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| | Romanian Mission Project
Our Mission Team has returned . . . this is their first report.
"A very tired group of 10 travelers arrived home from Romania on Wednesday, May 26th. We landed in Chicago about 6:30 PM, and by the time we cleared customs, gathered our luggage, and traveled to the Fox Cities it was about 11:00 PM. At this point we had been awake approximately 27 hours, so were pretty much spent.
"Our time in Romania was a real adventure into a very old land where you kept waiting for Julie Andrews to appear and start singing the "Sound of Music".
"We met many people from the host church in Sibiu, and also most of the congregation from the outlying Hammersdorf church. We were fortunate to be able to attend services at the host church on May 16th that included confirmation for 11 young people, many of them dressed in traditional customs. May 23rd was Pentecost which is a national holiday in Romania. In conjunction with the Pentecost celebration, there was a German Fest, which brought several thousand previous residents back from Germany to celebrate and renew friendships. Again, we were able to see many people in the traditional Romanian dress and witnessed folk dancing and parades.
"The work consisted mostly of scrapping walls in the Hammersdorf parsonage in preparation for painting and redecorating. The Hammersdorf congregation has called a young Lutheran minister from Germany who will live in this facility starting in July. In the week's time, we were not able to complete this work, but we got a very good start and hopefully showed the congregation that it is not an insurmountable job. It felt very rewarding to join with the Hammersdorf congregation for a cookout on our last day there. Most of their congregation of about 35 were in attendance. They were all very friendly and appreciative of our efforts.
"As with every Mission Trip there were some surprises along the way, but for the most part things went as planned, and I think we all came back feeling we had accomplished some good and established some new Christian friends in Romania.
"This trip would not have been possible if it were not for Pastor Joel & Susan Schlachtenhaufen who were our gracious hosts and helped with all of the details along the way. Thanks to Gloria Dei for financial assistance with this project and also a big Thank You for all your prayers while we were so far from home!"
The Romania Mission Project . . .
Gloria Dei, along with other congregations in our synod, initiated a mission project to support the Lutheran Church of Sibiu in the Transylvania region of Romania. Gloria Dei members, Pastor Joel and Susan Schlachtenhaufen, have and are continuing to serve the Sibui church as visiting pastors. They invited a larger group of lay persons from our synod to make a mission trip to Sibui. Bryan Engstrom, Roger Ernst, and Rene Mehlberg represented Gloria Dei in this group.
The group was in Romania fomr May 13 to May 26. There mission project in Sibiu included the refurbishing of a church campus building to house an environmental information and education center.
About Sibui . . . Founded in the 13th century by German settlers, Sibiu is city of 170,000 persons. It is community both ancient and modern, struggling and prospering, that has at one time or another been part of the Hungarian, Ottoman, Austrian, and Soviet empires.
About the Lutheran Church of Sibiu or Stadtpfarrkirdhe Hermannstadt . . . The church is host to the International Ecumenical Worshiping Community of Sibiu. It serves 1,400 members in the central church and five outlying parishes. The church was begun in the 14th century and completed in 1520. In 1540, the congregation, along with the other Saxon (German) congregations in Transylvania, joined the Reformation and became Lutheran churches.
As all worshipping communities in Eastern Europe, the church in Sibiu has been shaped by events of the past century, including two world wars, the inclusion of Transylvania into Romania, post-war depressions and migrations, communist goverment and the eventual dissolution of Soviet and communist control. The congregation, once 14,000 strong, was 1,400 in 1990.
The congregation, however, continues to be a life-giving force in the community. In addition to worship and typical ministries, the church offers visitation to community shut-ins, a shelter for at-risk children, a workshop for disabled adults, and clothing and medications for the area's poor. The church has become a host for volunteers from Europe and, with our group, the Unitied States. The church campus includes a facility for "Wandergesellen" (traveling craftsmen) and a guest house. The congregation has made special commitments to environmental stewardship and ecumenism.
The Sibiu church contributes to the community's cultural life with organ and Bach choir concerts throughout each year. The church manages the Bruckental Art Museam and hosts artists and other visitors who come to photograph the church.
The Lutheran Church of Sibiu has three resident pastors, Kilian Dorr, Hans-George Junesch, and Klaus Untch.
The Lutheran Church of Sibiu is a member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession of Romania. The ELCACR has 14,500 members in 254 congregations, served by 44 pastors. In Sibiu, the ELCACR supports a nursing home and hospice center, a boarding facility for students, an ecumenical center and chapel, and a research institute and museam. A seminary is on the local university campus. The ELCACR is a member of the Lutheran World Federation.
For more information about Sibiu and the Lutheran Church of Sibiu, "google" Sibiu Lutherans and Hammersdorf Informationen.
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