First week of VBS! In Bucharest!

Well here we are and it's been another five days since my last blog.. yikes! But so many good things to tell!

We have almost completed our first week of Vacation Bible School here in Bucharest! yay! :D But I'll start where I left off last.

-Friday. Our first day of VBS! We took a while to plan because we're new to this, but it went really well! Our theme for VBS is something like "Deep sea adventures- exploring the depths of God's love" and our theme for the day was Jesus loves the children. We planned fun games and snacks, a memory verse time and a craft, and a puppet skit. The puppets went over REAL well. :) lol the kids love it almost as much as we do! I'll post some pictures on here, and more on facebook tomorrow afternoon (that will be wednesday afternoon). I used blue and green streamers to wrap around the fenced area like waves, then taped seashells in between the bars on the fence. The kids really like it! Every day we play water-themed games, which is wonderful because it's SO HOT here. It's a great break from the heat for the kids... and for us as well. haha.

After VBS we went back to the Hudson's and celebrated with delicious watermelon, then sat down and planned Saturday's vbs. That evening there was youth group- they do it on Friday nights in this church, as opposed to Wednesday nights at most churches in the US. We met at Nana's and she cooked an excellent meal for us- of course we're always stuffed to the brim here! It was amazing. Then Monica (the pastor's wife and the youth pastor) looked at us and said "Ok girls, you're the show today. We were hoping you could share your testimonies with us."
haha... what? thanks for the preparation, Monica! lol. But actually it went really well. We all told our stories, spiritual journeys, and how we ended up in Romania. It was awesome to open up to the youth kids like that, because they really responded well. And we learned about each other as teammates, too. It was good. :) We had a blast, and I am really making some excellent friendships with these kids. They are awesome.

-Saturday. Was AWESOME!!!!! :) We had our second day of VBS which went very well. The theme was Jesus invites everyone into his family. More water-games, more snacks and crafts, and a drama acted out by yours truly + teammates! This is so fun! I can't even believe that I get to spend my summer doing this. Anyway, after that we went to Monica and Cristi's for lunch- it was UNBELIEVABLE. I don't even remember the last time I had food that good. I haven't even eaten like that in the states! Monica is a phenomenal cook. We had chicken breasts stuffed with bacon and cheese, heavenly mashed potatoes, peas, cooked carrots, salad, and for dessert, that yummy ice cream and sorbet! mmmm! *note* I have a new favorite thing. It's a drink brand here called Prigat. They have fruit flavored drinks, like juice but better. It reminds me of V8 juice but fruit instead of vegetables. Anyway, there's strawberry banana and it's got real, pureed strawberries and bananas in it, and it's wonderful. I love it!
After coming out of our food comas, lol, we went with Monica to a shop owned by her friend- and boy did we shop. We shopped until we dropped! I took care of souvenirs for 6 people, and myself as well! PLUS I bought a pair of Turkish pants. haha! I can't wait to wear them- they look ridiculous but they are so comfy and light! I'm excited. :) ha we did that for a few hours (yes, all in one shop, lol) and she even stayed open late for us to finish up shopping. Then we walked back and Debi and I went to Nana's. haha sweet Nana- she keeps buying us things we don't need! There is an entire box of hot chocolate on the kitchen table, and she bought another one just because she knows I drank some of it one morning. lol. oh my goodness, the hospitality here. wow.
Tonight, Tamara came home! (She's Micheal's wife, and she was in England because she takes a class there in two week modules. She was finishing a module and now she is home, making our Romania family complete!!!) We had a yummy dinner and just relaxed! Spent time with Tamara and then went to Nana's and fell into bed, exhausted. Long day! haha

-Sunday. Sunday we finally got to go to Church with our Romanian brothers and sisters and hear Cristi preach! Nana told us he was excellent, and she was right! Monica translated for us during the service. The songs were mostly in Romanian, however they did two or three in English as well, which was nice. : ) Then an excellent service ended with a powerful prayer time, in both English and Romanian. It's awesome how even when we can't understand each other we can come together in the body of Christ, with a common understanding and goal, and worship together. Church was great today. :) Afterwards, we went to the mall with the youth group and had lunch, and then went to the park to walk and play games. It was really fun! We found a kitten (named it Cherry, because the word for "you're welcome" is Cuplachere, which we joked and said sounds like "couple 'a cherries" (that has actually been helpful in remembering it, lol) and so Bailey simply replies "cherry!" to thank you, which of course makes no sense at all to any Romanian speakers, and it's always funny) and also saw some policeman on horseback, played frisbee and some other games, and just spent time together with the youth kids. It was really great!
After that, Debi and I packed our things and left Nana's house to move into the Hudson's home. Then we had dinner with the fam and just relaxed. We planned Monday's vbs and that was that!

-Monday. Third day of VBS. The theme today was the story of the Prodigal Son. haha we put on an AWESOME puppet show, if I do say so myself, and it included a short segment of the song "Party Like a Rockstar" hahaha the kids loved it! man I love VBS. Hanging out with kids, sharing Jesus, learning worship songs in Romanian, playing games, eating snacks, doing crafts and hearing the word of God? It doesn't get much better than that... except oh wait.
One of the little boys prayed for forgiveness today. I didn't understand a single word out of his precious little mouth, but it made me teary-eyed anyway. Slave Lue!!! (praise Him!)
By the way, the main religion in Romania is Orthodox Christianity. From what I understand, they believe in Jesus, but they don't understand that because He came and sacrificed His life, we can now have a personal relationship with God our Father. They pray to the saints, who will hopefully intercede with God on their behalf. Our mission is to explain to them that Christ made the bridge to God for us when He died on the cross. We can come boldly to the throne of God, as his beloved children, and have a relationship with him, and forgiveness for our sins has been granted if only we should ask for it. Isn't He amazing? And He loves each of us so much. And hopefully, as we reach the children with our short simple messages and send them home with crafts and stories, we can reach their parents as well. :) I finished reading Mark today, and I really slowed down during the crucifixion and death story at the end. When we say sacrifice, we really understate what Jesus did for us. Just so we can become clean again and have a loving and rewarding personal relationship with God. And how many people don't even realize the potential of that relationship?? Sometimes I need to remind myself how much I take my salvation for granted. What would I do without the suffering of Christ? And then the resurrection!? How amazing is this? That He could rise from the dead and sit at the right hand of God, extending God's kingdom to us in such a direct way. wow.
So Monday was awesome! Plus we had our best game so far- lol a water-race where they had to dress up in swimming floats/gear and goggles, put a water balloon between their legs and get through the obstacle course without dropping it. It was super fun!
Monday afternoon, I passed out for a while. haha I don't realize how tired I am till I sit down. But that was a good nap. :) Then we planned Tuesday's vbs, had a GREAT dinner with the fam, and then settled down to watch a movie. Sadly, the sound was messed up on the dvd player somehow, so instead I uploaded pics to facebook... (hint hint. go look at them. ;) lol)

-Tuesday! Well today was great. We had a really fun day planned, and it was really hot today. Our theme today was the story of the good Samaritan. haha I feel I must mention that my Micheal-dad starred as the Samaritan's donkey in our drama today, and..yah.. he was excellent. In fact, he even ate grass. lol It was a hit! haha
After VBS we came back to the house and just hung out. We had an amazing home-cooked lunch- Tamara made chile and cornbread- yum! :) I uploaded some more pictures to fb, and we moved all of our stuff to the downstairs room of the Hudson house so that we can all finally live together (the four girls on our team that is)!! yay! It was nice to just relax with nothing to do for a while. It seems that we have a lot of down time, but we use most of it to plan and prepare, so really we don't. We planned our last day of VBS tomorrow (wednesday, last day!!!) went to the market to get stuff for dinner, came back and prepared, ate a wonderful meal, of course, and then just spent time preparing for tomorrow. I can't wait to post pictures for this blog, but I'll have to do it tomorrow. It's late! haha I'm very excited about my latest project for this last day's game. :) Alright well it's waayyyy past my bedtime, so I'll have to do pictures for all of this tomorrow. Till then, la revedere! Noapte buna, toti! Isus te iubeste. : ) (see you soon! Goodnight all! Jesus loves you. :) )
I will also list prayer requests later. Keep all the previously posted ones in your hearts please!