Hey Everyone!

For those of you who have been faithfully checking my blogsite...I am so sorry that I haven't posted anything in such a long time! Thank you so much for your faithfulness and interest in my crazy life here in Romania. Seriously, I can't believe the summer is half over. Things have been going at a hundred miles an hour around here. In July, things really picked up as I went away with Steven's House on a short vacation to Oradea. The trip was cut short due to poor weather. We came back and had about 3 days to do tons of laundry.

Then we ALL packed and went to Marga. When I say ALL, I mean all of the Global Hope children, plus a few extras, all of the houseparents, five of our house helpers, three translators, two cooks, Walter Williams, Jasmine (a Global Hope intern), six American mission team members, and me! It added up to around 50 people! This is the third, and probably final, year that we hosted the Global Hope children's camp in Marga. It was, like the last two years, full of wonderful experiences and much fun and laughter.


Our beautiful translators: Lore, Lois, and Ionela

We did a five-day VBS program. This year the theme was Lift Off - Soaring to New Heights With God. There was music, Bible Stories, the kids performed skits every morning, crafts, snacks, and games. A lot of chaos, but also A LOT of fun!


Hoini (4, Steven's House) enjoying her snack

We also tried a few new things this year. We had a water afternoon and coordinated some fun water games with the kids. It was warmer this summer than last summer so everyone enjoyed the time to cool off. We filled up water balloons and used them in a couple of fun relays. In one game we lined up all of the little kids in one line and all of the big kids in another. The little kids had to pass a water balloon under all of their legs and the bigs kids had to alternate between under their legs and over their heads. When you got the balloon to the end, you could throw it at the other team. Most of the kids missed each other when they threw it, but a few of them landed right on target! Then we did an obstacle course which was fun because the adults took the opportunity to pelt the kids with water balloons as they were going through the course. After that, we could hold the kids off no longer and it was a water balloon free-for-all! This didn't last long so they dragged some of the adults down to the stream where they commenced their own baptism ceremony, dunking one person after another. Obviously, it was the girls who were getting dunked. I managed to stay dry until Mircea came up behind me with a bucket of water. I was standing by some of the adults and they all laughed and patted him on the back, "Good job, Mircea!"

We also spent the last evening playing Capture the Flag until it got dark. We played boys against girls. There were more girls than boys but it didn't really work in our favor. Most of the girls spent the majority of the game in the boys' prison. We also had some people stepping in patches of stinging nettles and thorn bushes. Despite the cuts and bruises, all of the kids loved this game!

The missionaries and mission team members spent A LOT of time playing football (soccer) with the kids. We discovered that we had some pretty good female soccer players on the mission team. Jasmine and I can also play pretty well (in Romania, I've discovered that I'm a pretty decent goalie...who knew? Lol!), so we played boys against girls a lot. I am proud to say that the girls played very well and I think that the boys were surprised when we would almost always score the first few goals and they would have to play catch-up.


Time out: Alexandra (8, House of Hope) and Ionuts (15, Steven's House) taking a break from a soccer game

We also played a rather chaotic game of soccer with the little kids one evening. Some of them were feeling left out so I volunteered the mission team to play soccer with them one night. The little kids just loved the attention.

I think some of my most favorite memories of Marga took place at the stream. We went there everyday to bathe, swim, do laundry, or just cool off. I also enjoyed laying out on the balcony with some of our Romanian adults, watching the stars come out. This was probably the coolest thing I did at camp. The stars were so bright and the sky was so open and cloudless. It was AWESOME! On one of the last nights, the mission team shared the balcony with the Romanians and we looked at the stars and sang. First the Romanians would sing one and then the team would sing one.


Adi (17, Steven's House) was our worship director for VBS and also happily accompanied our night-time sing-alongs

The Lord blessed us with the Marga camp. For three years, it has given us so many wonderful memories and blessings. I have to admit that it saddens me to think that we may not go again. I will definitely miss going there.


Team member, Tracy with Robi (11, Ana's House) and Cristi (10, House of Hope)