Whew! Made it through a very long transition from arriving at Gate A to departing from Gate Z.  Next stop is LAX!

Parents, please check the status of our flight and be on time to pick up your tired traveler.  Lufthansa 456 scheduled to arrive at 12:55pm, Saturday.

On our flight from Munich to Frankfurt for a quick transfer to our flight to LAX

On our flight to Munich

The team at Bran Castle today.  We spent an hour touring and an hour spending lei at the small shopping village below the castle.  

Our next stop was to a small gypsy village in Fagaras.  We partnered with Pastor Petri and some of his teen volunteers to deliver food packs.  Typically, we set up a food distribution and the people come to us to collect food items.  Debbie decided to try a new way to distribute so we delivered the packs to the individual homes.  It was such a beautiful blessing.  One of the homes had a man wheelchair bound with a disabled daughter.  He told the Romanian volunteer that he hasn't eaten in two days and the bag of food is truly a blessing.  The small bag of pasta, rice, flour, oil, and soup bouillon will probably feed them for a week.  A portion of the trip cost paid for all of those supplies to bless over 140 families.  Thank you to all of you who contributed to that gift.

Today was our last day with our sweet kids at Turnu Rosu.  The team led a great afternoon of games and crafts.  Last year  the team gave a parting gift to the children so we wanted to do something fun to end our time with them.  Debbie suggested McDonald's Happy Meals because many have never been to McDonald's.  Let me tell you, it was a HUGE hit!!  The loved it!  It was a wonderful and 'happy' way to end our time with them.

We drove to the city center of Sibiu and walked around before enjoying a delicious dinner at La Crema restaurant.  The city center is quaint with incredible architecture.  It's been another wonderful day.

As you can see from the pictures, the boys practiced their man skills by splitting more wood.  Renee and Chloe helped finish organizing the supply closet, and the others cleaned all the cabins.

Before lunch we had a special visit from Debbie's friend, Pastor Costi.  He pastors the church in Turnu Rosu, the small village we have been visiting each day.  I don't think I can begin to do justice to his incredible stories but I will do my best.  

One of the things Cesesceu banned during his years in power was the Bible.  If a person was caught with one it might just be confiscated, but if you were found distributing them it meant prison and possibly other punishments.  Pastor Costi was given his first New Testament Bible at age 17, and it changed his life forever.  He realized it was his responsibility to share the gospel found in that Bible, and also make sure others had an opportunity to own one.  As a young college student he joined a team of Bible smugglers. He would carry two suitcases to a train station, board the train, and meet someone along the road at a specific stop along the route.  They had a secret code of conversation to signify who was there to receive the Bibles.  He never knew his name, where he was going, or where he was from.  The reason for that is so if they were ever caught by the police they could never implicated any of the other Bible smugglers.  He did this at great risk to himself and his family, and has many stories of God's protection and provision during those years.  

A volunteer in 1998 with Heart of Hope Ministries felt God direct him to support a church in Turnu Rosu, so he funded the building of Pastor Costi's church.  It didn't happen easily, or quickly because the community did not want a Christian church in their city center.  Whatever they built during the day was torn down at night. It took two years to finally built it but it never received final government authorization, but he has never been bothered or asked by government officials to provide proof of the required authorization.

He has now earned the respect of people in the community by being the hands and feet of Christ.  He visits the sick, those suffering loss, prays for them, and meets their needs to the best of his ability. There are no obligations or expectations, they do not have to attend church, he simply loves them unconditionally as Christ loves His church. 

We have been inspired and amazed by the faithfulness and courage of Pastor Costi.  He was our living example of this week's theme of the fruits of the spirit. 

Pictures from this morning

I'm A few pictures from today.

This morning our boys experienced a 'man lesson' from Iulian and learned the art of splitting wood.  The photo below is proof our boys are one step closer to being true Romanian men. :-)

The girls spent the morning organizing and taking inventory of the medicine closet, craft room, and folding all the t-shirts for camp this summer. 

Lunch is traditionally the largest meal and usually begins with soup. Today, Maria made an amazing bean and ham soup, followed by meatballs and mashed potatoes.  

Stomachs full, loaded the vans for another day at Turnu Rosu.  As in years past, the loom bracelets were a huge hit. Most of the kids knew how to make them so there were tiny bands everywhere.  Tiger shared the story of the Good Samaritan to teach about love, and how we need to love each other.  Our translator, Felix, played the guitar and led the group in several worship songs.  It's a beautiful thing to hear a familiar worship song in another language; and serves as further proof that God isn't ever limited by international boundaries.  It was a good day, exhausting, but very good.

Day Two

A few pictures from today while I have quality service.  

Turnu Rosu

This morning we organized our VBS activities for the week, sorted donations, and did more team bonding.  This team has continued to work well together.

Debbie Marshall, the founder and director  of Heart of Hope Ministries, shared the history of the ministry and how God led her to get involved with the placement centers in Romania.

Lunch was prepared by the amazing Maria, and it was delicious, as usual.

This afternoon was our first day at Turnu Rosu and the team led a success three hours of games, crafts, and activities.  I think some beautiful friendships have begun between our Oaks kids and the kids at Turnu Rosu.  Fred is our biggest superstar and never without his groupies already! All around a perfect first day!

We've arrived at Camp of the Good Shepherd.  Everyone is showering, settling, and looking forward to a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow will be a relaxed morning as we get organized and prepared for our first day of ministry at Turnu Rosu.

Romania!!!

We made it.  We are loading the vans and heading to McDonalds, then to camp.

Happy Easter!

We are on board our flight to Bucharest!! One more step closer to ministry in Romania. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We're gonna make it!

Amsterdam

We've landed in Amsterdam!! A very uneventful flight, my favorite.  Everyone had a team member to sit with, and a little selection of movies and TV.  We are well and I will send another update when we board our flight to Bucharest.

Here we go.......again.  :-)

All are on board and ready to take off.  Plane doors are closed, several prayers have gone up, and we are ready to get outta town!

LAX Part Deux

We're back! All checked in, through security, and getting more overpriced snacks in the fancy international terminal.

Pre-Security check point.  Look at those smiling little faces!

Travel Update

For the non parents following this blog, here is a brief update of our travel adventures.  Our flight was cancelled, we spent several hours at the American Airlines ticket counter to get rebooked on another flight.  We checked into a hotel at about 4:45am, slept for a few hours, and finally decided to cancel the American flight and book a new itinerary on Delta that leaves tomorrow, Saturday at 2:45pm.  The kids have been amazing and the parents have been graciously patient and understanding. Everyone will sleep in their own beds tonight and be back at the airport tomorrow morning for round two.

Hello,

Some of you may know that our flight was delayed due to the plane arriving to LA late.  That delay has cause a flight crew member to be over the limit with the number of allowed flight hours.  They didn't call a replacement in time so, we sat on our flight preparing to leave for about 30 minutes before they announced we will return to the gate.  I'm sure some of you have received calls from your kids already.  Everything is okay, just an extra delay.  I will let you know as soon as I have more information about our next flight. 

Please pray for a group of excited travelers who are now feeling a little let down that we haven't left LA yet. They have great attitudes, it's all part of the adventure sometimes.

Thank you,

Susi

We are safely aboard our flight headed to London. Personal movie screens on the flight, so I'm sure there will be some tv marathons.

Our flight has been delayed so we are sitting at our gate enjoying some overpriced airport food.  If you want to follow our flight progress, it's been changed to American Airlines flight #136 with a scheduled departure of 9:30pm.

I will send an update when we are on our flight ready for movies and hopefully some napping.