We are connected with an incredible organization that started in southern California called Children's Hunger Fund. They focus on sharing the gospel through helping meet the needs of local churches all over the world.

I reached out to CHF and asked if it would be possible to spend some time volunteering with any of the churches that they work with in Eastern Europe. They helped us connect with Beni who is the pastor at a local church in Slatina, Romania. Beni shared that he and his family would love to host us during our time in Slatina so we were very excited to stay with them and see how God is working in their area in Romania.

Beni and his wife, Alina, have two boys: Elias (8) and Emmett (5). They are both a hoot and such smart boys! Elias knows nearly every single global flag, even all of the African flags! He is also a big cards guy and chess fan so we have been playing a lot of cards and chess in our downtime.

Beni's sister, Rebeca, and her husband, David, also live in Slatina with their two kids: Jace and Carise. David is originally from the USA so they have spent time living in the USA and Romania. They work with Youth for Christ and help run the youth programs at the church.

Beni and Rebeca's father (Viorel) and mother (Delia) live in the same area and we have been able to spend time with them too. His father has been the lead pastor of the church for decades now and actually spoke at church today! Rebeca kindly translated for the English-speakers at the church too. He and the church have been working with CHF for a couple of decades.

During our time so far we have learned a lot about the fall of communism here in Romania which was 1989. Since Beni's family is Romanian, they all lived during that time. Their county was actually where their communist leader (Nicolae Ceaușescu) was from so he used it as an example and made it the strictest in the country rules-wise. In 1971, Ceaușescu and his wife actually visited North Korea and liked how the dictator ran the country and felt inspired to bring that back to Romania, so they did. Beni mentioned that his father and mother remember that on the top of the main hill in their town, there was a huge photo of Ceaușescu and his wife and it sent the message that (1) they are always watching the people and (2) the people could look at the photo of them while singing the communist songs.

Beni's grandfather was actually a pastor during this time which was illegal. He was arrested and physically beat many times for talking about faith and not "bowing down" to the communist regime. Aside from being a pastor, he was also a beekeeper. He kept all of his Christian readings and bibles inside of beehives on his property since they were illegal; it was actually a brilliant spot to hide bibles because during raids by the communist party, they didn't want to search too long in the beehives since there were thousands of bees. The raids were in search of any Christian and religious writing or scripts. He was also part of a network that would smuggle bibles into Romania. One of the leaders of the network would call the mailman in his village (since they were the only ones allowed to have phones) and give the message that “the potatoes are ripe”. That was code that they got a shipment on bibles and Beni’s grandfather could drive to the city to pick them up. All of the mailmen during this time were part of the communist regime so everyone had to communicate in code (since the mailmen heard all of the phone calls and messages) if it was something that went against the communist rules. Beni's father is writing a book about his own father's life and Rebeca plans to translate it into English so when it is finished, I am eager to read it to hear more about his life. From what we have learned, he was truly a faithful servant of the Lord and a deeply respected and loved man by all who knew him.

Beni's grandfather’s brother was actually killed by the communists since he wanted to leave the "Securitate" which was the secret communist police. He was part of the Securitate for a chunk of time but then started to feel the tug away from the corruption. These people would spy on friends and family and report anything that wasn't sound with the communist teachings to the leaders. The reported people would then get arrested and much worse if they were accused of misbehaving. His family all knew the signs that he was reporting back to the communist regime since he would be sent to Western Europe often and would meet with high up priests of other churches that were all part of the communist party. When he felt called to leave the Securitate, he repented to a pastor who said he already knew he was part of the group and encouraged him to leave the position. With leaving a position like this in the communist party, you risked getting killed because he knew the other people in the Securitate who were not to be known by the common people. When he tried to leave the position, he was beaten and killed for leaving.

Hearing about this time for Romania (and many countries that have similar stories) is sobering and surreal. I knew only a little about the realities of communism but talking with people that lived through it and the revolution has informed me an immense amount brokenness, power-hungry people, and the overall history in this area.

Here is a photo of Beni, Alina, Viorel, Emmett, Elias, Austin, me, and Delia: