At Night in Romania

 

In 1990 I went to Romania for the first time.  Brother Ron Kuhns had been there five months earlier, so he was familiar with many of the details.  This was before the European union, so each country had their own border crossing procedures and their own currency exchange.  We flew into Frankfort, Germany, rented a car, and were off.  The first day of driving got us through Germany almost to Austria, and we stayed in a little town named Deggendorf in Bavaria, Germany.  The next day, we crossed into Austria and that evening, we came to the Hungarian border.  A Hungarian visa required two passport pictures and thirty-five dollars.  After a two-hour wait, we made it into Hungary and spent the second night in Győr, Hungary.  The next day, we drove through Hungary passing through Budapest and on to the Romanian border near Arad, Romania.  That evening, we surrendered the Hungarian visa and paid thirty dollars for the Romanian visa.  It was dark, but we still had several hours to go.  I was driving, and just past Arad, I came to a fork in the road.  Without any signs, we had to guess the way to Hunedoara.  We took the left fork.  Soon we saw a campfire ahead with men standing around.  Brother Ron had been warned of clandestine soldiers who would stop cars and rob the drivers.  As we approached, a soldier held up his hand for us to stop.  But Brother Ron said, “Don’t stop.  Just floor it and go through.”  So I did.  As we flew by, I saw the soldier’s AK-47.  Any moment I expected to hear gunfire … but nothing happened.  But in about a mile, the road turned to gravel and then to a cow-path.  We had taken the wrong turn.  I turned our car around, but we had to go past the soldiers again.  But as we approached the campfire a second time, the soldiers didn’t even look up.  We sped through, came to the fork in the road, and took the other road, which turned out to be the road to Hunedoara.  I’m not sure how dangerous that roadblock was that night, but I was glad that the dear Lord was watching over us.  I thought of the passage in Psalms that Jesus quoted: “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”  Psalm 91:11  We are in God’s hands each day that we live.  Are you resting in the dear Lord’s strong hands today?  I hope you are.