Back in 2006, our young adult class began raising money to go to Romania on a mission trip. Long story short, we never got the opportunity to complete our mission trip, but Romania remained a part of our church family's heart. Well, God opened up the door for Mary Grooms and me to visit Romania and see the ministry He is doing there.
As I mentioned in my last blog, we left for Romania on Thursday morning SUPER EARLY. Our first leg was from Dallas to Toronto and we had a pretty long layover there. We decided that we didn't want to wait around at the airport, so we bought a subway ticket and headed into Toronto! This was Mary's first time out of the States and her first time to ride on the subway! It was a great way to get us out of our comfort zone to prepare us for 2 weeks abroad. We headed to High Park, which was about as far as we could go within our time limits, and had a delicious lunch. We tried to walk down to Lake Ontario, but didn't really know where we were going and had to head back to catch our flight before we actually found it. You'd think it wouldn't be hard to miss since it's a giant lake, but the park was much bigger than we thought.
The terminal had a super sweet iPad station where you could pass the time while waiting on your flight. While we were sitting, we met a lady who had lived in Romania for a few years, so we asked her all sorts of questions about the culture and her experiences. We boarded our long flight across the ocean and were on our way to Germany. Mary and I were pretty far away from each other on this flight, but I guess having some time apart before we spent the next 13 days together wasn't a bad thing. :) I chatted with the German man and his grandson that were sitting next to me on their way to spend time in Germany. When we arrived at the airport in Frankfort, we had our first real dose of culture education while trying to navigate to where we were supposed to be, "but the sign says go THAT way." Fortunately, we made it through all of the customs and security and to our terminal with minimal stress. We only had one more quick flight from Frankfort to Budapest, Hungary where Brother Gheorghe was picking us up. Again, we weren't sitting together, but I had a lovely conversation with the man sitting next to me who was on his way to a wedding party in Hungary. We arrived safely and again, navigated our way through a new airport and picked up our luggage which, too, arrived safely. We met Brother Gheorghe and headed to his home in Sacalasau, Romania. It was a 5 hour trip with a stop at the border to get our visas and then another stop for pizza. :) We slept most of the way because sitting on airplanes is exhausting.
We spent that evening looking around their little farm and getting to know the Cormoses. Their son, Daniel, and his friend Quijuan were visiting for the summer and gave up their little guest house for the two weeks Mary and I were there. We also had to pack our bags to leave for camp the next day. We woke up bright and early Saturday morning, picked up some of the church members and youth, and headed southeast to where the camp ground is located, close to the city of Brasov. It was about a 9 hour trip. The scenery was beautiful and the church members sang hymns in the car since we didn't have a radio.

On Sunday morning we had a service outside and spent the remainder of the day playing volleyball, soccer, ping pong, and basketball, exploring the surrounding area, and getting to know the kids (even with a language barrier). I'll tell you one thing, those kids can play some soccer. They're so quick. It was fun to watch them. We had a night service that evening with Bro. Gheorghe teaching. That's also the night that we met our mouse that lived in the wall of our bathroom. Mary and I shared a room with Anna and Julia, Brother Gheorghe and Sister Mia's nieces. They live in Colorado and were in Romania for a few weeks to visit family. All four of us just looooved getting to know our mouse friend. On a couple of nights, the mouse actually ran across my face. IT RAN ACROSS MY FACE. Yeah…
Everyday of camp consisted of 2 Bible teachings, sports, and visiting Romanian Historical Landmarks. The campground is centrally located for easy (for the most part) access to many historical sites. There would be a Bible lesson in the morning, games (volleyball, soccer, ping pong), a trip to learn about Romanian history, and then another Bible lesson in the evening. Of course we had some good food 3 times a day, and we learned that bread is held in high regard in Romania. They eat it with EVERYTHING and it's homemade (and DELICIOUS)! The Cormoses take the kids around the country because most of them would never get the opportunity otherwise to learn about their nation's rich history. So each day we all learned new things about Romania and about God's Word.




After we left the fortress, we stopped by Curtea de Arges Monastary and toured the beautiful hand-crafted church building. There were a lot of legends about the building of this church, and again, we enjoyed learning more about the Romanian culture with the kids and church members.



That afternoon we visited Fagaras Fortress which had a full history of the area. That evening, Mary taught Part 2 of her lesson on Ruth and the richness of Jesus being our redeemer. She explained to the kids about Ruth's story and how we can use it as an illustration of Christ. Mary did a fantastic job on her lessons and the kids really had never heard the story of Ruth. It was a privilege spending the time in Romania with her.


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Mary must have braided everyone's hair that night. |
As we were preparing for bed, we had a very long visit from our mouse friend. He ran around the room for a little bit playing peek-a-boo with us. I finally was able to capture a picture of our little friend before he ran out of the room. We closed the door and stuffed a towel underneath it to ensure he didn't return that evening. It was the best night of rest I had because I wasn't half awake making sure he wasn't running across my bed…I'm sure he found a way back in and probably sat there laughing at me, but I didn't notice. :)
Here are a few more pictures from our week at camp:
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This is where we came to get our clean water everyday. |
The younger boys' table for mealtime. |
The American's table for mealtime. |
The oldest girls' table for mealtime. |
The older girls' table for mealtime. |
The young girls' table for mealtime. |
The older boys' table for mealtime. |
The younger girls cooked when the older ones left to go into town one day. |
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Our friend who sat at our table and taught us Romanian. |
Our table for mealtime. |
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Crammed in the front seat with our roomies! |
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Mary helping Sister Mia with lunch at the Cormoses' house. |
Tuesday came bright and early, and we rode with Brother Gheorghe to Budapest, Hungary. He took us there and helped us get a hotel room and taxi set up for our flights out the next day. On our way to Budapest, we were able to share our appreciation to Brother Gheorghe for all that he allowed us to be a part of. We were also able to ask him a few more questions about the culture and their ministry there. Staying in Hungary for the night was interesting. Mary's flight was at 6 AM and mine wasn't until 6 PM, so she left the hotel at 4 in the morning and I stayed until check-out time at 10. I hung out at the airport in a little coffee house reading until it was time to head through security and on to my next 3 flights to Kenya. First stop, Austria, then to Ethiopia, and lastly to Kenya!
I cannot truly express how thankful I am for the opportunity to travel to Romania and fellowship with the Cormoses. They are doing a mighty work for the Lord in their community. Their warm spirit was so welcoming and they taught us so much about serving Christ.
Please continue to pray for the missionaries all over the world who are serving for the furtherance of the Gospel.
In Christ,
Ashley
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