Happy Annivesary

Happy 26th Anniversary to my sweetie!
I miss you and LOVE you!
Love, Gina

Thursday Morning

It is thursday morning, 6:40am, and we are getting ready to start a new camp in a different village. We have been so busy we haven't had time to keep the blog up and going. We have been leaving for camp early in the morning and not returning until late many nights. Having had the camp for 3 days in the same village we have really bonded with the children. It has given us an opportunity to spend lots of time with the children and really share and talk with them. We have had lots of children come to christ over the week. We have been very encouraged about our purpose here. Thank you so much for all of you that have prayed for us, keep praying!

Camp Mintui Tuesday

Camp activites at Mintui and are shown in the following pictures. Ryan loved recruiting new Clemson fans here in the village and has them all chanting "Go Tigers!"

Yates has done a great job filming all activities for us!!!

Here he is showing some kids their pics.

Ken showed his artistic side today by helping the orphans decorate their visors.
They love their Ken "Mountain of Joy!"

Visors were a real hit this year. They were great for us to learn their names. You can tell Ryan has this new recruit ready for his tigers!!

Orphange

The kids loved the Foam visors we Amy Brought. We wrote there name on them so it was something special to identify them with. Unfortunately the only color I knew was Verde (Green).

If anyone remembers Mr. Bill's little boy this is a picture of him with Ken !

Dr. Miller Graciously donated enough toothbrushes and toothpaste to go around. Unfortunately, They had no idea what they were. Try explaining that to a child.

This child would cry everytime Stephen put him down or if he held anyone else.

This 2 year old was dropped off by his father the night before after his mom had left for France. It was all heartbreaking! They are all starved for attention and love!

Camp Mintiu

As Amy described, we had a wonderful day serving the children in Mintiu. Here are some of the photos:

What started out as a 'simple route' to Romania ended up being a marathon of security checks, passport checkpoints, airport waiting areas, and delays. These images were taken once we arrived (finally) in Cluj. It was late at night, and the airport was practically deserted. We waited patiently for our gracious hosts to drive about one hour to pick us up at the airport.

What happens when you have been awake more than 24 hours straight? Well, one thing that COULD happen is that you might brush your teeth with sunscreen. One of our team members, Ryan, accidentally brushed his teeth with Coppertone! It provided a good laugh for some.... fear for Ryan.... but mostly a good topic of discussion.

Monday Evening

***We wanted to apologize for not much posting so far. We have been having computer problems, but we are slowly working through them. Thanks for being patient. Pictures will be coming soon.

Today Team Romania had an awesome day ministering to a state run orphanage and a local village. At 8:15, we left Elpis and began a whirlwind of a day. Half of our group headed to Illisua
which has orphans who did not return home for the summer, so they were very happy to have comapny and one-on-one attention from our team. Our group played with the kids, passed out gifts, and gave lots of hugs!!!!!!! After their time in the orphanage, they spent the rest of the day witnessing and inviting village people to our evening program on Tuesday. Skits, a short movie, testimonies, and snacks will be provided tomorrow to the families. Please pray they will be receptive!!!

Our other team members spent the day in a village called Mintiu. God was so GREAT and opened up the chance for us to minister to the children in a local school. This was a rare opportunity because the local government usually won't let us use the schools. God has opened up new doors such as use of the school because of the relationships our group and others have built with local community leaders on previous visits. Years ago, it was difficult to do much in this village, but now we are welcomed with open arms!!! God is GOOD!!!! Today was the first day of a three day focus on this village. We had 87 kids who eargerly arrived. We spent the day working in conjunction with local missionary efforts. We presented bible lessons, music, scripture memorization, and games. The lunch we provided was quickly engulfed, and they headed to play soccer and to do a foam hat craft. The day wrapped up with more songs testimonies. They were so excited and can't wait to come back tomorrow!!!!