Romania Ramblings End

Saturday, our last day in Europe was spent sightseeing in Budapest, Hungary. It is an old and beautiful city and we only wished that we had more time to spend there.

Early Monday morning found us safely back in Spring Arbor. The flight home was uneventful except for the fact that we left Hungary 1 1/2 hours late which caused us to miss our connecting flight home from New York. After a taxi ride to LaGuardia from JFK our team split up with 6 getting a direct flight to Metro and the other 5 going to Chicago then home. The direct flight landed about midnight with the other flight coming in about 1 AM. The only glitch we had was one of our bags made an unscheduled trip to North Carolina. We had a wonderful trip and we would like to thank each of you who prayed for us while we were gone.

Romania Rambling 5

Before we left Arad, we visited the new house that Oaza is building. They must have a new place because the landlord is returning to one of their rentals: Shalom House. They hope to move in by fall, but the cost for the house keeps going up due to inflation and building requirements that must be met because Romania is hoping to join the European Union. Please pray for the funds to complete this home.

After seeing the building under construction, we travelled from house to house -- Treasure House, Joy House, Shalom House -- to say good-bye to the children. You can only imagine the lumps in our throats as we shared hugs and best wishes to all. It was quite a feat to get in and out of the van because the Romanians know how to make an 8 passenger van into a 11 passenger van filled with luggage.

Eventually our journey took us to the train station in Arad for the first step in our journey home.

Romania Ramblings 4

Romania Ramblings 4

On Monday the team took a break and traveled with the Dunn’s to a historic castle in Hunedora. On the way, we traveled through Deva which is the training center for the Olympic Gymnastic Team and the birthplace of the Unitarian Church. At the castle we had a wonderful English speaking guide who related Romanian history in a way we could all understand.


Tuesday we started the second phase of our work. One team went to the school in Sanicolau Mic, an outreach of the Foundation Humanitas Gura Popii. The school provides basic lessons in the 3 R’s for those who have never attended public schools. The majority of the children are Roma (gypsy). There is no age limit and adults are encouraged to attend. In the public school system, children who are more than 2 years behind cannot attend, so this school provides an opportunity for students to catch up and enter the public school system. We provided their lunch for the day and led the morning class time with drama, songs, and a story. After lunch we played games outside. The children loved the water balloon toss and blowing bubbles.








At the same time, the three men on the team went to Jackie Ramsey’s home on a work project. Jackie is an American serving independently in Arad. She left her career as an aeronautical engineer with NASA to follow God’s call to Romania. As one of the pioneer North American workers in Arad, she is a mentor to a host of Christians. Her influence is felt everywhere we have been. The men put up some blinds and curtain rods and then they cut about an acre or so of 3-foot tall weeds with a scythe. They were fighting each other for a turn in the 100 degree afternoon.

Romania Ramblings 3

Sunday Happenings
We worshipped with the Romania Free Methodists at the Community Center. When our taxis arrived, we thought we were in the wrong place because there was a big flea market sale in front of the building. But the Dunn family members were strategically placed around the building to guide us to the Worship Center which the church rents for 2 hours per week.






The service began at 10:00 a.m. with scripture, worships songs, and prayer. Much to our surprise we knew every song. Many of us commented about how the English words vanished from our memories as we looked at the Romanian text on the overheads, but the tunes were familiar and we could sing along easily because the language is phonetic. There was a break between the worship songs and the preaching. Three of our group members performed a stick ministry song with 3 of the Oaza girls. Laura Hamilton sang a special song and Pastor Dottie preached on Joseph.

After the service we were guests of the Oaza homes with all children, staff, and team members eating at the Joy House. The delight to the children was mici, a roasted sausage with a mixture of three meats: pork, beef, and mutton. Several salads accompanied the meal, and birthday cake and jello followed for the three team members who are celebrating their birthday’s in Romania: Pat, Laura, and Deb.

We left Joy House with a promise to return before leaving Arad.




Sunday afternoon we caught our traditional naps and then headed to the Dunn’s for Sunday evening supper. What a privilege it has been for us to get acquainted with Paula, Scott, Steven, and Lydia Dunn. They not only shared a meal with us, but also opened their hearts to tell us about their call to Romania and their commitment to build relationships and learn the language so that they can develop leaders in the Romania church.

Romania Ramblings 2

We completed our first week’s work and our daily schedule went like this:

Team members woke up gradually according to their natural rhythms, but they usually ate breakfast by 8:30 and departed for the Oaza homes at about 9:30. The children live in 3 different homes with house parents at each home. The young children and middlers met at Joy House pictured below. The older children met at the Shalom house. Morning activities included games, Bible stories, crafts, and activities.





While the children’s activities were going on, Wayne and Dave completed a bathroom for the new addition at the Joy House -- from absolutely nothing but tiled walls and floors. The first day was spent grouting the tile, but by week’s end the fixtures were installed, towel racks were up, lighting was complete and the bathroom was fully functional.





One of our observations is that the 3 Oaza homes could use a fulltime handyman. Anyone feel a call?

And all this time Pat and Joyce busily prepared lunch and dinner for the entire crew in the spacious Joy house kitchen. Lunch time came at 1:00 p.m. The food and the team members were divided up to go home with the children for lunch. All of the children ate meals at the home where they lived. Our team rotated so that we ate at a different house for each meal. The meals were tasty and filling. The kids had never had jello with bananas and were intrigued by it.



After lunch the team members met at the Shalom house for devotional time and debriefing while the young children rested. Now for you exercise buffs, please note that most of this was done by walking! The walk from Joy House to Treasure house was short, about 10 minutes; but the walk from Joy House or Treasure House to Shalom House was a good ½ hour walk on a variety of surfaces: paved roads, rut-filled dirt roads, smooth side walks and broken sidewalks. The homes were all gated and closed in, but walkers could observe the personality of property owners by the plantings between the gate and the road. We saw many of the same plants from home: wave petunias, geraniums, hostas, lilies, begonias, etc. One interesting characteristic of the culture was that they paint tree trunks white.

About 3:00 p.m. we picked up activities with the children again and stayed with them until after the evening meal at 7:00 p.m. The team members all rotated to the next house for the meal and then rode a taxi back to the guest house at 88 Outiz.

On Saturday, we ended the week by taking the children to the city for ice cream and an afternoon in the children’s park.