Birthday in Romania

Let me give you a brief introduction of how to celebrate a birthday in Romania. You don’t wait for your friends to remember it’s your birthday and throw you a party or buy you a cake. YOU buy or make a cake, buy and whatever other party items you want, and YOU throw yourself a party, inviting your friends to attend. A friend of mine who is in Bulgaria recently wrote about this custom which is also practiced in Bulgaria. You can read his blog post here.

My day began with leading Veritas staff devotions. After devotions, I shared with the staff chocolate wafers, pretzels, home-made chocolate peanut butter fudge, and 2 types of soft drinks. I didn’t realize that the other men on the staff had made a cake to share in honor of women’s week – so we had a lot of sweets!

After devotions, I went to Elderly Club, held at the Sighișoara Church of the Nazarene. Twice in February I was invited to Elderly Club for birthday celebrations. I decided that I would celebrate my birthday with these folks. Even though I don’t work with them on a daily basis, many of them know me from church, and they would enjoy celebrating my birthday with me. They especially enjoyed the chocolate cake and jam-filled pastry I brought to share with them. After singing to me, they lined up, and each person kissed me on both cheeks and expressed their birthday wishes.

I had dinner with my friends Jamie & Cole and their son Ruben. Cole & I found out a few days ago that we share a birthday. Jamie made a delicious chocolate cake and served it with ice-cream.

After dinner, I was invited to join the other Nazarene missionaries in Romania – Roberta Bustin and the Hudson family who are visiting for the weekend – for yet another birthday celebration with yet another cake and more ice cream.

Thank you for everyone who sent me greetings on my birthday. I had a really wonderful day celebrating with friends here in Sighișoara. (The only thing I didn’t like was that 2 weeks of 50-degree temperatures (10°C) came to an end with an inch of snow falling on my birthday. Where did spring go?)

I didn't take many pictures on my birthday, but I did capture 3 of the 4 birthday cakes. (I forgot to take pictures at Elderly Club.)