3 posts in 1

From One Week Ago:
Another fabulous and really hot week has gone by.
Once again I started the week tired and thinking that the kids were not as fun or as cool as the previous week and that it would be a much quieter week and not as exciting...and once again I was wrong - I don't know why I have not learnt by now that this is always the case!

It was another general kids camp, with kids ranging from 6-15 though, so quite a big age spread. We managed to play a whole lot of volleyball, and I even decided this week that I quite like playing football!

Every night Andrew and I were requested to sing 'One Way, Jesus' and a Romanian song called 'Eu am un tata bun'.....and I was elected as a karaoke judge for the week.

One absolutely amazing thing happened that is quite hard to explain...but before I left England someone from my church shared a vision with me about a boy who I would meet, with a lot of specifics about the situation, and every week that went by I never met this boy, but last week I did, and so it was amazing to see the outworking of what God said was going to happen....and it is even more exciting cause part of the prophecy said that even in a difficult situation with this boy, that I would have peace because I would know that God was calling this boy to be really unstrumental in building the church in Romania and that he would call many people to Christ! I can't really explain it very well on here, but yeah, it was some amazing stuff!

On Wednesday Andrew and I and our friend Relia are going to Uricane to visit the kids in the orphanage there!!!!

Then Saturday evening our last camp here ends, and we have one week before we fly back to England...so I think we shall go to Hunedoara and stay in a centre there that does a lot of amazing social work in a really poor community, and then go to Teliuc again to visit the crew out there.

One of our friends from the teen camp posted some pics from that week, so I think that if you look under the 'photos of me' bit on here then you can see some of them at least!

Yesterday had a really strange experience of being around a table with me and Andrew, 2 Romanians and 2 french...I can't understand any french anymore, the french couldn't understand any Romanian and only a little English, one of the Romanians spoke great french, and the other great English, and then I spoke some Romanian....it was strange having a converstation going in 3 languages all at the same time.

I must run off again and get to dinner quite shortly!

God Bless
Carolyn

but first, prayer points -
- for this week, a family camp with families from Hunedoara
- direction for the future
-for Benny one of the boys from camp last week (the one who the vision was about)
- that we would figure out how to actually GET to Uricane...using train and bus

And from Today:
Our last week at camp was a family camp with families involved at the centre in Hunedoara which Beni (who runs the camp)'s brother Corneliu runs.

There were some kids and teens who we knew from previous weeks who were here again, and it was quite a relaxed week since the parents of most of the kids were there.

On Wednesday morning we had the amazing experience of riding on a Romanian 'Personal Train' - which sounds very nice eh? definitely....it was the slowest moving train I have ever experienced - it took us 4 hours to travel 98km! But we eventually made it to Uricane and it was brilliant to see the kids from the orphanage there! They were all super excited to see us as well and we just hung out for the day and wandered around their town and watched a football match and things. I had the chance to talk to Aurora quite a lot and she was doing pretty well and settling in ok, but still struggling with it. On the Thursday she was going with her brothers to see her birth mum and stay there for a week, so she was not really sure how she felt about that.

Also got to experience a new form of transport....the maxi-taxi - which I think is amazing! it would cost us like 50cents to travel for 20minutes in a little minivan sort of thing. They travel between the villages and into the cities and we never had to wait more than 5minutes for one to come, even at like 10pm.

We got back to camp on the Friday morning, and that day at lunch Benny, the little boy from camp last week phoned and we got to chat to him!
It made me realize that all of the kids who I have been thinking and praying about lots over the summer, I have gotten to see again - Milena, Alexandru (little boy from the first week...who we ran into randomly at a bank in Deva), Aurora, and Benny!

Friday afternoon I hiked up the mountain with Benny (different one than mentioned above) and Natty (who were back for the week again), Daniella and some others, and we went up and over to where there is a cave - that was really cool!
That night we play Mafia - on the suggestion of the Romanians, not me! They play it a bit differently but it was really good fun, even if all the accusations and defensives and everything were in Romanian

Everyone left on Saturday afternoon, and I mean literally everyone. Usually each week when one group leaves, the other arrives straight away (they come in the bus that will take the others away). Andrew and I were the only ones left in all of the camp - and it was strange and eerie and I didn't like it. I didn't know what to do...Andrew and I chatted a bit and then he slept and I cleaned, and then I started to pack and read a bit....eventually Beni got back and we had a BBQ and then went to bed!

Sunday morning we went to church in Simeria and then got a lift into Hunedoara where we are staying for the week now until we leave. We're staying at the centre here that Corneliu runs.....more details on the centre later.....we have a nice little room with internet access so this week I can be in touch lots!
Yesterday we went to Corneliu's church in the evening and got to see lots of folk we know...tis a very big church with a choir with like 8 violins and cello and flute as well.....Andrew and I sang a couple of songs (everywhere we go we get asked to sing some songs....this summer has involved us leading worship quite a lot) and so we sang one in Romanian, and then on the request of some of the young people sang 'One Way, Jesus', which is quite a lively and rock-y kind of song....and so I'm not sure that some of the older members of the congregation were too happy with it....that sort of music isn't typically played in their church. Later we went out for pizza, which was really good, but took like 1.5hrs before we got to eat....and then came home here and went to bed.
Today we have been helping clean and sort at the centre and tonight we are having a meeting with some of the youth who came to the teen camp.
Stay tuned for another note quite soon that will be much more interesting and have some bigger news.

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY FROM TODAY:
So.
I feel like I should write this to people individually, or perhaps wait till I get to England to tell people in person, but if I do that people will probably find out in other ways and I don't want that to happen cause then some people will get offended that I did not tell them, so I will tell everyone all at the same time (well, aside from my family who I told earlier today...)

So, as most of you know I have been trying to figure out stuff about the future and if I want to stay in Romania or in England or go back to Canada, and what God's plan is in all of it....
I knew that I would be quite happy to stay in Romania, but really wasn't sure what I would do or how it could actually work practically...so I was praying and have been asking lots o folk to pray for me that if God wanted me to stay in Romania then he needed to provide something specific for me to do, PLUS somewhere to live and a way to live/eat etc.....

Last week while we were at the Family Camp, Corneliu, who was heading up the camp that week, took me aside and asked me if I would come and work at their centre for a year or 2 or however long I wanted to stay...he said they couldn't pay me, but that I could live at the centre and eat there and so I wouldn't need to worry about anything like that! Twas a great and exact response to my prayers...and so I said yes.

I AM still coming back to England in September, and will stay for like a month and a bit, and then my plan is to go to Canada for a month before going to Romania in mid-late November (just in time to experience a Romanian winter!).

So what is the 'centre' I have been refering to?
Centrul Crestin Betleem is in the middle of the city of Hunedoara, in the middle of a lot of pretty run-down blocks of flats.
The Centre is doing a lot of amazing work with the kids, you and families from the area.....
Free Meals
After school clubs
Homework clubs
Sports groups
English lessons
Sewing lessons
Computer lessons
a Clean life project (kids from some of the really poor families can come and get showers and get their clothes cleaned)
Family support visits
Bible clubs
Youth groups
Women's groups

So I'm going to be living and working here...working with the kids and youth, doing English lessons, helping with the sports and after school clubs, potentially even the computer stuff cause they have no one to help in that area (not that computers are my strong point...), and helping doing some fundraising bids and organizing for missions teams to come out during the summer and organizing some of their summer events and camps....

There isn't a huge team working here at the moment, and a lot of us will be new...There is Daniella who has been at camp with me for the last 3 weeks and is amazing...there's Dan and Lidia who have just come from Bucharest and are social workers, there's a lady who does the sewing stuff, and a cook, and some guys who do a lot of the building work, and Corneliu and Deanna who head it all up....and probably other people involved in different little things...

But yeah, I'm well excited, especially being here this week and seeing the place and being in the community here and everything!

Umm yeah, I don't really know what else to write about it at the moment....and there's lots of you who I probably need to talk to more individually about it....but that will wait till I get back to England.

I'll probably have a Romanian Night when I get back to England at some point, and then one in Canada....with Romanian food and songs and games and photos and things, to try and raise a bit o money for the centre....but will talk about that later!

Thanks for all your prayers...and please keep praying!!

Teliuc and the teen camp

I am so tired! Last night I managed 1.5hrs of sleep, and the night before was about 3hrs. We just finished our teen camp week [see more below], and it involved lots of late nights both with the teens and with the other leaders....and so now I need some sleep catch up, but don't know when I will manage that!

I didn't realize I had not been in touch with anyone in 2 weeks - sorry mum! But, it has been a really busy couple of weeks.

After our week with the kids from Uricane, we had another week for people with disabilities, though this week was much more young adults aged. There were once again some amazing and inspiring people who really challenged me! There was one guy named Catalin who was in his mid-twenties, and he no legs really below his knees and so was in a wheel chair, he also could not really speak, not in a language understood by many anyway, BUT he had his own language that some people had learnt to understand and so he LOVED to talk and to pray, he was one of the most passionate and friendly and happy people I have ever met. And he said that he was happy to live without legs and the way that he was, because he had God. The attitude of all the people with quite severe physical disabilities who come to that camps always amaze me - they talk so much about how good God is, and how he provides for all they need, and how he blesses them so much!

I left camp one day early that week and on the Saturday ventured over to Teliuc (about 45min drive away)  to go and stay with our friends from one of the first camps here (Ghita, Alex, Anuta, Anna etc). Teliuc is a smaller village, about the same size as Agassiz really, but in a really nice location with lots of trees. There is also a really nice lake and some forests with little mini waterfalls in walking distance, BUT that weekend decided to rain and rain and rain and flood and flood and flood, so we didn't really get to enjoy the outdoor things... But it was a really nice time away none-the-less getting to chill with them all again - they are a really amazing group of people! I was staying with Anuta who was the main leader of the camp they all came to, and she speaks no English...so once again I got to work on my Romanian, and managed quite well =) I went to their church on the Sunday morning and then on the Sunday evening, and spoke a bit at both of them....and at the service in the evening they asked me to speak in Romanian, so I did for about half of what I said, and then got Ghita to translate for me at the more important part of the story I was telling! I got to see little rabbits and a baby cow, and have the most amazing 'pizza' I've ever eaten that Ghita's mum made, and yeah, got to experience more what regular Romanian family life outside of the city is like!

On the Monday Ghita and Alex and I all ventured back up to Varmaga here for the teen camp, cause they were both coming along to help out as leaders again. Most of the weeks take a day or two to really get into with the kids and the leaders, but maybe cause we already knew some folk this week, it was much really good right from the start. It was a very busy week with lots of football and volleyball competitions, and hiking and discussions and all sorts...we were in teams and my team WON (as in after all the competitions throughout that week we had the most points.....by quite a large margin)! It was a very interesting week culturally listening to discussions on things like music and drugs and alcohol and relationships and seeing the differences between Romania and England...I found it quite challenging and interesting to think about. We also got to watch some films during the 'rest' time in the afternoon....one was Dangerous Minds, which I had not seen in ages! And another was called 'Facing the Giants' which was an American Christian film about a high school football team - I actually quite liked it and it made me cry =)
This week once again I was really challenged and inspired by the faith and knowledge of people years younger than I am...as well as being encouraged by all the young people and their attitude toward what it means to be brothers and sisters and to be a family of Christians.
I had a good few people tell me this week that they think I will end up living in Romania....and that is a prayer request for y'all....cause I really have no idea where I should be....I'm feeling quite drawn to Romania at the moment, but I don't know if that is just cause I'm here and having a great time, or what....so please pray for God's guidance - and if you have any thoughts then please do let me know! [either way, I will still be coming back to England in September for a good few months at least....I would need to save up some money if I was going to move out here!!].
What else did we do this week? Played chess for the first time in ages...Beat Alex in the first one, and then lost to him in the second one....
OH YEAH!!!! yesterday morning we were sitting eating our breakfast and suddenly I looked up and saw Milena's mum (Milena was the little girl from our first week here who could not walk and who I asked you to pray for) - I was so excited I got up and ran and gave her a hug, and then she pointed to the door and there were Milena and her dad!!!! They only stayed for about an hour but it was an amazing surprise! Milena has had 2 operations on her legs now and is getting stronger in them, though still can not walk, but she is starting gymnastics next week, and they are hoping that within a year she will be able to walk!
We now only have 2 actual camp weeks left....this week with kids/young teens, and then next week with families from Hunedoara. Then we have 5 days before our flight from Budapest and I think I will venture back out to Teliuc to enjoy village life for a bit longer =)

As far as prayer requests -
- For Milena still
- For guidance for the future about if I should come to Romania to live (and if so for financial provsion to allow that to happen!)
- Thank God for his grace in helping me learn the language, and for that to continue
- For rest and energy!
- Keep praying for Aurora and her brothers
- For a girl named Estera from this last week who is living in a really tough situation at home
- For these last two weeks!

ROMANIA #2

I posted this last week on face book:
Andrew and I are in a town called Simeria where we are staying for a week with an amazing Romanian family who speak no English, so it has been good practice for my Romanian!
We are running a holiday club/VBS for the kids in the town here....doing english stuff as well as bible stories and songs and crafts and games. It has been going really well! We are also doing an english bible study in the evening for the teenagers. It is so different being here than in the camp!!!
Our family here has been feeding us really well.....so much food.....i am always completely full, no matter what time of day it is!
Yesterday between clubs we went and met up with some of the leaders from the camp last week and wandered around Hunedoara city and went to the castle there. Emma left yesterday morning and so should be back with 'y'all' now so she can fill in the Leeds folk on all our happenings anyway!
We got back to the camp on Sunday and then begins our next week, this time with kids from Uricane orphanage, then another week for people with disabilities.
Thanks for all your prayers and notes etc!

And now for today's writing:
Well another week (and a half) has gone by. The rest of our time in Simeria went well.....even had the chance on the Saturday evening to go back into Hunedoara and meet up with some of our friends and go to a Christian concert there. It was amazing and I felt so overwhelemed with the passion and everything in the place. I really love that city there.
We came back to the camp at Varmaga on Sunday evening, and Monday morning the new group of kids from Uricane orphanage arrived. Some of the kids (probably about half) I had met 3 years earlier when I was here last summer, but they have grown up so much! The other half were kids new to the orphanage. It has been a really good week but also really hard emotionally. So many of the kids have such sad stories and being in an environment like this though it is lots of fun and a great escape for them, at times can also bring out a lot of big issues to be dealt with. Leaving was also really hard obviously cause we all build up some good relationships with them, and some of the english team who were here this week helping out come every year and so the kids consider some of them to be like parents..some of the kids still have families and the orphanage is more like a big foster home for them, whereas others don't have any family. I spent a lot of time with a girl called Aurora who is 13....she had 3 brothers at the camp as well....all 4 of them have been living with the same foster mum for 7 years now, but she is having to leave to go to the states and so they are all just now going to live at the orphange. Aurora was often quite upset and thinking lots about things....she found it really upsetting leaving today as it is now the start of a new family for her...it is a good orphanage and a good big 'family' for them to be a part of, but obviously really hard - so please be praying for them! It is sad though cause you do just want to invite them all to be a part of your own family!
One of the days we got the chance to go for an hour long drive to some old Roman 'baths' that have obviously been re-done and is just a big outdoor pool thing that is overcrowded and has really dirty water....but it was great fun with the kids...and after being beat so badly in football and ping-pong, it is great to be better than the kids at a sport as most can't swim very well! Driving there and back was an experience though, as in our mini bus with 16 seats, we had about 28 people....health and safety and risk assesments all go out the window here!
I also had an amazing experience one day with something really simple....some guys from a nearby village came up to challenge some of our guys in a football match, and so we were all sitting on the sides cheering loudly (we won by a lot in the end!)....and one point i put some ear phones on and so the music drown out most of the sound and I just looked around and it was like something from a film....the guys were laughing and jumping and just loving playing their football game and looked like they were having the time of their lives, and across the field some of the girls and some leaders were playing some dancing game...and everything just looked so perfect and joyful...no problems, no worries....just happiness everywhere....it really felt like God was fully present in the middle of it all!

Tommorrow we start another camp with people with disabilities.....so something different again!

As for prayer requests:
-Aurora and her brothers...especially as the settle into their new home
-All the kids from Uricane that they would feel loved and a part of the family
-This next week
-For Beni and Mia who run the camp here....for times of REST for them
-For direction for me for the future (Sept onwards)
-Financial provision for the camps and projects here
-and all those in the last note as well!!!

I might give up posting on here soon and just use facebook notes cause it is easier than posting on three places......if you have a problem with that then speak now or forever hold your peace

Romania 1

We are here!

And it is very hot! A couple of days ago it got to almost 48 degrees. That's hot. Fortunately we have a nice siesta tradition in the middle of the afternoon from about 2-4pm which makes up (almost) for the extra tiredness caused by the heat.

In brief (cause I don't have too much time really...)

Jounrey - fine fine fine....nothing hugely eventful or noteworthy really that pops into my head at the moment

Week 1 - this was a week for children with disabilities and their families, or for kids who had disabled parents. It was a really nice week and a good one to start on cause it was quite relaxed and chilled....we led some bible story sketches and lessons and crafts and activities in the morning and then the afternoon was a lot of just hanging out and chatting with the families and the kids...and a lot of playing Uno and snakes and ladders! The people we met were amazing and this has actually been my favourite week so far. I got on really well with some of the families...even with our random communication methods of half Romanian/quarter English/quarter hand gestures.

Met one little girl called Milena who is 5 and wonderfully cute and really smart and sweet, but has problems with her legs and so she can not walk. We have all been praying for her a lot though and last week got a call to the camp saying she had an operation and the doctors are amazed at how well she is doing and she is getting a lot of strength back into her legs...so please keep her in your prayers!

Week 2 - another week for people with disabilies and their families, though this one had a lot of older folk with disabilities as well, so not as many kids....it also had a lot more of a Christian focus and so we had lots of worship times together and lots of bible studies and things....made good friends with some of the folk and spent a lot of time with two mums who had girls with autism. Everyone there seemed to think I was an expert on autism for some reason....and there was a lady who came along who worked for one of the nearby city radio stations who interviewed me for on eof their shows talking about working with people with special needs....

That week we also had a team from Scotland here working with us.....which was good in a lot of ways, but made it harder to focus on learning Romanian!

Week 3 (this week) - our first week with just a whole bunch of kids...60 of them in total....from the nearby inner city. Some of the Romanian leaders I worked with a few years back, and I also know some of the kids from before too. The kids are so different to kids in England though....even though the leaders here think some of them are really badly behaved, they are little angels really! We could never get any of the kids in Armley to sit for 2 hours in straight lines in a crowded and hot room listening to bible lessons and singing songs and such....

Next week will again be completely different. Andrew and I are going to stay in Simeria, a town about 30minutes away to run our own enlglish summer club....we won't have anyone else with us and won't have anyone to translate and they have asked us to come and teach english and teach bible stories and such...in the morning to kids and in the afternoon to teenagers.....so that should be interesting and challenging!

Andrew and Emma both seem to be settling in well and enjoying themselves! Andrew is every-popular as always, and he is also doing really well with learning the language! Emma leaves next Tuesday night already!

That gives you the general gist anyway....since we are staying in the town next week I will hopefully get the change to write more then!

PS - thanks to those who have sent me mail!!!!!!!! (Jenny, mum, Naomi and the 18-30's crew, and Nina) - you guys are swell

Prayer Requests -

For Milena

For the parents of the two girls with autism

For ease in grasping the langauge more and more each day

For safe travel for Emma next week

For health for everyone at the camp, especially in the heat

Financially for the camp here to be able to carry on doing their work

Once more with feeling

In 24 hours time we will be arriving into Budapest!
I am presently at my aunt and uncle's house, and my little brother is cutting the sleeves off yet another t-shirt.
I thought that while I still had easy access to the internet I would update on here =)

Have had a busy few days...

Friday I did end up getting my packing done and brought to Naomi's cellar...and even had time to cook dinner for folk who came round....lasagne, kraft dinner, moon peas and carrot stars, and vegetables
We all spent ages waiting for a bus, and then like a bunch of giddy tourists on our first ever trip to the big city, cheered at its arrival and upon our arrival into Bradford. Got to spend the bus ride there chatting politics with Samuel (the brother of Esther who I do AVB Therapy with...who has just returned from a year in the States)....has been quite refreshing having someone to argue with who doesn't take it personally and get offended...and who doesn't get offended at my sarcasm =)
Ice skating was fab - though busy and actually had some quite good skaters there! At one point they kicked all of us with 'rented skates' off the ice so the good people with their own skates could play British Bull dog.
The trip home was filled with a lot of singing...started by Vicki and I singing 'When you're gone' by Mr Bryan Adams and Mel C...that song soon became the theme song of the weekend and will probably always remind me of skating and wedding from now on.
Got back and went up to Sal's house as Emma and Amie who did Oasis last year at the church were there...had random interesting conversations and got to eat ice cream!
Emma stopped at my house and seemed to think it strange that I would eat macaroni and cheese for breakfast..

Saturday morning we went to decorate the reception hall, and then had to get to the church to practice the music. The songs Mark and Leanne chose were not your typical wedding songs (included such things as Shine Jesus Shine and Our God is a great big God)....but we did get to sing 'Because you loved me' during the register....
Headed down to the Armley Liberal Club for the afternoon reception....quite laid-back and chilled but lots of fun. We had about 4 hours before the evening reception but didn't want to leave and come back, so sat around and played Mafia, Poker, Cheat and Asshole....and at one point took a trip in our dressy outfits over to the local pet shop...this involved a lot more singing of Bryan Adams.

The evening do was great fun and involved lots of dancing....even when the majority of people left and it was really only me, Emma, Sam, Richard and Vicki left, we took over the dance floor and enjoyed ourselves =) We kept requesting 'When you're gone' but the DJ never played it =( By the time they played the macarena there were only 4 of us left on the floor...but we danced away none the less! We left there at about 11:30pm as they got told to stop the music...and so Sam, Emma and I walked back to mine and had a drink and then Emma and I chatted about ROMANIA!
One other highlight of the evening....getting told I was really good at salsa or tango...can't remember which is was....but Matt taught me in like 2min and some lady came up to me after and said I was a really good dancer =) and then had the guy with her say, yes, but she's even better at singing =) hehe....those aren't complements I get all that often so that was cool!

Today got up and cleaned out my room and then went to church and returned lots of random things to random people....talked a bit about Romania during the service - and wished everyone a happy Canada Day (I patriotically wore a Canada flag sticker on my jeans). Said lots of goodbyes after and then went to Neil and Beril's for lunch along with Matt and Matt and Jenny and Ric....then my unce stu came and picked me and my baggage up and that is why i am at their house now!
My allergies today have been awful....first day I have given in and taken some drugs for it....though they have not worked super well....so pray for that please!

la revedere si dumnezeu sa te binecuvinteze!