We met a lot of people on our trip. So that I don't have to stop and explain who they are as I tell about our trip, I'll just give a character list before I begin.
Iosif - Romanian living in Timisoara. He travels several times a week to the church in Gataia to help run the youth program. He also works for an international Christian organization that sells & distributes Bibles. He is the only employee in Romania. (The name of the organization is escaping me at the moment). Due to funding cuts he is no longer able to just give away Bibles and now has to figure out a way to sell them.
Lanutza - (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) - is Iosif's wife. She often goes with him to the church to help with the kids' programs. She's a retired teacher so working with kids comes naturally to her.
Scott & Carolyn Pouncey - American missionaries living in Romania for the past 4 years. You can learn more about them on their website - http://www.rockofhopeministries.org. Friends with Iosif & Lanutza.
Iosif's youth leaders - Denisa F., Denissa A., Madalena (aka Mada), Larissa, Lige (pronounced Lee-jah) and the boys - Marius and Christi. These kids are amazing. They help lead the singing, crafts, games, and lessons. Iosif gives them the tools they need and then basically lets them take control. He has worked on training them up to be leaders in their community and beyond. You don't realize how unusual this is until you understand that just because the Romanians are no longer under communism doesn't mean that the old ways are gone. To put it in perspective - think of the generations in our country that have lived on government welfare. Generally speaking - do these people take initiative to change their well-being or to make life better for themselves? Not really. Why do they need to? - the government will keep giving them assistance. That's kind of the same mindset that communism instilled in it's people. It's not an exact annalogy, but it's close.
Ladies of the church - Anca, Marianna. (I'm sure I've forgotten someone). These ladies were at the church each day and helped clean up before and after. They also were very gracious and loving towards us.
Florian & Romona - Husband and wife. Romona cooked for us twice a day for the entire week we did VBS (except Tuesday's lunch). It was SOOOOOOOOOO good. I gained 4 pounds that week - even though I was running around in the heat playing with the kids!!! I miss her cooking. They were very gracious - opening up their home to us.
There were others we met, but for what I'm writing, that is what you need to know.
Oh yeah - I almost forgot - the members of our team were: Charlie, Randy & Tammy, Lisa, and me & Keith.
*sigh* So now to get started with part 2 of our trip - VBS.
I thought VBS at our church was exhausting! Our daily schedule was pretty much the same. We started at 9am and the kids played for a while then went inside to hear the lesson for the day. All the Bible stories they learned focused on "amazing kids." After the lesson they were split into two groups. While one group was at music, the other was at crafts. After a while they'd switch. Usually around 11:30-noon Iosif would call them together for announcements then they'd be dismissed until later.
We usually ate at Romona's around 12:30 or 1:00 and then came back to the church and had some time to ourselves. Most of us took this opportunity to take a little pui de somn ("chicken nap" the Romanian equivalent of a "cat nap"). This was when we really got to enjoy the only air-conditioned room in the church.
The kids usually came back around 4 - 4:30 and we would play games with them until around 6:30 or so. Then they would have an evening program that lasted until around 7:30. During this program, they would review the Bible story, memory verse, and songs. Then they had a little puppet show that was set up like an TV interview show. The main puppet character would interview someone from the Bible story (David, Mariam, Naaman's servant, etc.). Then I'd get to lead them in the English song I taught them that day, followed by one of our team members giving a message.
After the kids went home for the night, we'd head back over to Ramona's for some delicious food and then finally drive an hour back to Iosif's house. Every day we left Iosif's around 7:45am and wouldn't return until around 10pm (sometimes later). It made for very long days.
To keep this post from being too overwhelming I'm going to leave it as a summary of our first week. In the next post I'll give some detail about some of my personal experiences.
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