Haunted Hotel

 

In 2004 we visited the little town of Bazna in central Romania.  Pastor Timothy Manta had invited us to speak in his church and distribute John/Romans Scripture portions in his community.  Bazna is in central Transylvania just past Sibiu.  We arrived late in the day and began looking for Pastor Timothy’s house.  The only address I had was Number 27, Bazna.  There were only about 200 houses in the village so street names were not necessary.  That is unless you were a stranger from America.  There was no organization to the house numbers, so we began driving up and down gravel roads looking for house number 27.  We passed a derelict hotel and joked about it being haunted.  But on the way back, we noticed a candle burning inside the “haunted hotel”.  Scary.  We finally arrived at the pastor’s house and had supper.  Pastor Timothy had planned for us to sleep in the homes of various church members, so we all got into the van, with Pastor Timothy directing me.  Jerry and Johnnie stayed at one house, Brenda and Sarah at another, and Dan stayed … you guessed it, at the “haunted hotel”!  A church family lived on the second floor.  Dan’s room was number 7.  The family lived in number 9 with the dining room/kitchen in number 11.  Dan spoke no Romanian and the family spoke no English.  But that was not problem for Dan.  He didn’t talk much anyway.  Dan had just gotten out of the Marine’s boot camp and had no problem “roughing it” at the hotel.  The family ended up being great hosts.  Hey, sometimes we are surprised at life.  Often things don’t turn out the way that we have planned.  But remember, God is in control and knows exactly what He is doing.  Paul said in I Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  God will take care of us if we leave it up to Him.  Easy to say, but often hard to do.