Home again, but not quite.

Well as you may have imagined, we are back from our adventures in Transylvania and before you ask, no, we did not stumble upon any vampires!  We certainly did have a wonderful time and experienced things we are not likely soon to forget.

Traveling to Romania was largely uneventful, at least until we arrived at our stop.  At which point, bumbling Americans that we are, we forgot to get off! This small oversight cost us an extra hour on the train, three hours waiting in a train station in the middle of nowhere, and a bumpy two hour van ride! In our defense, the train stopped for what was probably a grand total of 25 seconds… which is a difficult thing for a team of nine with baggage for ten days to prepare for.  In the end it’s a great memory for a good laugh and it didn’t dampen the tone of our trip!

As this is a blog, and not a book, I won’t delve a great deal into the details of all that we saw and did, but I will color in the basics! Probably the most consistent part of our trip was our work in the after school program that the church plant has established there.  About ten gypsy children of all different ages go to this place for about 5 hours after school each day.  Here they are fed, helped with their homework, and taught the bible.  Each of these children come from heavily abusive homes.  Abuse is more common than not in the gypsy cultures of Eastern Europe.  One child we knew had been tossed out of a two story window by his father only two weeks before we arrived.  So we spent time with these kids and built relationships with them, loving them unconditionally and preaching the gospel to them. 

                Of all that we saw and did, probably the most impactful, especially for Sarah, was visiting one of the orphanages in Bistritia.  Because most orphans are adopted or put in foster homes in Romania, the orphanages are filled primarily with children of various handicaps. These are the children no one wants.  They suffer terrible treatment, the worst of which could simply be summarized by a lack of love.  Diapers are left unchanged through the night, and well on past the morning.  If it weren’t for the missionaries and members of the local church that go regularly, infants would go un-held for days.  Many of the children have Cerebral Palsy and are barely touched except for the administering of medication.  All in all it was very difficult to see, especially for Sarah I think, who has not seen children in these conditions before, and didn’t know what to expect. For me it was a real joy just to hold some of these children and whisper in their ears that Jesus loves them in Romanian.  They don’t understand much and will probably forget us soon, but perhaps they will remember the name of Jesus with warmth and kindness in an environment devoid of any affection or love.

                It was good to arrive home in Vajta but I think the trip away just had Sarah and I missing all of you, our friends and family in American even more.  At this point we have only two more weeks here in Hungary and then we’ll be off to spend the holiday season in Arizona with my parents for five weeks.  

              

                For Sarah and me, the end of the school year means lots of grading papers and administration.  We will be keeping busy these last two weeks and so the time should fly!  Sarah continues to be a great steward of the coffee shop and last night organized a coffee shop decorating party to which almost the entire school came to.  It was a smashing success complete with hot cocoa, sugar cookies, and obnoxious amounts of laughter.  We capped the end of the night with a showing of Home Alone, during which there was even more obnoxious laughter :)  

Well there was much more I could write about it but I would be unwise not to save some stories for when we come back!  We miss you all very much and hope this reading finds you enjoying life and the holidays, and I hope none of you were injured during your Black Friday ventures!