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.