Orientation and Relaxation

Today we had orientation and we learned about what to expect from this trip. Even though we've been here before it was still good to go through this, as it just reminded us of why we're here. Our primary goal should be to glorify and worship God and through that he will use us to work in the lives of the kids. Prayer was also highly emphasized and it is so true that we are going to need a lot of it during this trip. Praying for protection from Satan's attacks is so important and is probably our number one request.

We're feeling pretty good right now, we slept really well our first night so we're hoping that the jetlag is just about done. When we weren't busy with the orientation we hung out with our team and relaxed. The girls from the transition house came and we went swimming with them and had a blast playing with a beach ball. We had Shwarma for dinner, which is a Romanian version of a Gyro, with a pita, chicken, french fries, cabbage, pickles, and catsup. They were very good.

Rebecca and I are going to be the materials managers at camp, meaning that we will help make sure the right things are in the right places at the right times. This should be a challenging task but we did want to help with things like this so it is a good opportunity to do that.

Tomorrow we head to camp, so we are gearing up for that. Now it's time to go to bed and get some much needed rest.

We Have Arrived!

Well, we made it here in one piece. Our flights went as well as they could, they were on time and all our luggage made it here. Only one person had some missing luggage, so out of 19 that isn't too bad. When we stepped out of the airport it was really hot, in the mid 90's, and very humid. I guess it's not too much different than hot days in Michigan, it just hasn't been there yet. Some of us went swimming in the pool, which was really nice and refreshing. We are all really tired and are trying to stay awake until sunset, which is about an hour yet. We are 7 hours ahead of home, and because of flying we will be going to sleep for the first time in 26 hours. Hopefully the jet lag will be minimized by us staying up like this, it will help our bodies adjust.

We are getting to know our team here which is great, because we'll be working a lot with them. We will be going through orientation tomorrow and then Saturday we will head out to camp, a day early, so we can have enough time to set it all up. I'm quite sure that we won't be able to post once we get there so I am going to try and post some pictures before we head out.

It is still feeling a little unreal that we're back here again. Once we start tomorrow it is going to be a very busy rest of the summer.

How To Contact Us And See Other Camp News

While we are on our mission trip we hope to be able to post updates here and to also e-mail out notifications about the postings. There is a chance though that once we get to camp we won't have much access to the Internet, so we won't be able to post much. There will be whole camp updates posted on a more frequent basis, so if you don't hear from us on this blog then you might want to check out this forum: http://www.heart2heartint.org/h2hBB/viewforum.php?f=6

You can also use that forum to get in touch with us, instead of e-mailing, because we may have limited access to e-mail as well. You can register on that forum for free and you won't get spam from it, trust me, I've been registered there since our last trip. Once you are registered you can create a post or add to one where you can send us words of encouragement or other notes, and we'll get them while we're out at camp. Otherwise we may not be able to check our e-mail until we're back in the city toward the end of the trip. We hope to hear from you on the forum as it will be nice to hear from loved ones back home. Thanks!

Prayer Requests For Our Trip

Prayer is so important. We are very privileged to have a God that listens to and values our prayers to him. That's why we would like to ask anyone reading this to pray for several things having to do with our trip. We appreciate your prayers very much and want to thank you in advance for partnering with us in prayer. Here is a list, which I'm sure doesn't cover all the possibilities, but it is a start.

Pray that:
-We and all the volunteers have safe travels to and from and inside Romania.
-The orphans will also be safe in their travels to camp and while they're there.
-That we can effectively show the orphans the love of God and that God will change their lives.
-That we'll all just have a great time.
-That we'll stay healthy.
-That we'll get enough sleep.
-For patience.
-That others will see what we're doing and be moved to action also.
-Wisdom for running camp.
-That the orphans hearts will be open to the gospel.

Wrapping Things Up

The last few weeks have been very busy for us. Since we are leaving tomorrow and we will be gone for 5 weeks, we have been trying to get together with our family and friends, so we've been on the go a lot and have had a lot of people over. We have really enjoyed seeing everyone, and we're going to miss everyone when we're gone. We are so appreciative of all the support we've received, and we know that we will continue to feel that while we're away.

Sam and Jaden playing together in our basement

We also completed the basement work so that Dave and Holly would have everything they needed while we are gone. The main thing that was left was the bathroom, so we tackled that and finished it not too long ago (you can read about the beginning of the bathroom finishing in a previous post). Our friend Dan came over and we installed the vanity, counter top, and toilet. Dave and helped but left the plumbing up to him since he used to do that as a living. Dave and I hung the towel bars and then Rebecca helped me put up the big 48" X 30" mirror.

Dan and Dave working on the plumbing of to the sink

Me working on helping the vanity to fit by taking off some baseboard

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Dave was so happy to finally have a finished bathroom that he hugged the toilet! Actually he was installing the tank, but hey

Dan and I standing in the finished bathroom, minus the towel bars and mirror which were put up later

It feels great to have all that done, and it is so nice for Dave, Holly & Jaden. The basement is now mostly done and all of the important things are finished. So we can have the peace of mind of not leaving any big projects behind.

Summer Camp Schedule

Here is our schedule for the whole trip. I figure by posting this you can keep up with what we are doing and when. This schedule is of course tentative but I would guess it will stay pretty much the same.

Wednesday, June 25 – Depart US
Thursday, June 26 – Arrive in Romania
Friday, June 27 – Orientation
Saturday, June 28 – Orientation/Camp Set-up
Sunday, June 29 – Camp Set-up

Monday, June 30-July 5 – Camp #1
Saturday, July 5 – Kids leave in AM, Clean, rest, reset camp in PM
Sunday July 6 – Day off (rest, laundry, sightsee, etc)

Monday, July 7-July 12 – Camp #2
Saturday, July 12 – Kids leave in AM, Clean, rest, reset camp in PM
Sunday July 13 – Day off (rest, laundry, sightsee, etc)

Monday, July 14-July 19 – Camp #3
Saturday, July 19 – Kids leave in AM, Camp team back to Bucharest
Sunday July 20 – Some of camp team returns home

Monday, July 21-July 26 – Camp #4 (Teen Camp)
Saturday, July 26 – Kids leave in AM, Camp team tears down camp

Sunday, July 27 – Church at AlphaOmega Church
Monday, July 28 – Baby hospital, shopping
Tuesday, July 29 – Debriefing
Wednesday, July 30 – Team departs in AM

Prayers For Safety And Flight Schedule

In a couple days we will be leaving the country, off to Romania. This will be the first time that we've flown without someone else being in charge, so there's a little bit of uncertainty there. Thankfully we went on this exact route on our last Romania mission trip, so we're hoping that it will go just the same. We do both enjoy flying, this will be Rebecca's second time and my sixth time. It doesn't look like we'll have window seats so hopefully the person that does will be nice and let us take pictures over them :-) If anyone can make it to the airport to send us off that would be great. We will be taking off at 2:55 pm on Wednesday (June 25).

Please pray that we have a safe trip all the way to Romania and back, and that all our flights go well. Pray that we are able to figure everything out and that our luggage makes it to our destination on time and in tact. Pray for safe travels inside Romania and for safety for the kids and all of us volunteers. Please pray that God will place a hedge of protection around the whole camp so that we can be safe from Satan's spiritual attacks as well. I'll be adding more prayer requests before we leave but I wanted to focus on the safety ones in this post. We really do need and appreciate your prayers for us the whole time we're there and beyond!

The trip to Romania:

25 JUN 08 - WEDNESDAY NORTHWEST 5803 COACH -CANADAIR JET
LV : GRANDRAPIDS/MI 300P NONSTOP MILES- 120 CONFIRMED
AR: DETROIT/METRO 401P ELAPSED TIME- :58

NORTHWEST 68 COACH EQUIP-BOEING 747 JET -TERMINAL- EM
LV : DETROIT/METRO 520P NONSTOP MILES- 3940 CONFIRMED
AR: AMSTERDAM 700A ELAPSED TIME- 7:40 ARVL DATE-26 JUN

26 JUN 08 - THURSDAY NORTHWEST 8367 COACH EQUIP- 737 JET
LV : AMSTERDAM 940A NONSTOP MILES- 1111 CONFIRMED
AR: BUCHRST OTOPNI 120P ELAPSED TIME- 2:40

The trip back:

30 JUL 08 - WEDNESDAY NORTHWEST 8358 COACH EQUIP- 737 JET
LV : BUCHRST OTOPNI 600A NONSTOP MILES- 1111 CONFIRMED
AR: AMSTERDAM 755A ELAPSED TIME- 2:55

NORTHWST AIR 47 COACH CLASS EQUIP-BOEING 757 JET
LV : AMSTERDAM 1155A NONSTOP MILES- 3940 CONFIRMED
AR: DETROIT/METRO 250P ELAPSED TIME- 8:55

30 JUL 08 - WEDNESDAY NORTHWEST AIR 243 COACH EQP-A320 JET
LV : DETROIT/METRO 528P NONSTOP MILES- 120 CONFIRMED
AR: GRANDRAPIDS/MI 613P ELAPSED TIME- :59

Packing and Marshmellows

The days are flying by as we get ready to leave for Romania on our mission trip. It is so hard to believe that it is almost here. We will be leaving on June 25 in the afternoon and won't return home until July 30, which make it 5 weeks that we'll be gone. Rebecca has been busy packing, and it is surprising how little we'll take for such a long trip. We are bringing clothes that are fast drying so that we can hand wash them, and since we'll be at camp we won't need anything fancy.

We are packing extra batteries for the camera, so we'll have 3 sets of good rechargeables and one or two of regulars. We're told we probably won't have a chance to recharge but I'm thinking this should be enough. One of our friends let us borrow a memory card for our camera so we have 4 Gb of memory, which I would think would be plenty, but we'll see. I think we'll end up with a lot of pictures because we don't want to forget anything that we do there.

Believe it or not, we are also taking 472 marshmallows with us! Apparently they are hard to get in Romania, and we'd like to have the kids experience smores. Imagine 60 kids all having smores for the first time, roasting a marshmallow for the first time, and hey, probably even being by a campfire for the first time. I think it will be fun although a little chaotic. But it will be worth it. Now we just need to find room for them, good thing they compress a lot.

Summer Camp!

Summer camp in Romania is going to be truely awesome. The camp is located in the Southern Carpathian mountains, a bit north of the town of Arges, which you can search for on Google maps. The camp is run by a Christian guy so he is letting us use it for camp for the whole month of July. What an awesome find, and it is so great that we will be able to use this place. From the pictures it is reminiscent of the Sound of Music, as you can see in the picture below. The setting will be so different for the kids who are mostly used to living in busy, larger cities or villages. This will be a very serene place where they can enjoy the great outdoors and see God's wonderful creation. We can't wait to see their reaction when the get dropped off here, I'm sure there will be lots of excitement with some curiosity and apprehension mixed in. Thankfully we have a large team that will be there to help them get used to all the new things that they will be experiencing at camp.

The hills are alive...

Here are the cabins the kids will be staying in, they sleep up to 8 with cots and bunk beds.



This is a view of the pavilion with the mountains in the background.

Some goats that are grazing nearby the camp.

Apparently there are ruins of an old monastery in the area, hopefully we get to hike there.

The camp does have a website that has lots more pictures, feel free to go there. It is in Romanian though but you can still look at the pictures and get an idea of what it will be like.

http://www.satvacantabradulet.ro/index.php

Our Upcoming Romania Mission Trip

A week from now we will be traveling to Romania for another mission trip there. This one will be a lot different though, as we are going to be helping out with a summer camp for the orphans there, and we will be there for 5 whole weeks in total. We are really excited about this and can't believe it is now only a week away! Throughout the week I am going to be posting more about this, and then while we're there we are going to update the blog as often as we can. For now though, I just wanted to share some maps of where we are going and to introduce this mission trip to everyone.

We will fly out of Grand Rapids to Detroit, from there to Amsterdam, and then to Bucharesti. The trip will be 5171 miles in total, and about 12 hours not including layovers. We will meet up with other volunteers along the way, as there are people coming from all over the country.

We will arrive in the capital city of Bucharesti and stay there for a few days for training. We will get our assignments of what we're doing at camp and get to know our new team-mates, and we'll also learn a little of the Romanian language, which we have also been working on a bit at home. After that we will travel to the camp which is in the mountains. Most of the orphans have never been to a place like this so it will be a totally new experience for them.


We'll be halfway around the world working to glorify God and to show these kids that we love them and Jesus loves them. What a privilege we have to be able to do this, praise God!

Some Pictures of Us

Here are some pictures of Rebecca and I at various times, just for fun.

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At Niagara Falls on our big camping trip of 2007.

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Us with our kitties Chewy and Smokey.

Us at the pictured rocks in Michigan's upper peninsula during our 2006 camping trip.

Chewy as a little kitten.

Smokey as a little kitten.

Romanian Orphan Video

One of our passions, if you hadn't noticed, is caring for orphans, and specifically orphans in Romania. The organization that we went to Romania with on our last mission trip is Heart To Heart International: http://www.heart2heartint.org/ They put together a great video that shows what they do and some of what it's like to be an orphan there. I wanted to share the video with you as it will give you some great insight, and hopefully you will be moved to help too, by supporting the ministry or going on a mission trip there yourself.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWadd-MRUPk

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGlFA9gIJ7M&feature=related

A mostly good weekend

Last weekend was a project weekend with a few free moments thrown in. On Friday we worked on installing some things that we bought on Wednesday for finishing the basement. We put on doorknobs and hung some blinds, both which had their own challenges. The doorknobs had square edges on the strike plates and by the latches, so Dave had to chisel out the existing slots to get them to fit. Then one of the blinds didn't fit the window, even though they were custom cut. It was just a hair too long, so we decided to take it and have it re-cut.

Saturday my friend/co-worker Dan came over to help install the vanity/counter top and toilet. The vanity went in nicely, and looked nice too. Then we put on the counter top and found out it was a terribly warped piece of junk. There was no way we could work with it, so we finally gave up on that. Then as we were installing the toilet Dave noticed that it wasn't what we ordered, so we had to take that back off. Thankfully we didn't go as far as hooking up the plumbing so it wasn't that bad. But we did feel pretty frustrated that we weren't able to finish, and of course the place wasn't open, so we'll have to wait until later in the week. Holly took the blinds back to have them re-cut and had a terrible time with unhelpful workers. They couldn't figure out what to do, saying that the only person who knew was busy. Finally they asked someone else and he was able to figure it out in a matter of minutes. I cleaned out the garage and reorganized using some shelving units that Dave and Holly had. There is so much space in there it is really nice.

Saturday night Rebecca and I watched our favorite show, Iron Chef America. We watched two big brothers beat Bobby Flay, which is pretty hard to do. I always wish that the TV would provide tastes and smells because that food sure looks good. Sunday was busy too, shortly after church I went to Jail for the church service there, and after that we spent a lot of time looking through years worth of photos so that we could back them up on disks.

Living Out Acts 2 Community

Well, this has been an eventful week! Our friends Dave and Holly and their son Jaden moved into our basement, their new apartment. They had just finished living on the Cornerstone University campus because Holly worked there and they lived in a dorm/apartment. We had been talking about the possibility of them coming to live with us for a while, because it would help them save up for their own house since we wouldn’t charge much rent. It will be a help to us too having a little extra income. It’s quite a radical thing to do, in this day and age when houses are getting so big and the families in them are getting smaller, sharing a “starter home” with another family is almost unheard of. But we are all about being abnormal, as there are a lot of things in our culture that we don’t agree with or do differently.

We had been working on finishing our basement this whole winter and spring. When we bought our house it was new and the basement was only framed in. I had heard that dry walling was a pain in the neck so we had our builder hang and finish the drywall, so it had been at that point for a couple years. Rebecca’s dad is a painter and general handyman, so he has been helping/doing most of the finishing, such as hanging the doors, putting up trim, molding, painting, etc. I installed a beautiful laminate floor, which was fun and now I can say that I at least did one major part of the finishing. Plus I added a closet in the bedroom so I did get to try my hand a dry walling. The last main part was the baseboard, which was finished on Friday, and just in the nick of time, too.

Later that night was when the real busyness began. Over the weekend we moved all their stuff in using the shop truck and a borrowed covered trailer, which worked out great. A few of their friends and family helped, which was awesome because it would have taken forever otherwise. The funny thing is that I underestimated how much stuff they had, and they underestimated the amount of room we have in our house for storage. So now, after a week of unpacking, things are looking great down there. It is apartment sized, and only lacks a kitchen, so they’ll be sharing ours upstairs. Amazingly there is still room for more storage, which we hopefully won’t need to use.

The last thing to do is finish the bathroom, it has a working shower but no toilet or vanity. That will be a project for tomorrow, and I’ll post some pictures of the whole experience then.

We’re exited to have new house-mates, we are great friends and I can only see that friendship deepening. This will be an interesting chapter in all of our lives, and I think one that will enrich our life experiences.