Romania 2015- Day 17

Day 17- June 29, 2015

Whew, am I tired!! It was such a busy day!!! But a GREAT day!!!

We started the morning with two activities: VBS with the pre-school kids and Women’s Ministry.  Since I have worked with the women for the past few summers (and LOVE it), Gabi asked if I would work with them again.  I of course said YES!!! We followed the same kind of schedule we have in the past: all meet together for the devotional, then split into three rotations.  Lisa (one of the team members from Louisiana) led the devotional.  She talked about how God is with us at all times.  She shared a personal story with the ladies that I think really touched them.  It was a blessing to me for sure!

Then we split into our rotations: craft, beauty, and activity.  Now I know you’re probably guessing I was in crafts, but you would be wrong!  Surprising, I know!  I was actually in the beauty rotation as I had an amazingly generous friend donate some Mary Kay items for me to bring to use with the women.  Today’s beauty treatment focused on the hands.  Before we did anything, I talked with them women about what our hands say about us.  I found this great devotional online that I paraphrased.  I talked about what kind of hands I would like to have: compassionate, merciful, productive, prayerful, strong, and most important, loving.  We then pampered our hands!  We started with the Satin Hands routine.  They LOVED it!!! They loved how soft it made their hands and how good it smelled.  Then we painted our nails.  I even painted a couple ladies’ nails!  I was sure to concentrate really hard so I wouldn’t mess them up like I mess up my own!  It was fun to spend time with them and catch up! 

After the Women’s Ministry, I went to help with the English lesson kids.  I had half outside for games, while Kaitlin and Victoria had the other half inside for English lessons.  Kristian and Brett, our newest interns, came outside to help me with the games.  We started with head, shoulders, knees, and toes, but had to quickly move on as they are getting tired of it!  Then we played two rounds of red light, green light; a round of duck, duck, goose; then moved on to a Romanian game that I can’t remember the name to.  The kids all stand in the middle and we were around the edges.  We throw a ball to one another trying to hit the kids in the middle.  It had something to do with hunting I think.  Whatever it was called, they had tons of fun playing!  After the first group, I went inside to eat and Brett and Kristian took over. 

The afternoon is when it got really crazy busy and tiring!  We hosted VBS for about 100 kids in Point of Hope.  We had 6 rotations; you read that right, 6!!!  I was a group leader, so I took my group of kids to all 6 rotations.  We started at indoor games.  This was lead by Michael, Emily, and Gelu.  Here they split the group of 14 into two groups of 7.  Half played four square and the other half played ping pong and darts.  About half-way through the rotation time we switched so everyone had a chance to play everything.

Our second rotation was outdoor games.  This station was lead by Brett, Conner, and Markus. We started with a game that Brett taught us.  I, again, can’t remember what it was called.  And I’m not sure I can really describe it, but it was fun.  Then we played Monkey in the Middle, a keep away game.  It’s ok to be on the outside, but I’m not a fan of being the Monkey.  L I’m so short they had no problem throwing it over my head!!

Our third rotation was Bible.  This was lead by Dan and Debo.  He did a great lesson on us all being a family of God.  He talked about how we all came from Adam and Eve, then how family helps each other through tough times. 

Our fourth rotation was crafts led by Liz and Debo’s sister, whose name is escaping me at the moment.  The craft was a wooden cross that they got to color with markers.  They had fun not only coloring the cross, but also themselves and each other!  Kids and markers…

Our fifth rotation was snack/computer time.  In with snacks was Megan and Lisa; Ale had the computer lab.  We again split them in half.  Half the time they got to sit and enjoy a snack, while the other half was spent playing on the computers.  It was a nice break from all the activity!!

Our sixth, and final rotation was music.  This was with two volunteers (whose names I don’t know yet) and Kristian.  The volunteers led the kids in several songs with hand motions. I videoed one song so you could enjoy it too, but it is too big to fit here on blogger, I'll try uploading it on Flickr or Facebook...

My group, group Yellow: Alina (my Romanian helper) Joana, Rares, Rafael, Rebecca, Me, Alexandra, Elisei, David, Flavius, Alin.  Dude in the middle is Madalin. Front row: Calin, Mircea, Angel, and Larisa

Finally, the day was over!! I was about ready to collapse!  But we still had dinner to go!  After a quick debrief and discussion about tomorrow, we headed to the restaurant.  Dinner was very delicious, I had a rib and fried cheese.  Yum!!!  Since this is such a large team, Gabi has been ordering our meals family style.  The restaurant we ate at tonight brings it out with flaming bread.  So fun!

I am at home at last and ready for a good night’s sleep!  Please be in prayer that the team rests well tonight and has the energy to tackle tomorrow!  Pray that everything goes smoothly and that I don’t mess the ladies faces up in beauty!!