Recent highlights

Hey everybody! I'm really sorry I didn't post last week, but I left for camp and didn't have internet access. :) So in this post, I'm going to be giving you guys some brief highlights from the past few weeks.

Our trip to Thassos, Greece was amazing!! I loved sitting by the beach eating gyros, walking around the seaside town of Potos Beach, and swimming in the Mediterranean (which was the perfect temperature). We also got to experience a wildfire! Lightning struck in four places on the island and started four fires that were merging into each other. two villages were evacuated and the smoke was super heavy. Here are some pictures from those lovely 5 days. :)

The evening sky from our balcony.

Our beach before the fires started.

During the fire, the smoke turned everything hazy and orange.

It obscured the sun!

Gyros were our lunch of choice every day.

I picked up my official visa card! This was September 1st, but I am so thankful for it and just wanted to share that officially with you guys.

SO happy to be holding my real visa card!

Recently, I have started working with Asociatia Don Orione (Don Orione Foundation), which is a foundation that works with everyone from hospice patients to autistic preschoolers. A special part of this ministry deals with children that are so severely disabled they are bedridden. I visited there in August, fell in love with these kids, and haven't looked back since. I spend Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-12pm sitting in the room with five bedridden children (most with muscular dystrophy and unable to communicate).

A great part of working with these children has been getting to know the staff at this foundation who are full-time employees. Asociatia Don Orione is sponsored by the Catholic Church, so most of the workers are nuns. While wheeling two of the children around outside one day, I was able to have a conversation with a nun and one of the more responsive kids about God's creation. This all took place while sitting on the steps of a Catholic chapel eating apples grown on the foundation's property. Definitely a memorable experience. By the way, I'm really sorry, but I can't share pictures of these kids for privacy reasons. 

Another ministry I'm working with is Touched Romania. They work with single mothers who are at risk for abandoning their babies and they also go into a hospital here and run a playroom for children who are hospitalized. I volunteer there on Wednesdays from 10am-3pm. I'm also going to run the Bucharest Half Marathon for this charity on October 9th, because why not? :) 

The group of kids we worked with one Wednesday. The number varies from week to week.

Building a domino run out of Jenga blocks with Flori.

So those have been my favorite times of the past few weeks! I hope you enjoyed reading about what I've been up to. I only have  about a month and a half left of my time here, which is crazy. If you aren't tired of my writing, hop on over to Stepping Forward's 2016 Intern Blog (link HERE) and check out my latest post over there. 

Praises:

-My days are busy again! I'm loving my full fall schedule.

-I'm feeling really great...very fulfilled as I'm finishing up my time here.

Requests:

-Pray for the children I'm working with that are bedridden and sick, that they would recover if possible, and if not, that they would have high quality of life for the rest of their time here.

-Pray for Cami, Steve, Rachael, and David (the full-time missionaries), that they would get energy ad they continue this fall.

Much love,

Maria

Titles are hard...

Hi everyone! I hope you all are enjoying a lovely Labor Day weekend. Special shoutout to my ballet girls who are anxiously awaiting the posting of Nutcracker parts tomorrow...good luck, love you guys!! I have been enjoying some downtime these few days as well.

We visited all the kids in apartments this past week, but unfortunately I didn't take pictures. Go to my previous post if you haven't seen it already...there are some apartment pictures there. We are continuing to build relationships with the kids and their caregivers and show them Jesus, so please keep us in your prayers.

Saturday is orphanage visit day! We did a fall craft (can't believe it's time for that!) and I was in charge of explaining the whole thing in Romanian to rowdy orphanage kids. Thankfully, because of my prayers and the prayers of my mom and grandmother, I'm sure, they were quiet, listened to me, and did their craft. :) It was a great moment and a very encouraging visit overall. Here is one picture from that day.

This is Nicu. He is new at Ciresarii orphanage and has a very cheerful, carefree attitude, which is refreshing because a lot of the orphanage kids are very hardened and rough. He was so proud of his fall leaves!

Also this week, I toured a Romanian foundation that works with preschoolers, disabled children and young adults, and the elderly. I'm hoping to volunteer there at least twice a week after our trip to Greece this Thursday-Monday. Bummer for you guys though...I'm not allowed to share pictures of that place or of the children I'll be working with..sorry. :( Just know that it is a state-of-the-art foundation, pretty much the only one of its caliber in Romania. It's a preschool, therapy center, and nursing home all in one huge complex a bit outside of the city. So amazing to see what God is doing through it and its founders!

Speaking of Greece, we are finally taking our post-camp vacation! We're leaving Thursday and coming back Monday. I'm really looking forward to visiting this island, Thassos, again. 

Praises:

-Encouraging visit at the orphanage Saturday!

-Greece vacation! :)

Requests:

-Safe travels as we drive for 12hrs through Bulgaria to Greece (also pray that the border crossings would go smoothly--we've been hearing some discouraging news from people who have gone through the Greece border checkpoint who are saying that it's taking over an hour just to get through).

-I would get my schedule with the Romanian foundation set up for these next 2.5 months

-Paris, an 11yr old orphanage boy, is having a hard time right now. Keep him in your prayers, please.

With love,

That crazy girl in Romania for 6 months

Fall beginnings // Some hard things

Hello everyone! I hope you're all adjusting to your fall schedules as school starts back and everybody starts getting busy again. :) I am currently in my second week of fall ministry here in Bucharest, but I'll only focus on the first week for this post. I'm going to try to update once a week for the remainder of my time here (which, if you were wondering, is only 81 days now).

The beginning of my week (last Sunday) was a rough day for me. I was uncertain about fall plans and we were going to visit the orphanage, and I just was not in the right frame of mind to go there. You see, going to the orphanage is hard in many ways. First of
 all, it is located in a very impoverished area of Bucharest called Ferentari. Ferentari is mostly slum-like apartment buildings and run-down stores. The people you pass on the street look desperate and sad. When you get to the orphanage, it's surrounded by a twenty foot wall...not the most welcoming sight. There's graffiti and it overall does not look like a place for children.

Once inside the orphanage, kids surround us and ask a million questions and give us a million hugs--my favorite part. :) We had brought a craft and we set it up for the kids, who went to work right away. This part of the visit went smoothly. I helped this little cutie, Georgiana, on her craft...

Georgiana is adorable and so tiny. She's only 5 or 6 years old, and the thought of her living in this institution with very little chance of ever being adopted breaks my heart. Another thing about her is that she calls everyone "mama". When you think about the fact that she doesn't even know what that means, you end up crying on the phone to your parents for thirty minutes (I mean, maybe that happened). :)

So yes, last Sunday was a very hard day for me. But it was only one hard day out of 100 or so happy days I've had here. And God does bring little things into your life to encourage you, such as messages from friends and family at just the right time (you know who you are). Also, the next morning in my quiet time, I read Ephesians 1:5-10, which says,

     

...in love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

What a great passage. It came as a breath of fresh air that Monday morning and I have had the most encouraging week! Here are two more pictures from that Sunday, though, before I move on.

Monday and Tuesday, my new roommate Sarah and I explored Bucharest a little bit, since she just arrived last Friday the 19th.

The People's Palace.

Sarah and I. :)

A cute little side street we found by accident. We ended up having lunch at a cafe there.

Wednesday and Thursday, we visited the kids who are in apartments. Only four apartments total, because we aren't allowed to visit some of the kids until school starts back September 12th. It was really encouraging to have conversations with these older kids and hear that they all finished school and passed their grades.

Saturday, we visited the orphanage again. I think Saturday is going to be our regularly scheduled visiting time for the rest of fall.

Got to see Georgiana again. She was eating a chocolate croissant. :)

Cami and I took selfies with these sweet girls. :)

I'll end with a nice picture of Cismigiu Park, where I went with Sarah earlier today. 

This week, we will visit the apartments again and also go tour a foundation where I'm hoping to volunteer this fall. I'll also get to pick up my official visa paper, with my picture and everything! :)

Praises:

-The kids at the apartments and orphanage are doing well.

-We have adjusted to our fall ministry schedule.

Requests:

-Continued health for me and the other interns and missionaries this fall

-Travel safety. I am going to Greece, England, Cluj (city in Romania), and Constanta (also city in Romania) in these next 80 days before I leave. :)

-The kids we work with. Pray for health, good behavior, and for them to see Jesus through us.

Love you all,

Maria

Camp wrap-up!

Hey guys! Sorry for the long absence of posts through this last month or so. We were finishing up camp and I didn't get pictures to share until yesterday. :) Last time I wrote, I was in the middle of camp in July with four weeks to go. Here, I'm going to give an overview of each week and finish with a bunch of pictures from various weeks. :)

Week 4 we worked with kids from Constanta for the second week in a row. This was in coordination with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and PRR (Project Rescue Romania. It was great to be able to work alongside them and hear what all God is doing through them in Constanta. The kids they brought really enjoyed all the activities we had, especially the new ones who have never been to camp before.

Week 5, we had day camp for small kids from the nearby village of Fitionesti. The kids were so adorable and had such a great time! We played a few different games tailored for little kids and I was still a game station leader. For this week (and week 6) we also had a team from England join us. They were very fun to meet and work with.

Week 6 rolled around and it was time for us to host boys from Fitionesti. These guys played soccer literally ALL day long down on the pitch! They also loved the slip-n-slide and anything competitive like games. I liked this week in particular because I've been at camp with some of these kids for the fourth year now.

The final week, week 7, was for girls from Fitionesti. These girls really enjoyed our coloring time and making band bracelets. Although I'm not a super crafty person and was definitely out of my comfort zone, I tried to help out as much as I could. :) It was also great to see these girls really enjoying their small group time as well, where we got to share the Gospel with them in a more personal way.

Since camp ended a little over a week ago, we've been moving around a bit in Bucharest, as well as finding time to relax, unwind, and get prepared for fall. I'm now staying in an apartment with three other girls, and a few other people have been moving as well. I think now we're all situated and ready to begin fall ministry this week! We have an orphanage visit scheduled for today and apartment visits ready to begin Tuesday.

Here are some pictures from camp weeks 4-7 (and a few from the past week as well, for fun!).

Playing in the creek!

Last evening--everyone gathers around the fire and shares their favorite thing about the week.

Coffee on the weekend in Bucharest to recover. :)

My station one day was parachute games with the little kids.

Tug of war!

Loving the slip-n-slide!

The whole group of day camp week.

Day camp kids blowing bubbles.

Frisbee games!

Prepping spaghetti for the whole camp!

Fitionesti girls doing the scavenger hunt.

They also enjoyed coloring the Bible verse pages.

The hike during the Fitionesti boys' week.

Picking flowers during Fitionesti girls' week.

Another of my stations--horseshoes with the Fitionesti boys!

Even the older boys got into coloring the memory verse pages!

But as soon as they would finish, it'd be time for soccer again. :)

During girls' week, we figured out that over 50 people can fit in my tiny house at camp...we ran out of people to stuff in. :)

Staff volleyball squad!

Visiting the People's Palace on a weekend with the British team.

The view from the balcony of the People's Palace.

A sunset from an evening walk in Tineretului Park last weekend.

Thursday, we visited Herestrau Park and rented rowboats.

David, Ioana, Rachael, and I in our rowboats.

I'm super excited to keep you guys updated a little more frequently this fall! I have a lot planned and I can't wait for you to hear all about it as it happens. :)

Praises:

-Camp is finished and went extremely well!

Requests:

-I only have 90 days left here. Pray that I would use them to the fullest and schedule wisely.

-Visits to the orphanage and apartments would go well today and this week.

-Continued recovery from camp...we were all very tired and are still getting into the swing of things here in Bucharest!

Much love,

Maria

Camp week 3!

Hey everybody! I'm very sorry I missed a week of posting. I didn't have access to any pictures from week 3 so I just decided to wait until I did. :) So I have pictures for you, yay!

Week 3 of camp we worked with orphanage kids from a city called Constanta, which is located at the coast of the Black Sea. I've seen these kids at camp for the third year now, and I've also gotten to know the YWAM and PRR missionaries who work with them.

My jobs at camp were pretty much the same as week 2: meal prep, leading songs, activity station leader, etc. I also got to be a team leader for the obstacle course this week, and my team won...definitely a highlight. Here come some pictures!

My station one day: horseshoes.

Ball relay races!

Slip n slide...I did not actively participate that week, but you can see me on the right monitoring haha. :)

Florin and I with our teams for the obstacle course!

Roasting marshmallows on the last night.

The whole crew of week 3!

This is just a random pretty picture of the field surrounding camp that I took yesterday :)

Hopefully I will have another post for you next weekend on week 4 (last week) when I get pictures! Just know that week 4 went super great and I can't wait to tell you all about it next time. :)

Praises:

-Week 3 &4 of camp went really well and everyone got along and had a great time and learned a lot about Jesus.

Requests:

-Week 5 of camp is day camp (little kids from a nearby village who don't stay overnight). Pray that it would go smoothly.

-I've been a little under the weather this past week, so please pray that I'll be back at 100% by Monday!

Much love,

Maria