Romania, la mults ani!

One of these days, I'm going to relinquish my Gordon email address for something more up-to-date. This will be a symbolic move for me, of course, as everything in my life tends to hold some sort of meaning or significance, no matter how seemingly mundane. But in the mean time, I continue to battle Exchange on a monthly basis as I receive emails about having too many messages in my box -- and then I spend an hour or so painstakingly perusing my old emails, saved and sent, deciding which are worthy of taking up precious megabites and which can be deleted for eternity.

Sounds strange, but this is a difficult task for me. Many of my emails of yore are written more like essays than simple correspondence. In them, I have pieced together my thoughts and feelings regarding my current state of being into a coherent whole. Not only that, these emails, filled with my philosophical-sociological-theological discoveries about the world, represent an exchange of ideas between people I care about. These interchanges are meaningful precisely because they involve other minds, other experiences. Like journal entries, my old emails are written snapshots of my past thought-life and my past relationships. Parting with them feels like parting with memories.

All that being said, I received one such threatening message about my mailbox size exceeding the maximum limit, and as I was reading through my 700-something sent messages, I found several mass emails I sent to friends while I was in Romania. I really have enjoyed reading these again, because they served to illuminate just how much I was changed by my experience in Romania, even if I was there only a mere quarter of a year. My time in Romania was so rich and I encountered such astounding people doing astounding things in such a painful, beautiful place. I would argue that my first steps towards considering seminary education started because of my friendship with Dana Bates. He really taught me what it meant to be a thoughtful, passionate Christian and how a good, solid, informed theology can really translate into practicing the Gospel. Dana made me realize that the world of ideas and the world of action can and should intersect.

In fact, just two years ago on (or around) this day, Bethany Jones-turned-Arnold and I were boarding a plane at the Philadelphia Airport, bound for Romania via Frankfurt. When we arrived, there were banners on most buildings that read, "La Mults Ani," or "Happy New Year" in Romania. We lived out the first few days of 2006 in Lupeni, Romania, of all places. Remarkable to think about.

For posterity's sake, I've decided to publish a few of the emails I sent while I was in Romania because I think they are worthwhile to read and remember. The next few posts will be excerpts from such emails.