[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: Romania update

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Posted by The Night Writer:
Romania update
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1159390555.shtml


     Ah, the Paris airport in the early morning. Can you tell which one
                     managed to sleep on the airplane?

   The Reverend Mother and Tiger Lilly's team rolled out of Garden
   Valley, Texas on Thursday for a five-hour ride to Houston for the
   flight to Europe. RM stopped drinking anything the night before the
   bus-ride; it was a five-hour drive with no bathroom in the bus and no
   stopping! Friday they caught an overnight flight that laid-over in
   Paris and then terminated in Budapest, Hungary. After that it was
   another six-hour bus ride to Oradea, Romania where the team is staying
   and ministering. I didn't hear if there were toilet facilities in the
   bus or rest breaks in the trip to Oradea, but RM filed this email to
   me:

     Hello, We made it after only 27 hours of traveling. I slept, last
     night, for 10 hours. I have been sick with a cold which I think I
     got from Emmie, one of the Project Directors. We are staying in a
     building built by the church. It has dorm rooms that sleep four. We
     are the first people to sleep in the beds because it's brand new.
     The bldg. has a kitchen, an auditorium, the pastor's offices and
     lots of other rooms, the purposes of which I don't know, and maybe
     they don't either, yet.
     The travel was fairly uneventful, which is good. David, the other
     Project Director told us his favorite part is taking the groups
     through the airport because of the logistics and problem solving
     challenges. I'm fairly certain he's been in the military, because
     of the way he runs things. He looks like ex-military too.
     While we were waiting in the Houston airport he told us stories
     from some of the trips he's been on. For instance, on a trip to
     Albania, a girl had half of her hand cut off and he had to go to
     amazing lengths to get her the appropriate medical care within 24
     hours so her hand could be saved. They managed it. Emmie told me
     those were the early trips and every time something happened GE
     would make a new rule to prevent things like that in the future.
     They do seem to have a lot of rules, but now I know why.

   [1]Global Expeditions is a ministry of Teen Mania, formed to introduce
   young people to the missionary vision and to send them around the
   world. This summer GE had 58 trips planned to 21 countries (including
   the U.S.), and the trip my family is on was one of four to Romania.
   When they arrived at the church they are staying at in Oradea there
   was already a previous group there that had been working on various
   projects, including organizing a neighborhood block party for Sunday
   evening that would kick-off the church's Vacation Bible School this
   week. The VBS will be the main focus of the Tiger Lilly and her
   cohorts, though other public ministry in streets and parks is planned.
   Sunday at church they had a special visitor, Ron Luce, founder and
   head of Teen Challenge.
   RM's role is as the assistant to the two Program Directors leading the
   trip. There are 30 youth (ages 11-13) with an adult Missionary Advisor
   for every four or five kids. RM handles the travel logistics, daily
   itineraries and other crucial details such as going to the market
   daily to buy bread for the main course of most of their meals:
   peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches.

     This morning in church Ron Luce, the founder of Teen Mania, spoke.
     He flew in last night. Teen Mania has been working with this church
     for 10 years and this is the first time Ron has been here. I heard
     a little of his testimony of how he started Teen Mania and GE.
     After the service was over I had him pray for me as a youth leader.
     I've attached a photo of him with his translater, Ted, on the
     right.
     I did see some gypsies here in church today. The church has some
     ministry to the gypsy culture, but no one talks about them much,
     I've noticed. I followed two down the street a ways, on my way to
     market to buy bread, and I wanted to take their picture but I
     thought it would be rude; as if they were not real people, but
     animals in a zoo or something. They were very colorfully dressed,
     but looked very downtrodden.
     Yesterday I was mistaken for a Romanian, but today when I left the
     store I was stopped by security so they could check my purchases
     against my receipts. There were many security people standing
     around, but I didn't see them stop anyone else. I wonder if it was
     the visor I was wearing or what clued them in that I was an
     unsavory individual. While I was in the store I heard all kinds of
     American music played over the PA. some of it was very old. I heard
     Baker Street. Isn't that funny?.
     I have to go almost every day to buy bread for our daily PBJs.

   In addition to emails, I can follow the trip's progress from a parent
   page on the GE website. The Project Leaders upload photos and news
   regularly. They posted the following as the group packed up to leave
   Texas last week:

     The juniors learned how to communicate their faith using their
     personal testimonies and the basic principles of the gospel. We
     watched dramas that depicted how to tell others, who are from
     another culture, about God.
     Evening worship, once again, was amazing. In fact, many of the
     students moved out of their seats and went down to the front where
     there was more room to express how excited they were about God.
     After an excellent final service, the young people got ink, and put
     their finger print on a map of Romania. It symbolized their
     commitment to use their unique abilities to leave an impression on
     Romania, and make HIM known.
     Packing went until around midnight, and now everyone is sleeping.
     We will be ready to leave campus around 7am in the morning.
     Pray that God will help us to travel smart, and to pay attention to
     detail. Pray that our leadership team stays energized and alert, as
     we load these teens on the planes!
     Sincerely,
     Dave and Emmie
     Project Directors
     P.S. We want to honor Marjorie, who is our 'Country Assistant.'
     Marjorie spent all day organizing passports and travel release
     forms, getting team lists together, and prepping games for the
     students to play while we travel on the long bus and plane rides.
     Thanks to Marjorie we have everything ready to go! She rocks!

   Amen to that!

References

   Visible links
   1. http://www.globalexpeditions.com/index.php

   Hidden links:
   2. file://localhost/files/thenightwriterblog-Paris_airport.jpg
   3. file://localhost/files/thenightwriterblog-Ron_Luce.jpg