67th day - 13th September. Excursion to Petersdorf - Small community with big project

Today I had to wake up shortly after 6 o'clock, because at 7 o'clock the weekly devotion for all church employees of the church district who live in the church castle began. Once a week, these people meet for a service meeting after the devotion. It was held in German and Romanian because there are also some Romanians in the diaconal field. Later, I spoke with the acting pastor of the district, Pastor Arvay, for an hour about the current challenges and the future of the Protestant church in Romania. His conviction is not to dwell on the past but to look at the present and promote a shining church life that radiates into the region.

Afterwards, I packed my four bicycle bags again and set off for the small and very remote rural community of Petis (Romanian), Petersdorf (German) near Seica Mica. On the way, I made another detour of about 9 kilometers to see the fortified church Wurmloch (German), Valea Viilor (Romanian). Like in Biertan, this fortified church is UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its unique architecture and history. As soon as I drove into the village, I could see the imposing fortified church from a distance. Just like there, thick ramparts once protected the people from attacks by the Tatars and Turks. From the tower, you have a very good view of the beautiful landscape and above all of the historical and preserved settlement structure of the Transylvanian Saxons around the church. Yard by yard, houses line up on both sides of a road leading to the edge of the village.

Today, only 11 Saxons and congregants live in Wurmloch, but there are several so-called 'summer Saxons' who emigrated in the early 1990s, are now retired, spend the summer in their former homeland and are committed to their village again.

After the short visit, I continued to the remote rural community Petersdorf. But I failed with the difficult orientation. On the printed map, I found a road to the village. I checked it with Google Maps, as before. Only one road according to Google Maps leads to Petersdorf, which is not true. I ended up on the wrong one. But I believed I was on the right road. This turned out to be a consequential mistake because the road first became a gravel path, then an almost impassable dirt road, and finally a completely muddy path due to the heavy rain of the last days. I took off my shoes and socks and pushed my bike laboriously through puddles and mud ruts and ended up in the middle of the forest after 1 km, off the path. Three times I pushed my bike back and forth because according to the map, I had to take a curve that did not exist. Then I gave up and wanted to call Gottfried Vogel, but there was no network. At the same time, I noticed that I had a flat tire on the rear wheel. No more cycling possible. Fine stones had settled between the mudguard and the tire due to the fine gravel, gravel, and mud and, as I found out the next day, caused 5 holes.

Now I was at the end. I pushed the bike with the flat tire back to the last village and tried to reach Gottfried by phone. But there was no signal there either. Thanks to the help of a friendly Romanian woman whose phone I could use, I reached Gottfried, who came after half an hour, picked me up, and said I was on a road that no longer exists. Well great, I thought.

Arriving in Petersdorf, I greeted the group of workers working on their big God's project, to make the old and currently very dilapidated school next to the church habitable again. The school belongs to the Protestant church community and the friends around Pastor Vogel want to convert the school into a leisure and meeting house. Currently, the roof is being repaired and partially re-covered. There is still a lot to do for the small Petersdorf church community until the project is completed.

Only one Transylvanian Saxon still lives in Petersdorf itself, but due to mixed families and new arrivals, there are about 11 Protestant congregants. Around 10 congregants also attend the church service. The special thing about Petersdorf is that some Orthodox Christians also come to the Protestant church service.

When I arrived in Petersdorf, I immediately made myself useful at the construction project, climbed onto the roof of the old school, and helped as much as I could, leaving my broken bike for now. In the evening, I planned to fix it. After the communal dinner, we all sat together, talked a lot about the history of the Moravian Church and numerous other topics. Then I had no more strength and desire to repair the flat tire and postponed it to the morning and lay down to sleep in the hallway.