Domnul este bun

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