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