Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wow! I just don’t even know where to start! We have been quite busy since my last blog post.
Last Saturday we were able to go visit a private orphanage home where about 20 kids are staying. We stayed pretty much the entire day. There were children there from the age range of 7 to about 15 years old. Most of the children were able to communicate with us in English, so that was very helpful! We had a great time playing and just being with the kids. I also put my nursing skills into use and took care of some severe wounds some of the kids had. The kids at this home are not well cared for at all. Even though it is a private orphanage we noticed that things were very dirty and the kids seemed a bit neglected. Several of the boys had shaved heads or the girls had extremely short hair due to lice. We were so glad we had the opportunity to be with these kids all day and be able to spend time showing them God’s love.
Monday, we went to a center that opens up 5 days a week during the afternoon for street children. They open at 12 noon and they play a game with the kids who show up. Then they have a time of singing followed by a devotional. After all of this they eat lunch then they shower and wash their clothes. The center then closes at 5:00. We were expecting little street kids to come, but these were teenagers and young adults. It was a pretty rough group and I understood why the directors of the center said it was such a difficult ministry. Seeing these young people really made me so grateful for all that I have. I have a mom and dad who love and care for me, I have a home to live in, I have food and clothing, and so much more.
Tuesday morning we left to travel to Tiagu Mures. It was suppose to be about a 4 hour drive but it turned into about 6 hours! You never know what kind of traffic you’re going to run into here in Romania! The scenery was beautiful though. I felt like I was back in Guatemala again with all of the mountains. We arrived in Tiagu Mures about 3:30. Kelly, one of the directors of Livada Orphan Care met us and we went to the 2 children’s homes. We had so much fun with these kids! The houses were very clean and so were the kids. They have staff members who cook, home “moms”, and educators. These children are very well taken care of. They even teach the older teenagers to live on their own by putting them in apartments with mentors who teach them to cook and pay bills. We really enjoyed seeing the great work Livada is doing.
Wednesday morning we went back to the homes for about an hour then we left to go visit another Baby Hospital on our way back to Lugoj. We were able to see several babies and toddlers at this location. It was just heartbreaking to hear some of those little one’s stories. I held a little boy who is 2 years old but cannot even sit up on his own. Sometimes I would have to hold his head like an infant because it would just flop around. We will be posting pictures when we get home of the Baby Hospital so you can see the other children we held. It is truly heartbreaking to see these babies neglected by their parents. Adoption is so difficult in Romania so it makes the Romanian people not even want to go through the process. This explains why there are so many orphans here.
Well, today is our last full day in Romania. Hailey and I are very excited about getting back home. Please pray for our trip home. We leave Romania at 5:30 tomorrow afternoon. We’ll spend the night in Munich, Germany and continue on our way home Saturday. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us throughout this entire trip. We really appreciate it!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Hello again from Romania!
Hailey and I are getting settled here in Romania and we’ve enjoyed some ministry opportunities that past few days.
Tuesday was spent washing clothes and getting ready for Vacation Bible School. We were also able to rest from our travels the day before.
The first night of VBS went incredibly well! We had around 40 children show up. I thought they were all really well behaved. Through our broken Romanian, we went around asking the children their names. When they told us their names we would try to repeat them back. They thought this was the best thing ever. Some of their names are really hard to pronounce! When we said it wrong they would laugh and laugh and repeat it again. We had a great time!
Wednesday morning we traveled to Timisoura to visit a Crisis Pregnancy Center. We talked with the director for over an hour. She knew English so we were all able to communicate with her. The statistics for abortions in Romania is staggering. Romania has the 2nd highest abortion rate in the world. Three out of four women have an abortion. We asked Christina (the director) about her work and she explained that she is able to go into the hospital where the women come for abortions. She told us that she has seen about 7,000 women and out of those, 300 have chosen not to have an abortion. We were shocked! She explained however that the women she sees have already made up their mind to have an abortion. Even though the number seemed so small to us, we were happy that there were 300 who decided to keep their babies. Those 300 are so special and Jesus cares for each one of them. In Christina’s office she has a huge heart with all the pictures of the babies who have not been aborted. Written across the top in Romanian are these words: “Every Life is Special.” I really enjoyed seeing Christina’s ministry and I’m so excited about how God is using her in the lives of these women and young girls whom she comes in contact with.
The second night of VBS was great! We had maybe ten more children show up. The church is pretty small, but the kids don’t mind sharing chairs. Hailey started a game where she would draw a picture on the white board and the kids would tell her how to say it in Romanian. If she would mispronounce the word, the kids would laugh and laugh! They played this game for about half an hour. The kids had a great time, and so did Hailey!
Today we are going to a Gypsy village where there is a day center for street children. We’re not exactly sure what we will be doing, but we’re excited about the opportunity.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers, we really appreciate them!
Hailey and I are getting settled here in Romania and we’ve enjoyed some ministry opportunities that past few days.
Tuesday was spent washing clothes and getting ready for Vacation Bible School. We were also able to rest from our travels the day before.
The first night of VBS went incredibly well! We had around 40 children show up. I thought they were all really well behaved. Through our broken Romanian, we went around asking the children their names. When they told us their names we would try to repeat them back. They thought this was the best thing ever. Some of their names are really hard to pronounce! When we said it wrong they would laugh and laugh and repeat it again. We had a great time!
Wednesday morning we traveled to Timisoura to visit a Crisis Pregnancy Center. We talked with the director for over an hour. She knew English so we were all able to communicate with her. The statistics for abortions in Romania is staggering. Romania has the 2nd highest abortion rate in the world. Three out of four women have an abortion. We asked Christina (the director) about her work and she explained that she is able to go into the hospital where the women come for abortions. She told us that she has seen about 7,000 women and out of those, 300 have chosen not to have an abortion. We were shocked! She explained however that the women she sees have already made up their mind to have an abortion. Even though the number seemed so small to us, we were happy that there were 300 who decided to keep their babies. Those 300 are so special and Jesus cares for each one of them. In Christina’s office she has a huge heart with all the pictures of the babies who have not been aborted. Written across the top in Romanian are these words: “Every Life is Special.” I really enjoyed seeing Christina’s ministry and I’m so excited about how God is using her in the lives of these women and young girls whom she comes in contact with.
The second night of VBS was great! We had maybe ten more children show up. The church is pretty small, but the kids don’t mind sharing chairs. Hailey started a game where she would draw a picture on the white board and the kids would tell her how to say it in Romanian. If she would mispronounce the word, the kids would laugh and laugh! They played this game for about half an hour. The kids had a great time, and so did Hailey!
Today we are going to a Gypsy village where there is a day center for street children. We’re not exactly sure what we will be doing, but we’re excited about the opportunity.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers, we really appreciate them!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
We're in Romania!!!
We apologize for the delay in updating our blog. We’ve been trying to keep up with our family and with the limited connection it’s been hard to find time to update our blog.
Germany was absolutely beautiful! Hailey and I really enjoyed our time there. We were in the town of Renndenbach and stayed at a place called Lindenholf. At the BMW European conference we met some pretty incredible missionaries from all around Europe. We met missionaries from France, Sweden, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Italy, and Holland. These people were such a huge blessing to Hailey and me. We had a great time getting to know some of the teens of these missionary families. They were so much fun to hang out with!!!
While in Germany we were able to go visit King Ludwig’s castle. I cannot spell the name of the castle, but it was simply amazing! Surrounded by the Alps, the castle sits on a smaller mountain. If anyone has seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, this is the castle they used in the movie. Hailey had a lot of fun taking pictures here. We were not able to go inside the castle because there were so many people there. We were able to walk around the outside though and go into the courtyard.
One morning Hailey, two of our new friends, and I woke up at 5:30 to see the sunrise. That was incredible! Watching the sunrise over the Alps reminded me all over again how great our God is. His creation shows His majesty and Glory!
The conference ended Sunday and we packed our bags for Romania. Monday morning we were dropped off at a train station. We took the train and subway all the way to Munich airport. It was quite an experience, but we safely made it to the airport and had some time before our flight left.
Our flight to Romania was great and we landed right on time! We’re so thankful for God’s protection in all of our travels.
So, we are in Romania now. It is completely different from Germany. It actually looks a lot like Dominican Republic and Guatemala. There are fields with corn everywhere and the houses are concrete or brick. The roads are pretty bumpy and it’s very hot here! They don’t have air conditioning and they don’t use fans. Last night we had to close our window because of the mosquitoes so it’s a bit stuffy!
Tonight we begin Vacation Bible School at the Howerton’s church. We’re a little disappointed because three of the orphanages we were supposed to visit won’t allow us to come now. We know God has a purpose for everything, but we’re hoping to visit at least a couple of orphanages here.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us! We really appreciate it. We will do our best at keeping you updated about everything here in Romania.
Germany was absolutely beautiful! Hailey and I really enjoyed our time there. We were in the town of Renndenbach and stayed at a place called Lindenholf. At the BMW European conference we met some pretty incredible missionaries from all around Europe. We met missionaries from France, Sweden, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Italy, and Holland. These people were such a huge blessing to Hailey and me. We had a great time getting to know some of the teens of these missionary families. They were so much fun to hang out with!!!
While in Germany we were able to go visit King Ludwig’s castle. I cannot spell the name of the castle, but it was simply amazing! Surrounded by the Alps, the castle sits on a smaller mountain. If anyone has seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, this is the castle they used in the movie. Hailey had a lot of fun taking pictures here. We were not able to go inside the castle because there were so many people there. We were able to walk around the outside though and go into the courtyard.
One morning Hailey, two of our new friends, and I woke up at 5:30 to see the sunrise. That was incredible! Watching the sunrise over the Alps reminded me all over again how great our God is. His creation shows His majesty and Glory!
The conference ended Sunday and we packed our bags for Romania. Monday morning we were dropped off at a train station. We took the train and subway all the way to Munich airport. It was quite an experience, but we safely made it to the airport and had some time before our flight left.
Our flight to Romania was great and we landed right on time! We’re so thankful for God’s protection in all of our travels.
So, we are in Romania now. It is completely different from Germany. It actually looks a lot like Dominican Republic and Guatemala. There are fields with corn everywhere and the houses are concrete or brick. The roads are pretty bumpy and it’s very hot here! They don’t have air conditioning and they don’t use fans. Last night we had to close our window because of the mosquitoes so it’s a bit stuffy!
Tonight we begin Vacation Bible School at the Howerton’s church. We’re a little disappointed because three of the orphanages we were supposed to visit won’t allow us to come now. We know God has a purpose for everything, but we’re hoping to visit at least a couple of orphanages here.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us! We really appreciate it. We will do our best at keeping you updated about everything here in Romania.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Hello From Germany!
Sorry it has taken so long to update! We have only had internet for a few minutes on a shared computer. But here is an update! ;)
Hello from Germany! We finally made it, and what an adventure it was! Lol. We missed about 3 flights trying to get here. Our original flight from Greenville was delayed, meaning once we got to Washington, we missed our flight out of Washington by 6 minutes. We were supposed to fly from Washington to Munich Germany at 5:26. Well, after waiting in a 2 and ½ hour line to get a new flight, they tell us that we will not be able to leave on the 8:00 plane because there wouldn’t be enough time to get our bags on that plane. So, they scheduled us to leave from Washington at 10:00 flying to Frankfurt Germany. We boarded our plane, only to sit for 1 or 2 hours on the runway because of bad weather. Our flight from Frankfurt to Munich was supposed to leave at 1:20. By the time we made it to Frankfurt from Washington, it was 1:10…meaning we missed our plane to Munich! So, more waiting in lines after that ;) We got new boarding passes, and our flight was to leave at 4:20. Thankfully, there were no delays this time! We finally made it to Munich, after what felt like we had been traveling for days. We then drove two hours the conference center we are staying at. We had only slept a couple of hours since we got up Monday morning at 5, so we went to bed right after we had dinner. But, because of the time changes, being 6 hours ahead of what we are used to, we woke up about 2 or 3 hours later. It felt more like a nap. ;) haha.
Even though it was took such a long time to get here, we are thankful that we made it safely! Thank you for your prayers!
P.S. I'll try to put some pictures up soon, it just takes a long time :)
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