Wednesday Update and Thursday Plans

Courtney has been faithfully updating her facebook page as a kind of personal blog. We asked her to copy some of her posts to this blog so you could get a feel for what the youth team (Courtney, Will, and Kate) have been up to. That's what the last post was.

On Wednesday it stopped raining before we had to walk over to the church for breakfast and didn't rain anymore all day. Thanks to everyone who prayed the rain would stop!

We ate breakfast at the church and then loaded up a van for the two hour ride up to the orphanage. The country side was absolutely gorgeous! Travis said it reminded him of East Tennessee (except for the sheep, shepherds, haystacks, and red tiled roofs). We drove through the mountains passing farm after farm. I tried to figure out what they were growing- recognized corn and maybe some kind of beans. The crops looked wonderfully healthy and lush. Travis tried to get me to ride up front with the driver, but I think I would have made the driver nervous since I had my hands over my eyes much of the time and made little gasping noises everytime we almost ran over someone (which was alot).

The orphange was really nice. They have about 20 children now but can accomodate up to 50. We toured the facility, which is supported by a group of baptist churches in the area (including Hope Baptist). The rooms were clean and large. It was bright and airy. The kids seemed happy and loving. They especially took good care of the youngest boy there who they called Boo-Boo. Megan really would like to take Boo-Boo home with her! (Unfortunely, Romania no longer allows international adoptions.)

At the orphanage, Travis did his sheep sermon again (he's getting really good at this, someone please ask him to do it at ERBC), we played games in their outside field (which is also a cow pasture so there were some "obstacles" to be avoided during the running games), made salvation bracelets, gave them gift bags (including some of the dolls that Linda brought) and clothes. We ate lunch there and then headed back to the church.

After dinner at the church. The youth team went to a youth worship service while the rest of us sorted through the ministry supplies getting ready for Thursday and figuring out what supplies we are leaving for Jehlu and which we are taking home.

We gave Will a tutorial on how to work all the appliances in the apartment. Some things like the washer are not intuitive.

I can't remember if Travis told you or not, but apparently his and Tom's sermons have been posted on Hope's website maybe some other things too. You can check it out at sperantaresita.org .

Plans for Thursday.

9 a.m. Breakfast at church
10 a.m. Leave for Center (a day center for disadvantaged children, they can come get lunch there everyday- some of them came to VBS in the park earlier this week)
1 p.m. - Lunch at church
Afternoon- We will go to downtown Resita and see 1st Baptist and the house-like church that they first met in. We will also do a little shopping.
6 p.m.- We will have a final worship service at Hope.
8 p.m. - dinner (I think it will be pizza again so the ladies in the kitchen can attend the worship service)

What we ate:
Breakfast- Scrambled Eggs with Ham pieces, yogurt, cereal, coffee
Lunch- Chicken soup, cole slaw salad, baked chicken, mashed potatoes, fried donut sort of things fill with jam or cheese
Dinner- spaghetti with a tomato sauce (this was not a traditional american spaghetti sauce, the spices were different and it had small pieces of pork in it) and ice cream bars.

What we learned:
-The Romanian countryside is really beautiful, but their life is hard. All the farming is manual. We saw people with hoes out in the fields and saw them bringing hay back to their animals with horse and cart.
-The kids at the orphanage were familiar with the game Red Rover. But instead of calling Red Rover, Red Rover send (name) right over. They call out something that means Country, Country we need another soldier.

How to pray:
- Pray that the ministry at the center will be effective (were doing a modified VBS type program).
- Pray for our safety in traveling around Resita this afternoon. Any travel by car is a little harrowing.
-Pray for the worship service tonight.