On Friday June 13th, our first summer team came! The team was from Illinois State and they came from June 13 to 19th. There were twelve people on this team. There were nine high school students who came (eight girls and one guy) and three adult leaders. They were a great team and it was also the first one I coordinated with Niss (In January I did lead a team but it was a bit different because it was the staff from our head office).
I went to Cluj-Napoca airport to pick up the team on Friday June 13th. The school I work at rented a van. The driver who drove the van doesn’t speak English so our conversations were quite interesting! The traffic was terrible on the way to the airport. It took us 2 ½ hours to get there. We were 30 minutes late when we picked up the team. I felt so bad but I couldn’t do anything about it!
When we got to the airport we did a quick introduction, loaded up the van and headed back to Târgu Mures. The team stayed at a very nice youth hostel at the centre of the city in Târgu Mures. I am really glad we found such a great hostel for them to stay in! They liked it too.
When we got to Târgu Mures, we went straight to their youth hostel and then we went to the school for orientation. Kevin, my director did the orientation with the team. For orientation Kevin told them a bit about the culture, some expectations, and the ministry and taught them some Romanian. They were all tired from jet lag so we tired to keep them wake as much as possible! After orientation we went to the restaurant for dinner. Then after dinner we decided to head back to the school to wrap up the day and play some games.
On Saturday June 14th, it was the team’s first full day in Romania. Half of the day we were tourists and the other half of the day we spent it with the students from the school for the graduation. In the morning the team met at school for breakfast and their devotions. At 10:00am we left for Sighisoara, which is an hour drive from Târgu Mures. We did some sightseeing in Sighisoara and went up the clock tower. The team also got to enjoy some great souvenir shopping there as well on the way back when we stopped at this village on the road. They seemed to enjoy their time in Sighisoara!
In the afternoon we went to “Enjoy Bowling” for the April term’s graduation and one last time to bowl for the school year. We had a great turn out and a great time of bowling with the students! Afterwards all the teachers gave out the certificates for their classes. It was a lot of fun for the team and as well for me to connect with the students!
We went to Pizza Mix restaurant for dinner. The pizza was good and it was neat to see the team experience Romanian pizza for the first time (it’s a bit different than in the States). I think they liked it! After dinner we went back to school for their team wrap up and then it was time to head home.
Sunday June 15th. In the morning we went to church. Niss translated for the team. She did a great job! When I woke up this morning I was so disappointed to hear it rain outside because we had planned to go to a gypsy village in the afternoon. We couldn’t go there because of the rain nor could we go there all week because of the rain. In the morning before church Niss and I quickly thought of another ministry to do in the afternoon. We called the director at Life and Light group home and she told us it would be no problem for us to go there!
In the afternoon we went to Life and Light group home for a couple of hours which was great! The children really enjoyed having the team there and they didn’t seem that hesitate to interact with them when we got there. When we got there we sang with the children inside, they enjoyed that and they also sang for us too! Then we went outside and played with the children. Unfortunately we had to leave a bit earlier because it started to rainL. In the evening we had dinner and then had the wrap up at school.
Monday June 16th. In the morning the team arrived at school at 9:00am for breakfast and also for their team devotions. At 10:45am we all headed out into taxis and went to Life and Light group home for the rest of the morning. When we arrived there all the children were very excited to see us! The first half of our time with the children we decided to spend it outside because the weather was nice. We had a great time with the children outside playing with balls, Frisbees, jumping on the trampoline and drawing with sidewalk chalk. When we did our program with the kids it was like a totally different group of children! All of the children were so excited to sing with us, even the older children too. After we sang we did a craft with the children (we made key chains or bracelets).
In the afternoon we had our first day of our three day program at the school with the teenagers. This team wanted to do an afternoon program with teenagers at the English school. We advertised to everyone at the school before the team came and the Pastor at the church we went to on Sunday made an announcement as well. I wasn’t sure how many people would come because the list was quite low of the people who registered but we had an amazing turn out!! When I counted how many people came there were eighteen teens that showed up! Wow, I was so encouraged and my faith was boasted.
The first day we got everyone to write their names on a name tag and then we all went outside to play some ice breaking games. The first game we played was the name game where we tossed the bass around in a circle and got to know each other’s names. The second game we played was the human knot. We split up into three groups to do this game. One group couldn’t untie their knot! Oh, well sometimes I guess you can’t do it. After we played the ice breaking games we went inside and split up into groups to get to know each other more. We played some more games and then had a time of discussion. In the evening we ate dinner and had our team wrap up.
Tuesday June 17th. In the morning the team arrived at the school at 9:00am for breakfast and also for their team devotions. At 10:45am we all got into taxis and went to Life and Light group home for the rest of the morning. We stayed outside with the children because the weather was nice. The children had a good time with the team but they seemed a bit distance with them (especially the older girls) because they knew it was their last day there. However we still had a good time there playing with the kids, singing and doing a craft with them (we made crosses out of construction paper). Just before we left the team gave all the children large zip lock bags filled with all kinds of treats for them. The kids loved their gifts!
In the afternoon we had our second day with the teenagers. It went really well and almost everyone returned that came the first day. We did the name tags again. We started the program with everyone together in the lounge. One of the students and one of the translators led the group in a time of praise and worship which was awesome! Some of the teens don’t go to church but it was still neat to see them sing praise songs to God. Then we split up into groups again but this time we split up into age groups for a better time of discussion that everyone can relate to. All of the groups seem to enjoy being together when they played games and enjoyed their conversations as well. We ended in a large group in the lounge with the songs.
In the evening we went out for dinner at Leo restaurant and then afterwards we all went to the Mures mall for Romania’s last game in the Euro cup for their group. The game started at 9:45pm but we wanted to get there early so we could all get seats. We were all very excited to see how Romania will play so the majority of the team including myself bought Romanian flags and Romanian soccer jerseys to cheer for Romania! We arrived at the mall just before 9:00pm and the mall was already getting full up at the food court where the screens were so it was good that we got there early.
Romania played against The Netherlands. Unfortunately Romania wasn’t so lucky that night and couldn’t pull through. They played well the first half and tried to score many times but they missed every time. Then in the second half of the game The Netherlands scored two goals. I feel sorry that Romania lost the game and sorry that Romania couldn’t go on to the next round but it was good to watch the game at the mall with the team.
Wednesday June 18th. In the morning the team arrived at the school again at 9:00am for their breakfast and also for their devotions. At 10:45am we all got into taxis and went to Rozmarin School. It was great to go to Rozmarin with the team because this is where I also volunteer at every week. We split up into three classrooms and we were there for an hour and a half. I went to the classroom where I volunteer with, the second grade. We had a great time together. We sang with them, told them a story and also did a craft with them. The children had a great time! I also didn’t realize how much I had miss singing with the children because James who volunteered with me doesn’t like to sing so the last couple of months we didn’t sing. The children enjoyed singing so much that we sang for like 25 minutes!! I really wanted to take the team to the gypsy village to spend some time with the children there and we were going to go but it rained again so we couldn’t. I am glad at least the team got to spend a morning with the children at Rozmarin because almost all of them are from gypsy villages.
In the afternoon we had our last day with the teens for the teenager program at the school. It went really well! We gathered together in the lounge and sang a couple of worship songs again. The team leader had a great idea. Her idea was to go around the town with our groups to do sightseeing and just spend time talking to the students. It worked really well and it was a two in one deal where the team got to see the city more and also have some really great conversations with the students! Afterwards we went back to the school to end our program in a time of worship which was great! As we sang it rained again and I mean it poured buckets of rain and it hailed too. I don’t think I ever seen so much hail before!
In the evening we ate dinner and then went back to the school for the team wrap up and debriefing. Kevin did the briefing. I hope that they were all challenged and encouraged during the debriefing.
Thursday June 19th. In the morning the team had an early arrival at 7:00am for their breakfast and last minute cleaning and packing. At 8:00am the van arrived to take the team to the airport. We ended up leaving at 8:20am because a couple of people had to exchange their money. I wish we didn’t leave so late because we just barely made it in time for their check in at the airport but we made it! When we got to the airport we unloaded all of the luggage and said our good-byes. For me it was very tiring travelling to the airport and back again to Târgu Mures because it’s 2 ½ hours each way. I was glad to go with the team to say glad but I was exhausted when I got back! Oh and I had something interesting happen on the ride back. The driver picked up five hitch hikers on the way back which was a surprise for me because I never experience that before, though I heard it’s quite common in Romania to do that!
Overall it was a great week! I think though the rain pulled me down a bit because I got frustrated easily which I regret now. The weather was just so beautiful before the team came and then the week they were here most of the week it rain off and on. I am so thankful the team from Illinois came. They were such an amazing group and so great with the children and teens! I am excited of what God did in their lives during their time in Romania and I hope they won’t ever forget their experience here!
