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!!!