Reposting: Eastern Europe 1990: A Rally in Arad

The Turkish fort in Timisoara was built in 1588, when

southeastern Europe was under the dominance of Islam.

Sunday morning Gelu and his sister Carmen took us on another walk around Timisoara, where we saw, among other things, the old Turkish fort built in 1588. The city was under Turkish rule from 1552 until 1716, as Islam extended its territory into southeastern Europe.

Around 10 a.m. we were taken to a service at Timisoara First Church of God. After a delicious lunch at the church, cooked and served by an immense, red-faced young woman named Kati, we were packed into a Toyota minivan and taken 40 miles through the rolling, northwest Romanian countryside to the city of Arad, where a mass city-wide rally was to be held at the municipal sports arena.

The splendid Roman Catholic church towers above

the peasant's homes in the village of Vinga.

 

Along our way we passed through rural villages such as Vinga, where a Roman Catholic church towers high above the homes of peasants.

A elderly peasant woman at her home in Vinga.

A major cultural and industrial center, Arad is the most important road and rail center in western Romania, connecting western Europe to south-eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Industrial smokestacks and a nuclear reactor at Arad.

The musical group "Message" sings to3,500 people in a mass rally at Arad.

The sports arena was jammed with about 3500 worshipers, of whom about 1000 were standing, for a service that lasted three and a half hours! The featured singers were a group called "Message," and they were seriously good. Their driving, powerful, hauntingly beautiful rendition of the hymn O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus moved me so deeply that it became the recurring theme of the sound track of the audio-visual programs I produced from our trip.

Rapt listeners to the music and preaching at the Arad rally.

"Message" leads the crowd in "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

My ears still tingle at the memory of the finale -- the packed auditorium singing in Romanian "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

After the rally, we went to a pastor's home, where we were served a splendid supper of Eastern European specialties. At 10 p.m. we caught a train back to Bucharest. If we had made the trip by air, the connection for our flight to Moscow would have been so tight that if the plane were late we would have been stuck in Bucharest for two more days.

Apparently, some of the Christians at Arad had connections with the transportation officials, because we were able to get sleeping car berths when none were supposed to be available. This was our first experience in a sleeping car. I took the upper berth and slept well. Louse was in the lower berth, which was a good thing because she was up and down a bit, probably as a result of the supper we had eaten at Arad.

A communal (collective) farm near Bucharest.

Arriving in Bucharest at 8:20 a.m. we hired a taxi and an interpreter to take us out of the city to photograph a communal (collective) farm. Then it was a dash back to the Church of God offices and off to the airport, where we passed through security and customs with no difficulty and on the morning of March 19, 1990, were on a plane to Moscow.

Photographs made with Olympus OM and Leica M cameras and lenses, Fujichrome 100D and 400D films. Photographs and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

Tags: photography, Dave Jenkins, David B. Jenkins Eastern Europe, Romania, Timisoara, Turkish fort, Arad, Bucharest, Church of God, Olympus OM camera, Leica M camera, Fujichrome film, film cameras

 

Reposting: Eastern Europe 1990: A Time in Timisoara

A blue Lada wears a bouquet of flowers in honor of spring.

 

 Spring came early  to Eastern Europe that year of 1990, as if nature herself wished to help atone for the sins of winter.

Lovers and fishermen on the banks of the Bega.

In Timisoara, forsythia bloomed in abundance and lovers and fishermen lined the banks of the Bega, while in the bright sun of a March morning worshipers hurried up the steps of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral, steps where only three months before soldiers under orders from the dictator Ceausescu had fired on children. 

The steps of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral

where children were fired upon.

I haven't been able to find mention of this in historical accounts of the tragedy, but I was told by the people at Timisoara that 47 children dressed in their finest clothes carried candles up the steps of the cathedral in a memorial service and were fired upon by Ceausescu's men at his command.

A shrine to one of the victims of the massacre.

Flowers and shrines now covered the places where young blood once stained the earth.

Flowers and candles make an impromptu

shrine in front of the cathedral.

But spring had come now, and the taste of freedom was like wine in the air as Timisoarans thronged Victory Plaza, the place where the previous December, they had gathered to protest oppression. Missing on this beautiful day were the ones who had been cut down by cannon and machine gun fire by the army and secret police.

Crowds enjoy the taste of freedom and the

warmth of early spring at Victory Plaza.

On Saturday, March 17, Louise and I were up early and off to the airport, where after much confusion over our boarding passes, we managed to catch our flight to Timisoara, about 300 miles to the west. Paul Lauster remained in Bucharest to take care of some denominational business.

In Timisoara we were met by two Romanian pastors whose faces fell when they learned I was not a preacher from America! They recovered, though, and one of them took us to his home, where we finally had a late but delicious breakfast prepared by his wife. After checking into our hotel, Louise took the afternoon off to catch up on her rest and I set out on foot with Gelu, one of the pastor's sons as my guide.

The university campus at Timisoara.

Crossing the Bega twice on different bridges on our walk, we passed the Romanian Reformed Church, whose pastor, Laszlo Tokes is considered the father of the Romanian revolution, went through the university campus, visited Victory (formerly Opera House) Plaza, and the memorials in front of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral.

The Romanian Reformed Church, where pastor

Laszlo Tokes, "the Father of the Romanian

Revolution" began the protests that ultimately

brought down the government.

As I wrote in a post several years ago, it was on this walk that I missed one of the greatest opportunities of my career. Before the horror of the Romanian orphanages became known to the world, Gelu and I came upon a large building whose grounds were enclosed with bars and walls. There were many children standing around or playing behind the bars, and some came over to watch us. "What's that?" I asked Gelu. "An orphan asylum," he replied. "Oh, okay," I said, and turned away to photograph an attractive pattern of shadows playing on a window across the street. Some months later, someone else broke the story of the Romanian orphanages. It could have been me. But it wasn't.
 

An ancient window in Timisoara. A lovely

photograph and a missed opportunity.

But of course, we didn't know any of that at the time. After a delicious supper, we were off to a service at the Elim Church of God, a new and unusually large building with two levels of balconies. There was even a brass band on the top balcony above the pulpit!

The large, new Elim Church of God. Packed,

as were all churches on our tour.

Photographs made with Olympus OM and Leica M cameras and lenses, Fujichrome 100D and 400D films. Photographs copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

Tags: photography, Dave Jenkins, David B. Jenkins Eastern Europe, Romania, Timisoara, Bega River, Ceausescu, Lada, Romanian Reformed Church, Romanian Orthodox Church, Church of God, Romanian Orphanages, Olympus OM camera, Leica M camera, Fujichrome film, film cameras

Reposting: Eastern Europe 1990: Romania: The Battle for Bucharest

In Bucharest, a woman places flowers at a street

memorial to those who were killed in the fighting.

 

 

Crossing the "Friendship" Bridge over the Danube on the morning of March 15, we were on our way north to Bucharest, Romania -- an easy, 60-mile drive past flat fields and farms. Upon arrival, we checked into the Hotel Nord (North), about which, more later.

Louise and I had a few hours on our own, so we hired a car and driver to take us around. Romania had just thrown off Communist rule and scenes of the battle were all around us.

One of the many buildings in Bucharest showing

the effects of the battles of December, 1989,

The regime of Nicolae Ceausescu was considered the most totalitarian and repressive in Eastern Europe. When protests broke out in Timisoara, little more than a month after the Berlin Wall was breached, he ordered his military to fire on the protestors, killing and wounding many. Massive rioting and fighting ensued. Ceausescu and his wife Elena attempted to flee in a helicopter, but were caught by the military, which had changed sides. They were tried and swiftly executed by a firing squad on December 25, 1989. The revolutionary forces then began the process of establishing a free Romania.

Romanian soldiers man a tank at one

of the national capitol buildings.

We photographed one of Ceausescu's palaces, other government buildings, some of them showing damage from shelling, and the pedestal from which Vladimir Lenin's statue had been removed in front of the very impressive national press building.

Another building badly damaged by the shelling.

I asked our guide "What does that graffiti mean?"

He replied, "It means We Got Them!"

That evening we were taken to a service at the Maranatha Church, which was packed with people, as has been every service we have attended on this tour.

When we returned to our room at the Hotel "North," we discovered how it had earned its name: the heat was turned off at night! We slept, not very comfortably, under a pile of blankets. The next morning, Louise ran hot water in the tub to see if she could warm the bathroom. We both ended up taking hot tub baths, which did chase away the chill!

Breakfast at the hotel restaurant was cold cuts and cheese and some of Paul Lauster's instant Nescafe, which he unfortunately left on the table. Then off to the Church's National Headquarters and Theological Seminary. The only Church of God school for Christian workers in all Eastern Europe, they were only allowed 15 students at a time by the Ceausescu regime.

A class at the Church of God School of Theology

in Bucharest. The only seminary in all of Eastern Europe.

A student at the Theological Seminary in Bucharest.

After lunch with the students, we we were taken on a tour of the Romanian capitol buildings, the Basilica of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch, University Plaza, where Ceausescu's men fired on protesters on December 21 and 22, and the Palace Plaza, where Ceausescu attempted to speak to the crowds from a balcony and had to be rescued by helicopter.

The balcony of the Presidential Palace in Bucharest

from which the dictator Ceausescu attempted to address

the protesters. He had to be rescued by helicopter.

Sickened by having shed the blood of their own fellow-citizens,

the Romania army came over to the side of the people.

That evening, we went to a service at Philadelphia Church, a large building that again, was fully packed. Despite years of government opposition, the Church of God had by that time grown to 250,000 members.

Worshipers at one of the Bucharest churches.

Supper was at the hotel restaurant again, and then back to our room, where another hot bath before bed made for a less chilly night.

Photographs made with Olympus OM and Leica M cameras and lenses, Fujichrome 100D and 400D films. Photographs copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

Tags: photography, Dave Jenkins, Eastern Europe, Romania, Bucharest, Church of God, Ceausescu, Olympus OM camera, Leica M camera, Fujichrome film, film cameras

 

Reposting: Eastern Europe 1990: More Bulgaria

Nineteenth-century Methodist missionaries planted

16 churches in Bulgaria, but by 1990 the church

in Shuman was one of only three remaining.

After the previous day's mad, high-speed, 250-mile rush over second-grade roads interspersed with three church services, our third day in Bulgaria promised to be an easy one. We spent some time walking around the town of Shuman  before setting off for Ruse, about 70 miles away, a larger city on the Danube which would be our crossing point into Romania. One particular point of interest in Shuman was an old Methodist Church. Methodist missionaries came to this part of Bulgaria around 1860, and the church was built in 1895.

Bulgaria is mostly rural, with very fertile land. So much so, in fact, that before the coming of Communism it was known as "the garden of Europe." The Marxists tried to herd the people onto collective farms, and although they were successful in some places, many of the country people still lived in the ways of their ancestors.

Since we did not have a long distance to travel this day, we were able to take our time and stop whenever we saw something interesting to photograph.

Rural Life Along the Way to Ruse

 

A Bulgarian peasant woman spins wool into thread

the way her ancestors have done for a thousand years.

Three Bulgarian peasant farmers and their donkey cart.

A closer look at the friendly farmers. One seems a little skeptical.

A Bulgarian goat herder. He was looking at Louise, who

was video-taping him as I made this photograph.

Near the town of Razgrad, about halfway to Ruse, we visited the ruins  of the Roman city Abritus. In the fourth century A.D., the Emperor Constantine the Great fortified the town with walls 39 feet high and almost ten feet thick. It was destroyed in 586 A.D. Excavations on the site began in 1953. 

The Roman ruin of Abritus. The city's exterior walls

were 39 feet high and nearly 10 feet thick.

At Ruse, we checked into the Hotel Riga, where we had rooms on the 14th floor with a great view of the docks and shipyards on the Danube. Pavel took us for a walk around the town, where the people seemed freer and lighter in spirit than those in Sofia. 

The docks and shipyards on the Danube at Ruse.

 

The service that evening was held at one of the three Church of God churches in Ruse; a non-descript building about 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. It was packed with people.

Statue of Vladimir Lenin at Ruse

The next morning (March 15th) I was out early and walked to a statue of Lenin, about a mile away. Then after breakfast we were off to Romania. 

Like young people everywhere, these skateboarders are

unimpressed by the dignitaries of the past. (I was unable

to find the identify of this [probably] Communist leader.)

(Photographs made with Olympus OM and Leica M cameras and lenses, Fujichrome 100D and 400D films.)Photographs copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

Tags: photography, Dave Jenkins, Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, Communism, Church of God, Methodist missionaries, rural life, Roman ruins, Abritus, Olympus OM cameras, Leica cameras, Fujichrome film