Day 11

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Another great day in Romania!! Jessica and I got up this morning and went to church with Ale.  We didn't go to her church, but a different one in town.  I was happy to experience a different church.  Adella translated for Jessica and Ale translated for me. It was a very good service!  They preached about praying for others and ourselves and knowing God's word so that when faced with temptation we have something to strengthen us.

After church, we came back to the apartment and hung out while waiting for Paul and Lumi to return from their church in Bacnea.  I am planning to visit their church next Sunday if I can.  They returned with Lumi's sister and her family.  We all went to get pizza at Pizza Motors in town.  Super yummy pizza!!

Later, we met Ale, Libero, Marcus, and a friend of theirs for a hike.  When Ale told us that we were going on a hike, we didn't quite expect to be climbing a mountain! To be completely honest, it wasn't really a mountain, but a very big hill.  It sure felt like a mountain though!  There were some great views from the top!

About half way up, I needed a break so I took a few pictures...

From the top, awesome views, once I regained the ability to breathe!!

This is what we hiked up!!! Super steep!

Headed back down!!

I can now say I climbed a mountain (very big hill) in Romania!!  Tomorrow we start working on the mural at Point of Hope!

Day 10

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Whew, what a day!!  Jessica and I got up this morning and took the bus to Targu Mures to see Gabi.  She met us at the bus stop and then we walked, and walked, and walked some more!  We stopped for a pizza lunch, which was delicious, then continued walking to the mall.  After shopping for a little while, we went and sat in the town center.  I almost fell asleep on the bench after all that walking!! I will be in much better shape when I come home if this keeps up! I didn't get as many pictures today, just three. I'm a slacker, I know!

Paul and Lumi came to pick us up, then we went shopping for groceries.  They are very good cooks and I look to eating lots of yummy food over the next few weeks!

Tomorrow we will be visiting two churches, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  That's if the one in the morning finishes in time!  I'm looking forward to experiencing gypsy church again, I love it!!

Please pray that the team has smooth flights home and that we are blessed by the church services.

Day 9

Friday, June 27, 2014

Tim, Dennis, Johnathan, Ian
Terrie, Jan, Kay, Laura
Daisy, Christian, Jessica, Amanda

Today the team left.  :-(  Jessica and I got up, ate breakfast with them and then bid them farewell.  We will miss hanging out with the other half of the Hot Mess. 

The Hot Mess Girls
Jessica, Daisy, Amanda, Christian

 They will be making their way to Bucharest today and tomorrow and will fly out on Sunday.  After they left, we came to Dennis' apartment where Paul and Lumi live with their son David. This will be my home for the next three weeks.  Since we didn't have anything to do we mostly sat around and tried not to fall asleep.  I did get to use Dennis' magic-jack to call Dad and chat for a little while.  And we played with David, who is incredibly cute!! 

Around 5pm ish Ale decided to come walk us around town.  I haven't walked that much in I don't remember how long!! She took us to the town center where we sat and had a soda while watching the world go by. Then we came back a different way.  It was cool to see different parts of the city than I have seen in the past.  We got some great pictures!!

Please pray that the team travels safely home!

Day 8

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Today was the team's last day with the Roma people.  They will start their trek back to Bucharest in the morning.  We had a great day!  We finished up with the women.  Jan of course brought the Bible study then we started our rotations.  Today in beauty they did manicures.  They started with Satin Hands, then painted nails.  The ladies had lots of fun painting each others nails.  Some of them have real talent for creating little designs on nails!!  In crafts we decopaged some frames.  They got to pick some scrapbook paper that I brought then glue it to some frames Jessica brought.  I was glad to find a use for all that scrapbook paper I had sitting at home!  The ladies really enjoyed making the frames.  Jessica also taught them how to make paper flowers.  Some of the ladies didn't want to make them because they said it was too hard, but we encouraged them to try.  Most of them had got it down by the end of our time together.  We gave them a picture of themselves that we took yesterday after their make-overs.  They loved this!!  I had finally figured out how to print some pictures for Cristi so I gave them to his mom.  She choose to put the picture I had taken of her and the kids in her frame.  It made me so happy that she liked them!!

After our roations, we had a closing, then handed out groceries to the ladies.  A huge thank you goes out to Houston's First Baptist for donating money for this!!  Between the money they gave me and some money given to Jan, we were able to buy about 25 lei worth of groceries for each family.  We had tons of fun shopping for them!  The ladies were very appreciative!

Since it was the team's last night, we took the translators out to dinner.  This is a tradition that I love!  I enjoy getting to know them better in a more relaxed setting.  Between dinner and desert the "Hot Mess Girls" decided we wanted a picuture with our translators, so we all went outside and had a fun time getting some pictures!  Here are two, one of us with the translators, and one with just the boys...

After dinner we had to go back to Point of Hope to get the intern cell phone for Jessica and me.  While we were there the girls decided they wanted to go see the Gypsy school, so we walked to it.  We lucked out that the security guard was there and let us go inside.  It was interesting to me to see their school. In many ways it looked just like ours, just older.  Very cool.

As we walked through the community to get to the school, a group of kids ran up and followed us.  Many of them were trying to show me how they remembered the movements (and some of the words) from the song we did during music time.  I loved it!!  Cristi's little sister came up and hugged me, he acted all cool and wouldn't hug me.  That's ok, he followed us around grinning!  I love that kid!!!

When we got back to the hotel, Jessica and I hung out with the other half of the Hot Mess since we have to say goodbye to them tomorrow.  We are going to miss our other half!!  Lots of laughter could be heard coming from our room I'm sure!

Please be in prayer for the team as they travel back to Predeal tomorrow.  Pray that they have safe travels!

Day 7

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Today was filled with laughter! We began our work with the women of the Roma community today.  Most of them are mothers of the children that attend the school.  It was much less intimidating this year than it was last year.  Many of the women remembered Jan, Jessica, and me from last year.  They associate me with a crown, which is funny since we didn't make crowns last year.  We did make wreaths that many of them put on their heads which is what they are referring to, at least I think that's it!

The ladies waiting to start...

Jan started the morning with a Bible lesson about the proverb of the woman with a lost coin.  She talked about how we are the lost coins, and God does everything he can to find us and bring us back to Him.  It was an excellent lesson!

After the lesson, we broke into groups of 7 or 8 ladies and began our rotations.  One rotation was beauty, where they gave the ladies makeovers.  Thanks to Katie Prewitt for the donation of Mary Kay products, they loved it!!  Another rotation was health with Gabi's sister Erika.  She talked to the women about TB and how they can stay healthy.  The last rotation was crafts with Jessica, Christian, Daisy, and me.  (We joke that we are the "hot mess Texas girls"!  We're having so much fun together!)  Today's craft was a safety pin bracelet.  We had Orsi translating for us.  She is who translated crafts for me last year, so we're good friends now!  The ladies were excited to make a bracelet, they told us they loved bracelets!

Making bracelets...

After our time with the women, we were invited to visit some of their homes.  Gabi knows how much I love Christi, so she made sure I was with the group going to his home.  I was so excited to get to see where he lives.  Our group ended up being Ale, Jan, and me.  I had met Chrisit's mom earlier today during the craft time.  I had showed her some of the pictures from my first visit, and found out that she has eight kids. Last year we were able to visit a house, not the apartments behind the center.  There is a very big difference in the two.  When we first walked in I wasn't sure what to think.  The building isn't anything like what we would consider livable.  Christi's apartment was on the first floor, so we didn't have to go upstairs.  I was glad for that because the stairs didn't look all that inviting.  When we made it to the apartment I almost cried.  It is one room. ONE ROOM! For seven kids and two adults! AND, this room could fit inside my living room.  It broke my heart that this was where they lived.  They invited us in and I was able to meet most of Christi's siblings, one is older and married.  He was all smiles when we came in. As we conversed with his mom, I told her how Christi is a big part of why I came back, I loved him so much.  She said that he loved me too, that he had come home talking about me and how I had all the pictures of him. I almost cried again.  That boy has stolen a huge chunk of my heart!! He wanted to take pictures of us and then of him with some of his siblings.  One of his sisters came and snuggled up on the couch next to us and we took several selfies.  As happy as we were to hang out and get to know one another, I was brokenhearted about how they live.  I wish I could really describe it to you, but it goes beyond words.  I know I will be praying for them every day!  I know if people could experience this, there would be no problem raising the funds they need to do anything here.  So much of the time we just need to open our eyes and see the world around us.  Try to see people as God sees them, not as the world sees them.  My first visit here opened my eyes to that, but I think I had forgotten.  Hopefully this time, I will remember to be thankful for all that I have.  

Christi's mom, Christi, me, and one of his sisters

The family...

The front of the apartment...

The rest of the apartment...

Please be in prayer for Christi and his family.  Pray that they stay healthy and have their needs met.  Also pray that tomorrow goes well.  It is the last day with the Roma people for most of the team, pray that they will be comforted as they say goodbye.

Thank you for all your prayers so far, they are making our trip the best!!

Day 6

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Let me start off by saying a huge THANK YOU for all the prayers.  Everything has gone smoothly and I know that is due to God answering all YOUR prayers!  Y’all are awesome!

Now, about today… Another great day!! I know I say that every day, and I totally mean it every day! I love this country and these people so much!! Each day that I’m here I love it a little more…

Today we finished VBS with the kids.  It was bittersweet…  They had tons of fun, which made it all the more enjoyable for us.  It rained, so our game time had to be indoors, but that didn’t lessen the fun!  Even in cramped quarters the kids enjoyed the games and laughter abounded!  In music we played London Bridges, or at least a version of it, and musical chairs.  They really enjoyed dancing around and playing with us.  We had a CD of Romanian children’s music playing, we didn’t know what all of it meant, but it got stuck in our heads anyway!  It was so awesome to see them singing along to songs about running with God! 

It was sad to see them go at the end of the day, but I keep reminding myself, I’m staying for a little longer, and I’ll always be back next summer, so I will see them again.  I can’t imagine not spending a portion of my summer with these wonderful people! 

Please be in prayer for us as we begin our women’s ministry portion of our trip tomorrow.  Some of the younger girls are feeling a little intimidated by this, which I can relate to.  Jessica and I told them that we were intimidated at first too, but ended up having a marvelous time with them.  Please pray that the women will enjoy what we have planned and that the Bible lesson will take root in their hearts and show them Jesus.

Day 5

Monday, June 23, 2014

Today was the absolute best day!!  We had so much fun with the kids!  Plus, I got to see many of the kids we worked with my first year here!  And I think they remembered me!

I worked with Christian in music today, with Marcus and Jalu translating, who are some very fun guys.  We taught the kids a song from a DVD, Big House.  It has dance moves that the kids had lots of fun doing.  Some were even singing the words in English!  I was very impressed.  After that, we played a CD with some Romanian songs they knew and they taught us the movements.  It was funny how some were so much more animated than others.  Just like the kids I’ve taught back home!  Then we played a freeze game.  When the music was playing, they had to dance.  When the music stopped, they had to freeze.  They really enjoyed this part.  I can definitely say I got a workout today!! 

In the morning, we had the pre-school aged kids.  In the afternoon, we had the after-school program kids.  These ranged from 1^st-5^th graders.  I enjoyed the older kids more, mainly because I remembered so many of them from my first trip.  I even got to see my favorite kiddo from my first trip, Christi!  He was so grown up!  I showed him some of the pictures I had of him on my phone and he loved it!  He wanted me to print them out for him.  I’ll have to see if I can find a way to do that here, or wait till I get home and mail it back.  I took several new ones of him too, so cute!!

After VBS with the kids, a group of us went with Dennis to Bacnea, a small town close by where he has been helping the local church.  We met the preacher and his family.  Then the preacher took us to look at where they are meeting now.  It is a small house like the one the gypsy’s here in Tarnaveni meet in.  The problem is that they don’t own the property or the house.  He then took us by a couple of properties they are looking at purchasing.  I would love to get some support for this group started in the States.  I know Dennis and his church are helping, but they need more!  I could tell how much they needed and wanted a building of their own to worship God.  How awesome would it be to help them reach that goal?!?

After our visit, we drove back to Point of Hope, where the staff cooked us a traditional Romanian meal.  I wasn’t a big fan, but tried everything!  It was very nice of them to do this for us!  I think they are planning to cook for us again tomorrow night. 

Please be in prayer as we continue the VBS with the kids tomorrow.  Pray that they wouldn’t just have fun, but grow in their relationship to Christ!

Here is a link to the pictures from today.