its crazy, we've been home 3 full days and already it seems like we've been away from our brothers and sisters for wayyy too long :(
Tuesday Doug came over the house to drop off his photos from the trip for me to put together with everyone else's on a dvd and he ended up being here a couple hours, most of that time being spent talking about the trip and the friends we made and ppl we met...it was so sweet to catch each other up on the communication we've been able to have with Flavius, Dorian and Alina :) we could have continued to talk for hours about what God had done in and through us and the incredible relationships that were built which will remain with us as we continue to readjust to life here. It's so sweet to be able to talk to our friends via facebook, it makes it a lil easier to be back and im so0o glad that we can continue to encourage and build our relationships even from afar :)
Then, last night we had prayer time at the Schuman's and we prayed for many things going on in our church and community and lives and those from the team who were there prayed alot for people who were put on our heart from Romania and then it was so sweet to hear others who hadnt been there with us, but have already heard stories and read blogs, praying for ppl they dont personally know but are still brothers and sisters :)
oh man, whenever mela or i talk to Flavius or Dorian we have to give each other updates about what they say and how they are :)
yesterday mela had the smart thought to ask whether any of the kids who came to the vbs in ciacova were at church again this past sunday...and they were :) Flavius also said that whenever the kids see him around in the village they say hi to him and ask him about us...man, we miss those kids, that church family, the great food and the incredibly amazing ppl :)
We will continue to be praying for them and hope you will too...this blog will remain open and hopefully as we move forward, others will update with how their lives and hearts are different and how God has been at work and whatnot
Ciao,
Michele
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
final thoughts :(
so it's back to life as we've known it here in the US but i think and hope our vision of life here will always be different thanks to the new lens of Romania we have. i know that my heart is still there and i almost hope that it doesn't come back here with me but that i can return to it! i still am blown away by the amazing hospitality and love that we were shown while we were there and am still surprised by how close we got in such a short time to Dori and Flavius and some of the other teens and people we were with. God is at work in some really sweet ways in the ministries of Marius and Tabita and those who work along side them, it was a pleasure and blessing to get to join them for a week and work together for the Kingdom. Continue to keep them in your prayers as i know all of us from the team will and they already have been and hopefully will continue to pray for us here also. I am sad that this trip has ended but i am excited to see how God will use this experience and our friendship, love and support between churches to further His Kingdom :)
Ciao
Michele
Ciao
Michele
We are back in the states
So this will probably be my last entry on the Romania 2010 blog, because we are back in the states. I wanted to say we are home but our host families and the church welcomed us to Romania so well, it felt like home. This entry is late because I was just to tired last night to write anything, plus I had to unpack, sort souvenirs, do wash and adjust to the time.
Sunday morning we meet at 7:30am at Marius & Tabita’s home to load up the mini bus for the airport in Budapest. It was a little tough for me to sleep, I keep thinking about “did I remember to pack everything, will my luggage be over the 50lb requirement…”. I was up at about 5:00am. The mini bus arrived and we loaded up all the luggage said our goodbyes, with long hugs, to Marius & Tabita. Then the four hour ride to Budapest, Hungary (it was a three hour ride, but there is an hour difference from Romania to Hungary). We all napped a lot on this trip; some I think sleep most of the ride. This short trip was pretty uneventful, even when we crossed the Romanian-Hungary boarder (thank goodness).
We got to the airport in the required time and got through check in quickly. Then it was a wait to board the plan. We did use a little of this time to discuss some Romania presentation service stuff. By the way, we will be making a trip presentation on Sunday, July 25th, if you are interested. Other than that people were reading, writing in their journal or stretching so the muscles would not hurt when jammed into the tight seating. Although the time of the flight was the same as go to Romania, the return trip did not seem as long to me. It might have been that I got into watching all four movies that Delta showed. Or it could have been that I sat with a guy that was a bit smaller than me, which gave me a little extra shoulder/arm room. It was interesting because it turned out his sister attended PBU, were I work, for a year and I remembered the name. So even though we only talked for a short time, he sleep most of the time, it was a good conversation.
We landed on time at JFK and disembarked. We went through Passport check and luggage claim. Then it was going through customs. I did get pulled to the side because of some ham & cheese sandwiches and Salami sandwiches which our Romania host gave us for the trip. But all I had to do was give them to the official who through them out. The Errickson’s had to do the same with some sandwiches they were given. Not a big deal though.
Our flight schedule had us with a 4-5 hour layover at JFK and arriving in Philly around 10:30pm. Thankfully, Amy’s parents had agreed, before we left for our trip, to drive to JFK and pick us up. They were there already as we came out of luggage claim. They had the mini bus from their church, Faith Community Church. Then it was a 2-2 1/2 hour ride to WFC. It seemed long to probably because we were so closed to being home. We are so grateful for the Bergvall’s for doing this for us; we were not looking forward to a long layover.
Well, this ends the 2010 Romania Missions trip. The only things left to do are:
1).Present the trip to the church. As I mentioned earlier, this will happen on Sunday July 25th. It will be during the normal service time, 10:00am. This presentation will only be a small amount of information on the trip, because to me a forty to fifty minute time frame is not enough. So do not hesitate to talk to any of us about the trip.
2).Continue to Pray for the Ianc’s and their ministry. God is doing amazing things in Romania, but there is much more to do. The economy is not good and they are just making it financially.
3).Look for and think of opportunity for you to go on a short term mission’s trip. Also, look for and decide how you can be involved, even if it is not going on a trip. Maybe it is praying more for our missionaries, keeping up to date on their ministries by being on their email/mailing lists or start/increase your financial support for missions.
Thank you for reading this blog and my ramblings. And thank you for all your support for this trip through prayer, donations of items & finances.
In HIS Service,
Doug
Sunday morning we meet at 7:30am at Marius & Tabita’s home to load up the mini bus for the airport in Budapest. It was a little tough for me to sleep, I keep thinking about “did I remember to pack everything, will my luggage be over the 50lb requirement…”. I was up at about 5:00am. The mini bus arrived and we loaded up all the luggage said our goodbyes, with long hugs, to Marius & Tabita. Then the four hour ride to Budapest, Hungary (it was a three hour ride, but there is an hour difference from Romania to Hungary). We all napped a lot on this trip; some I think sleep most of the ride. This short trip was pretty uneventful, even when we crossed the Romanian-Hungary boarder (thank goodness).
We got to the airport in the required time and got through check in quickly. Then it was a wait to board the plan. We did use a little of this time to discuss some Romania presentation service stuff. By the way, we will be making a trip presentation on Sunday, July 25th, if you are interested. Other than that people were reading, writing in their journal or stretching so the muscles would not hurt when jammed into the tight seating. Although the time of the flight was the same as go to Romania, the return trip did not seem as long to me. It might have been that I got into watching all four movies that Delta showed. Or it could have been that I sat with a guy that was a bit smaller than me, which gave me a little extra shoulder/arm room. It was interesting because it turned out his sister attended PBU, were I work, for a year and I remembered the name. So even though we only talked for a short time, he sleep most of the time, it was a good conversation.
We landed on time at JFK and disembarked. We went through Passport check and luggage claim. Then it was going through customs. I did get pulled to the side because of some ham & cheese sandwiches and Salami sandwiches which our Romania host gave us for the trip. But all I had to do was give them to the official who through them out. The Errickson’s had to do the same with some sandwiches they were given. Not a big deal though.
Our flight schedule had us with a 4-5 hour layover at JFK and arriving in Philly around 10:30pm. Thankfully, Amy’s parents had agreed, before we left for our trip, to drive to JFK and pick us up. They were there already as we came out of luggage claim. They had the mini bus from their church, Faith Community Church. Then it was a 2-2 1/2 hour ride to WFC. It seemed long to probably because we were so closed to being home. We are so grateful for the Bergvall’s for doing this for us; we were not looking forward to a long layover.
Well, this ends the 2010 Romania Missions trip. The only things left to do are:
1).Present the trip to the church. As I mentioned earlier, this will happen on Sunday July 25th. It will be during the normal service time, 10:00am. This presentation will only be a small amount of information on the trip, because to me a forty to fifty minute time frame is not enough. So do not hesitate to talk to any of us about the trip.
2).Continue to Pray for the Ianc’s and their ministry. God is doing amazing things in Romania, but there is much more to do. The economy is not good and they are just making it financially.
3).Look for and think of opportunity for you to go on a short term mission’s trip. Also, look for and decide how you can be involved, even if it is not going on a trip. Maybe it is praying more for our missionaries, keeping up to date on their ministries by being on their email/mailing lists or start/increase your financial support for missions.
Thank you for reading this blog and my ramblings. And thank you for all your support for this trip through prayer, donations of items & finances.
In HIS Service,
Doug
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Last full day in Romania
Today was our final full day in Romania. It is sad because we have made or renewed some many friendships in such a short time. Everyone is asking that we come back. I think it will be the hardest on the girls (Amy, Melissa & Michele) because they have really bonded with the youth/college age kids here in Ciacova. For the third night in a row, they are now (after 10:00pm) at the Ciacova Fellowship Hall for a game night. They threatened to stay up all night because “we can always sleep on the plane”.
Today started out late. All we were doing was a church service in Sag. So we were able to sleep in. Marius did take Ruth and I to a fantastic restaurant in a town call Girag, just next to Timisoara. The owner has built a fabulous place with a pizza shop, restaurant, wedding reception hall (seats up to 500 people), a lounge, a fitness center with a spa and massages and a Soccer field that can have a roof in the winter. All of this across from his butcher shop, so you can imagine the nice fresh meat they serve. But you probably don't really want hear about this.
We meet at 3:00 to do some tourist things. We went to the historic woods. Here they have replica homes from Romania over the years with vintage clothing and house layouts. We then had a small dinner/snack of Mattei (a spicy piece of meat similar to scrapal). We then got changed and headed to the Church in Sag.
In Sag, we sang a song (Mighty is our God), Ruth gave her testimony then we preformed the Heart skit. Then we sang a song (Lord I lift your name on high) followed by Michele and Amy doing the little man routine. We sang a third song (Blessed Assurance) and then I gave my testimony. It was all well received. The sort of tough part, emotionally, was that Marius and Tabita gave each of us a gift to say thank you for coming.
It was hard knowing that we would be leaving tomorrow. We planned, scheduled, raise support and work for months to be ready, then boom it is over. A couple of us even got emotional yesterday thinking about leaving. But I guess if you do not get emotional at the end of a missions trip, it was not a good trip. As Marius said to the Sag church, and to most of the churches, we are not only in their prayers but in their hearts also. I know that these people here in Romania are in my heart also.
If I can say one last thing it would be this. If you have an opportunity to go on a short term missions trip, you must do it. You have to get past the fear or another country/setting, fear of flying, fear of another culture's food because when you get done your trip you can not be anything but changed. You will change how you see missionaries, how you will see other cultures, how you see how you live at home and how you will pray for your missionaries and their ministries.
If you want to talk about any of this, the trip or what I have written, please contact me or one of the others on this trip. We would be glad to talk with you.
Well, we leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am, Romanian time (12:30am US time), for the Budapest Airport. So this will be my final log from Romania. I hope you have enjoyed what I have written.
In HIS Service,
Doug
Today started out late. All we were doing was a church service in Sag. So we were able to sleep in. Marius did take Ruth and I to a fantastic restaurant in a town call Girag, just next to Timisoara. The owner has built a fabulous place with a pizza shop, restaurant, wedding reception hall (seats up to 500 people), a lounge, a fitness center with a spa and massages and a Soccer field that can have a roof in the winter. All of this across from his butcher shop, so you can imagine the nice fresh meat they serve. But you probably don't really want hear about this.
We meet at 3:00 to do some tourist things. We went to the historic woods. Here they have replica homes from Romania over the years with vintage clothing and house layouts. We then had a small dinner/snack of Mattei (a spicy piece of meat similar to scrapal). We then got changed and headed to the Church in Sag.
In Sag, we sang a song (Mighty is our God), Ruth gave her testimony then we preformed the Heart skit. Then we sang a song (Lord I lift your name on high) followed by Michele and Amy doing the little man routine. We sang a third song (Blessed Assurance) and then I gave my testimony. It was all well received. The sort of tough part, emotionally, was that Marius and Tabita gave each of us a gift to say thank you for coming.
It was hard knowing that we would be leaving tomorrow. We planned, scheduled, raise support and work for months to be ready, then boom it is over. A couple of us even got emotional yesterday thinking about leaving. But I guess if you do not get emotional at the end of a missions trip, it was not a good trip. As Marius said to the Sag church, and to most of the churches, we are not only in their prayers but in their hearts also. I know that these people here in Romania are in my heart also.
If I can say one last thing it would be this. If you have an opportunity to go on a short term missions trip, you must do it. You have to get past the fear or another country/setting, fear of flying, fear of another culture's food because when you get done your trip you can not be anything but changed. You will change how you see missionaries, how you will see other cultures, how you see how you live at home and how you will pray for your missionaries and their ministries.
If you want to talk about any of this, the trip or what I have written, please contact me or one of the others on this trip. We would be glad to talk with you.
Well, we leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am, Romanian time (12:30am US time), for the Budapest Airport. So this will be my final log from Romania. I hope you have enjoyed what I have written.
In HIS Service,
Doug
Friday, July 9, 2010
2nd and final VBS at Padureni
Today was the second and final day of VBS at Padureni. Because we were going to have a church service in the evening and there were not as many kids in Padureni as in Ciacova, the decision was made to start at 4:00pm and do the whole VBS program together instead of part in the morning and part in the afternoon. Then we would go right into the church program. This way the kids did not have to go home and come back two times. So we sleep late, which the girls loved especially since they were up most of the night at Ciacova church playing games with some of the Ciacova teens. We meet for “lunch” at 2:00pm at Padureni.
The actual events of the VBS program did not change, we had some songs but this was a little different because Tabita was not felling well and stayed home. Lavinia stayed at home also to care for her mom, she was felling better when we returned but please pray for her health. Flavius and Dorian lead the singing and hand motions to the songs. Amy and Michele did the little man skit, which is always funny to watch. Next was the memory verse, 1 John 3:9. The kids did well in reciting and memorizing the verses. Then it was outside to play the memory verse game. This is the one were they were in two teams, ran to a pile of zip lock bags with a card which had a word of the verse on it and candy. They had to take this bag to a teammate who would assemble the cards in order of the verse. It was fun to watch them do this game, and even funnier when Marius and his brother Stephen raced each other. They are pretty similar size wise, it was fun to have them participate.
Next was game time. The games today were a little different because it was good weather, and we had not done this yet although we brought a lot of them, we had water balloon/water games. The first game divided the kids up into a hold age and younger age. The younger age group used the parachute to throw water balloons in the air. The older group, which I went with, played Baby in the air. For those who don't know what this game is, as I did not prior to today, is were the group stands in a circle and are assigned a number. One person, which was me, stands in the middle and throws a water balloon in the air. Another person, Flavius, called out a number and that person attempts to catch the water balloon without it breaking. Well needless to say there were very few times the balloon did not break. Ultimately, you want the person to catch the balloon over their head and it break to shower them with water, this is just what happened to one girl. The kids, include the girl, laughed for about five minutes. They next played the standard water balloon throw. When we got down to the winners, I held up their hands in victory and popped their water balloon to splash them. We then had a relay race were the kids filled plastic drinking cups full of cold water, ran down to Ed and myself to fill a 2 liter bottle of water sitting on our chests. We both got extremely wet and man was this water cold, it did feel good because it was sunny and hot. Again when the game was finished we got up and sprayed the water from the bottles at the kids. A couple of the kids picked up the buckets with the remaining water and chased Ed and through the water at him. He was so wet he had to change before continuing VBS.
Next was crafts. They made the little man. They all did a good job at it. When they were done their crafts they went and sat in the pews.
Next was story time. Ed did his story of the paralyzed man. At the end of the story, he did a prayer for confessing their sins with the kids. He had games that related to the story after this. Again they did well with this. The kids then recited their memory verse to get prizes.
We did not have much turn around time after the story games and went right into the closing program. Not a lot of parents or church members showed up, but some did. The kids sang their songs and recited their verses as a group. One girl did both verses from memory by herself. We then sang a song as a group. Ed & Cheri did a wordless skit about giving your heart to God. Ruth did her testimony. We sang another song, which we had not really practiced so it did not sound terrific. Cheri gave her testimony, then we ended with a third song. Again, it was one we had not really practiced. We were then instructed to go to the back of the church and greet parents, church members and kids as they left. At this time, we handed out the gift bags for the kids which we did at most of the churches we visited. This bag included a beany baby, a pencil, pencil sharpener and candy.
We finally had dinner, I will not go in to detail about it but it was good. We all seemed tired and let down because it was our last VBS for the the trip. We have one more church to visit, Sag on Saturday, and then we fly home. This will be tough for some of us as good friendships and renewed friendships have been formed. But even though we will not be physically close after Sunday, our hearts will always be close.
It tomorrow,
Doug
The actual events of the VBS program did not change, we had some songs but this was a little different because Tabita was not felling well and stayed home. Lavinia stayed at home also to care for her mom, she was felling better when we returned but please pray for her health. Flavius and Dorian lead the singing and hand motions to the songs. Amy and Michele did the little man skit, which is always funny to watch. Next was the memory verse, 1 John 3:9. The kids did well in reciting and memorizing the verses. Then it was outside to play the memory verse game. This is the one were they were in two teams, ran to a pile of zip lock bags with a card which had a word of the verse on it and candy. They had to take this bag to a teammate who would assemble the cards in order of the verse. It was fun to watch them do this game, and even funnier when Marius and his brother Stephen raced each other. They are pretty similar size wise, it was fun to have them participate.
Next was game time. The games today were a little different because it was good weather, and we had not done this yet although we brought a lot of them, we had water balloon/water games. The first game divided the kids up into a hold age and younger age. The younger age group used the parachute to throw water balloons in the air. The older group, which I went with, played Baby in the air. For those who don't know what this game is, as I did not prior to today, is were the group stands in a circle and are assigned a number. One person, which was me, stands in the middle and throws a water balloon in the air. Another person, Flavius, called out a number and that person attempts to catch the water balloon without it breaking. Well needless to say there were very few times the balloon did not break. Ultimately, you want the person to catch the balloon over their head and it break to shower them with water, this is just what happened to one girl. The kids, include the girl, laughed for about five minutes. They next played the standard water balloon throw. When we got down to the winners, I held up their hands in victory and popped their water balloon to splash them. We then had a relay race were the kids filled plastic drinking cups full of cold water, ran down to Ed and myself to fill a 2 liter bottle of water sitting on our chests. We both got extremely wet and man was this water cold, it did feel good because it was sunny and hot. Again when the game was finished we got up and sprayed the water from the bottles at the kids. A couple of the kids picked up the buckets with the remaining water and chased Ed and through the water at him. He was so wet he had to change before continuing VBS.
Next was crafts. They made the little man. They all did a good job at it. When they were done their crafts they went and sat in the pews.
Next was story time. Ed did his story of the paralyzed man. At the end of the story, he did a prayer for confessing their sins with the kids. He had games that related to the story after this. Again they did well with this. The kids then recited their memory verse to get prizes.
We did not have much turn around time after the story games and went right into the closing program. Not a lot of parents or church members showed up, but some did. The kids sang their songs and recited their verses as a group. One girl did both verses from memory by herself. We then sang a song as a group. Ed & Cheri did a wordless skit about giving your heart to God. Ruth did her testimony. We sang another song, which we had not really practiced so it did not sound terrific. Cheri gave her testimony, then we ended with a third song. Again, it was one we had not really practiced. We were then instructed to go to the back of the church and greet parents, church members and kids as they left. At this time, we handed out the gift bags for the kids which we did at most of the churches we visited. This bag included a beany baby, a pencil, pencil sharpener and candy.
We finally had dinner, I will not go in to detail about it but it was good. We all seemed tired and let down because it was our last VBS for the the trip. We have one more church to visit, Sag on Saturday, and then we fly home. This will be tough for some of us as good friendships and renewed friendships have been formed. But even though we will not be physically close after Sunday, our hearts will always be close.
It tomorrow,
Doug
hello again :)
sorry you've just been getting posts from dougie the last couple days...i have been otherwise occupied...playing games of course!
we taught the teens who have been helping us with the vbs some of hours games and for the last two nights and any other free minutes we have we've been playing ninja or jungle jam!! we also have done some human knot untangling and they taught us a sweet game i cant wait to play at youthgroup!
today we got to sleep in and in an hour we head out for our last vbs and church programs :(
i am NOT looking forward to leaving...ive come to feel at home here and love everyone i'm meeting...Flavius and I talked for a couple hours last night after we got home from playing games...just about life, Jesus, ministry and whatnot and i think its encouraging for both of us know that although we live worlds apart it seems sometimes, our struggles in following Christ are essentially pretty similar.
i look forward to more talks with him and hopefully some of the other teens in the next couple of days before we leave!
please keep us in your prayers as we finish these last couple days and have to say goodbye to the amazing ppl we have come to love
Pace,
Chele
we taught the teens who have been helping us with the vbs some of hours games and for the last two nights and any other free minutes we have we've been playing ninja or jungle jam!! we also have done some human knot untangling and they taught us a sweet game i cant wait to play at youthgroup!
today we got to sleep in and in an hour we head out for our last vbs and church programs :(
i am NOT looking forward to leaving...ive come to feel at home here and love everyone i'm meeting...Flavius and I talked for a couple hours last night after we got home from playing games...just about life, Jesus, ministry and whatnot and i think its encouraging for both of us know that although we live worlds apart it seems sometimes, our struggles in following Christ are essentially pretty similar.
i look forward to more talks with him and hopefully some of the other teens in the next couple of days before we leave!
please keep us in your prayers as we finish these last couple days and have to say goodbye to the amazing ppl we have come to love
Pace,
Chele
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Day one of VBS at Pandureni
Today, July 8th, we opened VBS at Padureni. Padureni is the newest of Marius' churches and is about a year old, at least the building is. Padureni is the village were Marius' parent and a lot of his family live. It is not a huge church about 15-20 members, but it is just starting out. They will be ordaining a minister on Sunday the 18th. This gentleman will be the main pastor and Marius will be his adviser, mentor & guest speaker on occasion. This will give the people of Padureni a pastoral presents on a daily basis and not be to taxing on Marius have to drive back and forth to all the churches.
OK, back to VBS. The schedule was the same as when we were in Ciacova; play time, songs, memory verse, memory verse games, crafts. Play time we taught the older kids four square. As usual with four square the rules of the game or picked up easily and the participates have fun. Even the pastor got into the game. Tabita sang a few songs with them, I think they were I am in Abraham's Army and This little light of Mine, but I can't be positive. We were using lesson two from Ciacova, the 10 Leapers, so the memory verse was 1 John 3:18. The kids did extremely well with the memorizing the verse. The memory verse game was a little different. If you remember reading, in Ciacova there were two teams and they raced to a clothing line and hung the hearts with the word of the verse on the line with clothing pins. Well we did not have clothing line, but there was a fence that worked just as well. Lavinia and Tabita were the designated people to but the words in order. The craft was the wrapped pen with the wordless beads. They left for the morning and were instructed to return at 3:00.
The was a small number of kids compared to Ciacova, but we know that going in, we ended up with about 20. It was interesting because there was not much space to work with for games and play time. There is a concrete slab that will eventually become the Fellowship Hall for the church, this is were we set up four square. You had to be careful not to chase a ball to far or you fall off the slab, about a foot drop. And our relays during any of the game time had to be in only two groups, first because the smaller number of kids and second because there was just the alley way to run in.
We broke for lunch, and just hung out at the church. Some napped, some just laid down and few played Jungle Jam. After a while, Marius and Tabita returned after a visit to the dentist for Tabita and asked a group of us to help assemble song books for the children/teens in the church. Tabita will be working with them on songs through the year.
The kids started to return around 2:45 and we got out some balls and balloons. A group of about 5-6 boys started playing four square on their on. I ended up blowing up several balloons for the rest, and it was interesting in the ally way because being a smaller alley it made a wind tunnel and the kids had to chase down the balloons. I then started to bounce a playground ball back and forth with a few of the kids. After about 20 minutes, all the kids had returned and we moved them into the church to start the program. We reviewed the verse a time or two, then Tabita lead them in songs. After the songs, Cheri was on with her monolog. She changed it up a bit by mixing the memory verse into the story and having a few of the kids come up front to hold the hearts. She then asked if any of them could recite the verse from memory, there were 5 or 6 of them who did and did a great job. They were divided into three groups so that they could recite the verse individually to one of the three teens helping us. If they could recite it, they received a ticket for a prize. Ruth of course had her apron full at the start and basically empty by the end of this time.
Then it was game time. Again there was not much space but we made due. The ran quite a few relays. First was the Dizzy Izzy (I called it Dizzy Lizzy before because that is how I know it, but I was corrected today) and pick up a balloon. Next was the relay were they had to blow up their balloon, tie it off, run to the end with the balloon between their knees and then sit on the balloon till it popped. A lot of laughter and fun. Then they did the Dizzy Izzy again, but this time they had to run backwards to the bat/stick and then run backwards to their teammates. I proved to be pretty funny watching someone who was dizzy and running backwards. No one was injured. The final relay was a three legged race. We moved out to the stone driveway for this one. It was your basic three legged relay, but not all the kids got the concept that the two of them had to work together to be able to more well as one. Again, laughter abounded..
We then went back into the church to do another craft. This was a new one (we did not get to do this craft at Ciacova) and related to tomorrows story. The craft was a foam house with a slid screen of the Paralyzed man story. The kids had to color the story slid then drawl or color the house. Some of the kids were very detailed in their coloring others were not. But the group was very quite as they concentrated on the coloring. It was funny, because this group spans quite a few ages yet they all were very into the project. I guess coloring, balloons and bubbles transcend age differences. When they were done with the project they were free to leave, although it did not seem like they were real eager to leave, and return tomorrow at 4:00.
We cleaned up and then got ready to go to the church in Petroman. This is a very small church in a town near Ciacova. The building is not quite as modern as Ciacova or Padureni in that they still had a Water closet outside (an outhouse). This did not go over well with a few of the girls, just ask Amy and Melissa. I thought we were suppose to start around 7:30, but it was not till 8 before we started and at first it seemed that our team (the 7 of us, the 3 Iancs and two teens that came with us) out numbered the church members. But more folks showed up. We did two songs, Michele gave her testimony, we preformed the Heart skit, Melissa gave her testimony, then Michele and Melissa did the little man skit and Ed gave his testimony. We ended by singing Amazing Grace. It was a small crowd but I thought was a good night. We had taken the remaining clothes to give out so we laid them out for the church people to go through, but we left before they did because they would not take them with us there. I am not sure way this was but we did not bring the extra clothes to watch them be given out, they were brought so that they could help families.
On the way back, the teens and girls (Michele, Melissa, Amy and Lavinia) were dropped off at the Ciacova church to play games. Other teens from Ciacova were called to come to the church also. The rest of us went back to our host homes. I don't know what Ed & Cheri did but at the Ianc's were were up for a few hours talking about many different things and had some good fellowship.
Well tomorrow we end the shortened VBS program, then visit the church in Sag on Saturday and believe it or not we fly home Sunday.
See you tomorrow,
Doug
OK, back to VBS. The schedule was the same as when we were in Ciacova; play time, songs, memory verse, memory verse games, crafts. Play time we taught the older kids four square. As usual with four square the rules of the game or picked up easily and the participates have fun. Even the pastor got into the game. Tabita sang a few songs with them, I think they were I am in Abraham's Army and This little light of Mine, but I can't be positive. We were using lesson two from Ciacova, the 10 Leapers, so the memory verse was 1 John 3:18. The kids did extremely well with the memorizing the verse. The memory verse game was a little different. If you remember reading, in Ciacova there were two teams and they raced to a clothing line and hung the hearts with the word of the verse on the line with clothing pins. Well we did not have clothing line, but there was a fence that worked just as well. Lavinia and Tabita were the designated people to but the words in order. The craft was the wrapped pen with the wordless beads. They left for the morning and were instructed to return at 3:00.
The was a small number of kids compared to Ciacova, but we know that going in, we ended up with about 20. It was interesting because there was not much space to work with for games and play time. There is a concrete slab that will eventually become the Fellowship Hall for the church, this is were we set up four square. You had to be careful not to chase a ball to far or you fall off the slab, about a foot drop. And our relays during any of the game time had to be in only two groups, first because the smaller number of kids and second because there was just the alley way to run in.
We broke for lunch, and just hung out at the church. Some napped, some just laid down and few played Jungle Jam. After a while, Marius and Tabita returned after a visit to the dentist for Tabita and asked a group of us to help assemble song books for the children/teens in the church. Tabita will be working with them on songs through the year.
The kids started to return around 2:45 and we got out some balls and balloons. A group of about 5-6 boys started playing four square on their on. I ended up blowing up several balloons for the rest, and it was interesting in the ally way because being a smaller alley it made a wind tunnel and the kids had to chase down the balloons. I then started to bounce a playground ball back and forth with a few of the kids. After about 20 minutes, all the kids had returned and we moved them into the church to start the program. We reviewed the verse a time or two, then Tabita lead them in songs. After the songs, Cheri was on with her monolog. She changed it up a bit by mixing the memory verse into the story and having a few of the kids come up front to hold the hearts. She then asked if any of them could recite the verse from memory, there were 5 or 6 of them who did and did a great job. They were divided into three groups so that they could recite the verse individually to one of the three teens helping us. If they could recite it, they received a ticket for a prize. Ruth of course had her apron full at the start and basically empty by the end of this time.
Then it was game time. Again there was not much space but we made due. The ran quite a few relays. First was the Dizzy Izzy (I called it Dizzy Lizzy before because that is how I know it, but I was corrected today) and pick up a balloon. Next was the relay were they had to blow up their balloon, tie it off, run to the end with the balloon between their knees and then sit on the balloon till it popped. A lot of laughter and fun. Then they did the Dizzy Izzy again, but this time they had to run backwards to the bat/stick and then run backwards to their teammates. I proved to be pretty funny watching someone who was dizzy and running backwards. No one was injured. The final relay was a three legged race. We moved out to the stone driveway for this one. It was your basic three legged relay, but not all the kids got the concept that the two of them had to work together to be able to more well as one. Again, laughter abounded..
We then went back into the church to do another craft. This was a new one (we did not get to do this craft at Ciacova) and related to tomorrows story. The craft was a foam house with a slid screen of the Paralyzed man story. The kids had to color the story slid then drawl or color the house. Some of the kids were very detailed in their coloring others were not. But the group was very quite as they concentrated on the coloring. It was funny, because this group spans quite a few ages yet they all were very into the project. I guess coloring, balloons and bubbles transcend age differences. When they were done with the project they were free to leave, although it did not seem like they were real eager to leave, and return tomorrow at 4:00.
We cleaned up and then got ready to go to the church in Petroman. This is a very small church in a town near Ciacova. The building is not quite as modern as Ciacova or Padureni in that they still had a Water closet outside (an outhouse). This did not go over well with a few of the girls, just ask Amy and Melissa. I thought we were suppose to start around 7:30, but it was not till 8 before we started and at first it seemed that our team (the 7 of us, the 3 Iancs and two teens that came with us) out numbered the church members. But more folks showed up. We did two songs, Michele gave her testimony, we preformed the Heart skit, Melissa gave her testimony, then Michele and Melissa did the little man skit and Ed gave his testimony. We ended by singing Amazing Grace. It was a small crowd but I thought was a good night. We had taken the remaining clothes to give out so we laid them out for the church people to go through, but we left before they did because they would not take them with us there. I am not sure way this was but we did not bring the extra clothes to watch them be given out, they were brought so that they could help families.
On the way back, the teens and girls (Michele, Melissa, Amy and Lavinia) were dropped off at the Ciacova church to play games. Other teens from Ciacova were called to come to the church also. The rest of us went back to our host homes. I don't know what Ed & Cheri did but at the Ianc's were were up for a few hours talking about many different things and had some good fellowship.
Well tomorrow we end the shortened VBS program, then visit the church in Sag on Saturday and believe it or not we fly home Sunday.
See you tomorrow,
Doug
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Last VBS day at Ciacova
Well, the last day of our three day VBS in Ciacova started at 11:00 as usual. The kids were there before 11 eager to play and be together. It was a typical morning, kids playing outside the church, moving them into the church for songs, the little man skit and then a memory verse. Today's was 1 John 1:9 “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”. Ruth broke the verse up into three parts and put them on a cutout of a kid praying. This was to symbolize that all kids can pray to God confessing their sins, then again maybe it should represent us and remind us that we need to do this on a regular basis because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The kids again did extremely well in memorizing the verse. The game for the verse this time was a relay were the kids were broken up into two teams, they had to run to a bucket pull out a zip lock bag. In this bag was a card with part of the verse and some candy. They had to run the bag back to a designated teen, pull out the card, then when all the cards were there the teen was to assemble the words in order of the verse. The kids were excited to receive candy, especially the ones who had to go twice and got two bags.
It was then craft time. Because the story in the afternoon was going to be the Paralyzed Man who was lowered down into a house in front of Jesus, the kids made a little man out of foam piece for the head, body, arms and feet. The legs were made from rubber bands. Boy was it hard for a person like me with fat fingers to get the stapling correct on a the small pieces. The kids got to drawl faces on the head and any design they wanted on the body and arms. It was a neat little craft, we just did not have enough staplers to go around.
The kids then said their memory verses for tickets. I forgot to mention that earlier before presenting today's verse, the kids had an opportunity to recite the memory verses from Monday and Tuesday for extra tickets for prizes. There were approximately 5 kids who were able to do this. I just pray that these verses will not only stick in their minds but also their hearts. When Ruth came out with her prize apron, the kids came running. Most of the boys wanted the matchbox cars and we had only 10 left from the bunch that we brought, they were a big hit. Both Ruth and I did not realize there was still a game to play.
So they went into game time. Today's game was popping balloons tied to the kids ankle. Earlier, we had blown up about 30 water balloons (because they were smaller) and tied yarn around the stem of the balloon. Then the kids got in a line and had the balloon tied to there left or right ankle. When the call went out to start the game, the kids (& teens) were to stomp on another person's balloon trying to pop it. If your balloon was popped, you were out of the game. It was a little wild and crazy, but they had fun with it. Ludia, one of the teens, won this game. They were dismissed and told to come back at 5:00pm and to have their parents come at 7:00pm for a meeting at the church.
We had lunch, and I will not bore you with the amount and types of food we had again. Let's just say the plane ride back we will be a bit heavier then the plane ride to Romania. The Mayor of Ciacova, whose daughter attends the church, had ask Marius to meet us. So we were able at this time to go tot the city capital building and had a short meeting with the Mayor and Vice-Mayor. Both are good men and are in their first year. They are trying to make Ciacova a better city and it was a great honor to meet him. Well, since we had a long break there were a bunch of things we had to take care of. One was to go out and find more matchbox cars and candy for the next two days of VBS in Padureni. Second was to organize and layout the clothes we brought to give away (I explain this later). Third was to organize the crafts for Paderni. And forth was to organize what we had left. Cheri & Ruth completed the third and forth items prior to lunch. Amy, Cheri, Ed, Melissa & Michele completed the second item, while Marius, Ruth and I went to the stores to find the things we needed for item number one. Our shopping trip took a little longer then we thought mainly to the fact that Marius need make a few other stops while we were out. We got back around 5:15pm and most of the kids were already there but the other 5 of the team were ready willing and able to occupy the kids till the songs started.
Tabita lead the kids in a few songs again. Then it was story time. Ed told the story of the Paralyzed Man carried by his four friends to a house were Jesus was speaking. The crowd was so big they could not enter the house to have Jesus heal their friend. So the cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down in front of Jesus. The point of the story, which Ed got across, was that Jesus does not just heal physical sickness but forgives sin, which is more important then the physical side of it. As he said, “Is it harder to heal a man or forgive his sins?”, “Pick up your mat and go home”. Ed also recited a prayer for forgiveness of sin and had the kids bow their heads and say the prayer silently if they felt the need to. He also told them if they did pray that prayer and had questions to ask someone (Marius, Tabita or one of the teens helping us) about it. Ed had a bunch of games to go along with the story. The first was a relay race were the group had to carry one of their teammates as if he/she was paralyzed. The second was a relay race hopping on one foot as if disabled. Third was running, walking or hopping with a balloon between their knees and then sitting on the balloon to pop it (yes, we had a lot of balloons to blown up and clean up). Forth, was the kids had to run to a person get a balloon and kick it soccer style back to the starting line then pop it before the next kid could go. Have you ever tried to kick a balloon, yet alone with a breeze blowing. It was pretty comical. Last was a question and answer time. Each team got a change to answer question from the story, do a physical challenge and a true/false question. Each team did pretty well, the winning team won by only two points I think.
We then went into right into the church service. This was were the parents and church members were to come and see what has been going on the last three days. It was not a big crowd but a good crowd. The kids got up on stage and sang the songs they had learned. They also recited the three verse, with the props Ruth had made and then showed the parents/church members that they had them memorized. One boy actual recited all three verses from memory and won a prize (a puppy that had show up at the Ianc's home in Ciacova). We were then on. We sang a song (Mighty is our God). Ed & Cheri did a wordless skit about giving your heart to God. Amy gave her testimony. Then Amy and Melissa and Cheri did the little man skit. This is were Amy was Melissa's arms and hands, while Melissa's arms and hands were the little man's feet. Cheri asked the little man questions and the girls in together had to act out some things like shaving after putting on the shaving cream, brushing his teeth, eating breakfast and stretching. The kids & the adults really enjoyed the silliness and messiness of the skit, as a matter of fact Tabita was laughing so hard she was crying. Next I gave my testimony. We ended with another song (Lord I lift your name on high). Before we were allowed to leave the stage, Marius publicly thanked us for coming and partnering with them on the VBS program. After we sat down he had a few people pray, and man what prayers. It put me to shame how passionately they pray and that they pray for us regularly. I not sure about you, but I need to work on that, pray that I can get stronger in this area. The service ended by Marius having us come up front to greet folks, then they went to the back room and choose a few of the clothing items that we brought. The kids also received a zip lock bag with a beany baby, a pencil, some candy and a small bottle of bubbles. It was a good night and personally, I was able to see some old friends from my last visit in 2006.
After this was all done, we cleaned up the remaining clothes and put them in one suitcase and two bags so they could be given out at the next church we visit tomorrow night. Then we had diner, again I will not bore you with the types and amount of food. The teens that had been helping all week, eat after us and then Michele, Melissa & Amy stuck around to play games with them while the rest of us went back to our host homes for the night.
Tune in tomorrow for the Padureni VBS story.
Doug
It was then craft time. Because the story in the afternoon was going to be the Paralyzed Man who was lowered down into a house in front of Jesus, the kids made a little man out of foam piece for the head, body, arms and feet. The legs were made from rubber bands. Boy was it hard for a person like me with fat fingers to get the stapling correct on a the small pieces. The kids got to drawl faces on the head and any design they wanted on the body and arms. It was a neat little craft, we just did not have enough staplers to go around.
The kids then said their memory verses for tickets. I forgot to mention that earlier before presenting today's verse, the kids had an opportunity to recite the memory verses from Monday and Tuesday for extra tickets for prizes. There were approximately 5 kids who were able to do this. I just pray that these verses will not only stick in their minds but also their hearts. When Ruth came out with her prize apron, the kids came running. Most of the boys wanted the matchbox cars and we had only 10 left from the bunch that we brought, they were a big hit. Both Ruth and I did not realize there was still a game to play.
So they went into game time. Today's game was popping balloons tied to the kids ankle. Earlier, we had blown up about 30 water balloons (because they were smaller) and tied yarn around the stem of the balloon. Then the kids got in a line and had the balloon tied to there left or right ankle. When the call went out to start the game, the kids (& teens) were to stomp on another person's balloon trying to pop it. If your balloon was popped, you were out of the game. It was a little wild and crazy, but they had fun with it. Ludia, one of the teens, won this game. They were dismissed and told to come back at 5:00pm and to have their parents come at 7:00pm for a meeting at the church.
We had lunch, and I will not bore you with the amount and types of food we had again. Let's just say the plane ride back we will be a bit heavier then the plane ride to Romania. The Mayor of Ciacova, whose daughter attends the church, had ask Marius to meet us. So we were able at this time to go tot the city capital building and had a short meeting with the Mayor and Vice-Mayor. Both are good men and are in their first year. They are trying to make Ciacova a better city and it was a great honor to meet him. Well, since we had a long break there were a bunch of things we had to take care of. One was to go out and find more matchbox cars and candy for the next two days of VBS in Padureni. Second was to organize and layout the clothes we brought to give away (I explain this later). Third was to organize the crafts for Paderni. And forth was to organize what we had left. Cheri & Ruth completed the third and forth items prior to lunch. Amy, Cheri, Ed, Melissa & Michele completed the second item, while Marius, Ruth and I went to the stores to find the things we needed for item number one. Our shopping trip took a little longer then we thought mainly to the fact that Marius need make a few other stops while we were out. We got back around 5:15pm and most of the kids were already there but the other 5 of the team were ready willing and able to occupy the kids till the songs started.
Tabita lead the kids in a few songs again. Then it was story time. Ed told the story of the Paralyzed Man carried by his four friends to a house were Jesus was speaking. The crowd was so big they could not enter the house to have Jesus heal their friend. So the cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down in front of Jesus. The point of the story, which Ed got across, was that Jesus does not just heal physical sickness but forgives sin, which is more important then the physical side of it. As he said, “Is it harder to heal a man or forgive his sins?”, “Pick up your mat and go home”. Ed also recited a prayer for forgiveness of sin and had the kids bow their heads and say the prayer silently if they felt the need to. He also told them if they did pray that prayer and had questions to ask someone (Marius, Tabita or one of the teens helping us) about it. Ed had a bunch of games to go along with the story. The first was a relay race were the group had to carry one of their teammates as if he/she was paralyzed. The second was a relay race hopping on one foot as if disabled. Third was running, walking or hopping with a balloon between their knees and then sitting on the balloon to pop it (yes, we had a lot of balloons to blown up and clean up). Forth, was the kids had to run to a person get a balloon and kick it soccer style back to the starting line then pop it before the next kid could go. Have you ever tried to kick a balloon, yet alone with a breeze blowing. It was pretty comical. Last was a question and answer time. Each team got a change to answer question from the story, do a physical challenge and a true/false question. Each team did pretty well, the winning team won by only two points I think.
We then went into right into the church service. This was were the parents and church members were to come and see what has been going on the last three days. It was not a big crowd but a good crowd. The kids got up on stage and sang the songs they had learned. They also recited the three verse, with the props Ruth had made and then showed the parents/church members that they had them memorized. One boy actual recited all three verses from memory and won a prize (a puppy that had show up at the Ianc's home in Ciacova). We were then on. We sang a song (Mighty is our God). Ed & Cheri did a wordless skit about giving your heart to God. Amy gave her testimony. Then Amy and Melissa and Cheri did the little man skit. This is were Amy was Melissa's arms and hands, while Melissa's arms and hands were the little man's feet. Cheri asked the little man questions and the girls in together had to act out some things like shaving after putting on the shaving cream, brushing his teeth, eating breakfast and stretching. The kids & the adults really enjoyed the silliness and messiness of the skit, as a matter of fact Tabita was laughing so hard she was crying. Next I gave my testimony. We ended with another song (Lord I lift your name on high). Before we were allowed to leave the stage, Marius publicly thanked us for coming and partnering with them on the VBS program. After we sat down he had a few people pray, and man what prayers. It put me to shame how passionately they pray and that they pray for us regularly. I not sure about you, but I need to work on that, pray that I can get stronger in this area. The service ended by Marius having us come up front to greet folks, then they went to the back room and choose a few of the clothing items that we brought. The kids also received a zip lock bag with a beany baby, a pencil, some candy and a small bottle of bubbles. It was a good night and personally, I was able to see some old friends from my last visit in 2006.
After this was all done, we cleaned up the remaining clothes and put them in one suitcase and two bags so they could be given out at the next church we visit tomorrow night. Then we had diner, again I will not bore you with the types and amount of food. The teens that had been helping all week, eat after us and then Michele, Melissa & Amy stuck around to play games with them while the rest of us went back to our host homes for the night.
Tune in tomorrow for the Padureni VBS story.
Doug
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Short note - Food
A comment was made about a number of my blogs mentioned a lot about the food. Well that is because the food is very good here in Romania. But manly it is because the Romanian people are so loving to us, they set out a Thanksgiving feast that could feed 20 some people for the 7 of us. For example, yesterday, Tuesday a meal was brought to the church for us. Now grant it, it was our lunch and dinner but there was chicken cooked in a frosted flake batter. There was bar-b-qued pork, big bowl of rice, a bowl of pasta salad, this lasagna type dish, hotdogs rapped in dough (similar to pigs in a blanket) & a big bowl of salad (basically coleslaw). Then to top off this meal, there were two deserts. One was a stuffed apple, where the apple top was sliced off then inside taken out, mixed with raisins and cinnamon then put back in the cored out apple and baked. The second dessert was an oatmeal crust with apples on top, then I think vanilla pudding layered over the apples and then a thick layer of whip cream. Again there was some much of this it feed the 9 of us (our team of 7 plus Lavinia and Doran (one of the teens helping us)) for lunch and it feed the 16 of us (our team of 7, Marius & Tabita, Lavinia and 6 teen helpers) and still there was food left.
I just felt I needed to explain a little more in detail why I mention the food many times in my blogs. And Ruth has pictures of all the meals if you need a visual.
I just felt I needed to explain a little more in detail why I mention the food many times in my blogs. And Ruth has pictures of all the meals if you need a visual.
VBS Day 2
Day two of VBS in Ciacova again started at 11:00. We had a good group show up right away and they played Duck, Duck Goose. They all didn't quite get the concept of the game, but it was fun to watch them anyway. As more kids showed up we got started but ushering them into the church. Alana lead the singing this morning because Tabita was working on altering a wedding dress for a girl from the church. Tabita wears many hats at the church, pray that her health will keep up with her.
After singing came the theme/memory verse, 1 John 3:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”. Again, Ruth had a great visual aid for memorizing the verse. Each phrase was written on a heart and four of us stood holding two hearts. The kids read through the verse. Then Ruth had one, then two, then three, then all the heart come down so that the would slowly recite the verse without the words in front of them. Next was a relay race to hang the hearts on a clothing line with a teen putting the words in order. This relay was done two times, it looked fun for the kids.
Sticking with the relay theme, it was game time next. The first relay was Dizzy Lizzie's with a pick up balloon after spinning. For those who do not know what a Dizzy Lizzy is, it is were you run down to a bat or stick, stand the bat up right put your far-head on the handle of the bat and spin around 10 times. When you do this correctly, you can not exactly run straight. The kids enjoyed it, but some of them did not go to the correct bat and things got a little confusing. They held onto the non-blown up balloon for the next relay. They were to start by blowing up their balloon, tying it off, running with the balloon between their knees to the end line then popping the balloon by sitting on it. A lot of popping and a lot of broken balloons, but again they enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, a couple of the kids keep getting other balloons and doing the procedure three or four times, they just had fun with it.
The kids then had an opportunity to say the memory verse for a ticket for prizes. We attempted to keep them in their groups from the rely races. They were to stick their prize tickets in their pockets for later.
The next rely was good and bad for three of us (Melissa, Ed and myself). There were two large buckets filled with water at the starting line. Melissa, Ed and myself were at the end line on the ground with an empty 2 liter bottle on our chest/stomach. The race was which team could fill up the bottle first by dipping a plastic drinking cup in the big bucket running down to the end and pouring it into the bottle. I am not sure about Melissa and Ed, but I got a good socking. At least the water was warm and not freezing cold. When the bottle was filled the three of us jumped up, OK if you know me I did not excitedly jump but anyway, we sprayed the water on the crowd of people (kids, moms & co-VBS workers). One of the moms picked up one of the buckets and throw the water at Ed and got him pretty good. He try to reciprocate, but the bucket handle slipped and he ended up hitting himself with the water (sorry Ed, I had to tell the story). Needless to say Ed was all wet and some others, including myself, were very wet.
As the kids were leaving, Ruth in her prize apron stood at the gate to give out prizes. The matchbox cars went the quickest, then the beany babies, then stickers. We have to now ration the matchbox cars, they are a big hit.
It was then time to break for lunch. Once again it was a feast, and the food was great. If I did not mention it before you will need to ask Ruth to see her pictures of the food, since she has documented each meal with pictures. After lunch we rested and got prepared for the next session. Getting prepared did take on a new meaning when Amy, Melissa & Michele did their renditions of Disney & pop culture songs. Marius even let them use the sound system. We hope the kids would still show up after hearing this...I'm just kidding ladies, but I did take a short video of it if you want to see & “hear” it.
The kids did come back and Tabita lead them in a few songs. Then Cheri did a wonderful monolog as 1 of the 10 Leapers that Jesus healed. She did it in the first person and after she was healed. It gave a nice spin on the story and engaged the kids. She told them what leapersy was and how they leapers had to live outside of the cities and the no one would talk or visit them. Some of these kids might be able to relate to this based on the status of their families in the town. Cheri reviewed the verse and tied it into the end of the story. I feel that the way it was done was affective.
We then went to craft time. The kids made a wrapped pen. We had long pieces of multi-colored yarn cut, the kids then taped the beginning of the yarn to the point end of the pen and wrapped it around the casing of the pen. It was then tied and glued on the other end, leaving a piece of yarn for beads. The beads were the color of the wordless book. Gold for the streets in Heaven and it's perfection, Black for our sins, Red for the blood Jesus spilled dying on the cross for our sins, White for Jesus cleansing our sins as white as snow & Green for the growth we will have in Him. The kids seem to have fun with it, even the mom's that were there got into making the pens. In fact I got to help one mother who wanted to make a second one for her sick boy who had been here yesterday and in the morning. It did give me a chance to review the colors and what then stood for. The only problem was my fingers being to big to tie the end of the yarn to hold the beads on, Cheri helped with this and made it look fancy. Let's hope this brings her back tomorrow or at least to the Ciacova church in the future.
The kids left after crafts, we cleaned up and got ready for dinner. After dinner we were originally going to have a service with the youth of Ciacova, but what we did was take all the teens, that have helped us with VBS (there were 7 of them), to the hot springs pool I mentioned the other day. We were there for several hours and I was told they really enjoyed their time there and with us. They do not get many chances to go to this pool because of distance, it is in Timisoara, and cost. I had a chance to talk with Doran, whom I stayed at his parents home on the last trip, and had a good conversation about what is going on in his life. I believe Michele, Amy and Melissa did the same with most of the teens. It was just a good time of fellowshiping and relaxation.
Well, that is about it for today. Tomorrow's schedule has changed a bit again (you know the main word on a missions trip is flexibility), so you will have to read what happened in tomorrow night's blog.
See you tomorrow,
Doug
After singing came the theme/memory verse, 1 John 3:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”. Again, Ruth had a great visual aid for memorizing the verse. Each phrase was written on a heart and four of us stood holding two hearts. The kids read through the verse. Then Ruth had one, then two, then three, then all the heart come down so that the would slowly recite the verse without the words in front of them. Next was a relay race to hang the hearts on a clothing line with a teen putting the words in order. This relay was done two times, it looked fun for the kids.
Sticking with the relay theme, it was game time next. The first relay was Dizzy Lizzie's with a pick up balloon after spinning. For those who do not know what a Dizzy Lizzy is, it is were you run down to a bat or stick, stand the bat up right put your far-head on the handle of the bat and spin around 10 times. When you do this correctly, you can not exactly run straight. The kids enjoyed it, but some of them did not go to the correct bat and things got a little confusing. They held onto the non-blown up balloon for the next relay. They were to start by blowing up their balloon, tying it off, running with the balloon between their knees to the end line then popping the balloon by sitting on it. A lot of popping and a lot of broken balloons, but again they enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, a couple of the kids keep getting other balloons and doing the procedure three or four times, they just had fun with it.
The kids then had an opportunity to say the memory verse for a ticket for prizes. We attempted to keep them in their groups from the rely races. They were to stick their prize tickets in their pockets for later.
The next rely was good and bad for three of us (Melissa, Ed and myself). There were two large buckets filled with water at the starting line. Melissa, Ed and myself were at the end line on the ground with an empty 2 liter bottle on our chest/stomach. The race was which team could fill up the bottle first by dipping a plastic drinking cup in the big bucket running down to the end and pouring it into the bottle. I am not sure about Melissa and Ed, but I got a good socking. At least the water was warm and not freezing cold. When the bottle was filled the three of us jumped up, OK if you know me I did not excitedly jump but anyway, we sprayed the water on the crowd of people (kids, moms & co-VBS workers). One of the moms picked up one of the buckets and throw the water at Ed and got him pretty good. He try to reciprocate, but the bucket handle slipped and he ended up hitting himself with the water (sorry Ed, I had to tell the story). Needless to say Ed was all wet and some others, including myself, were very wet.
As the kids were leaving, Ruth in her prize apron stood at the gate to give out prizes. The matchbox cars went the quickest, then the beany babies, then stickers. We have to now ration the matchbox cars, they are a big hit.
It was then time to break for lunch. Once again it was a feast, and the food was great. If I did not mention it before you will need to ask Ruth to see her pictures of the food, since she has documented each meal with pictures. After lunch we rested and got prepared for the next session. Getting prepared did take on a new meaning when Amy, Melissa & Michele did their renditions of Disney & pop culture songs. Marius even let them use the sound system. We hope the kids would still show up after hearing this...I'm just kidding ladies, but I did take a short video of it if you want to see & “hear” it.
The kids did come back and Tabita lead them in a few songs. Then Cheri did a wonderful monolog as 1 of the 10 Leapers that Jesus healed. She did it in the first person and after she was healed. It gave a nice spin on the story and engaged the kids. She told them what leapersy was and how they leapers had to live outside of the cities and the no one would talk or visit them. Some of these kids might be able to relate to this based on the status of their families in the town. Cheri reviewed the verse and tied it into the end of the story. I feel that the way it was done was affective.
We then went to craft time. The kids made a wrapped pen. We had long pieces of multi-colored yarn cut, the kids then taped the beginning of the yarn to the point end of the pen and wrapped it around the casing of the pen. It was then tied and glued on the other end, leaving a piece of yarn for beads. The beads were the color of the wordless book. Gold for the streets in Heaven and it's perfection, Black for our sins, Red for the blood Jesus spilled dying on the cross for our sins, White for Jesus cleansing our sins as white as snow & Green for the growth we will have in Him. The kids seem to have fun with it, even the mom's that were there got into making the pens. In fact I got to help one mother who wanted to make a second one for her sick boy who had been here yesterday and in the morning. It did give me a chance to review the colors and what then stood for. The only problem was my fingers being to big to tie the end of the yarn to hold the beads on, Cheri helped with this and made it look fancy. Let's hope this brings her back tomorrow or at least to the Ciacova church in the future.
The kids left after crafts, we cleaned up and got ready for dinner. After dinner we were originally going to have a service with the youth of Ciacova, but what we did was take all the teens, that have helped us with VBS (there were 7 of them), to the hot springs pool I mentioned the other day. We were there for several hours and I was told they really enjoyed their time there and with us. They do not get many chances to go to this pool because of distance, it is in Timisoara, and cost. I had a chance to talk with Doran, whom I stayed at his parents home on the last trip, and had a good conversation about what is going on in his life. I believe Michele, Amy and Melissa did the same with most of the teens. It was just a good time of fellowshiping and relaxation.
Well, that is about it for today. Tomorrow's schedule has changed a bit again (you know the main word on a missions trip is flexibility), so you will have to read what happened in tomorrow night's blog.
See you tomorrow,
Doug
Monday, July 5, 2010
kids' day 1
so i wasn't sure what to expect today with all the children coming. i've heard alot about what it was like last time but with things like this its never really the same twice...so i didnt know what to think or expect!
the day seemed chaotic at best to me but it seemed when the kids left like it was a pretty successful day.
it was pretty sweet to see how many kids eventually made their way into the church yard :) it was also cool to see some of the younger mothers come with them and really pay attention to the story and excited about learning the verse, making a craft and even playing some games with us! I got to play volleyball with one mother and even though we couldnt communicate verbally we defintely bonded as we passed the ball back and forth and messed up our hits and laughed at ourselves and each other!
whenever we have free time and the youth are around we play four-square and some of them are getting pretty good again and i dont like it so much b/c then they conspire against me and gang up on me! but its fun :)
also, tonight we dragged Flavius, my host brother, with us to visit mom and dad's host couple so he could translate for us...and he had his work cut out for him! Peter and Anna are the couple mom and dad are staying with but the only english word they know is "shower"! but Peter LOVES to talk, he says it is his talent! so he just keeps talking even tho he knows we dont understand him! well, today with a translator there, he would have still been talking to us right now if we hadnt managed to creep out!! he was the most animated talker i have ever seen tho! i could have sat there for hours and just watched him as he talked without understanding a word that he was saying :)
so its been a long, fun and exhausting day and for the last couple hours i've been chilling with my host brother playing our fave music for each other! :)
tomorro we get to go back to the hot springs pool but i think this time we're gonna take some of the teens from Ciacova with us to hang out!
continue to pray as we minister to kids and spend time with Marius, Tabita, Lavinia and the other teens and people hanging around the church or our host homes!
pace
Chele
the day seemed chaotic at best to me but it seemed when the kids left like it was a pretty successful day.
it was pretty sweet to see how many kids eventually made their way into the church yard :) it was also cool to see some of the younger mothers come with them and really pay attention to the story and excited about learning the verse, making a craft and even playing some games with us! I got to play volleyball with one mother and even though we couldnt communicate verbally we defintely bonded as we passed the ball back and forth and messed up our hits and laughed at ourselves and each other!
whenever we have free time and the youth are around we play four-square and some of them are getting pretty good again and i dont like it so much b/c then they conspire against me and gang up on me! but its fun :)
also, tonight we dragged Flavius, my host brother, with us to visit mom and dad's host couple so he could translate for us...and he had his work cut out for him! Peter and Anna are the couple mom and dad are staying with but the only english word they know is "shower"! but Peter LOVES to talk, he says it is his talent! so he just keeps talking even tho he knows we dont understand him! well, today with a translator there, he would have still been talking to us right now if we hadnt managed to creep out!! he was the most animated talker i have ever seen tho! i could have sat there for hours and just watched him as he talked without understanding a word that he was saying :)
so its been a long, fun and exhausting day and for the last couple hours i've been chilling with my host brother playing our fave music for each other! :)
tomorro we get to go back to the hot springs pool but i think this time we're gonna take some of the teens from Ciacova with us to hang out!
continue to pray as we minister to kids and spend time with Marius, Tabita, Lavinia and the other teens and people hanging around the church or our host homes!
pace
Chele
VBS Day 1 in Ciacova
Today was the first day for VBS in the Ciacova Church. We started at 11:00. We, Marius, Tabita, Ruth and I, started out for Ciacova around 10:00am. Lavinia had left the apartment around 8:30-9:00am because she had her last final exam at University. She called Marius to come pick her up so she could be at VBS when it started because she was done her exam. She aced it!! Congratulations Lavinia.
OK, but to our trip. At the start there were only a few kids, about 13. They were playing games outside and we shuffled them into the church. Tabita lead them in 2 songs then we were on. Ruth presented the verse, 1 John 4:14-15 "The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God." She did it in a neat way visually. She had written the phrases, written in Romanian, on objects that would represent that phrase, i.e. Son of God was on a cradle. The kids repeated the verse several times. One of the teens, Flovious (sp?) translated for us all day.
Next was a game to help with the memorization of the verse. Four kids were "tied" together and had to hunt down cards with the words of the verse on it and then assemble the cards in order to list out the verse. They did this two times.
The kids also had an opportunity to recite the verse individually to one of the designated teens. By this time the number of kids seemed to have doubled, which was good but unexpected. If the kid reciting the verse got it correct, they received a ticket to get a prize from the Verse/Prize lady (Ruth). She had an apron made with many pockets and had stuffed the pockets with prizes, so when a kid came with a ticket they could pick one of the prizes.
We then went to craft time. They made picture frames from foam board and glued objects and glitter on the frame. On the inside of the frame was the verse typed out. We had to do this earlier in the day so the glue would try. There were several teens from the Ciacova church helping the little ones, but they also made the frame and I think they had more fun making them for themselves then helping the kids.
We broke for lunch. The kids were sent home and instructed to be back at 3:00pm.
At 3:00, they were back. They started playing games and again were ushered inside the church to begin the program. Tabita again led them in two songs, they sounded great. Then it was story time, my turn. I told the story of the Man born blind and Jesus healed (John 9). I started out by having three volunteers which I blindfolded. One I gave a bandanna to and asked what color it was, he got it right on the second guess. One I put a piece of currency in his hands and asked how much money he was holding, he said “red”. I asked the question again and he did not get it correct. This was to show them what a blind person during Jesus time had to figure out when he was begging in the streets. The third volunteer I had walk up the aisle to the back of the church, he did not make it all the way because he could not see and had to feel his way, just like the blind man in the story had to do to get to his spot to beg. Well I went on to tell the story and I think the point got through, and then we reviewed the verse again.
Then they went outside to play games. The older ones played some blind volleyball (hang a bed sheet over a piece of rope so your opponent can not see were the ball is coming from. The little ones played the parachute game (you have to see the pictures). After a while the bobbles and balloons came out to keep the kids busy. Ed & Cheri did come up with an idea to take a group of six kids, blindfolded, out of the church yard to have them experience life as a blind person. This also gave Ed & Cheri time to review the story again with the kids. They did this with 3 or 4 groups. The kids seem to like it.
Finally we rapped things up around 4:30-4:45. The kids were able to pick up their crafts from earlier in the day and were encouraged to come again tomorrow and to bring friends.
We had time to rest before dinner. And over dinner we discussed some changes for the remaining weeks evening plans. You will have to follow the blog to find out what the changes were.
See you tomorrow,
Doug
OK, but to our trip. At the start there were only a few kids, about 13. They were playing games outside and we shuffled them into the church. Tabita lead them in 2 songs then we were on. Ruth presented the verse, 1 John 4:14-15 "The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God." She did it in a neat way visually. She had written the phrases, written in Romanian, on objects that would represent that phrase, i.e. Son of God was on a cradle. The kids repeated the verse several times. One of the teens, Flovious (sp?) translated for us all day.
Next was a game to help with the memorization of the verse. Four kids were "tied" together and had to hunt down cards with the words of the verse on it and then assemble the cards in order to list out the verse. They did this two times.
The kids also had an opportunity to recite the verse individually to one of the designated teens. By this time the number of kids seemed to have doubled, which was good but unexpected. If the kid reciting the verse got it correct, they received a ticket to get a prize from the Verse/Prize lady (Ruth). She had an apron made with many pockets and had stuffed the pockets with prizes, so when a kid came with a ticket they could pick one of the prizes.
We then went to craft time. They made picture frames from foam board and glued objects and glitter on the frame. On the inside of the frame was the verse typed out. We had to do this earlier in the day so the glue would try. There were several teens from the Ciacova church helping the little ones, but they also made the frame and I think they had more fun making them for themselves then helping the kids.
We broke for lunch. The kids were sent home and instructed to be back at 3:00pm.
At 3:00, they were back. They started playing games and again were ushered inside the church to begin the program. Tabita again led them in two songs, they sounded great. Then it was story time, my turn. I told the story of the Man born blind and Jesus healed (John 9). I started out by having three volunteers which I blindfolded. One I gave a bandanna to and asked what color it was, he got it right on the second guess. One I put a piece of currency in his hands and asked how much money he was holding, he said “red”. I asked the question again and he did not get it correct. This was to show them what a blind person during Jesus time had to figure out when he was begging in the streets. The third volunteer I had walk up the aisle to the back of the church, he did not make it all the way because he could not see and had to feel his way, just like the blind man in the story had to do to get to his spot to beg. Well I went on to tell the story and I think the point got through, and then we reviewed the verse again.
Then they went outside to play games. The older ones played some blind volleyball (hang a bed sheet over a piece of rope so your opponent can not see were the ball is coming from. The little ones played the parachute game (you have to see the pictures). After a while the bobbles and balloons came out to keep the kids busy. Ed & Cheri did come up with an idea to take a group of six kids, blindfolded, out of the church yard to have them experience life as a blind person. This also gave Ed & Cheri time to review the story again with the kids. They did this with 3 or 4 groups. The kids seem to like it.
Finally we rapped things up around 4:30-4:45. The kids were able to pick up their crafts from earlier in the day and were encouraged to come again tomorrow and to bring friends.
We had time to rest before dinner. And over dinner we discussed some changes for the remaining weeks evening plans. You will have to follow the blog to find out what the changes were.
See you tomorrow,
Doug
Sunday, July 4, 2010
It's Game Day...after all the preparations
I use the term Game Day because of my love of sports. You strategize, you put in a game plan, you practice and practice some more, you prep and finally the Game day is here. This is when you put all the strategy, planning and practice into effect.
Today, Sunday we started out at 10:00 at the Jabel Church. Marius, Ruth & I got to the church about 9:30 which was the Bible study time. We went in and sat down. The others arrived about 15-20 minutes later. We did not get a change to really go over any last minute details because the Bible study ended and transitioned right into the Sunday service. The service lasted about 1 1/2-2 hours, and US people complain when the service lasts longer the 45 minutes. The service was good, at Jabel they have a brass band made up of 10-12 players. They were wonderful and sound awesome. What was some what surprising to me was that is seemed that many of the instruments were very old but they had a great sound. The choir was next, made up of about 15-20 people (some from the brass band) and was about 1/2 the congregation for today. There was congregational singing and two more songs by the brass band. Then we were on. We sang two song (Amazing Love & Lord I lift your name on high(with the motions)), had a testimony by Melissa then preformed our wordless skit. This is were the tough and flexible part came in. Because we did not have time to do any last minute reviews, we had to adjust our props and exiting of the stage on the fly. It was interesting but worked well and I think the point of the skit (Heart Drama) came across. Then Cheri gave her testimony tying in the theme of the skit into the introduction of her testimony. We then sang another song (Amazing Grace) and it was Pastor Ed's turn for his testimony/message. The service rapped up with Marius giving a small message and having us greet people at the door on the way out.
Well that is the end of the Morning service. The next step of the day was lunch at a Jabel Church Deacon's house. What a spread, you will have to see Ruth's pictures for all that we had to eat, and boy were the desserts delicious. After dessert, Marius said "OK, 2 minutes left" which meant we had to leave to get to the next service, despite the attempt by the Romanian families, to retain one of the Errickson girls for their unwed son. Neither girl was willing to stay :-), you'll have to ask Ed & Cheri what they thought.
Next was to visit the newest church in Paduren. This is the town where Marius' mother and father live and are part of the church. And it turns out that so is his brother and his family. We did the same schedule, minus the brass band and Amy and myself gave our testimonies. Ed finished it out again with his testimony/message. Luckily, there was no meal after this service, I don't think any of us could have eaten any more food. We did have some cake after the service. This services was from 2:00pm till about 4:00pm. It was then off to Ciacova.
We arrived at Ciacova around 4:30-5:00, but the service did not start until around 6:00pm. This gave us some time to relax and breath and review some parts of our skit. The service started out with congregational singing, songs by the children's choir, songs by the teen choir and a song by a trio of Lavinia, Tabita & Alana (I think that was her name). We then started our part, and as we told the congregation it is hard to follow that good of singers with our voices. But we did it anyway. Michele gave her testimony, we did our skit and then Ruth gave her testimony. Ruth was nervous about it and almost cried, but she did a great job with it. I did not look, but there probably some moist eyes in the congregation. This service at Ciacova was special for me because we did some much at this church during the last visit and I recognized many faces from my prior trip. Some of those kids from the first trip are now teenagers and taller and some of the boys...I mean young men had facial hair. I know it has been four years, but I still had trouble believing it.
Again, this service went well God was working through us to make it run smooth and the people seemed to enjoy it. After the service, we hung out with the church people until it was time for dinner. More good food, and to top it off we had homemade ice cream from Liviu and Florica's farm (I was hoping to get some of this during this trip). I did have way to much of it, the pictures will prove this. Many of the teens from the church stayed around to help serve the food to us. After we were done, Tabita had them sit to finish up the leftovers. They were/are a good group of teens. Michele, Melissa, Amy & Ed started a four square game. The teens and Cheri & myself joined in (for me I hope to work of some of that ice cream). The game lasted about 2 hours and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. We finally called it a night since we had VBS in the morning.
So our next phase begins tomorrow at 11:00, the first VBS presentation. Continue to pray for us, especially me as I do the first lesson.
Until tomorrow,
Doug
Today, Sunday we started out at 10:00 at the Jabel Church. Marius, Ruth & I got to the church about 9:30 which was the Bible study time. We went in and sat down. The others arrived about 15-20 minutes later. We did not get a change to really go over any last minute details because the Bible study ended and transitioned right into the Sunday service. The service lasted about 1 1/2-2 hours, and US people complain when the service lasts longer the 45 minutes. The service was good, at Jabel they have a brass band made up of 10-12 players. They were wonderful and sound awesome. What was some what surprising to me was that is seemed that many of the instruments were very old but they had a great sound. The choir was next, made up of about 15-20 people (some from the brass band) and was about 1/2 the congregation for today. There was congregational singing and two more songs by the brass band. Then we were on. We sang two song (Amazing Love & Lord I lift your name on high(with the motions)), had a testimony by Melissa then preformed our wordless skit. This is were the tough and flexible part came in. Because we did not have time to do any last minute reviews, we had to adjust our props and exiting of the stage on the fly. It was interesting but worked well and I think the point of the skit (Heart Drama) came across. Then Cheri gave her testimony tying in the theme of the skit into the introduction of her testimony. We then sang another song (Amazing Grace) and it was Pastor Ed's turn for his testimony/message. The service rapped up with Marius giving a small message and having us greet people at the door on the way out.
Well that is the end of the Morning service. The next step of the day was lunch at a Jabel Church Deacon's house. What a spread, you will have to see Ruth's pictures for all that we had to eat, and boy were the desserts delicious. After dessert, Marius said "OK, 2 minutes left" which meant we had to leave to get to the next service, despite the attempt by the Romanian families, to retain one of the Errickson girls for their unwed son. Neither girl was willing to stay :-), you'll have to ask Ed & Cheri what they thought.
Next was to visit the newest church in Paduren. This is the town where Marius' mother and father live and are part of the church. And it turns out that so is his brother and his family. We did the same schedule, minus the brass band and Amy and myself gave our testimonies. Ed finished it out again with his testimony/message. Luckily, there was no meal after this service, I don't think any of us could have eaten any more food. We did have some cake after the service. This services was from 2:00pm till about 4:00pm. It was then off to Ciacova.
We arrived at Ciacova around 4:30-5:00, but the service did not start until around 6:00pm. This gave us some time to relax and breath and review some parts of our skit. The service started out with congregational singing, songs by the children's choir, songs by the teen choir and a song by a trio of Lavinia, Tabita & Alana (I think that was her name). We then started our part, and as we told the congregation it is hard to follow that good of singers with our voices. But we did it anyway. Michele gave her testimony, we did our skit and then Ruth gave her testimony. Ruth was nervous about it and almost cried, but she did a great job with it. I did not look, but there probably some moist eyes in the congregation. This service at Ciacova was special for me because we did some much at this church during the last visit and I recognized many faces from my prior trip. Some of those kids from the first trip are now teenagers and taller and some of the boys...I mean young men had facial hair. I know it has been four years, but I still had trouble believing it.
Again, this service went well God was working through us to make it run smooth and the people seemed to enjoy it. After the service, we hung out with the church people until it was time for dinner. More good food, and to top it off we had homemade ice cream from Liviu and Florica's farm (I was hoping to get some of this during this trip). I did have way to much of it, the pictures will prove this. Many of the teens from the church stayed around to help serve the food to us. After we were done, Tabita had them sit to finish up the leftovers. They were/are a good group of teens. Michele, Melissa, Amy & Ed started a four square game. The teens and Cheri & myself joined in (for me I hope to work of some of that ice cream). The game lasted about 2 hours and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. We finally called it a night since we had VBS in the morning.
So our next phase begins tomorrow at 11:00, the first VBS presentation. Continue to pray for us, especially me as I do the first lesson.
Until tomorrow,
Doug
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Day Next!
i think either Dougie or i have our day numbers confused but whatevs...\
today we were tourists!!! which means i took TONS of pictures and Marius was not happy about the snail-like pace he had to maintain in order for me not to get lost as i stopped every other minute for another photo!!
we toured the city of Timosoara today, checking out some of the sites from the Romanian Revolution...i missed lots of info Marius was telling us about b/c i was so caught up in taking pictures and admiring the buildings and architecture, including the bullet holes and other remnants of the Revolution!
Marius HAD to take us to the mall which they seem to be so proud of having in their city...it was pretty much like any other mall I've ever been to but for them i think it is a symbol of progress and wealth to have one in their city, so we humored him and explored it a bit!
As our day tourism continued we journeyed through churches, botanical and rose gardens, creeped on wedding parties taking pictures, got swarmed by pigeons and tried to keep up with Marius who was set on getting in as many different things as he could!
We finally ended up at a pool and spent several hours there playing and relaxing! oh but this is no ordinary pool! it is fed by a hot spring so its warm :) on a hot day thats not always the best thing but today it rained on us for a bit as we made our way to the pool so it cooled down enough that we appreciated the warmth of the pool! however, our full enjoyment of the pool was slow coming because from the moment we walked through the gates we were assaulted:: by the sight of LARGE men in speedos, overweight women in bikinis and the greenish, blackish color of the water :/ We were very timid to get into the water and although the temperature was nice, the smell and sight was not! in an attempt to keep our eyes off the disturbing sights of people a little too comfortable with letting it all hang out, we kept our eyes on the water we were wading into. this wasn't a good second choice at all for our focus! the water appeared greasy and dirty like I've never seen before...it made jersey ocean water look like the waters of the Caribbean in comparison! but we plunged forward and were comforted by the warmth of the water! we finally got comfortable enough to play and goof off as well as relax a bit and i daresay most of us would even be willing to go back if we had the chance!
That was our adventure for this day of our Romania Experience! Tomorro we have another adventure as we embark on a day of visiting and sharing at 3 different churches....it will be a long day for us so pray for strength and stamina throughout the day!
Off to bed for me so I'm not a grouch tomorro!
Pace, (pronounced pa-chay; means peace and is a traditional Romanian Christian greeting)
Chele
today we were tourists!!! which means i took TONS of pictures and Marius was not happy about the snail-like pace he had to maintain in order for me not to get lost as i stopped every other minute for another photo!!
we toured the city of Timosoara today, checking out some of the sites from the Romanian Revolution...i missed lots of info Marius was telling us about b/c i was so caught up in taking pictures and admiring the buildings and architecture, including the bullet holes and other remnants of the Revolution!
Marius HAD to take us to the mall which they seem to be so proud of having in their city...it was pretty much like any other mall I've ever been to but for them i think it is a symbol of progress and wealth to have one in their city, so we humored him and explored it a bit!
As our day tourism continued we journeyed through churches, botanical and rose gardens, creeped on wedding parties taking pictures, got swarmed by pigeons and tried to keep up with Marius who was set on getting in as many different things as he could!
We finally ended up at a pool and spent several hours there playing and relaxing! oh but this is no ordinary pool! it is fed by a hot spring so its warm :) on a hot day thats not always the best thing but today it rained on us for a bit as we made our way to the pool so it cooled down enough that we appreciated the warmth of the pool! however, our full enjoyment of the pool was slow coming because from the moment we walked through the gates we were assaulted:: by the sight of LARGE men in speedos, overweight women in bikinis and the greenish, blackish color of the water :/ We were very timid to get into the water and although the temperature was nice, the smell and sight was not! in an attempt to keep our eyes off the disturbing sights of people a little too comfortable with letting it all hang out, we kept our eyes on the water we were wading into. this wasn't a good second choice at all for our focus! the water appeared greasy and dirty like I've never seen before...it made jersey ocean water look like the waters of the Caribbean in comparison! but we plunged forward and were comforted by the warmth of the water! we finally got comfortable enough to play and goof off as well as relax a bit and i daresay most of us would even be willing to go back if we had the chance!
That was our adventure for this day of our Romania Experience! Tomorro we have another adventure as we embark on a day of visiting and sharing at 3 different churches....it will be a long day for us so pray for strength and stamina throughout the day!
Off to bed for me so I'm not a grouch tomorro!
Pace, (pronounced pa-chay; means peace and is a traditional Romanian Christian greeting)
Chele
Day of relaxation and tourist stuff
Today, Saturday, was sort of an off day for us. We once again all meet at 11:00am but today we took a tour of Timisoara. We visited the building were the revolution began on December 15, 1989. If you are like me, when you here revolution you think maybe 100, 200 years ago not 21 years ago. The revolution was against the communists (sorry can't spell the communist leaders name). At this time the people had to stand in line for hours just for 1 liter of milk, if you wanted 2 liters you had to get one and then stand in line again. So anytime there was a crowd or line of people, other would join because they thought they could get something.
Marius explained to us that the revolution started when the communist soldiers come to remove a Pastor from the city but people from his church said NO! There was a crowd of around 100 people, this cause others to show up. The soldiers threatened to shot into the crowd, but the people did not budge. By this time the crowd was a lot larger, maybe in the thousands. The communist leader instructed them to kill all the people in the crowd, when they shot some of the people others rose up against the soldiers. After a day or two of this, the soldiers said "why are we killing our own family members/friends/neighbors" and they turned against the communist leader. And they chased the communists out of the town.
I did not tell that as well as Marius did, but I hope you got the point. Timisoara was the starting spot for a large revolution against the communists and neighboring cities, towns and villages followed in suit.
We then toured the Timisoara square, where their had been other large gatherings during the revolution (there are still bullet holes in a few buildings from that time). We saw the Timisoara Opera house, the beautiful garden and a Catholic cathedral. The Catholic cathedral was a wonderfully looking building, but no spiritual life. People come and pray to statues of saints and bones of saints passed away. It is kind of sad. We then did some souvenir shopping in the center square. Marius also took us to a Romanian Christian bookstore to shop.
We then went and visited a few parks. One had an apotheator, which Tabita has sung at. We also visited the Rose park and the Botanical Garden, we saw several wedding parties having their pictures being taken. I offered anyone in our group 5 lai (currency) to jump into one of the photos, but got no takers. Kidding, I wouldn't let that happen.
We also went to the Timisoara Mall. I know, 'You go all the way to Romania to go to a mall?' but you have to remember this is still new to them and not like around us were there is 4-5 malls in close driving distance. We did some more souvenir shopping. And in the mist of all that, we had lunch in the food court. There was German, Chinese, Serbian, Greek and Italian foods. There was also a Falofal (spelling?) stand and of course Marius' favorite, KFC.
We than went to a pool, not just any pool but a natural hot spring pool. It rained as we got there, so the weather cooled a bit for us and the hot spring water felt great. As long as you can get past the solpher smell of the hot spring, it felt good. We were here for a few hours and when it started to rain again, we decided to return to the homes we are staying at.
Like the title says, it was a relaxing day. The big push starts tomorrow with three church service. Pray for us as we will be the main focus at all these services. We will be singing songs, preforming a skit, doing testimonies and Ed will be giving a talk. Pray that the Lord works through us and will inspire/encourage the Romanian people.
Till tomorrow,
Doug
Marius explained to us that the revolution started when the communist soldiers come to remove a Pastor from the city but people from his church said NO! There was a crowd of around 100 people, this cause others to show up. The soldiers threatened to shot into the crowd, but the people did not budge. By this time the crowd was a lot larger, maybe in the thousands. The communist leader instructed them to kill all the people in the crowd, when they shot some of the people others rose up against the soldiers. After a day or two of this, the soldiers said "why are we killing our own family members/friends/neighbors" and they turned against the communist leader. And they chased the communists out of the town.
I did not tell that as well as Marius did, but I hope you got the point. Timisoara was the starting spot for a large revolution against the communists and neighboring cities, towns and villages followed in suit.
We then toured the Timisoara square, where their had been other large gatherings during the revolution (there are still bullet holes in a few buildings from that time). We saw the Timisoara Opera house, the beautiful garden and a Catholic cathedral. The Catholic cathedral was a wonderfully looking building, but no spiritual life. People come and pray to statues of saints and bones of saints passed away. It is kind of sad. We then did some souvenir shopping in the center square. Marius also took us to a Romanian Christian bookstore to shop.
We then went and visited a few parks. One had an apotheator, which Tabita has sung at. We also visited the Rose park and the Botanical Garden, we saw several wedding parties having their pictures being taken. I offered anyone in our group 5 lai (currency) to jump into one of the photos, but got no takers. Kidding, I wouldn't let that happen.
We also went to the Timisoara Mall. I know, 'You go all the way to Romania to go to a mall?' but you have to remember this is still new to them and not like around us were there is 4-5 malls in close driving distance. We did some more souvenir shopping. And in the mist of all that, we had lunch in the food court. There was German, Chinese, Serbian, Greek and Italian foods. There was also a Falofal (spelling?) stand and of course Marius' favorite, KFC.
We than went to a pool, not just any pool but a natural hot spring pool. It rained as we got there, so the weather cooled a bit for us and the hot spring water felt great. As long as you can get past the solpher smell of the hot spring, it felt good. We were here for a few hours and when it started to rain again, we decided to return to the homes we are staying at.
Like the title says, it was a relaxing day. The big push starts tomorrow with three church service. Pray for us as we will be the main focus at all these services. We will be singing songs, preforming a skit, doing testimonies and Ed will be giving a talk. Pray that the Lord works through us and will inspire/encourage the Romanian people.
Till tomorrow,
Doug
Friday, July 2, 2010
Romania - Day 3
We were meeting at the Ciacova church at 11:00am, but the group at the Ianc's were running late and we had to exchange money. We all finally arrived at the church and sat down in the new fellowship hall to review our schedule for the week.
We went over times and places, Sunday we would have a majority of the service to do our skit, testimonies, songs and Ed (now know as Pastor Ed, but only in Romania) to give a short talk. It may not sound like an all day event until you know that we will be a the Jabel church in the morning, 10-12, Paderan church in the afternoon, 2-4, and Ciacova in the evening, 6-8. So our Sunday will be full.
Then we talked about the VBS, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Ciacova church. We will also be meeting with the teens on Tuesday night at Ciacova and then a church meeting Wednesday night. Thursday and Friday will be doing the same at the Paderan church. Thursday night meet with the teens and Friday night a church meeting.
Saturday we will be going to the church in Sag to do the same schedule we did on Sunday.
Most of these nights a church member will be making dinner for us. You may think no big deal, but the Romanian people put out a big spread for us. Marius tolds us that when they do not get a lot of visitors, they will put out their best and most when the visitors come. As an example we had dinner, which Tabita and Lavinia prepared for us, at the Ciacova church then visited Liviu and Florica's farm and after the tour of the farm (you have to see the picture of a pig trying to kiss Cheri), they invited us into their house and had a large spread of food waiting for us to eat. Steak, pork, Meska, potatos, cucoumbers & tomatos and bread. Boy were we full.
After the scheduling meeting, we had lunch. We then proceeded to tour the town of Ciacova. We walked and saw the main school, an old Orthodox Cathalic church, the center square, police station, community pool with a cafe, the hospital and visited a family from the church.
When we returned Ruth, Cheri, Melissa and Amy stayed at the church and orginized the gift bags for our hosts and meal makers. Bags of goodies for the children at the churches, the prizes for VBS and the clothes we broght for the Ianc's to distribute. Ed, Michele and I went with Marius to the Reali Mart to purchase the food for the food bags were were going to deliver. These are the bags that some genenrous folks gave $ 20.00 each ($ 120.00 in total) to purchase. We gave each family a bag of sugar, flour, corn meal, a bottle of cooking oil, a 2L bottle of juice, two bags of pasta, a large loaf of bread and a stick of salomi.
When we returned to Ciacova, we all went to deliver the food bags to some poor folks. One was Theresa, who we had delivered to the last time we were here. Her house (two rooms) was falling apart and roof leaked on the bed when it rained. The church help fix up the house and the roof. Another family has 6 children and a single mother. The church helps her with the rent and helped her move from a shack to inside the middle of the town. Another family, the mother was bed ridden because she has diabetis and her one leg was blacked. But now it is healed but she still cannot get out of bed. Their one son is 26 years old but has the mind of a 1 year old. The father has to stay at home and assist both of them. But the mother is very intellegent and loves the Lord, relying on Him for everything. She was very happy we were there to visit. Another family we delivered the food two was a combination of two families with a total of 19 kids. We also gave a bag to Gege. He is working on Marius and Tabita's home in Ciacova. His family had a tragady because in the fall, his oldest son who was 12 went to the hospital to have a heart valve fixed. He and his wife sold everything they owed to pay for this operation. Well the boy got an effection and died. The father was beside himself an did not want to live. His other children helped him through this time, but because of this Marius want to help the family by giving him a food bag.
After dinner at the Ciacova church, Marius went to a prayer meeting in Jabel. The team stayed at the church and we practiced our skill several times, trying not to laugh through it, and our songs. We also scheduled out who was going to give their testimonies at which service. We then went and visited Liviu & Florica's as I mentioned ealier. We then finally went back to the homes we are staying at for a good nights sleep.
Keep praying for us as we go through the week.
Until tomorrow,
Doug
We went over times and places, Sunday we would have a majority of the service to do our skit, testimonies, songs and Ed (now know as Pastor Ed, but only in Romania) to give a short talk. It may not sound like an all day event until you know that we will be a the Jabel church in the morning, 10-12, Paderan church in the afternoon, 2-4, and Ciacova in the evening, 6-8. So our Sunday will be full.
Then we talked about the VBS, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Ciacova church. We will also be meeting with the teens on Tuesday night at Ciacova and then a church meeting Wednesday night. Thursday and Friday will be doing the same at the Paderan church. Thursday night meet with the teens and Friday night a church meeting.
Saturday we will be going to the church in Sag to do the same schedule we did on Sunday.
Most of these nights a church member will be making dinner for us. You may think no big deal, but the Romanian people put out a big spread for us. Marius tolds us that when they do not get a lot of visitors, they will put out their best and most when the visitors come. As an example we had dinner, which Tabita and Lavinia prepared for us, at the Ciacova church then visited Liviu and Florica's farm and after the tour of the farm (you have to see the picture of a pig trying to kiss Cheri), they invited us into their house and had a large spread of food waiting for us to eat. Steak, pork, Meska, potatos, cucoumbers & tomatos and bread. Boy were we full.
After the scheduling meeting, we had lunch. We then proceeded to tour the town of Ciacova. We walked and saw the main school, an old Orthodox Cathalic church, the center square, police station, community pool with a cafe, the hospital and visited a family from the church.
When we returned Ruth, Cheri, Melissa and Amy stayed at the church and orginized the gift bags for our hosts and meal makers. Bags of goodies for the children at the churches, the prizes for VBS and the clothes we broght for the Ianc's to distribute. Ed, Michele and I went with Marius to the Reali Mart to purchase the food for the food bags were were going to deliver. These are the bags that some genenrous folks gave $ 20.00 each ($ 120.00 in total) to purchase. We gave each family a bag of sugar, flour, corn meal, a bottle of cooking oil, a 2L bottle of juice, two bags of pasta, a large loaf of bread and a stick of salomi.
When we returned to Ciacova, we all went to deliver the food bags to some poor folks. One was Theresa, who we had delivered to the last time we were here. Her house (two rooms) was falling apart and roof leaked on the bed when it rained. The church help fix up the house and the roof. Another family has 6 children and a single mother. The church helps her with the rent and helped her move from a shack to inside the middle of the town. Another family, the mother was bed ridden because she has diabetis and her one leg was blacked. But now it is healed but she still cannot get out of bed. Their one son is 26 years old but has the mind of a 1 year old. The father has to stay at home and assist both of them. But the mother is very intellegent and loves the Lord, relying on Him for everything. She was very happy we were there to visit. Another family we delivered the food two was a combination of two families with a total of 19 kids. We also gave a bag to Gege. He is working on Marius and Tabita's home in Ciacova. His family had a tragady because in the fall, his oldest son who was 12 went to the hospital to have a heart valve fixed. He and his wife sold everything they owed to pay for this operation. Well the boy got an effection and died. The father was beside himself an did not want to live. His other children helped him through this time, but because of this Marius want to help the family by giving him a food bag.
After dinner at the Ciacova church, Marius went to a prayer meeting in Jabel. The team stayed at the church and we practiced our skill several times, trying not to laugh through it, and our songs. We also scheduled out who was going to give their testimonies at which service. We then went and visited Liviu & Florica's as I mentioned ealier. We then finally went back to the homes we are staying at for a good nights sleep.
Keep praying for us as we go through the week.
Until tomorrow,
Doug
Day 2
Wow! today was a packed full day, thankfully we didnt have to start bright and early, they allowed us to sleep in a bit :)
let's see, where to start...
from the beginning i suppose...Doug told you about the flight and what not so i wont start that far in the beginning but i must start with who i am staying with b/c she's the sweetest little woman i can hardly communicate with! I am staying at Paulina's house with her and her two children...the only problem is her two children are in Moldova until Sunday and Paulina speaks NO English whatsoever! so last night when i arrived i got the tour via hand gestures and trying to pick our familiar words...there seem to be a lot of Romanian words that I can at least recognize thanks to the little Spanish and German I know!! We were able to communicate a lil more by skyping with her son who is in Moldova and speaks English...we covered some of the necessary things and then since it has been hand motions, confusion and a several aha's! So Paulina is giving up her bed and sleeping on the couch so that I can stay with them and she tries to feed me more than anyone should be fed! For breakfast this morning i was fed chicken and mashed potatoes, bread, cheese, salami, instant coffee, chocolates and veggies! Paulina sat down and ate with me and i made sure to take note of how much she was eating and then ate slightly more but she was still trying to convince me to have "gross, gross" (more, more)!! I'm not much on eating breakfast at home but knew i would have to make sure i did here but i was NOT prepared to be served chicken and potatoes for breakfast!!
As Paulina walked me to the church to meet up with the rest of the group she was trying to find anyone we crossed paths with who spoke english to talk to me! we even detoured into where she works b/c she thought some of them would know some english...but no luck...they offered italian, german and russian but no English! then,FINALLY we ran into Dan who spoke English and he was just so elated to meet a real American (not those fakes they usually get around here!) and so we spent some time talking and i was able to share with him why I was here and he was very excited for an American to be here to see the real Romania, not just the cities and tourist attractions but the villages also.
Paulina and i finally made it to the church and eventually the rest of the team made it as well and we planned out our trip and then the rest of the day. First on the list for the day was to explore the town of Ciacova for a bit...i took like 100 pictures and i think they got tired of waiting for me to get my shot but oh well, they'll deal...i have some sweet shots!! Then when we were done exploring the town for a while some of us went shopping for food to take to poor families in Ciacova while the rest sorted through and organized all our stuff for the VBS program we'll be running starting Monday.
We then took the bags of food as a team to the different families...and i cant even describe effectively some of the conditions they live in...there was one family of 19 we brought food to, Marius wouldnt even take us inside b/c it was so dirty and he was worried we would all catch lice or infections from the animal droppings and things. We met some amazing people with unbelievable stories who find their strength and hope in Christ b/c that is pretty much all they have to keep them going...photos and words dont do justice to the experience of meeting these ppl in their homes and being able to serve them with gifts of food...thank you to those who contributed extra donations for these families, they are truly grateful and we were blessed enough to be able to deliver them in your name. One of the most challenging things about this experience today is remembering that its not just in Romania that people live like this, there are similar stories and hardships right in our own cities and backyards but often we overlook them or stay away from them b/c we are afraid of them (at least that is why i think i choose not to think about it try to do anything about it) but sadly it takes us going to another country to be willing to see conditions like this and attempt to alleviate some of their pain...why dont i do that more when i see need and struggling ppl in the city nearby or even in a nearby neighborhood?
Lots more i could say but ill stop writing my book for now!
Caio,
Michele
let's see, where to start...
from the beginning i suppose...Doug told you about the flight and what not so i wont start that far in the beginning but i must start with who i am staying with b/c she's the sweetest little woman i can hardly communicate with! I am staying at Paulina's house with her and her two children...the only problem is her two children are in Moldova until Sunday and Paulina speaks NO English whatsoever! so last night when i arrived i got the tour via hand gestures and trying to pick our familiar words...there seem to be a lot of Romanian words that I can at least recognize thanks to the little Spanish and German I know!! We were able to communicate a lil more by skyping with her son who is in Moldova and speaks English...we covered some of the necessary things and then since it has been hand motions, confusion and a several aha's! So Paulina is giving up her bed and sleeping on the couch so that I can stay with them and she tries to feed me more than anyone should be fed! For breakfast this morning i was fed chicken and mashed potatoes, bread, cheese, salami, instant coffee, chocolates and veggies! Paulina sat down and ate with me and i made sure to take note of how much she was eating and then ate slightly more but she was still trying to convince me to have "gross, gross" (more, more)!! I'm not much on eating breakfast at home but knew i would have to make sure i did here but i was NOT prepared to be served chicken and potatoes for breakfast!!
As Paulina walked me to the church to meet up with the rest of the group she was trying to find anyone we crossed paths with who spoke english to talk to me! we even detoured into where she works b/c she thought some of them would know some english...but no luck...they offered italian, german and russian but no English! then,FINALLY we ran into Dan who spoke English and he was just so elated to meet a real American (not those fakes they usually get around here!) and so we spent some time talking and i was able to share with him why I was here and he was very excited for an American to be here to see the real Romania, not just the cities and tourist attractions but the villages also.
Paulina and i finally made it to the church and eventually the rest of the team made it as well and we planned out our trip and then the rest of the day. First on the list for the day was to explore the town of Ciacova for a bit...i took like 100 pictures and i think they got tired of waiting for me to get my shot but oh well, they'll deal...i have some sweet shots!! Then when we were done exploring the town for a while some of us went shopping for food to take to poor families in Ciacova while the rest sorted through and organized all our stuff for the VBS program we'll be running starting Monday.
We then took the bags of food as a team to the different families...and i cant even describe effectively some of the conditions they live in...there was one family of 19 we brought food to, Marius wouldnt even take us inside b/c it was so dirty and he was worried we would all catch lice or infections from the animal droppings and things. We met some amazing people with unbelievable stories who find their strength and hope in Christ b/c that is pretty much all they have to keep them going...photos and words dont do justice to the experience of meeting these ppl in their homes and being able to serve them with gifts of food...thank you to those who contributed extra donations for these families, they are truly grateful and we were blessed enough to be able to deliver them in your name. One of the most challenging things about this experience today is remembering that its not just in Romania that people live like this, there are similar stories and hardships right in our own cities and backyards but often we overlook them or stay away from them b/c we are afraid of them (at least that is why i think i choose not to think about it try to do anything about it) but sadly it takes us going to another country to be willing to see conditions like this and attempt to alleviate some of their pain...why dont i do that more when i see need and struggling ppl in the city nearby or even in a nearby neighborhood?
Lots more i could say but ill stop writing my book for now!
Caio,
Michele
Thursday, July 1, 2010
It begins...
This is my first time blogging, so you will have to excuse any errors my make.
The time arrived, June 30th we were off to Romania. May months, or my I say years, of thinking, praying & planning have now come to reality. For me the planning start back in 2006 when we returned from the first trip, but God had a different plan.
The team of 7 (Amy Bergvall, Cheri Errickson, Ed Errickson, Melissa Errickson, Michele Errickson, Ruth Feiler & myself (Doug Simon)) meet at Warrington Fellowship Church to leave for the Philly airport to start of long journey of flying to Romania. Thanks to Matt Morrison for driving us to the airport and Matt, Bob Feiler, Pastor Schuman, Kevin Cain & Rebecca Lyford for being at church to pray with us before we left.
Our flight take off time was 12:30pm, but of course being an international flight you had to be there 2 hours early. And we were. Nothing to uneventful happened before the flight, even all our bags were under the required 50lbs, although we still had to pay extra for the second bag. We were unsure about a few of them. We took a smaller plane (1 person isle on the left and a 2 person isle on the right, a tight squeeze for a guy my size) to JFK. Once there, we had a approximate 5 hour layover. What to do? Well, we walked around, study or read material for the trip, read magazines and played some Fast Uno. We also had food.
Then we boarded the flight from JFK to Budapest, Hungary (spelled it correct this time). Once again, it was a tight squeeze for me which made it a little uncomfortable. Other then some turbulence, it was a smooth flight. We landed in Budapest and had no problems with customs or passports.
Marius had set up a van service for us, to pick us up at the Budapest airport. I really didn't think about this as to how we would know who the driver was, but when we came out of baggage claims/customs, the driver was there with a sign with my name on it (forgot to take a picture of that). We loaded up the "van" and off we went from Budapest, Hungary to Timisoara, Romania. It was a 2 1/1-3 hour ride in an non-airconditioned van, but I think I got more sleep on that ride then the flight over.
Once in Timisoara, we arrived at the Ianc's apartment. Tabita & Lavinia had prepared a wonderful lunch for us. We were all more thirst then hungry because we were not allow to take water bottles onto the plane. I don't think any of us had had anything to drink for about 4 hours. But we did get a bunch and drank a lot of water, fresh apple juice, Coke & Orange soda. It was a delightful meal.
We then backed up most of our suitcases and left for the Ciacova church. First, we stopped at Marius and Tabita's house in Ciacova that is being restored. WHAT a change from 4 years ago, you will have to see the pictures. They hope to be moved in by the fall 2010, but it may take a bit more funds. The guys working on it are doing a great job. And Tabita has developed an amazing flower garden in the front and an outstanding vegetable garden in the back. Once again you will need to see the pictures. We then proceeded to the church, meet old acquaintances (at least for Cheri, Ed and myself) and toured the church. Marius showed off the floor that had been installed, the additional rooms added to the back of the church, the renovated water closets (bathrooms) and the Tabita Ministries building. You will have to ask us about this ministry when we return. Marius then "delivered" us to the homes we would all be staying in. Because Ruth and I were staying with Marius, Tabita & Lavinia, we rode around quite a bit, but it was enjoyable (even though I fell asleep a few times...OK quite a few times).
Well that is about it for today. I hope to be able to update this blog each night. If not, see you after the 11th of July.
Doug
The time arrived, June 30th we were off to Romania. May months, or my I say years, of thinking, praying & planning have now come to reality. For me the planning start back in 2006 when we returned from the first trip, but God had a different plan.
The team of 7 (Amy Bergvall, Cheri Errickson, Ed Errickson, Melissa Errickson, Michele Errickson, Ruth Feiler & myself (Doug Simon)) meet at Warrington Fellowship Church to leave for the Philly airport to start of long journey of flying to Romania. Thanks to Matt Morrison for driving us to the airport and Matt, Bob Feiler, Pastor Schuman, Kevin Cain & Rebecca Lyford for being at church to pray with us before we left.
Our flight take off time was 12:30pm, but of course being an international flight you had to be there 2 hours early. And we were. Nothing to uneventful happened before the flight, even all our bags were under the required 50lbs, although we still had to pay extra for the second bag. We were unsure about a few of them. We took a smaller plane (1 person isle on the left and a 2 person isle on the right, a tight squeeze for a guy my size) to JFK. Once there, we had a approximate 5 hour layover. What to do? Well, we walked around, study or read material for the trip, read magazines and played some Fast Uno. We also had food.
Then we boarded the flight from JFK to Budapest, Hungary (spelled it correct this time). Once again, it was a tight squeeze for me which made it a little uncomfortable. Other then some turbulence, it was a smooth flight. We landed in Budapest and had no problems with customs or passports.
Marius had set up a van service for us, to pick us up at the Budapest airport. I really didn't think about this as to how we would know who the driver was, but when we came out of baggage claims/customs, the driver was there with a sign with my name on it (forgot to take a picture of that). We loaded up the "van" and off we went from Budapest, Hungary to Timisoara, Romania. It was a 2 1/1-3 hour ride in an non-airconditioned van, but I think I got more sleep on that ride then the flight over.
Once in Timisoara, we arrived at the Ianc's apartment. Tabita & Lavinia had prepared a wonderful lunch for us. We were all more thirst then hungry because we were not allow to take water bottles onto the plane. I don't think any of us had had anything to drink for about 4 hours. But we did get a bunch and drank a lot of water, fresh apple juice, Coke & Orange soda. It was a delightful meal.
We then backed up most of our suitcases and left for the Ciacova church. First, we stopped at Marius and Tabita's house in Ciacova that is being restored. WHAT a change from 4 years ago, you will have to see the pictures. They hope to be moved in by the fall 2010, but it may take a bit more funds. The guys working on it are doing a great job. And Tabita has developed an amazing flower garden in the front and an outstanding vegetable garden in the back. Once again you will need to see the pictures. We then proceeded to the church, meet old acquaintances (at least for Cheri, Ed and myself) and toured the church. Marius showed off the floor that had been installed, the additional rooms added to the back of the church, the renovated water closets (bathrooms) and the Tabita Ministries building. You will have to ask us about this ministry when we return. Marius then "delivered" us to the homes we would all be staying in. Because Ruth and I were staying with Marius, Tabita & Lavinia, we rode around quite a bit, but it was enjoyable (even though I fell asleep a few times...OK quite a few times).
Well that is about it for today. I hope to be able to update this blog each night. If not, see you after the 11th of July.
Doug
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