Ramblings from Romania: VBS, Gals, & 4th of July

Last week we had an awesome 5 day VBS with one of the biggest Baptist Churches in Romania, Sfanta Treime (Holy Trinity)! We met everyday at the Gradina Botanica (Botanical Gardens), except for Thursday when we met at the church because of rain. Although we had some issues like not being able to be on the grass and it pretty much rained on and off everyday except Monday, the Lord found us a large dirt spot under a bunch of trees that was perfect. And although we thought the rain might keep a lot of kids from coming, the day that it was the wettest and we had them all outfitted with blue trashbags, we had one of our biggest days! We usually had anywhere from about 10-20 kids each day from age 4 to 9. It was a fun age group and we all enjoyed getting to be a kid again and playing with them. Our theme was Super Eroii (Super Heroes) and the kids absolutely loved it! They got to decorate a cape the 1st day and then wear it the rest of the week. I wonder how many other kids like Wayne Postema are still wearing their capes everyday haha. We had skits and guest superheros to participate in games named Adevarul (Truth) aka Boing, Boloboc (umm a level, like that you use in construction) the mute aka David, and the villan Minciunila (Lies) aka Felix. They did an awesome job playing their roles and also teaching valuable lessons to the kids like Jesus loves them, they should share, and they should obey their parents. The Gospel story was visited everyday, but ironically Felix the villan was the one who shared the Gospel on the last day. The kids were so smart and could repeat to you what they'd learned, and we pray that through VBS they will have a better understanding of God and make the choice to accept Christ as soon as they can fully understand it.

But VBS was a huge success and of course a ton of fun, and I will let the pictures tell you the rest of the story. :]

All the superheroes & the helpers

Who doesn't love parachutes!

"We are soprheroes!"

Making their capes/nametags for the week

Boloboc, Adevarul, & Minciunila

The smurfs

Super Eroii Zborati!

With the cat & spiderman

"I had a friend who was a moose"

I have superhero boots too!

Our great actors

Praying after the Gospel was given

Also in all the craziness of VBS, I had to pack all my things (which I seriously don't know how I got all this stuff here, especially when my parents took home a huge suitcase full of my winter stuff!), clean my entire apartment, and move out of what has been my home for the past 6 months! I miss my ghetto apartment and living alone sometimes, but it's a lot more fun living with 2 of my friends, Kristie and Jenny, in their sweet big apartment with an elevator! They graciously made room for me in the office, and I have a pretty spacious set up with a mattress on the floor and all of my suitcases and junk shoved in a corner. I'll be living with them for the next 2 weeks until camp, and then on the random days between camps and traveling. But we'll all be seeing a lot of each other for the next 2 months with camp and our girls vacation to LONDON the 1st week in August, which we just officially bought our tickets for! :]

1st we had no hot water... then we got this...

My set up in the office for the remainder of my time here

On Saturday, we had a "bachelorette" party for Vera who is getting married this Friday! She lives about 20 minutes outside of the city, and I literally felt like I was driving to Goode! I think God really knew I needed a break from the city, even just for a couple hours, to see the fields of sunflowers, an actual house not connected to anything else, sunshine, and big open field, a gorgeous sunset, and the stars at night! Living in the city has been exciting and great and all, but I truly am a country girl at heart and that little taste of home was definitely a gift from God! Anyways, before the party part, we had a teaching/discussion time about the book "Every Young Woman's Battle" lead by Iulia and Daria with most all the girls from Alfa Omega. We talked about it for at least 2.5 hours and it was so great to see the girls so open discussing things that I don't think are as openly taught or spoken about here. I actually understood almost everything that was said, and focusing on listening is getting easier and easier! Although when it was my turn to share, I spoke mostly in English because it's very difficult to express feelings and emotions in Romanian... and because I'm still not confident enough to speak in front of a big group in English let alone Romanian! But after the study/discussion, we ate some food, hung out outside in the sunshine, took a ton of fun jumping pics and pics in the field with the sunset in the background, then played a game with questions about Vera and Simon's relationship. It was once again great girl time and I'm so thankfully to have such an amazing group around me. I've built some great friendships and I hate the thought of having to say goodbye to them in only 2 months, not knowing when or if I will see them again. :[

"She needs wide open spaces"

Who doesn't love jumping pictures?

Photoshoot with my gorgeous friends!

The whole gang :]

Gorgeous sunset

Playing a game about Vera & Simon's relationship

Simon & Vera = <3

Yesterday I helped with the design/decorating at church, and the girls love that I'm tall enough and not scared to climb to the top of the ladder to hang stuff haha. Church was great as usual; Soterius is a great teacher and I love listening to him preach in Romanian because he enunciates well and I can even hear all the little things when he speaks. After church, Jenny, Jess, and I went to the mall, got to McDonald's, then headed back to church for the camp training meeting with Alfa Omega and Cer Deschis. Once again, I followed almost everything that was being taught and discussed! I'm so excited for our 1st camp with this gang in less than 2 weeks and I can't wait to see how God is going to use all of us to help bring their friends and family to know Him! Before we went home we stopped by the Postema's where Kristie and the kids put on a skit they prepared for us! They were all superheroes of course & Kristie was a great villan who talked with a Russian/German accent/lisp! They even had a song about cleaning up and then showed their mom their extra clean room!

Training meeting with AO & Cer Deschis

Superhero skit about cleaning up

Annd it's the first 4th of July I've ever spent out of the country! So although we didn't have huge fireworks or time to go buy some illegal sparklers and firecrackers, we did have an awesome cookout with our American team on the roof of the Postema's building! We even watched National Treasure on the projector on the side of the building!