Bucharest, the Capitol City

I briefly mentioned Bucharest in my last blog, “Voice of the Gospel Radio.”  It is a hustling and bustling city with a population of 2,064,000 people and it is the capitol city of Romania.  During the days of Ceausescu’s communist reign as Head of State, he purposed to show the entire world the glory and benefits of communism and how the Romanian people had all of their needs met and lacked for nothing.  Well, we all know how that turned out!  While Ceausescu was building the palace, which is the 2^nd largest human occupied building in the world, the people of Romania were starving in the streets.  The people finally revolted (for many reasons other than the building of the palace) and Ceausescu and his wife were both shot and the Iron Curtain of Communism began to crumble throughout Eastern Europe.

The revolution actually began in the City of Timisoara, (I wrote about that beautiful city in my first blog “Off and Running”) in 1989 and has resulted in a democratic capitalistic society; although they refer to their form of government as a republic.  The older Romanians are still not used to the new form of government and do not understand it, but the young ones certainly do and they are enjoying their new found freedom, especially the Christians.  During the communist regime, Christian churches of different faiths were allowed to exist, but they were never allowed to share their faith or evangelize in any way.  Romania as a whole is over 86% Greek Orthodox.  Actually, the revolution began in 1989 because there was a group of Baptists protesting in Timisoara over the arrest of some Baptist pastors who were arrested for preaching the gospel.  The economic and political climate set the stage for the entire country revolting against the government and the revolution spread from one end of the country to the other.  You can read more about the history and government of Romania on many websites if you are interested.

We didn’t make it to the palace on this visit, but we did have a tour when we were here in 2007.  It truly is a masterpiece of architecture and its lavish fixtures and furnishings still rub the people of Romania the wrong way.  In fact, many Romanians still despise its existence because it is a constant reminder of the abuse Ceausescu put the Romanian people through.  The palace is now called “The People’s Palace” because the government wants to convey the message of democracy and the people of Romania do indeed have ownership of the palace today.  While we were here, the rock band AC/DC had a concert on the grounds of the palace.  In our Pastor’s Conference on Saturday morning, they were praying for rain because it was an outdoor event and they were hoping that it might keep some from attending the “evil concert.”  We could hear the music blaring when we left Holy Trinity on Sunday evening and since the palace was only blocks from our apartment, we heard it well into the night and watched the crowd of 80,000 plus people dispersing at the end.  The Christians of Romania are very conservative in their music and even the Southern Gospel music the Glory Gates Quartet sings can be radical in some of the churches.  The young people love its beat and joyful sound.

Bucharest seems to improve with every visit.  The National Library is under major renovations at this time as are many of the block housing that was built during the communist era.  We were in the Titan District of Bucharest at Grace Baptist Church for our first Bucharest crusade.  It is a fairly new building with great sound and every technological advantage that a church needs to have for a productive worship ministry.  Some of our group stayed at the church with the Impact Quartet in a 3 bedroom modern apartment upstairs.  It truly was a great facility.  The pastor hired a couple of women to cook for us during our entire stay in Bucharest.  We had lunch and supper together every day and it was a blessing to not have to figure out where and what to eat.  They fixed piles, yes piles of food for every meal they prepared.  The Romanians typically have a 2 course meal for lunch in mid afternoon and a 1 course meal for supper later in the evening.  They served us a 3 course lunch and a 3 course dinner of traditional Romanian dishes (which are very similar to many of the Greek dishes I love to prepare) every day.  They truly enjoyed serving us and were a real blessing; although our waistlines do not agree!  A typical Romanian breakfast consists of sliced meats, cheeses, fresh bread, and a variety of vegetables; very healthy and always satisfying.

Roberta and I, along with Tim and Alice Shoemaker and Rich McIntyre stayed in an apartment downtown near the palace.  When we arrived, we learned the apartment Rich had reserved was not available and we were pleasantly surprised at the upgraded accommodations we received for the same price.  It didn’t have wireless internet, but they provided us with portable access through Vodaphone, which turned out to be a blessing because we could take it with us wherever we went.  We just had to learn to share!

Our time in Bucharest was very busy with 3 crusades over the weekend and not having the entire group staying in the same place resulted in more time spent running around the city regrouping for everything we did.  The busy schedule did not allow any time for sight-seeing or shopping, but Pastor Radu did take Roberta and me to a Christian book store to browse a bit.  The store was filled with all of the titles you would find at home, just written in Romanian.  Pastor Radu is actually in the process of translating some of R. C. Sproul’s writings into Romanian.  He said it has been a big project for him, but knowing him, it will be an accurate translation.  We did wish that we would have had time to go to Old Bucharest like we did on our first trip.  The Gypsies, the glass works, and the handmade wedding dresses and clothing are spectacular and people come from all over Europe to experience it and take home their findings at very inexpensive prices.  Overall, Romania is an inexpensive place for Europeans to vacation.  You may want to explore it someday if you are given the chance.

As I said earlier, Romania is progressing quickly and Bucharest was the most evident of that fact.  There seemed to be less pan handlers on the streets, more taxi’s, more shops, more entertainment, newer apartment complexes, and even the clothing was more westernized than any of us remembered, especially among the young people.  There are a lot more parks than I remembered and the fountains were flowing.  (They were not turned on when we were here in 2007 because of the cold weather.)  The avenue that leads to the palace is lined with fountains, which was part of Ceausescu’s plan to show the world what a beautiful environment his communistic leadership had provided for the people.  They indeed are beautiful, especially when they are lit up and flowing after dark.

All in all, Bucharest is a beautiful city filled with old world charm.  They need to hear about the love of God provided to them through His Son Jesus Christ.  I can’t wait to go back and share it with them!

Pastor Al

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.