Camp: Urgent Need for Prayer and Funds

In the past few posts, we have been writing about our opportunity to take students who do not have the personal financial means (many of them orphans) to a mountain camp in northern Romania for a week. As many of you know, the primary reason we came to Romania was to serve at this English/Sports camp. All this week we have been preparing and planning for it, spending evenings building relationships with the 50 or so students, not including ourselves or the Romanian leadership team.

Each year Daniel Vieru sends out support letters all over the world in hopes to provide this camp opportunity to students who would never otherwise have the chance for something like this - in hopes that a week-long trip would build relationships that would change these students lives forever. Every year, he raises thousands of dollars to send these students to camp. Last night, while we were celebrating together over traditional Romanian dinner, he got a much anticipated call from the partner church receiving funds in Minnesota (he had been waiting all week) - the news was not good. He found out that some of the money they were depending on did not come through. We realize now that we are short about what it takes to support about 15-20 students to come to camp. The last 24 hours has been a challenge to say the least. We have considered all the options, including the possibility of canceling the camp. After prayer and discussion as the two teams, we have decided to trust God and move forward with camp preparations in hopes that the financial means would be provided for not just those students who we expect to go, but that every student interested would have the opportunity to participate in camp (regardless of their financial situation).

We then met as the Blackhawk team alone and decided to trust God with this and how to move forward. We have changed some of our plans over the next two days to free up some of our budget to go towards camp and also have considered tithing our own spending money to go towards students at camp. We also wanted to make our church community aware of this situation and give each of you (and the greater body) an opportunity to join us in prayer that all of these students would be able to come to camp. While we understand that many of you have sacrificed much for this trip already, we are also asking that if it is financially possible, you consider giving towards this opportunity as well - whatever that means.

This was included in an email that Kristen Emerson sent out today after we spoke with her:

"Each students registration fee is $175. Consider sponsoring a Romanian student to participate in the week of camp. As you know, we are going to be in a long-term partnership with this camp in Romania, and this would be a way to further strengthen and support their mission. If you could commit to sponsor one student’s participation—or half—or anything, that would really help us out.

The camp starts on Sunday, so if you are considering donating money to sponsor a kid to participate in the life-changing camp, we need to know by Saturday night (yes, in two days). Please email your commitment to kemerson@blackhawkchurch.org by Saturday night at 10 pm *(or earlier), so we can contact the crew in Romania to tell them how many additional students can participate. (We will reply to let you know how to designate the funds; if you want to pay by credit card online, that may be an option.)"

Thank you for everything you've done for us, especially for your prayers - they make a world of difference as we face each day with new blessings and challenges. As for tomorrow - we're off to an early start (just 6 hours from now!) to a project 2 hours south from here on the Romania-Bulgaria border. There is a service day similar to what we do for Madison Missions (doing a range of community service projects) that we will take part in along with our Romanian student-leadership team. There is a concert celebration at the end of the service day. It should be a good day. We hope it further binds us together as a unified team as we serve alongside one-another. We'll hopefully post again tomorrow night. Until then, noapte buna!

-Lief and the team

A Note From Tess...

Hey guys! It's Tess here. So far, our time in Romania has been awesome. We've met so many nice people and started to build relationships with them. For the past few days, we've started to plan for the camp. We split up into teams according to what part of camp we're working on (games, crafts etc.) It's been really fun to work with Daniel's leadership team from the church in planning too.
Last night, we went on another trip to the park to play games with the campers. We had a chance to walk through the park and talk to the people to get to know them better before we head to camp with them. They are really great people and some of them have amazing life stories. After walking through the park, we went out to dinner at a traditional Romanian restaurant with Daniel's leadership team. It was a great experience and the food was really good. During dinner, there was a lot of spontaneous Romanian dancing. It was so much fun. It was good to get a taste of the culture here.

Here are some prayer requests for our team:
-Energy as we have a very early day tomorrow
-Money for camp for some of the youth and orphans that can't afford it.
-Ani , a woman from the church who is dying of cancer. It's very hard for everyone involved.
-Boldness for our team to engage in conversations with Romanians who know little to no English.
-That camp will be a life changing experience for all of the youth involved.
-That we'll see God working through everything here.
-That we will grow in our faith.

Thank you so much for all of the prayer. It has really helped us out a lot knowing that there are people on the other side of the world praying for us. We love and miss you all very much and can't wait to see you. Keep the comments coming!
Love, Tess

Craiova (Day 3) - Pictures and a Quick Note

Here is the larger batch of pictures I promised - more to come. Notice especially the series of pictures where the birthday boy is hoisted in the air - apparently John felt it necessary to show the Romanians the American birthday tradition of "Birthday Spankings" (All 18 - and that last one was a pretty good one). The last two days have been incredible for our team (we've bonded well with each other, with the Romanian leadership team, and with next week's campers that we've met in the park the last two days). We'll try to have a few students post about the their experiences in the past two days tomorrow. Today was a LATE night - traditional Romanian dinner and dancing - quite the celebration. You'll hear more about this later. For now, noapte buna!

Madison-Craiova Partnership

We’ve now spent a day and a half in the city of our host church, the Biserica Eveanghelica Libera (Evangelical Free Church of Craiova). While we did not spend too much time in Bucharest, I believe that Craiova is a city that is much easier to love as it was less visibly impacted by the staunch architectural vision of Nicolai Ceausescu (Romanian dictator for 30+ years). We’ve learned that he felt it was important to strip Romania of its culture and identity by tearing down old buildings and neighborhoods and building huge ugly cement apartment buildings to house the masses. We saw many of these buildings in Bucharest. Craiova, on the other hand, for the most part has been much more preserved and remains a beautiful Eastern-European city with a lot of character.

On the three hour trip from Bucharest, I rode with Daniel Vieru, the youth pastor we are working with. He spoke to me about the history of Romania, growing up as a teen during the revolution, and the repercussions for a Christian church in both communist and post-communist Romania. He told me about how 45 years of communist rule had specifically affected children and teens in Romania. Even after the revolution in 1989 and the fall of Ceausescu and communism, major problems persisted. For the first time in decades, the poor majority was able to escape Romania more easily and many left behind their children in hopes to make a living wage in the West. Abandonment had already been a major issue in Romania, but this only heightened once the borders were open. As a youth pastor for the past 10 years, Daniel has experienced this first hand, as many of his students are orphans themselves. He has also started a non-profit organization called Humanitas Pro Deus (People for God) which assists older orphans who are ready to live in their own apartment, move into one with little or no costs (at first). They teach them basic life skills (cooking, budgeting, getting and keeping a job) as they slowly transition them into a self-sufficient lifestyle. This is an amazing ministry that has impacted so many orphans (some we have met since coming to town - some are now leaders in the church). And there is the potential for so much more to be done. I couldn’t help but wonder how our Blackhawk church community could be part of this particular ministry in the future, offering both physical and financial support with the possibility of adult teams being involved as well. We also talked about the possibility of having Daniel and his leadership visit our church in the US with a similar vision as our own trip here. He is excited about this possibility and what kind of impact that might have on his leadership team (a group of 10 older HS students and young adults who are passionate about ministry in Romania). I am excited to see how their leadership team might impact our ministry and our lives during this “reversed” short-term trip.

Since coming to Craiova we have learned a lot about our camp experience next week. We will be traveling to the mountains with about 80 people total. This includes our own 20, Daniel’s 10 leaders and 25 students, and 25 completely new students, most of whom are orphans from the city that have shown interest and have been supported to come to camp with us. We met many of these students tonight as we played games (Ultimate Frisbee & “Energy”- a Romanian game) in the city park. It was so great to start to get to know them so early. They are a lovable bunch and we had a great time. I can’t wait to see how camp might impact both their lives and the faith journeys of us all as we are challenged to grow together at camp next week. What an amazing opportunity we have here in Craiova. Many of these kids have been rejected and abandoned their whole lives, with no parent around to raise them, love them, care for them. You can easily see how ministry specifically to youth in this country is so contextually imperative - that these students would know about a God who not only accepts them, but knows every thing about them, who loves and pursues each of them deeply. I think we are all starting to realize a little bit about why we came here, and why we should continue to come to and receive teams from Romania. What an awesome thing we’ve found ourselves a part of. Praise God.

Thanks for your prayers and love. It’s making a huge difference over here. We’ll hopefully put up a bunch of pictures in the morning when we get the camera (I put up a few pics from Paul's camera and a video in the meantime). Until then – noapte buna! Goodnight!

-Lief

McDonalds Post.

Pat and I are sitting in a cosmopolitan-looking McDonalds using their internet. We had our first night with the host families last night and it was so good. It seems that we all have good situations... what a blessing! Pat took a shower this morning and shortly after she got out the water in the apartment shut down... she was thankful to be out of the shower at that time! The female leaders are staying with Rich and Martha Millhouse, American missionaries who have lived in Romania for almost 14 years. It is so wonderful to hear their stories, get to know them, and be a part of their lives for this week. They have three great children that we have grown fond of already. Lief and I went to get lunch for the team with Daniel yesterday and it was quite the experience of crossing language barriers and navigating cultural differences. It's hard enough ordering for 21 people in the States, let alone in Romania! In a few minutes Pat and I will leave McDonalds and the team will start our meeting to hear from Daniel Vieru and his team about life during communist times in Romania.

A quick list of blessings...
- Smooth travel
- ALL of our bags arriving!! (I don't know if I've ever had that...!)
- Wonderful host families
- Abundant food
- No illnesses
- A beautiful place to stay overnight in Bucharest
- The opportunity to see the People's Palace in Bucharest and hear a little about the history here
- The team is getting along well and everyone seems to be in good spirits
- I'm thankful the people we are with are understanding about vegetarians!!

AND, we're thankful for all of you who are praying and posting on our blog. Lief reads your comments to the team daily. Malachi definitely made out as the most loved via blog comments yesterday. ;)

Pat and Lisa.

PS - JOSH CARLSON , Lief and Nate appreciated your comments...

Bucharest to Craiova - a short "essay" by Malachi D. Braughler

wusup america this is your pal Malachi Braughler from Craiova @ 10:50pm. This mornin i was the first one up at 6:30 which was early but very nice and peaceful to do a devotion it was 2 hours before everyone got up but it was nice to have some alone time. the boys didn't have a shower, it was like a hose type thing so that was fun, girls had a full shower. for breakfast we had cheese 3 kinds of meats 2 kinds of yogurt 2 kinds of cereal and it was so good. after breakfast around 10ish we were gunna go tour bucharest but daniel had to do somethin with his sweet van, so we didn't head out till around noon. we went to the peoples palace which in square meters is a little smaller than the pentagon. we ate Mc Donalds for lunch in the parking lot then we toured the peoples palace and we saw like 5 rooms and all of them were big enough to fit like 5 whole houses in them it was insane. then we had a 3 to 4 hour drive to craiova in a big minibus which was mercedez benz, which i thought was awesome. for a while most people slept but when we were almost there we started talking and jokin around. we arrived in craiova @ the church and kinda just hung out meeting some of the kids at the church, had some pizza that was different but cool. it had no sauce, but had eggs, whole black olives with the hard pits in them still, buncha meets and if u wanted sauce you could add ketchup, but it was good. after supper we kinda hung out some more and talked. then we left and went to our host families. me and sunshine (jordan) tonight are staying at daniels and tomorrow we get to stay at his parents house which are really really nice like just built by the organization he works for which was a great blessing from God. so all in all we are doin awesome, god is really helpin us and bein' with us, so we love you all and hope your doin well and we miss you
MALACHI D BRAUGHLER

bucharesti

strange as it may seem, pizza hut actually tasted a little bit better half way around the world. maybe it's because we're half way around the world. yesterday evening we walked from the bible college we spent the night at to a mall (plaza romania) about a mile away. over pizza we heard daniel (our host) tell stories about growing up in communist romania. his family had to wait in line each week for bread and other necessities. his father was a bible smuggler. he told us one riveting story of the secret police busting into their apartment searching for bibles. his family placed a bag full of bibles (a crime that would have meant prison) on daniel's bed, he was 13 at the time. they must have assumed that the bags belonged to daniel; they didn't notice. it's amazing to think how much we take for granted. imagine a bag full of bibles landing you in jail. -Paul














p.s. we were really impressed this piece of pizza that was a large as tess' head, but then again tess doesn't have a very big head.

We Made It

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have made it safely to Bucharest where we are finally working on getting some "buna (good) rest." The flights were flawless and we were met by Daniel at the airport easily (customs here seriously walking through a doorway!). We loaded a mini-bus with all our luggage and jumped in 5 small taxis taking us through Bucharest to the Bible College we're staying at tonight. While the city is hot today (90F), our accommodations are cool and clean in the schools dorms. We arrived here about 3pm and most hit the hay for a 3 hour nap. Just now about to get up and head out for some dinner, a team meeting & group time, and then to bed. We'll tour the city and the "People's Palace" in the morning before the 3 hour bus ride to our host church in Craiova tomorrow afternoon. We'll keep you updated as regularly as possible. God has been good to us. Please pray for continued health, strength, and team unity as we transition into this culture and timezone.

-Lief

Munich - almost there!

After eight hours aboard an airplane we got to start the day at 5:30 am in Munich. The common consensus was that sleep was few and far between within the members of our group. Now we await the hour and a half trip to Bucharest which we will start in about four hours. Some of us sleep, some wander in search of non-existent drinking fountains, and some discourage eating the twenty dollar sandwiches they offer us in the airport. We're all excited to soon be in Romania, where we will get to finally meet Daniel, the youth pastor from our host church in Craiova. Soon we'll be in Bucharest where many of us will be touring it on little or no sleep, yet hopefully we'll be able to experience and enjoy the culture of their capital city.



FYI - we'll be staying at the Universitatea Biblică din Romania on Sunday night. Check out the site for pics and contact info: www.ubr.ro

-Audra and Esther

Checked in, and ready to board!!

Hey everyone! Our bus ride went very quickly and we had fun watching 'the bucket list' (except for John who slept the whole way...he looked like Eden) We arrived at the Chicago airport with three hours to spare, and made it effortlessly through security. Lief is a paparazzi with the camera, and we're all eating and waiting for the flight to come in. We are scheduled to board at 1:20, after that its nearly a 9 hour flight to Munich where we'll wait for 5 hours! and then board a 2 hour flight for Bucharest. We probably won't be able to update the blog again until at least Sunday night in Romania.

-Jess Jacobson

here we go

Well, tomorrow morning we leave. This is going to be an amazing trip, I believe that God is going to allow us to be a part of some really special things. Please pray for safe travel and positive attitudes (we'll be traveling for a long time).

Also please pray that we get off to a great start with our first few days in Romania.

We'll check in again as soon as we're able.

paul

Creative fundraising...

Cassidy, Tess, and Esther (with Molly's help) successfully raised several hundred dollars at a garage sale this weekend! They are pretty fabulous... I have to say.

Lisa.

Thank you for the success of the spaghetti dinner!!

Hi friends,

Time for an update I suppose...

Our team is getting ready to leave on July 26th.. with a lot of preparation to do before then. We had a wonderful first annual spaghetti dinner at Blackhawk for the Honduras and Romania Teams in June. It raised $7,000 for the two teams combined!!! Thank you to all who helped make that event possible and all who attended and supported the students. If I can find some pictures of the event I will post them...

Until then, here are a few prayer requests:
(1) The health of the Romanian pastor (Daniel) and his family, and protection from things not of God.

(2) The Romanian church is doing construction this week on their new building and hosting some foreigners... pray over that.

(3) Our team leadership and schedules... that we would get time to connect and plan... with God in control of it all.

(4) Romanian and American teams' to have soft and ready hearts for the coming weeks and trip.

Thanks. :) (And if anyone has pictures of the dinner... let me know, our team would love to have some.)

Lisa.