do resolutions, taken in the wrong attitude, make us step outside the realm of God's abundant grace? I am going to endeavour to keep my resolutions this year but, more than that, I want my mind to be transformed by the Holy Spirit and, from that, my behaviour to be changed into something beautiful and more like the pattern of Jesus.
The late July day was another scorcher. Much of my holiday in Eastern Europe had been hot but this day was the hottest yet, probably hitting 40 degrees. My travelling companion and I had been sightseeing together in Brasov, Romania for 2 days but on this day planned to go our separate ways: he to Bran and I to Sighisoara.
Sighisoara is a medieval fortress town in central Romania. I caught the train there and, after arriving, found my way to an open air market. There were many stalls and peasant women selling locally-grown fruit and vegetables. The massive watermelons particularly caught my eye and I had to buy a bag of juicy-looking cherries. Part of the thrill was making the purchase in patchy Romanian and making contact with a local person.
I made my way up steep, dusty alleys and lanes into the old fortress itself. Sighisoara is a maze of unmade streets and alleys, sheltering under the ancient embattlements. Perplexed, I stood looking for a while at my guide book when a man, who I thought was local, opened his gate and motioned me inside his property. He turned out to be Italian and knew no English but the contact was heart-warming and added to the atmosphere of the day. We managed to communicate by pointing at the map in my guide book and I showed him where I hoped to get to. He, in turn, allowed me to walk through his house to get to the lower part of the town I was attempting to find.
On leaving the town, I decided to walk by the river to get back to the train station. There were large willow trees overhanging the river and there was a group of Romany people gathered in the shade under the branches. Some of the younger ones said something to me but I did not know the words from my Romanian phrase book.
After spending many delightful, albeit hot, hours in the town, I caught the train back to Brasov. It was a 2 level, double-decker train and I whiled away the long journey sitting next to the open doors, dangling my feet over the edge. The scenery was unrelentingly flat and pastoral, full of sunflowers and sweetcorn. There were more exchanges with Romany people from that train: several families joined the train for a few stops and I made eye contact with one of the children who smiled at me. The train overheated on the journey and had to stop many times. I was not too disappointed, however, as it gave me more time to drink in this rich cultural experience.
