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I thought that I would update y'all on my current "revised schedule". I write this with a chuckle because with Liviu "schedule" is a nasty word and what I am doing from hour to hour seems to change by the minute!

Sept 11 - Arrive in Bucharest
Sept 12 - Recover from journey and start preparing for Children's Ministry
Sept 13 - Go shopping in Bucharest, stay overnight with Ana's family
Sept 14 - Church (morning and evening) in Buturugeni, birthday lunch with family and friends, back to Bucharest for night
Sept 15-21 Children's Ministry in Buturugeni
Sept 21 - Clean up, pack up, move to Bucharest
Sept 22 - Hang out with Liviu and Ana and try to understand what Liviu does with the Distance Learning program at the Biblical Seminary.
Sept 23 - Spend time with Liviu in the morning, go to IKEA for dinner and shopping. See the main sights of Bucharest on the way there and back.
Sept 24 - Help Liviu to clean up and change the networking of the computers in the computer lab for the seminary students.
Sept 25-26 Vacation at the Black Sea.
Sept 27 - Back to Buturugeni for the new Saturday "Kid's Club". The church wants to continue what we've started, once a week on Saturday mornings. Please pray that they will find committed young people to make this happen. At this point, it sounds like Andra is willing to lead this ministry - I'll keep you posted.
Sept 28 - Fly home

I'm feeling a bit better today but now Liviu is sick. I've been able to rest a lot and drink lots of fluids which has helped. Please pray that our vacation to the seaside would be a good time of rest and recuperation. I will be very busy when I get back, Liviu is always very busy and Ana starts school next week so we all need it.

By the way, I woke up this morning to NO water at all in the dorm. :) Every day is an adventure here!

Just a Quick Update

I am writing this from the front seat of Liviu's car as I wait while he delivers some important documents for a mutual friend of ours. Bucharest traffic is so bad that Liviu can actually answer email while he is driving! The concept of "lanes" is a little fuzzy here and parking on the sidewalk is quite common. Driving here is a like playing one of those racing video games - just go as fast as you can and try not to hit anything!

I am currently staying in Bucharest for a few days at the Theological Seminary where Liviu works. I have a room to myself in the dorm (school doesn't start until Oct 1) and hot running water!! It's all good. :) I will spend the next couple days hanging out in Bucharest with Liviu and Ana and Andra.

Please pray for me as I rest and fight a cold.

More later...we're on the road and I want to look!

...and now we're done!

Buna! I'm back in Bucharest for a few hours to have a bath! It's very nice to be all clean again. I've been washing my hair "in a bucket" out in the village but that's been it! Fortunately, we've not had any really hot weather. :)

I am very pleased with how the program for the children went. My only regret is that I still don't speak enough Romanian to interact with them more than a little. We ran program every day from 5:00 until 8:00(ish) pm. The first day only two children were there by 5:30 pm. Oh oh. That's when we learned that the school has two "series", one in the morning until 1:00 pm and the other in the afternoon until 6:00 pm. This is how they get more children into the available space! One of the young adults from the church went out between 5:30 and 6:00 to gather some children and by 6:15 or so, we had six boys and one girl...all very enthusiastic! On Tuesday, Ana and Andra went to the school and talked to some of the children...that evening we had an attendance of 25. On Wednesday, the weather was miserable - dark, cold, raining. We were wondering if any children would come...but they did!...15 of them. Thursday and Friday were gorgeous sunny days and about 35 children showed up both days! We finished up this morning with 21 and are eager to see how many come to church tomorrow to perform the songs we taught them.

A "typical" day at program started with a few children playing with a ball or the skipping rope or the parachute. As more children arrived, the games got bigger (and louder!). After games, the children came into the church for songs and a Bible lesson and a craft and a geography lesson and snack. The order varied every day and two of the days we ran out of time for the craft! The children LOVE to sing and I can now sing a simple Sunday School song (I've got joy like a fountain) in Romanian from memory. :) We had a geography lesson every day except for today because the curriculum that we were using as a resource is called "The Jesus Expedition" and every day we visited a new locale, with the help of a nice globe that we bought. The first day we learned about Antarctica (did you know that it is technically a desert?), the second day we journeyed to the jungle (where we made monkeys and tigers), the third day we climbed Mount Everest, the fourth day I introduced the children to my home on the Pacific Ocean, and the last day we trekked through the desert. It was fun to watch the children get excited as they learned more about the world outside their village. We also had the children memorize two Bible verses: Matthew 19:14 and a simple version of Philippians 4:6. Hopefully, these words of encouragement will stay with them.

I have been taking lots of pictures and will have stories to tell when I get home. I so wish that I could stay and continue to get to know these children but I know that I have my "own" children at home in Vancouver to work with. :)

Time to go back to the village...I'll try to write more when I am back in Bucharest!