Craiova!!

Hey there, its Kayta, Aubrey, Jessica and Megan W. We are currently at the church in Craiova and just finished up some devotional time. Since we arrived here last night, we have been blessed to meet our host families as well as many amazing student leaders from the church.
We Americans have been paired off (or in a group of four) and went to stay at different families homes around the city. Each house is a little bit different; some hosts live in apartments, others in homes and some don't speak English! It has been an adventure for all of us so far, and the language barrier has been more of an excitement than a struggle. Today we played a lot of get-to-know you games with the Romanian student leaders that brought us a lot closer as a team. Today we are also celebrating Megan W's 17th birthday; we even sang to her in Romanian :) She is currently sitting next to us opening her present! (thanks mom and dad!- Megan)
Yummmmmmmmy! We have been trying lots of new food including our favorite samali (sp?). It is a meat and rice mixture rolled in cabbage and kind of looks like an egg roll. Also, we have had our filling of carbs and meat, bread and sliced meat is served at every meal including breakfast.
Throughout our travels so far a couple team members have gotten new nicknames...
Erik AKA shnookums and Erika
Josh AKA Luda (short for Ludacris)
Brendon AKA mermaid (or merman)
and Matt Tolly AKA the big MTTTTTT

Well Lief is starting to talk again..shockerrr, but I guess we should go. more lataaaaaa
MISS AND LOVE YOU ALL HOMIES!
continue sharing your prayers its so nice to hear them:]

Easy flight to London, boarding for Bucharest!

Quick note to let you know we made the connection in London! Should be in Bucharest in 3.5 hours & Craiova in 7! Thanks for your prayers!

Some pics of the beginning of our journey!

We’re at the Airport in Chicago!

Jessica Florac and Megan Radke here. It’s 6:30pm (Madison Time) or 2:30am (Craiova Time). We have reached the airport in Chicago after a quick stop at Walmart, and then for dinner at the oasis. Our flight leaves at 8:05pm for London. So far, we’ve greatly enjoyed hearing Jimmy play songs on his “traveling guitar” and making friendship bracelets on the bus ride. We checked our bags and got through security without too many troubles. Now we’re just praying all those bags get through to Bucharest. Thank you to our group of supporters that came to wish us off today, it was great to know that you are there for us and excited for our adventure. Please pray for safe travel as we take on this 8-hour flight aboard a very large plane! LOVE YOU ALL!

Awesome Retreat!

This past weekend, our team went up north to a cabin for a retreat. Everyone had a great time!

One of the primary goals was to get to know each other. We had significant talks around a campfire. We played in the lake and took boat rides. We played Catch Phrase (trying to give clues in reference to Harry Potter), Mafia, and other games. We cried together and laughed together. We ate yummy food together. We did a work project to raise funds.

Dinner on Saturday night

Catch Phrase and card games

Fifteen people in the hot tub automatically makes ya close

Another primary goal was to prepare for the trip. We had some cross-cultural training about short-term trips. We watched a 20/20 special about orphans in Romania and how international adoptions were put on hold ten years ago due to corrupt organizations. We broke into our planning/prep teams. We went over our itinerary, camp schedule, and packing list.

Everyone is super excited to head to Romania in a month!

Our big prayer request right now is for our finances. We still need more than $10,000 in the next few weeks. We are trusting God and figuring out ways to creatively fundraise. Thank you for your prayer support! Feel free to leave some comments of encouragement.

Our team likes to hang out :)

Our Romania team has been hanging out now that school is over!

Last week, most of our team met up for breakfast at Mickie's Dairy Bar.

Megan, Hunter, Megan, Kayta, Pat

Larry, Jimmy, Hannah, Aubrey, Catie

Jenna, Hailey, Cassidy, Taylor, Emily, Brendon, Kristen, Matt

Plus, the team has been getting together to raise funds by doing lots of work projects. Weeding, landscaping, moving wood piles, cleaning horse stables, and much more.

Team Work Day (with pictures!)

Yesterday we had a fun day with the team!

First, we had a fundraising project/work day, helping some people with spring yard projects. We broke into two smaller teams. One group hauled a ton of mulch while the other did a bunch of raking at a huge property.

(Sorry we don't have pictures of everyone; and oops, we don't have any of the mulch project!)

Jimmy & Josh

Taylor, Hailey, Brendon, Cassidy, Jenna

Cassidy, rolling a ton of leaves to the compost pile

Matt on his way back from the compost pile

Erik doing an awesome job raking

Renee, our awesome host, gave us treats at the end!

Jenna, Matt, Michaela, Hailey, Renee, Brendon, Cassidy

SO MUCH FUN! Megan, Jimmy, Aubrey, Brendon, Katie, Michaela

After a few hours of hard work, we went to church for additional team time. We learned about the culture of Romania, especially about the former communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. Then we went over our itinerary -- departing on Monday, July 25 and returning on Friday, August 12. Can't wait!