Ciao!
My team, Proclaim i61, arrived in the beautiful country of Romania late Tuesday night. I had been traveling since Monday afternoon when I met them at the Dublin airport. It was incredible to be reunited with them and to just be with my team. I’ve missed them so much it was almost unreal. How can I miss people so much whom I’ve only been apart from for ten days? God has blessed me with a phenomenal team.
After meeting up with them and eating some breakfast, my entire squad showed up. It was so amazing to see each of them, hug them, and have an opportunity to talk with them and love on them for a few hours. And if this reunion wasn’t enough, K Squad showed up shortly after. It was a big reunion of love in the Dublin Airport. After a few hours, we boarded a plane going t Bucharest, Romania. The entire plane was mostly August 2009 World Racers. We descend on a place like locusts and gobble up everything… Food, Wifi, and airplanes. However, I have to admit, it is awesome to be able to get into five different conversations on your way to the airplane bathroom, and even greater to be hugged by people on the way there and back!
We landed in Bucharest around 9:30pm and got our passports stamped with Romania. Then, after we collected enough baggage to fill an 18 wheeler (This is probably more true than not) our respective teams hugged and kissed goodbye before heading out in an assortment of trains, vans, and buses. My team and I met up with a wonderful man who drove us to the train station and helped us get on the train.
My team and I shoved into a room no bigger than a standard bathroom/closet, with all of our packs (which are human sized themselves!) and our daypacks. Along with another unfortunate woman who happened to be with us, we were crammed, slap-packed squished. For twelve hours.
Actually, it could have been much worse. No, really, it could have been.
When the sun started to come out with the morning, I was blown away. I couldn’t believe the magnificent beauty of this country. It was like God took deliberate time to blend the dusky shadow on each overstuffed cloud. Looming over us like a child hovers over an ant with a magnifying glass were the most rugged, green mountains I have seen this side of Peru. The fields were open, and though many were maintained in semi-neat rows of corn, a pervasive wild filled the air. Everything about the plains and the mountains seemed untamed, even in the places where the farmers tend their crops.
When we arrived in Arad, a city only a few minutes from the border of Hungary, we were greeted with smiles from this missionaries here. We were driven through the city to a big house called Shalom. We will be living here this month working with the beautiful children that live here. Shalom is an orphanage that takes care of Romanian children who’s families are not able or unwilling to take care of them. All of our children are between the ages of 7-19 and speak English very well! They are all Gypsies; they are dark in complexion, hair and eye color, and dazzling in their smiles and laughter. Our missionaries told us when we met the kids we would fall in love… Yeah, everyone says that.
But for real, these children have stolen my heart already. They are open and friendly, they love to play and laugh, they love having fun and meeting all of us. Yesterday we swam with them and ate dinner with them at their campsite (They are camping out right now) and today we painted the orphanage for their return tomorrow.
Pray for us as we minister to these beautiful children. Many have pain in the hearts from being rejected by their families. Pray that God would break down the walls that Satan has constraucted through abuse and neglect so He can shine His healing light into them. There are many rayer needs for these children, so pray that God would do something amazing in their lives this month, and for our time after we leave.
I’ll be posting more pictures and stories soon! Goodnight from the rugged peaks of western Romania!
