Salut!

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!)