Christmas in Romania 2012

It has been several weeks since Christmas, and I regret that I haven’t already written about all that has happened here in Romania.  However, I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to reflect and think on the holiday season. 

First of all, I must say how happy I was to return to Romania in December.  I enjoyed my time in Hungary…it was a great time to catch up with friends at Word of Life Hungary.  It was also a great time of rest (which looking back on the busy holiday season was a bigger blessing that I thought).  I arrived back in Romania on December 17^th.  Almost immediately, I was back on a full day busy schedule!  Christmas here is full with programs and activities, much the same as in the States.  However, here most of the activities happen all around the five days around Christmas.  I told many of my friends here that we also have a lot going on during the holiday, but our holiday starts almost at Thanksgiving and things are spread out a bit more.  I will try my best to get everything into this update…with more to follow about New Years and the last week.

In Apalina: I arrived back to see the kids from the school program for a few days before their holiday began.  It was good to be back with them, even though the numbers were smaller than on a normal school week.  Most of the kids weren’t even going to school that week.  I also worked with the youth/teenagers from the church on a skit for the Christmas service here.  The youth were going to do a skit about the life of Christ and his ministry while the kids were going to act out the birth of Christ.  I played Jesus in this skit.  Attila gave me the task of creating a video and music to serve as a background for our skit (which we acted without words).  I had never done anything like that before, but it was a fun learning experience, and I love a good challenge.  We acted out the skit on the Sunday before Christmas Eve.  Many people were touched by the skit, and Attila was able to follow it with a great message.  Also in Apalina, we gave out shoeboxes to the children.  We gave out over 300 boxes (and could have given out more if we had more boxes to give).  The kids were so thankful, and for most of them, this is the only Christmas gift that they receive.  This year we also received some bags of food from a Dutch ministry.  These bags were packed with many non-perishable food items that for many served as their only food for the holiday.  As we passed out the bags, we also visited with the families and had a time to share with them, hear about their life, and pray with them. 

In Gornesti: Zozo and Attila made something of a competition out of seeing who I would go Christmas caroling with.  Here in Romania, the tradition is to go caroling on Christmas Eve.  It is also the tradition that after caroling at a house, the family will offer snacks, drinks, and money to those who came to carol.  I had told Zozo in November that I would go with him this year because I went with Attila last year.  Zozo also asked me to come and join a group for a mini-concert on Christmas Eve in Gornesti.  That team consisted of Zozo, Isti (Zozo’s brother), their friend Attila (a different Attila), and me.  We spent several days practicing songs and praying together for the concert.  One of the songs we planned to sing was Silent Night.  I shared with the group our tradition of a candle-light service, and they loved the idea.  I bought tea lights (the only thing I could find in bulk at the last minute) and we ended the concert with Silent Night and candle-light.  I think it’s a new tradition here! J  After the concert, we prepared for caroling…and I mean marathon caroling!  We started around 10:00 and I arrived back home at close to 5:00 in the morning.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that here, the tradition is to have church services on Christmas day and the day after Christmas.  With Sunday being the day before Christmas Eve this year, that means that over four days from December 23-26 we had 13 church services.  I forgot to mention that I was a little bit tired after those four days! J  But all in all, it was a very blessed week. 

On a personal note, I enjoyed spending Christmas with my Romanian/Hungarian family.  Attila and Adel are so good to me, and they didn’t fail this during the holiday.  We ate together on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we exchanged gifts, and we just enjoyed being together…that is when we weren’t serving somewhere.  I’m also thankful for Zozo and his family for inviting me to eat with them on Christmas Eve after the concert.  I also got to spend some good time with Jeno over the holiday.  I’m so excited to see how he is growing and taking on new responsibilities in the church. 

I will follow this with some pictures of the holidays. Thank you to everyone who is praying for me and for the work here in Romania!  May God bless you in this New Year!

Snowing and Sharing

It started snowing here on Tuesday, and it has been beautiful ever since!  It is supposed to snow more tonight and maybe this weekend. 

I also wanted to share a little bit about the meeting we had in the school yesterday.  We shared about Christmas traditions in America with two groups of fifth and sixth grade English students at a village school in Tápiószőlős.  These students were so well behaved and respectful.  They were also doing a very nice job of learning English!  They were not afraid to speak to us in English...instead most of them being eager for the chance to practice.  It was great to meet and encourage their teacher, as well.  We started off the time with singing Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and playing a Christmas game.  Then one of the members of our team shared about Christmas traditions in America: from decorating the tree, Christmas caroling, cooking and eating good food, opening presents, and going to candle light services on Christmas Eve.  After this we sang Silent Night, and then I shared about the true meaning of Christmas.  I talked about the people who were there on the night Jesus was born.  I also shared with them about our need for a Savior.  One interesting fact about the way Hungarians celebrate Christmas is that Santa comes to visit on December 6, and the little baby Jesus comes to visit on Christmas Eve.  This was a great opportunity to share with them about our Savior!  Laci (the leader of our team) took over at this point, and he issued an invitation to the kids.  Many of them responded!  This is a school that has recently been taken over by the Reformed/Presbyterian church in that village.  The pastor and his wife were there, and they will be following up with these kids.  They also invited a team from Word of Life to come back in January!  It was a great day of ministry and service, and I was blessed to be a part of it!

Thank you for continuing to be a part of my ministry here through your prayer and support!  God's blessings to you all!

Welcome back to Romania...ok, not really!

Dear friends, it has been a long time since I posted anything here, and I’m sorry for that.  But I’m back in Europe now, so I’m setting a goal again to post a least something each week.  Please hold me to that friends!

I should be saying that I’m back in Romania.  But that wouldn't be true as of this moment.  I actually typed up a big long update the week of Thanksgiving, but I left it on another computer in Romania.  Now, I am in Hungary, spending time with some friends at Word of Life/Elet Szava.  I really had wanted to come here for a visit in December, but the Lord had other plans. 

I arrived back in Romania on November 10^th, after many long delays trying to get out of New York and a snow storm there.  When I checked in at the passport control, the officer reminded me that I only had 16 days left out of my 90 free days in Romania.  I knew that I only had a short amount of time left, but I hadn't realized that it was this short.  I also hadn't taken into account that it would take 2-3 months to apply for residency in Romania.  Now this was a big oversight on my part because part of my job when I worked in Hungary before was completing residency paperwork for students.  I should have though about this timetable, but I guess I was just so excited about being back that I didn't plan carefully.  SOOOOO, on November 24^th, I left Romania for Hungary.  I will be here until December 17^th.  At that point, my new 90 days will start (Americans have 90 free days in every six months).  I have already applied for the residency in Romania, and hopefully I will be able to get that in the next two months.  Then, I will not have to worry about having to leave again for a while.  (This is a big prayer request…thanks for praying! :) )

Now that those details are out of the way, let me fill you in on a little more of what’s been going on since I left the States in November.  I did get to spend two weeks in Romania.  That time was full of many new things (many of which I will share when I get back and post the before mentioned long update).  I got to start working in the after-school program in Apalina.  This was a great blessing and answer to prayer.  I've been waiting for two years to be a part of that, and many times it seemed like it was impossible that I would get there.  The sad thing was having to leave two weeks after starting, but God knew this and I will be able to start again with the new year in January.  It was great to meet two of the teachers that I didn't know: Claudiu and Cristina.  They are both Roma/Gypsy, and are also teachers in the school in Apalina.  They are a great example to the kids that we are working with, and I look forward to getting to know them better in the future. 

I also had the opportunity to share in one of the youth meetings about what it means to be a true Christ follower.  We had a great discussion about this.  I’m always surprised at how open the youth are here.  No one tries to hide behind anything…instead just openly sharing their heart and what’s on their mind. 

Another big event was Thanksgiving dinner.  Adel (she is the wife of the pastor, Attila, who I am working with here) was very excited to help me pull off this special event.  Usually, I am all for trying to blend into the culture of Romania.  I don’t like to try and impose my culture on them…especially since I am living in their country.  But this time it was a little different.  So on Thanksgiving day, I had several friends over for a special dinner.  We made turkey (and in a way that none of them had ever seen or eaten before), dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, and crock-pot macaroni and cheese.  Adel even made banana pudding to enjoy after.  This was a year when I personally had a lot to be thankful for, and it was great to celebrate with new friends and family in Romania. 

When I found out that I had to come to Hungary for three weeks, one of my first prayers was, “Lord, please let me have some ministry opportunities in Hungary.”  God has really answered this prayer!  On my first Sunday here, I was able to share my testimony in one of the churches.  That afternoon, I went with a group of gypsies from one village close by to have a fellowship with another group in another town.  Although I didn't share, it was exciting to be a part of that ministry as well.  Tomorrow, I will go with a group of Americans and Hungarians to a school.  This school asked for some Americans to come and share about American Christmas traditions, and to share the gospel.  The leader of the group from Word of Life asked me if I would come along and do the evangelism part of the meeting.  Again, God has answered my prayer!

It has been a big journey to get to this point, but I’m so thankful for all of the things along the way that have helped me to get here.  I’m thankful for what I've learned and for the people who have helped to shape who I am today.  Thank you for being a part of this ministry with me.  I look forward to sharing more each week as this adventure continues!

Apalina: Children's Camp

Last week we had a camp for children in Apalina. This camp was led by a group from Leesburg Community Church. It has been great having so much support from this church this summer. They have really been a blessing to me, Attila, and the whole ministry here. This most recent group is no exception. They have jumped in and worked very hard from the beginning. 

For this camp, the kids came only for the afternoon each day. We started at 2:00, but kids were already there when we arrived each day. The first day we had well over 150 kids. As an aside, I should tell you that part of my job in this week was to purchase snacks for the kids each day. On Monday morning I went with two other team members and we bought 200 apples and 200 bananas. In the stores here, you have to bag up the fruit, but you also have to weigh it and get a price sticker for it. I'm sure it was a funny sight to see three Americans trying to count out so much fruit. 

With this group of kids, management of the time and crowd was a key factor. The team decided that we would have a large group time at the beginning, and this would be followed by rotations where the kids were divided into smaller groups. During the rotation time, there we crafts, games, re-tellings of the story, coloring, and many other activities throughout the week. After the rotations, we would sing some more and then give out whatever snack we had for the day. Giving out the snacks also had to be carefully managed to make sure everyone received only what they were supposed to. We put the snacks beside the door and then had the kids exit one or two at a time as they got their snack. In the church yard, we played many other sorts of games...volleyball, soccer, hula hoops, jump ropes, etc. This was just a great time to talk with the kids informally.  Then, every evening we had evangelism meetings in the church. 

As we had already figured, this group grew every day. By Friday, we had over 300 kids and with parents, we gave away 360 ice creams. That was another adventure...going to the grocery store to buy 360 individual ice creams. I took two gypsy guys with me, and they were a big help.  I also must say again how pleased I am to be working with this team.  Even when it could have been very overwhelming (having so many kids and not necessarily enough "stuff" for them), this team has stepped up and worked hard, changed plans, and never complained.  What a blessing!

One of my big responsibilities in this week was to stay with the group of older kids and teenagers from Apalina during the rotation time.  This is the third year that I have worked with many of these kids.  It was a challenge with so many, but I love being with them...and I think some of them even listen to me now! :)

My other responsibility for the week was to drive some of the team each morning to Gornesti for a music group.  The pastor's wife, Elaine, went with me each day.  On some of the days I stayed to help out, but mostly I just watched.  She did a great job of teaching them basic chords on the piano, some singing techniques, and some basic general music theory.  The best part of all was just singing together.  

This team is staying for another week, so I'll get to work with them again in Gornesti and Glodeni.  God has already blessed us so much, I'm so excited to see what's in store for the next week.

We stopped to buy some more supplies from a shop on the side of the road.

This was the group on the last day of camp...over 300 children!

Last day of camp in Apalina

Part of my daily routine...buying the snacks for the kids.

Music group in Gornesti...Elaine is teaching them chords

Jeno...playing the organ in Gornesti

Sibiu Camp Week 1 (part 2) and Week 2

So I finally have a few minutes to sit down and get my thoughts down about camp.  I should start by saying that these two weeks were so great!

 In the last update, I was writing about the daily program.  After the morning meeting and discussion time, we had a game time each day.  We had the kids divided into three teams that they were a part of all week.  During the game time, they would compete for points, and at the end of the week, the team with the most points got a prize.  This worked really well.  We also started to teach them some expectations: you must stand in line with your team, you must not say bad things to members of another team, and you must cheer for your teammates.  All of this helped us in our desire to build up the idea of working together and teamwork. 

After lunch each day, the kids had time to swim at the river, go to the store in the village, or just hang out and talk.  After this, we had a rotation time where they learned English, made some sort of craft related to the story for the day, and prepared a drama about the memory verse or learned some new songs.  This time also worked really well.  After the rotations, we had soccer and some free time before dinner.  Each evening, we had a meeting where there were testimonies and some of the kids also shared things they were learning.  That really just gives you the basic overview of the days there at camp.

I want to thank everyone who has been praying for the work here.  It has been an incredible summer of service, and I am very blessed to be a part of it.  Those two weeks at camp were busy and long, but God really is working among these children.  I pray now that their decisions will be strengthened in the coming days. 

I’ll just share one more story for now about camp.  I came home one day early to prepare for another group arriving.  There was a girl who was not feeling well, and she came along with me.  I was happy to come home for a little rest, but I was also sad to be missing out on the final day of camp.  However, on the ride home, this young lady asked me many questions about faith and salvation.  She asked me if there were rules to being saved and I was able to share with her about my life and my salvation.  

I'm attaching two videos that we made of pictures taken at camp.  I hope you'll enjoy watching.  I'm going to add another post later of just some pictures.

Sibiu Camp: Week 1, Part 1

Two of my new Romanian Speaking Gypsy Friends: Lucian (left) and Catalin (right)

I finally have a little time to sit down and write about the week that we had at camp in the mountains.  As I am writing this, we are in the middle of the first full day of week two here.  Last week we had kids from Apalina and Peris with us.  These are the kids that I have worked with the last two years.  The very interesting and exciting thing was that many of the kids from the Romanian speaking street came with us this year.  It really reminded me of two years ago when I was not able to speak to the kids as well.  It was frustrating because I wanted to be able to talk with those kids more.  However, there are many things that can be shared simply through body language, and I still found ways to show them that I loved them. 

This particular camp was started six years ago by Attila (the pastor who I am working with).  This is my third year coming here.  It is so amazing to see the change in the kids from two years ago.  I think for Attila and the others who have come longer, the change is even more amazing.  Two years ago when I came, there were a lot of bad behaviors.  One of the kids hit me with a stick and tried to throw a big rock at me.  There was a lot of bad language as well.  This year, the kids were so much better.  One of the things we focused on in this week was teamwork.  During the game times and the evening meetings we encouraged the kids to cheer for each other and to work together to accomplish the goals of the games.  This was also exciting to see. 

Each day began with a time of sharing and prayer for the adults.  After that, the kids ate breakfast and then went to clean their rooms.  We made a competition out of who would have the cleanest room.  This was another area where we encouraged them to work together.  After the room cleaning time, we had a Bible teaching time that included singing and learning Bible verses.  After the meeting, the kids would break up into groups to talk about the lessons from the story.  A really cool part of this time was the creative response time.  Each day, the kids would have a different way to respond to the lesson through art.  One day they used crayons, another day markers, water color paint, and pipe cleaners.  The kids really love this and it also allows us to see how they respond to the story in a different way.

Reviewing the previous stories with the teams for points

Story of Paul and Silas in Prison with the Guard watching over them

Pointing out the way people are different and the same...part of sharing how the gospel is for everyone

I'm out of time to write this week, so this will have to be a two-parter! :)  Here are a few pictures of the camp and the kids.  Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!

Handball and Volleyball Championships...what???

I hate that I'm so behind in letting everyone know what's going on with the ministry here in Romania.  I'm currently in Sibiu doing some "shopping" so I only have time to update you quickly on what's been happening here.  

Let me start with two weeks ago...well really two and a half now! :)

My small group in Harghita 

We took a group of about 75 young people from six different villages/cities away to a camp near the mountains in Romania.  Each morning we had a Bible study time and then broke out into small groups.  These small groups were our teams for the week.  In the afternoons, we had a mini-sports competition everyday (soccer, volleyball, and handball) with the final for each being on the last day.  As most of you know, I'm about the least athletic person on earth.  Because of the make-up of the groups, I ended up having to play everyday, despite my strongest protests!  This was especially true on handball day.  I've never played handball, and I've only seen it once or twice on TV.  One of the guys on our team, Sandor, was a huge encouragement to me, and with his help, I was able to play.  Our team made it to the final game!  We played well together, but I do have to give most of the credit to Sandor, who is a terrific player.  In addition to the sports, we also had an evening evangelism meeting.  During these meetings, many people made decisions about following Christ!  What a blessing it was to be a part of that week.

Sandor and I...he is the great encourager!

Last week, we had a sports camp in Gornesti.  Yes, it was ANOTHER week of sports for me.  I don't think I've ever played so much in my life!  It was also a week for sports firsts...I was a part of the champion volleyball team.  I was also on the lead handball team (we didn't get to play the final game because of time...but we were in first place! :) )

This week, we had many of the same people from the first camp, and it was a great time to see them be faithful to their decisions.  In the evenings, we had many opportunities to share and sing. Several times we ended up just singing in the street or in the park for an hour or more.  God is really working among the youth in Gornesti!  Please pray that they will continue to be strong as they go about their daily lives.  

Well, it's time to get back to the campers now.  We're with children this week...doing the camp that I've done the last two years.  I will just have to fill you in on that later.  Thanks for the prayers and the support!  It's been great to know that people from all over are a part of what's going on here in Romania!