Romania MIS Trip 2009

Gata

2009-07-06T12:55:00.003-04:00

I'm happy to say that we all made it back to the States safe and sound! But let me back up a little to the last few days of our trip.

Thursday and Friday we had classes as normal. Friday's classes were a little sad since we had to say goodbye to all of the students. But it was very neat to see them be able to remember everything that we had taught through out the week and how much they had improved on their typing skills.

Thursday night we had the neat opportunity to participate in a small church service in a near by village. We arrived in the village a few hours before the church service started and went around in groups talking to the people and inviting them to come later that night. My group ended up talking to some men for a long time, it was a good relationship builder for the Romanians. The church service went really well, the Romanian missions team that was there helped in the service by leading singing and sharing a few testimonies and then Dr. G, with the help of Jordan for the demonstration, gave a short message. It was really neat to see all of the different people come together and share the Good News with the villagers.

Friday night was a little more relaxing for us and laid back. We had a bonfire with the Missionaries from Drăgăneşti. It was a very nice time to just hang out, talk to them and also to say good bye to most of them since we had to head out the next day for Bucharest.

After breakfast on Saturday we loaded up Pastor Raul's van and headed for the church, where we helped out in a children's class. They were learning about how God was the creator, and how we needed to keep the earth clean. They broke up the children in teams with one of our team members as a leader of each group, and then we went out with a garbage bag and picked up some of the trash around the city for about 10 minutes. It was neat to see the children participating and enjoying helping out their city. Once class was over it was time to head out to Bucharest, with a short stop at one of the missionary's house. She was a doctor and had set up a clinic in a small village out side of Drăgăneşti. She told us that on an average day she would see about 20 patients. She also had a good supply of medicine which she gave out to the people free of charge. Her clinic was known as one of the best in the area and it was really nice to have the chance to go see the work that she is doing there before we left. Saturday night we made it to the hotel, and after dinner at McDonald's we relaxed and went to bed a little early since we had to start our trip back home the next day at 4 AM.

The trip back went very smoothly and fairly fast. Thank you for all of your prayers these past 3 weeks, it was a great encouragement to know that we had people praying both for our team and for the Romanians. Please continue to pray for the people in Romania, the children that we ministered to, and the pastors and missionaries who work with them.

Sunt cântând în ploaie

2009-07-01T15:34:00.006-04:00

Someone who actually speaks Romanian will probably correct me, but I believe today's title means "I'm singing in the rain." It has definitely been a bit on the wetter side here tonight. Let me back up a bit though.

Saturday we said goodbye to the Vasile family and went further south in Romania near the town of Drăgăneşti-Olt. Like Jordan said, we're staying with Kevin and Michelle, a Canadian missionary couple here. Sunday we got a chance to visit a smaller church out in a village about an hour away. After church we went and saw ruins of an old Roman fortress on the Bulgarian border. Those were pretty cool - we'll hopefully have some pictures up soon. Sunday night we joined the Romanians at the church here in Drăgăneşti. This was probably the biggest church we'd been to so far, with somewhere around 75 people we think. The service was very upbeat and we made a bunch of new friends that spoke English, so we had plenty of translators, which definitely helps.

Each morning here, we have a computer class in the church in Drăgăneşti, followed by a break for a few hours (which we've recently been filling with computer repair appointments), and then another class here at Kevin and Michelle's house. Our evenings have been filled with various activities. Monday night we played soccer at a nearby field with a bunch of youth from the church and the town, and then we went around inviting people to a concert that would be held here on Tuesday night. Tuesday night, obviously, we went to said concert in the church. From what I could tell, we had even more people in the church than on Sunday night, and it seemed like quite a few of them were people that hadn't attended there before. The concert was for a famous Christian Romanian singer. He was quite good, and even did a few songs that we recognized. Tonight, we did some evangelism in a nearby village followed by another soccer game with youth from the church and the village. Like I mentioned, it ended up raining most of the night, and we had quite an adventure driving back in the pouring rain with somewhere around 16 people in a 9 passenger van. Despite the rain, from what we heard God opened several doors tonight, and the people here will continue to minister in these villages after we leave.

We're quickly approaching the end of our trip here. Thanks for your continued prayers:

Pray we'll continue to be enthusiastic and full of energy for the kids in our classes as we finish up our last two days
Continue to pray that God will work in the hearts of those we've encountered throughout all three weeks we've been here
Pray especially for the people of southern Romania. (Câmpina and Drăgăneşti both are a part of this area.) We had known this area was more unreached than the northern part of Romania, but we recently learned that only 0.2% of the population here is Christian.
Pray for all of the missionaries and their families that are working here. God has sent a fantastic team of people to work in this area.

A couple of pictures

2009-06-29T16:04:00.007-04:00

Since it is getting late, I will be brief. We made it to new village/town and are now staying at the house of a very nice Canadian missionary couple.

This week looks like it will be busier than that previous weeks, since we have 2 classes to teach, and then Raul (the local pastor) has us scheduled to do more general witnessing/relationship building activities in the evening. Tonight we got back to the house around 9:30pm after our evening activities, such as football and street evangelism.

A couple of the guys I met in the morning class today wanted me to post their picture, so I told them I would. Here they are:

Mi-e Foame

2009-06-26T18:28:00.004-04:00

Sorry it has taken so long to get this updated… our nights have been a little busier lately spending time with the family and getting things ready for the following day. Anyways here is a little update on what has been going on these past few days.

Wednesday over all went pretty smoothly, in the morning we had a good sized group again and we learned all about Word and the kids all had a chance to write a letter to their mother. They all greatly enjoyed this, especially adding clip art and playing around with the font, color, and size of the text. The girls got a little more into it so it took them a little longer then the boys. All in all it was a very successful morning.

Normally we ate at the church thanks to the wonderful cooking of Coca, the pastor’s wife; however Wednesday afternoon Pastor Ion had to go back to Câmpina to take care of some important business, so in order to do that and get to Brādāşanca on time we were unable to eat there. Instead we packed up as quickly as possible and started back to Câmpina where we met up with Dan, one of Pastor Ion’s sons, who brought us pizza which we ate while Pastor Ion took care of things. In the end everything worked out great.

Upon arriving in Brādāşanca there were a few kids ahead of us all ready to use the computer. About as fast as we could set up the computers, they were filled with children playing their favorite games. In the afternoon we once again went over Word and did Draga Mama letters. It took a little bit of time for everyone to get the hang of it, and a few of the boys struggled with staying on topic. In some ways the afternoon seemed long, since the kids were very energetic and didn’t always want to listen to us but in the end the day was a success.

Thursday, also went very well. We once again had new students in the morning which was exciting. Giving the students the letters that they had written the day before was also a highlight of the day. They loved seeing what they had made actually on a piece of paper and not just on the computer screen. We also went over Power Point, which they had a lot of fun with. As a group we went over a lot of the basics and then let each student make one slide with information about themselves on it. After break we continued with Power Point and showed them some of the cool effect that they could put in and the older ones especially liked that part.

Our numbers reached around 35 on Thursday afternoon and we had some new fairly young ones too. The teaching style had to be modified since we had so many kids, and such a large range of skill level. So after doing a short intro to Power Point we mostly taught each group individually. Though some of the younger kids didn’t totally understand everything I think they all had a very enjoyable time.

That brings us up to today. We arrived to find almost all of the students waiting for us which is very cool, since most of the time the Baptist church is looked down upon. Dr. G did his lesson on the internet and the children greatly enjoyed sending e-mail and instant messages to each other. Since it was Friday it was also the day for graduation, which is always bittersweet. After many hugs and goodbyes we saw all the children off. It was Filip’s (the pastor’s son) birthday and so him mom had made a special lunch for everyone and we had cake and ice cream. There were many thank yous that went around the dinner table and before long it was time to leave Pitulicea for the last time.

As we arrived in Brādāşanca we were swarmed by students, there were 44 students in all, which made for a very full and exciting class. Once again the students loved sending IM’s and e-mail, though we had a few problems with the e-mail on a couple computers. During break all the kids went outside to play and Krista worked very hard on getting all the certificates together since there were so many new students. Then it was time for chapel. It was very encouraging to see the children remembering the previous lessons, and the major points from each day. Then all too soon it was once again time for graduation and goodbyes.

This evening we had the opportunity to spend with Pastor Ion’s family. We all went out to eat so that we could give Elena a little break from making us dinner every night. It was a lot of fun to just relax with the family and remember some of the more memorable events of the past few weeks. We also said our thank yous and gave them our gifts. The Romanians are very giving people, and so we also got a gift ourselves. It was a little sad thinking about how this was our last night with this wonderful family.

Tomorrow we head out. We are unsure if we will have internet access or not next week. If we do we will be sure to keep the blog updates as much as possible. Please continue to pray for the students that we have had the opportunity to come in contact with these past two weeks and also for those who we will work with this coming week.

New Pictures!

2009-06-26T01:17:00.003-04:00

Pictures are up and some videos too! Hopefully we will have an opportunity to update the blog again before too long. Thank you for all your prayers!

Domnul este bun

2009-06-23T16:06:00.004-04:00

God is good!
We have had another great week so far. Yesterday (Monday) we began teaching in two new villages, Pitulicea and Brādāshanca (those may not be the correct spellings). In Pitulicea we had about 20 kids, which was a bit interesting, because as you can see in the picutres, we were meeting in a fairly small room. The church has not yet built an actual church building, and the building they are in now is a house being used as a church. Most of the kids were 3rd grade and up to one ninth grader, but there were a few little ones running around too. After we got the older kids started with the computers, Alissa was able to take the littlest ones outside and play with them. After class and lunch we had the priveledge of being able to head down the street a ways and see their new church building. The pastor has been doing most of the work to get the building built. It was especially cool for Dr. G to see this building as when he was in this village a year ago the team was able to mark out the boundaries of where the building would go. The faith of the pastor in Pitulicea was amazing to see. He has a very small congregation, yet they have managed to build the walls of a small church on land he had purchased for his own home. He has done most of the work to get the church building up and has done so without owing anyone any money. All the work has been done by members of the church. What struck me most was the pastor's willingness to give up the place where he had been planning on building his own home so that the church could have a proper place to meet. I'm not sure that would have ever happened in America.
Today we had about 15 kids in that village, assumedly due to the thunderstorm that started as we left Câmpina. Arriving at the village we discovered that there was no power... which posed a potential problem, but once we got all the computers unpacked and set up the power came back on and we had no further problems. The kids are very well behaved and very affectionate. They are a joy to work with and even though we are still struggling with the language barrier we are learning to show love in actions not words :-).
Brādāshanca is a bit different than Pitulicea. We are able to meet in a very nice church building, but the kids are more rambunctious... maybe because there are more boys? :-) Brādāshanca seems to be a poorer area than the other villages we have been in. We have had around 30-35 kids over the past couple days, but it is difficult to keep track as they tend to walk in and out at their own pleasure. In other villages the kids sit in the same seat, or at least at the same table every day, not so in Brādāshanca. It's hard to teach the kids because as soon as they get bored they get up and go talk to thier friends or go outside, which makes this village a bit of a challenge, but seeing the kids who came back today from yesterday and seeing some of them stay for the entire session is rewarding.
Both villages were very engaged in the chapel sessions, they love to sing, even if we sing in English and they aren't sure what we're saying they love to do the motions with us and are very patient with our attempts to sing in Romanian. They answer the questions from the lessons and seem to be understanding what we are trying to teach them about Christ.
Pray for:
-the kids in both villages, that they will hear what we have to say during the chapel times and apply it to thier lives and ask the pastor if they have questions
-that we will be a blessing to the pastors and churches in the villages
-that our computer classes will give the villagers a favorable impression of the Baptist churches
-team health, a couple sneezes and coughs are being heard amoungst the team
-endurance, doing the same thing two weeks in a row can be a little rough

Dar Dumnezeu

2009-06-21T14:11:00.007-04:00

We've had a couple of relaxing days this weekend. Saturday we went to the Peleş Castle in Sinaia, which was pretty neat. It was actually more like a palace - I think it was used as a summer home by one or more of Romania's kings. (Romania is no longer a monarchy...the castle seems to be mostly a tourist attraction now.) We were able to take a 45-ish minute tour in English. Here's a picture of the outside...we didn't want to pay the "tax" to take pictures inside:

Afterward we had lunch at a little place on the street and then drove to a nearby market that had a bunch of vendors selling souvenirs. The guys especially thought that they all started looking the same once we made it past the first couple booths, but we faithfully plodded through looking for gifts and mementos.

Saturday evening we joined Pastor Ion's church here in Campina after a business meeting for dinner. This was the church we went to last Sunday evening. The people were once again very welcoming and giving. We all tried our hand at some ping pong and hung out with the people there. We then as a group watched a "video concert," which ended up being Andre Rieu and his orchestra performing live in New York. A couple of team members were hesitant about watching an hour and a half of classical music, but in the end I think we all agreed that it was quite good and entertaining.

Sunday morning we worshipped again at the church here in Campina. Unlike the other church services we've been to here, we started the morning with Sunday School, so the four of us went off with the youth while Dr. G. stayed with the adults. The youth group mostly consisted of Pastor Ion's kids, whom we've been able to get to know fairly well over the past few days, so we had a good time singing and praying with them. Dr. G. preached a new sermon today entitled "Dar Dumnezeu," which is Romanian for "but God." His text was Ephesians 2 - it talks about how we were dead in our sins, gratifying our sinful natures. Verse 4, though, starts with "but God" - you probably know the verse: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved." It's cool going through the Bible and seeing places where it says "but God" and seeing how God has shown He's still the one ultimately in control of the world.

After yet another delicious meal, we all did our best to sleep and rest for a few hours before going to Brătăşanca for the evening church service. We had not been there before, but this will be the church at which we will hold our afternoon classes throughout this coming week. The church was fairly small - about 20 people this evening - but we're told that there will be 40 or so young smiling faces waiting for us tomorrow afternoon.

So that takes us up through this evening. Please continue to pray for us. Specifically:

That we'll be able to begin our second week with as much enthusiasm and energy as our first.
That God would start to work in the hearts of the children and teens we'll be encountering in the two villages we'll be working in this week.
That God would continue to work in the hearts of those we worked with last week.
That our work here would open doors for the local pastors to be able to get into homes which were previously closed off to them. Specifically pray for Pastor Chezar, the pastor of the church in both villages we were at last week.

Draga Mama

2009-06-19T13:46:00.008-04:00

We were not able to post anything last night because the internet was out, so I (Jordan) will be catching you up on two days.

We spent the better part of the Thursday morning class helping the students write a "Dear Mom" or (Draga Mama) letter. This went very well. We worked individually with the groups of students, showing them, and our wonderful helpers from the church, how to insert pictures into the letters. Alissa had typed up a sample letter for the kids that they were able to use and change if they wished. Many of them did use that letter, making small edits and adding pictures, but other typed up their own.

During the chapel lesson used a cool demonstration to illustrate Jesus dying for us on the cross. The demonstration uses colored water to represent our sin. Mankind is represented by a penny. The penny is placed in the water and the water covers it, symbolizing the fact that we are covered by our sins. At this point, I lit a candle, representing Jesus, and placed it in the water. Then I took a translucent bottle and placed it over the top of the candle, telling the children to watch what happened. The candle burned away the oxygen in the bottle, lowering the pressure inside the bottle and sucking up water from the container in which it was placed and away from the coin. But once all the oxygen had burned away the candle went out. I told the children that this represented what Jesus did on the cross: He took away our sin, but in the process He also died. The I took the candle and re-lit it, telling the children that Jesus did not stay dead but rose from the grave.

The second class for the day was even fuller than in previous days. It was again split by age, with a group of elementary school kids and a group of teenagers. I spent most of my time working with the teens. As previously mentioned, there were a couple of teens in the group that were difficult at times, preferring to play games and be distracting, rather than follow along with the typing lessons. On Wednesday one of those teens miraculously decided to settle down at the end of class, and even decided to forgo playings games so that she could type. I spent much of my time on Thursday trying to help her. She stayed somewhat on task and definitely portrayed a much softer side of herself than she had during the previous days.

On Friday (today) we taught the kids in the first class how to use email and instant messaging. They enjoyed learning how to write emails, but when our email server software broke we decided to cut short that sections of the lesson and moved on to instant messaging. I think the kids enjoyed that much more. The instant messaging software was set up much like a chat room, with everyone sending messages that were visible to everyone else. They greatly enjoyed talking across the room on computers and playing with the emoticons.

The chapel lesson was focused on the need to do more than just know the story of Jesus and what He did for us. We need to trust Him and believe that He can actually take away our sins. This was illustrated with the story of a tightrope walker. The man walked across the tightrope with a wheel barrow without ever falling. After coming back, the man asked if someone was willing to get in the wheel barrow. No one wanted to. That is the difference between knowing and believing: belief requires that you take action that depends on and completely trusts the other party; knowing only requires that you can repeat facts.

Then we had a graduation ceremony for the kids. The parents were invited to the ceremony. Most of the kids had at least one parent present, making and already crowded room very cramped. As the parents entered, the children continued typing so that the parents could see our class in action. We welcomed them and explained what we taught the kids and even demonstrated a song. Then we passed out all of the graduation certificates and CDs. The CDs contain several games, several typing programs, an electronic Bible, and a few other programs.

The second village was much the same as it had been the days before. Again, I spent most of my time with the teens, helping them along. As with the children in the first class, we taught them how to used email and instant messaging. Our email server crashed again and we were forced to move on to instant messaging sooner than originally planned. But, once again, the students were highly entertained by the instant messaging setup.

Both of the more distracting teens were fairly cooperative, which was an amazing answer to prayer. We continue to pray that they will become soft-hearted towards the gospel. Even over the course of the week I can see how they have changed. Both began to participate far more than they ever have before and both had opened up significantly. Hopefully they will continue to grow and be drawn towards Christ.

Miercuri

2009-06-17T15:43:00.001-04:00

Since I haven't posted yet, it looks like it’s my turn, so here we go.

After a slightly more interesting morning then normal (due to the fact we had no running water) we headed out in the rain for Maneciu. Even though we arrived about 15 minuets early, there were many kids awaiting our arrival. We quickly set up and let the kids who were there play games while we waited for the rest. Once we had everyone there we set them back up so that they could practice their typing some more. It was neat to see the children helping each other and teaching a few new students where to put their fingers and explain what they are suppose to do. We worked on typing for a while and then Krista taught them a little about Word. They enjoyed reformatting John 3:16 and making it different colors, sizes and fonts. Though it had been raining off and on all day, when it was time for our pauza (break) it had stopped and we were able to take the kids outside.

Ana and Bionca

After a game for “football” (soccer) for the boys and some frisbee for the girls, we went back inside for chapel. Today’s chapel was a little different, after singing a few songs and giving my testimony; we used a skit to show the children how Jesus took our place. Matt was the bad guy who mugged the victim, me. The guards, Krista and Dr. G, saw him commit the crime and took him to Judge Jordan. The judge saw the evidence and sentenced the murderer to death. However, the judge stopped the guards before they could take Matt away and the judge took his place. Jordan then explained the skit and how it was a portrayal of what Jesus did for us on the cross. The kids all enjoyed the skit, and paid close attention to what Jordan had to say.

The afternoon was a little different. In Cotofenesti, the second village, we had a few new teens and had to get another table out so that we would have room for everyone. Like yesterday, we split the students up by age. The younger ones all sat at one table and the teens sat together. The main goal of the afternoon was to work on typing, both with the little kids and the older ones. I personally worked with the younger children. Once again they helped each other out when they could. This helped with communication, though some things, like “oopsie” don’t need to be translated. Some of the teens had a little hard time focusing on typing correctly, so that was one of the challenges this past afternoon.

Denisa and Giulia and Alissa

Please continue to pray for us:
• That we are able to finish they last few days strong
• That we show these children Christ’s love
And also for the students:
• That they understand what we are trying to get across
• God will touch their lives in a major way

Bună seara

2009-06-16T14:08:00.000-04:00

Gentiana and Paula

We are going to take turns writing these blog posts, and Matt decided today was my turn.
Today was another full day of classes. We had a few new kids in the first village, Maneciu, and it was really cool to see the kids who were there yesterday helping them to catch up. For the most part the 30+ kids are very good at sharing the 7 laptops we have for them to use. It is challenging to try and teach them how to use a computer when they speak very little to no English, but thanks to our many helpers we are able to manage.
Today in chapel we talked about sin, and how it doesn't matter if they have sinned a little or a lot it is still enough to keep from from being right with holy God. To demonstrate this we had two water bottles, one with a little water (apa) and one with a lot of water. The kids were asked which water bottle would hit the ground first and they all responded "the heavy one". They were amazed that both bottles hit the ground at the same time. Tomorrow we will be sharing how our loving Father created a way for us to be right with Him.
In the second village we had a bunch of new students! Yesterday we had 4 students, two younger children and two older students. They all brought friends today which meant we had around 12 students! There were around 8 who were older teenagers. We worked on teaching them to type and how to use Word. The 4-5 kids worked on using a mouse and typing. It was very exciting to have more people come today.
Be praying for our team

we will continue to work well together
we will get enough sleep
we will stay healthy

Pray for the classes

kids will come
they will listen to our presentation of the gospel
their parents will gain a favorable opinion of the church

Salut!

2009-06-15T14:26:00.000-04:00

Hello from the beautiful country of Romania! I'm starting this blog to share some of our experiences and adventures as we work and minister alongside the Romanian people for a few weeks. I believe some of my other team members will be writing as we go also.

After an extra long day of traveling due to a seven hour time difference, all five of us arrived safely in Bucharest with all of our luggage and belongings. We were greeted at the airport by Andre and Timothy, two of the sons of Pastor Ion (pronounced "yon" - think of our name "John"). We're currently staying with him and his family in the town of Câmpina. They have been very gracious and a huge blessing to us every day.

After a warm welcome Friday night and a quick email to friends and family to announce our safe arrival, we all quite promptly fell asleep. Waking up a little more rested Saturday morning, we spent the day sightseeing and experiencing the city of Bucharest (the capital of Romania). We saw the People's House, a government building that is the second largest building in the world. We also enjoyed some cartofi prajiti (french fries) at McDonald's and visited the Village Museum to see historic Romanian houses. Pastor Ion and his family hosted a barbeque that night and we enjoyed that and got to meet some other Romanian pastors that were also invited.

Sunday morning we attended one of Pastor Ion's churches. The two and a half hour service was a bit abnormal to most of us, but it was great worshipping with the Romanian people. We were able to share a few testimonies and I played guitar while we sang a few songs. That was a bit rough, but God liked it at least =) That afternoon we took advantage of the Sabbath and rested and most of us took a much-needed nap. Sunday evening it was back to church, this time at Pastor Ion's church here in Câmpina. We again had a great time worshiping with the Romanian people and gave our testimonies and sang our songs. It was really cool when the Romanians sang along with us in their language as we were singing in English. Imagine how cool it will be in heaven one day with thousands of languages.

Here's our team looking stunning prior to church Sunday morning:

Left to right: Jordan Hinshaw, Krista Ray, Alissa Johnson, Matt Kent, Dr. Gallagher

Today (Monday) we began our first day of computer ministry in the local villages. Someone's going to have to help me out with the village names later, but the first village we went to in the morning was about an hour away. We ended up having around 30 first graders, which was not quite what we expected and a bit crazy. Like the sign Pastor Ion has up in his office says - "blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken." Luckily Romanian children seem to be a lot better behaved than those in the U.S. and we had some older kids from the church in that village there to help us out. We spent much of the time we had there teaching the kids how to type and use the mouse by playing a few games that they loved. We also had a chapel service where we sang some songs (Father Abraham, Hallelu Hallelu/Praise Ye the Lord, and Domnul Este Bun - God is So Good), Krista gave her testimony, and Alissa gave a lesson on how even though we can't see God, we know He is there by what he does.

After a delicious lunch at the local pastor's house, we travelled to another village about half an hour away for our afternoon session. We once again had a chance to be flexible, as only four kids showed up this time. We modified our lesson plan a bit and were able to give the kids a bit more one on one time. We encouraged them to bring friends tomorrow, so hopefully we'll see our numbers there grow a bit more.

Here's a picture of Câmpina from atop a nearby hill we climbed after dinner tonight. About forty thousand people live here and it sits in the foothills of a beautiful mountain range as you can see.
Well, it's getting quite late and we have another early morning tomorrow. Hopefully that catches you all up on the first few days of our trip. We'll try to keep you updated as we go. For now, Noapte Bună! (Good night!)