Romania 2k15

We're back from our trip to Romania and it was quite incredible. This blog post is just a basic over view of what we did and accomplished on our trip. I will write a more personal one later to further explain what God did in the lives of each one of our hearts.

We left early Saturday morning and drove 8 hours to our destination. Once we arrived at the River of Life care home, we were greeted by students from IGA which is located in Istanbul. Many of our students had known some of them from different events so it was fun for them to be reunited.

On our way

We spent our Palm Sunday attending a Protestant church on the compound. Since we were a group of about 50 people, we pretty much took up the whole church. The women and kids at the care home performed songs for us which was very special. At one point, we all sang a worship song in everyone's native tongue. It was heavenly.  

Palm Sunday

After the church service, we took a tour of the city we were living in for the next week. We were quickly reminded as to how blessed we truly are living in Vienna. This city was very poor and depraved. During our tour we decided to do a pray walk throughout the city. The students broke up into small groups and prayed for each house, street, and person that passed by. 

After the prayer walk, they had a photo shoot: typical.

Work Projects
On Monday morning we were up early and ready to work. We had a lot of work projects to complete and each student was up to the task. No one complained once and these kids worked hard. The first project was to dig a deep tunnel for a septic tank. We finished the tunnel on the last day, inserted the tank, and put all the dirt back.

Before picture

Almost done! 

Another project we were asked to do was to paint a playroom for the kids. Since I have NO artistic ability, I put some very qualified students in charge of this project.

Before

Painting 1 Timothy 4:12

Visionaries 

This group had to dig out a sand pit, mix cement, pour cement, and the build a bike rack for the kids of the care home. They finished this in one day!

Some of the cement was also used to pour into another tunnel for a fence. The fence will separate the animals and kids from a garden. 

Another group of students repainted this iron fence with oil based paint. This project took ALL week and left a lot of stained clothes and faces. :)

Kid's Program

In the afternoons, we put on a kid's program for the care home kids. Our students choreographed dances, songs, brought crafts, and played LOTS of games. Each kid had the biggest smile on his or her face during this time. It was so neat to watch our students build such great relationships with these kids in such a short period of time. The kids were able to worship God, learn some bible stories, and just have fun. 

 

Surprise!

The best part of the whole week was giving these kids the ping pong table. We had raised 800 euro in order to purchase a ping pong table, work supplies, and then just donated the rest. We also had A LOT of people donate various clothes, toys, and sports equipment for these kids. They were beyond excited to receive these items and have new toys to play. In that moment the age old saying never rang more true: giving is more rewarding than receiving. 

The ICSV and IGA team.

Normal photo

Crazy photo

This is my fourth and final mission trip with these lovely ladies :(.

On the drive home to Vienna, the Lord blessed us with a spectacular sunset. The kids in my vehicle called it the Jesus effect. It seemed to be an appropriate theme for the trip. 

Then, our car broke down. We fortunately just crossed into Austria so all of our phones worked and we were able to contact the necessary people. Also, a good samaritan pulled over and helped me drive the car to a service station which just happen to be 2 mins up the road. I also got to wear a pretty cool orange vest that made it look like I knew how to fix a car; don't be fooled though because that couldn't be farther from the truth. What could have been a pretty dangerous situation turned out to be a pretty great memory.