So we’re in a town called Sistarovat, which means Six Springs, about an hour’s drive from Arad, mostly sitting inside because it’s around minus 10 Celsius outside.
We’re working for a Christian camp called the Seventh Spring, run by the non-profit organisation Global Outreach Romania, who are supported by Global Outreach USA. During the summer they host camps for children and young people, either having a group come in to use the facilities whilst running their own programmes, or hosting groups and running programmes for them. Across five weeks they see over 800 young people come through the camp, having fun and hearing about the gospel of Christ. During the rest of the year the centre is used for hosting conferences and other groups for whatever purposes they might like.
There have been three World Race teams here previously, including one group from A Squad who launched with us back in September and had this as their first location. The time here is spent helping to maintain, improve and renovate the facilities. For previous groups this has included some building work, some gardening work and some external painting, all of which we are unable to do due to the current 12 inches of snow covering all of the ground. We will be helping out with some of the internal painting though, as well as taking care of cleaning carpets and other tasks that will help keep the quality of the interior of the centre in good condition.
One of the things that we need to do constantly is chop wood and load the furnace to keep both of the houses warm. The girls and the married couple on the other team are in one of the houses whilst the rest of the guys are all in the other house, so that’s two burners that need to be tended every few hours. We are cooking for ourselves too and so the responsibilities of various tasks and chores is being shared out as well.
Our initial contact is a Baptist church minister from Arad called Romi, who has helped out around the camp since it was started around a decade ago and who made sure it carried on efficiently after the American missionaries who founded it returned home. His church, as well as supporting the camp, runs an orphanage and has facilitated the fostering of a large number of children from their area, after the other two children’s homes they ran had to close because of the current economic climate.
Our contact on the ground here is a man named Mihai, who lives here throughout the year maintaining the facilities (including 4 furnaces that need constant attention) and hosting the conferences.
We’re settled in nicely now, have unpacked and bought food and are looking forward to getting into the work set for us today.
