So, I feel like its been a while…hello again š …right now I’m in a Gypsy village in Romania called, Viile Tecii. I know some of you may be thinking, “gypsy? Really??” Yep…there are gypsies. Let me start by telling you a little about them. Historically Gypsies are known for constantly traveling around taking things from people everywhere they go. They are a people group known to have no permanent home, no home country, no home land. What many people don’t know about them is that they are some of the MOST family oriented people I have ever met…probably THE most I’ve ever met. They are such a loving, kind and welcoming people. They are craftsmen, working a lot with metal, they are gardeners, musical – they LOVE their music, amazing cooks, and they even have their own language. Here in Romania there are two types of gypsies. We will keep it simple and just say the two types are traditional and nontraditional. The gypsies we are living with are the modern or nontraditional gypsies who have settled in homes. Although they have settled here they are still unfortunately looked down upon in Romanian society. There is a huge line of segregation between Romanians and Gypsies. We are all continually learning more about this and their culture. It has been such a joy getting to know everyone here more. I can’t believe we’ve only been here 5 days…it seems so much longer. I already don’t want to have to leave!!
Ok, now on to what specifically we’re doing. This month our team has been partnered with team Fuego. Our contacts are a couple named John and Tootsie Fracker. John is American and has been living here 8 years and his wife, Tootsie, is a gypsy from here. They have been helping plant churches and disciple many of the people here. Oh and they also have one of the cutest little boys, Holden, who is 2 years old. With both our teams together, there are a total of 13 of us here. We are all spread out between 3 of the families homes. Marissa, Kel, Kelly, Megs, Heather and I have been staying with John and Tootsie. This week some of the team has started to help out with doing a “Kids Club” for the kids in the village during the day. There is also another group of us that have started to visit a local orphanage. Today I stayed back to help Tootsie with some things around the house. Right now I am cooking French fries….A LOT of French fries, going on 3 hours of cooking them, haha…for our dinner tonight. It’s been so fun though and I’m happy to give sweet Tootsie a break.
Me and Tootsie
John cooking us some fresh meat
Tootsie and Holden
It’s funny but because I feel like weĀ”Ā¦ve been here so much longer, I feel like I should have so much more to tell you about our work hereĀ”K.but I don’t because we really have just started, ha. But this is what we have planned to do: Throughout the month we will help them develop a program for the Kids Club – teaching the kids Bible stories, songs and playing games. We are praying this will draw even more of the kids and their parents to the church. We are also praying the program will be something we can teach to some of the older kids so that they can continue it on their own. WeĀ”Ā¦ll also be visiting and helping out at the local orphanage. On Sundays we will be attending John and Tootsie’s church as well as traveling around to other near by villages to their churches. This past Sunday we visited 3 different church services. Some people on our team spoke as well as sang for some of the services.
I can’t believe how much I’ve already started to fall in love with the people here! ItĀ”Ā¦s been so nice staying with a family and getting to know them more. On top of that, weĀ”Ā¦ve had some amazing food!! One of their traditional foods is homemade donuts, ohhhh SO good! I think I ate about 15 of them yesterday….truly. I have a feeling I’m going to gain weight this month…if I haven’t already!! Haha.
I can’t wait to tell you all more about what God does here!! Until then, I will leave you with John’s website for their ministry here. The website I’m sure does a much better job than I did at describing things here so please check it out:
http://gypsyoutreach.synthasite.com/ The ministry they started here is called Gypsy Agape.
And then of course, here are some more pictures of our adventures —
