Tigmandru and Sighisoara part one

We are now back in Bucharest and trying to recuperate and prepare for the last two weeks of our summer. I can’t believe that it is almost done already. I have not been able to find the time or energy to blog during the last two weeks so I will now try to go back and cover what we have done.

We have spent the last two weeks in Transylvania, Romania doing VBS in several different villages there. The first week we stayed in Tigmandru, Romania with a local host family, Magda and Nelu Cini and her son, Nelutu and daughter, Diana. Magda is the pastor there and Nelutu is the youth leader and runs the children’s program. They are a wonderful family and we loved staying with us. Magda called us her daughters and she became our Romanian mama. Tigmandru is a very small, poor village and has many, many needs. It was a humbling experience for me to live there for a week and to see the people and how they live. The living conditions are startling and their way of life is very different than anything I’ve seen.

My team and I did about five days of children’s programs there. The number of children varied a bit from day to day but we averaged around 30 children every day, sometimes over 40. For how small the village was, I couldn’t believe how many children there were! On Friday, the day after we arrived, we did not have a VBS but were able to participate in the program that Nelutu gave regularly on Fridays. This gave us an opportunity to meet the children and and for them to meet us. Because of that day, when we walked in to the sanctuary on Saturday for our VBS, they were all waiting for us and their faces just lit up. They were excited to see us and I was excited to see them. Then as we started with some songs and an impromptu puppet show, they were smiling and giggling and so happy. I realized how simple it was to put a smile on these children’s faces. A blanket, some hand puppets and funny voices kept them happy for a while. Later, when we were doing a craft with them, it was even easier. We gave them colored paper, crayons and different fishy stickers and told them to decorate and make name tags for themselves. They loved it. I wondered how many of them had an opportunity to see and make pretty crafts. A few of them wanted more and more stickers and took more than some of the others. In the States, children tend to be a little more greedy and concerned about fairness and everyone wants what everyone else has. Here the children are very well behaved. They wanted more and more because it was so rare for them to be able to do crafts but they did not fight over the items. They are also so desperate for attention and love. They would fight over who got to sit by you or who got to hold your hand. They cling and grab on to you as if they don’t ever want to let go. They learned our names really quickly and we did our best to learn theirs. I think we did a pretty good job of making relationships with such a large number of children and so little time. I think it meant a lot to them when we would call them out by name.

A couple of times we would go to the village futbol(soccer) field and play with the children. That was quite an experience. The first time we went, when we left the house there were about 10-15 children coming with us. As we continued to walk down the street, more children came out of their homes to join us. By the time we were in the field and began to play, there were probably over thirty children playing with us. It was mass chaos trying to play with the sheer number of children and the language barrier, but it was still fun. We all had a turn falling in the mud/poop and having a great time with the children.

Like I said before, the living conditions and poverty in this village was startling for me. The children who came were very dirty, small, skinny, and some had lice. We had to take showers after every VBS because of the lice and just the fact that we would smell so bad after so much contact with the children. I felt bad having to wash myself after touching the children but we didn’t have a choice. But I refused to let the dirt, germs, or lice prevent me from loving the children. They needed love so bad and their smiles and laughter were worth it all.

By the end of the week, the children were very attached to us and us to them. Even during the evening or morning hours before and after our daily programs, some of them would linger around the front gate of the home we stayed in and wait to see us. They were always asking us to come play with us sometimes they just wanted to say hi. For me, it was very hard to leave at the end of the week. We probably had about ten rounds of hugs before we were able to get in the car. There were some tears and as we drove out, the children ran after our car waving at us.

There is one other great experience that we had in Tigmandru that I want to mention. Magda, our host mother, is an amazing woman and does so much for this village. Every Friday, she and her family prepare a meal for the children after the regular program. Magda said that most of the children do not get adequate food at home so they can count on at least one hot and healthy meal at the Cini’s every Friday. It was really neat for us to be a part of that on the two Fridays we were there. The other thing that Magda does on Fridays is have a baby massage class for the mothers in the village and their infants and very small children. One the second Friday that we were there, Magda allowed my team to be a part of that and observe what she does. First, she sets of little plastic bathtubs where she washes as many children as she can. She is trained in baby massage therapy and so she massages each one aster their baths. Magda let myself and Kristen help bathe the babies. We would bathe them and then hand them off to her to massage. After their massages, each baby would get a clean set of clothing from Magda’s supply of donated baby clothes that she has. We helped bathe probably 10-12 babies that day. She also takes this opportunity to talk to the mother’s about child care and parenting skills. Many of the mothers are very young or just simply don’t have the proper skills to care for their babies properly. After all their babies were bathed, massaged and dressed, Magda has each baby weighed on her scales and keeps track of their ages and weight in a book. It really impacted me because it was such a obvious need in this village. Some of the babies were so tiny and they had dirt caked under their fingernails. It broke my heart to see some of the conditions they were in. Some had really bad diaper rashes or sores on their bodies. It really meant a lot for me to be able to serve these mothers and their babies in this simply way. It was also really powerful to see Magda’s heart for these people and how she is doing everything she can to serve her community. Besides the baby program and the feeding the children every week, she lead bible studies and prayer meetings during the week, as well as preaching on Sundays. She and her family live in a very small apartment on the top floor of the church. They have very little according to our standards but they give so much to others. They opened their home and their hearts to my team during the week we were there and I was very humbled by their generosity.

Our summer contiues...

So we are now back from Kosova. It was a very long roadtrip there! After eighteen hours and driving through four countries, we finally arrived in Gjakova, Kosova at a beautiful hotel on Saturday night. On Sunday we went to a small local church nearby. There service was in Albanian which is the third language we have been exposed to in the last three weeks. We had a wonderful day with the missionary families who were there for a conference. Our purpose for the weekend was to take care of the children at the hotel while the parents were participating in a conference. It was a lot of fun! Kosova is a beautiful country with a lot of history and we enjoyed learning about it.
Today, Wednesday, we are relaxing and getting ready for our big trip to Transylvania, Romania for two weeks. We will be doing VBS in different villages and churches through out the country. We may not have internet access while we are there so this might be the last blog update for a while. Enjoy my pictures on facebook and I will update as soon as I can.
Please pray for our team! Prayers are vital for this summer!

I'm sorry I'm not a faithful blogger! Been so very busy so now I have to mentally organize the last week into something that is noteworthy here. This is going to be a long post so hang in there!!
Well last Friday we started our first five days of Vacation Bible School with the local children here in Bucharest. One of the ladies in church, Anisoura, who is the sweetest, most amazing mother/host/evangelist ever, has been having a children's group every week long before we arrived. So when we came we basically just joined in with her ideas and methods, added some of our own acvities and assistance and had a week long bible school session. It was very fun! I discovered that I could probably play with children and do craft projects and sing songs everyday of my life and I'd be a pretty happy person! So easy and the children loved it!! So we did that for about two hours everyday from Friday through Wednesday, excluding Sunday. One of the most rewarding things that we received from that week actually happened after it was all done. On the last day, Anisoura was telling the children that they need to go tell the parents and friends about God and all the stories and good news they had been learning all week. After we left on Wednesday, Anisoura's young son, Beni and some of his friends who had been part of the activities all week had gathered a few of the neighborhood children that hadn't been able to come all week and were teaching them the songs that we had taught them about Jesus. They were probably more effective little evangelists then we were!!
On Sunday we had they opportunity to attended the small local Nazarene church here in Bucharest. Everything was spoken and sang in Romanian. A few of the songs they would sing first in Romanian and then again in English because as a church they have been wanting to learn English so they practice when they can. For the service, Pastor Christi had a wonderful service about common hidden sins that we have in our lives. His wife Monica, who is the most amazing woman I have met, sat beside us four girls and quietly translated the whole thing for us in English. She is a Romanian but speaks perfect English too. It was a great service as well. This church is undergoing a remodeling project and they are working on a larger sanctuary upstairs. It is almost finished and they are going to have their first service in it this coming Sunday which is very exciting for everyone. Unfortunately, we won't be here to celebrate with them. I will explain later about that.
So with the last day of VBS on Wednesday we have had the last couple of days more open. On Thursday, yesterday, we had an amazing experience that I will have to give you some Romanian history to understand. In Romania there is no such thing as nursing homes or retirement communities. The geriatric population has no good system so aging or care in their old age. So instead, if they are sick, or even if they aren't and simply have no family to live with and care for them, they are sent to live in hospitals all of the country. Usually this is against their own will and they just live there until they die. And they are prevented from leaving their hospital rooms. They are not allowed to go outside in the courtrooms or get fresh air and exercise. So for many, it is like a prison sentence to be at these hospitals. It is a horribly sad reality. Also, a big problem has been that they do not have adequately food when they are at the hosiptals. Up unitl probably five years ago, the hospitals did not have the the resources to feed the elderly patients any regular nutritious meals. If there were some who were fortunate to still have family in the areas, their familes were responsbile to bring them food. Otherwise, they was very little. Because of this fact, the Nazarene church began a program about 10 years ago where they would bring bread, bananas and sometimes other food and hand them out to the patients. They would also use this opportunity to just simply visit with the people and talk to them about God.
So anyway, yesterday, along with Tamara, our missionary host, and Anisoura, who goes regularly to the hospitals, my team and I went to one of these hospitals with a box of fresh bananas to hand out. It was incredibly eyeopening! The people we so happy to see us! Some of them tried to talk to us excitedly to us in Romanian but we couldn't understand anything. Some began to cry when we gave them the bananas and Anisoura talked to them. Some opened the bananas immediately and wolfed them down. One little old lady was expecially touched by our presence. Rachel, from my team just sat on her bed with her and held her hand. She could understand anything the lady was saying. The woman would alternatate between jabbering in Romanian and covering her face and crying. Finally, Tamara came over to help translate. The lady showed Tamara the books that she had whch were an Orthodox prayer book and a Christian bible which was in such small print that she couldn't read it. Tamara asked her if she wanted her to read her something from the bible. When she began to read a chapter in Matthew, they lady burst into tears and was crying the whole time. It was very touching. The way that these people in the hospitals obviously craved conversation, some love, and some nutritious food, was very humbling. I'm not sure if I will ever look at bananas the same way again. So simply, yet so powerful!
So that basically takes care of the last week. Very good and have throughly enjoyed it! I love my team and we are having a great time! The other night there was a big thunder and lightening storm and we decided to go run in the streets in the dark at midnight! Probably not the smartest thing in the world, but certainly fun!!!
This coming week we are doing something new! Along with the entire Hudson family, our hosts Michael and Tamara and their three girls, we are driving to Kosova which is a another counrty about 12 hours from here. This weekend there are going to be several Nazarene faculty meetings that various missionaries from all over are participating in there. My team and I are going to playing with and entertaining the kids while the adults meet. It should be a fun weekend of meeting many people we have been hearing stories about, playing with kids, and seeing a beautiful country!! And learning a third language!! We've been introduced to Romanian, Bulgarian and now in Kosova they speak Albanian, which is going to be interesting!
Okay, there is my novel for the day. I will try not to take so long before I blog again! I will let you know who the weekend was after we get back.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and support!!!

Okay, as you can tell, my attempt at posting pictures on this blog failed miserably. I think from now on, I'm just going to post pictures of my trip on facebook and use my blog for text posts. So if you want to see pics, go to my FB page. :)

Weekend in Razgrad!

Wow, what a week! Not sure how to start. We went to Razgrad, Bulgaria where there is a local Nazarene church. The church there has been building a new church for the past twelve years and this past weekend they finally finished it and they had a huge celebration and dedication of the building. It was really great to be there and a part of it. My team went a few days before the celebration on Sunday so we could help them clean and get ready for it. The people there are so warm and friendly. We had a great time. The amazing things about this project is that the church's congregation basically built it completely on their own. It was not done by a professional construction crew. They used all local labor. They said that for the past three years, no one in the church has taken a Saturday off but instead chose to spend every free moment on this church. On Sunday, it was great to celebrate their accomplishment with them. They were so proud and happy! The pastor Nickolay, shown in the picture above, could not stop smiling all day! We made some great relationship with them. Bulgarian people are so generous with everything they have. I felt really humbled by their hospitality! They took us around the city, cherry picking and we played soccer almost every day! Also, Bulgarians eat all the time. Every time we were sitting and talking, food was brought out. They said that it is just part of the culture to fellowship around food. It was really good too. On Sunday, during the celebration, they made an incredible amount of amazing food. The picture shown above is just a fraction of it. We also had live music and dancing. It was a great day.
The girls and I are going to go do some sightseeing now around Bucharest so I will post more pictures later.

We're here!!!

O my gosh, it is so good to be here! We arrived yesterday evening safe and sound. The trip was pretty good even though we had some unexpected baggage fees, we almost missed our flight, and Bailey got horribly motion sick on the long flight from Chicago to London. But all is well now. We spent our first night, and will for the next few nights, separate with three different families in the local church here. They are all very sweet. Today, after we did some laundry, talked about the plans for the summer with our host family, and ate lunch, we took a tram ride to see Bucharest a little bit. After that we went to a prayer meeting with some of the local church members which was a great time to get to know them. After that, Kristen and I, who are staying with one family together were fed a wonderful Romanian meal which was chorba ( a pink, sour vegetable soup),moussaka, and seriously the best ice cream I've had!! The family was very sweet, spoke English very well, and we ended up staying there and talking and laughing for quite some time. They are actually the pastors of the local Bucharest church and were very interesting to talk to.

Tomorrow we are headed to Bulgaria!! We are spending the weekend there with the Nazarene church there in Razgrad, helping them and participating in a big dedication service they are having this weekend for their new church building. We are going to meet a lot of new people as well as spending more time with the friends we've already made. Very excited! Our host, Michael Hudson, is driving us there, then coming home to Bucharest till Sunday so we four girls will be spending a few days there in Bulgaria by on our own without our hosts! Should be fun!!

I need to get to bed. It's 1 a.m. and we have a busy day in front of us. I will be posting pictures up here after I get back next week from Bulgaria. We won't have internet access for a few days so I will update then!!

Ready, Set, Go!

Wow, last few days have been a whirl wind of information, activities, growth, laughing, crying, exhaustion and all of the above. We have been being prepped to go to our mission site and the day to leave is finally here. Romania team is leaving in a few hours!
Before I forget, I want to capture what happened yesterday. The YIM staff, who are absolutely awesome by the way, decided to try something with us that they had never done before as part of a cross cultural experience. Each team was given a bus map, some money for bus fare and lunch and a list of local churches/worship centers here in El Paso, Texas. We were told that we had to map out our own bus route to a place we wanted to go to church. The point was to experience something that was very different than our own church services. We were also encouraged to interact with the church members and see what would happen. Romania, and a couple of other teams, decided to go to a Antioch Orthodox Church which was an incredible interesting expereince. It was a long, ornate, very ritualistic and symbolic. After a service like this, with long singsong prayers and chanting, and a bishop doing incensing, were weren't sure what to expect about the people! So we were very surprised when we were welcomed with opens arms afterwards. The Bishop got all of our names and welcomed us to the service individually during the service. When they learned that we were missionaries going to different countries the next day, they were incredibly supportive. They came up to us a gave us hugs and wished us well and said they were so happy about what we were doing. They invited us to have coffee and snacks after the service which ended being like a meal because the had coffee, other drinks, different middle eastern foods, fruit, and desert. It was awesome. We just stayed and talked with them and had a great time.
Last night, 11 pm, all the teams ended up sharing their different experiences. Some went to a Chinese church, a Islamic Temple, and many others. It was a lot of fun and a great preview of the different cultures we are going to experience all summer.
Training Camp has been awesome! The staff, team leaders and different people who made this all happen were incredible and funny and really showed interest in us as individuals as well as teams. The other students I have met here have been great. We all can't wait to see each other at the end of the summer and will probably make some life long friends!
So that pretty much brings you up to date. Like I said, today we fly out for our site. Please pray that everything goes smoothly on the flights, through customs, and everywhere along the way. Pray for physical health for all of us as some of my teammates are dealing with physical pains that might be made worse with the long flights.
I love you all and thank you for your support! Talk to you when I get there!