Wow, it is surreal to be in the middle of our final month already. It is weird to hear everyone talking about plans back home in the states and their next stage in life. It is honestly hard to stay focused here and be fully present when there is so much about to change in two weeks. I’m trying my best though…
That being said, we have an awesome ministry this month. We are partnering with Caminul Felix, in Oradea, Romania. Caminul Felix is an organization creating homes for orphans here in Romania. After the revolution ended about 20 years ago, people were made aware of how poorly the orphans in the country were being treated. Not only were the children put in orphanages with 500-1000 kids, but often times they were neglected, left in their own waste, or given sleeping pills so they would remain quiet. Furthermore, upon reaching the age of 18, the orphan would be released onto the street with no further support.
Caminul Felix saw the importance of a family structure for these orphans and created family villages centered around the principle of love. Each family functions independently and the vision is to give the orphans a family for life. So each house parents have 12-15 kids and the kids will grow up under the same household their whole life. Currently there are 16 homes and a little over 200 kids in the two villages here in Oradea. It was really awesome to hear our contact, who is a house parent, speak of his family and how he has seen his kids grow up, graduate from university and get married.
Each of the children are sponsored through individuals and churches overseas. Caminul Felix also has a farm, dairy, and gift shop that provide funding for their organization on top of the donations. Overall, it is pretty amazing to see such an incredibly organized Caminul Felix is and how their model of creating families that remain a unit for a generation of kids truly provides the love, care, and family that these kids need. Caminul Felix is also expanding rapidly here as well as they have began creating homes in Thailand as well. It is pretty exciting to see such incredible growth.
We are working with the organization this month to help with the construction of houses in their villages as well as invest in the kids when we have the opportunity after work. There have been several other volunteers from the U.K. and Italy, so we have enjoyed getting to know and working alongside them. The work has been hard and strenuous, but I have really enjoyed being outside and working with my hands. We have only two weeks left… we are all trying our best to work hard and finish strong!
A lot of the work we have done so far has been mixing concrete and creating foundations for extensions on the houses.
