Just an Update

So, for those who read this and do not know, I am back in the States. I had an amazing two months in Romania, and it was, and still is, very difficult to be back here. Just a brief update on the hospice camp, it was by far my favorite camp. I had such a great time loving on those children with every last bit of stuff left in me. The camp was run by a team from Bristol, England which made things very interesting. Pants are not pants in the English way of speaking. I found that out very quickly. Pants are the equivalent of whitey tighties. Trousers is the equivalent of pants. Anyway, if you want to know more, please get in touch with me, and I will be more than happy to share with you.

Bear Cave and a Picnic

Yesterday was an AWESOME day! We took the day as a sightseeing day and also just to relax and spend some time with one of my closest friends here. Randy, Ade, Becky, Dana, and myself all went to Beius, which is about an hour and a half ride from Oradea to visit Pestera Ursilor, which is Romanian for Bear Cave.

This cave was found not long ago in 1983 when an explosion happened while some workers were mining for marble and lime. The first person to dive into the depths of this monstrous cave was a man by the name of Curta Traian. As he went through he found many skeletons of about 170 bears. These bears used the cave as a place to hibernate way back when. And at one point, the entrance collapsed and the bears could not get out.

This cave is full of stalagmites and stalactites. And, it was probably the neatest place I have yet to go to here in Romania. Mom and Dad, you both would have loved this place! Mom, you would have loved it for the mountains we were in, and Dad, well you would have liked it for the same reasons I did. But with out further ado, here are some pictures!

Some remains of the cave bears

The ceiling

The coolest archway ever

Giant Stalagmite

Bunches of Stalagmites

A stalagmite and stalactite touching!

This will take 250 million years to touch

One of the bears

Super neat stuff!

Ok so that was Bear Cave! Once we finished there, the five of us went to have a picnic up in the mountains. We found a spot next to a river and stopped there. We laid our blankets down and ate. We all had a great time resting and relaxing... while I stuff myself with four sandwiches (nothing uncommon for those who know me well). So I will leave the rest of this blog up to Randy. He would like to say a few words so here goes.

Greetings, I feel honored to be allowed to write on such a prestigious Blog such as this! As Kevin shared, we had a wonderful time at Bear Cave and seeing all of God's handy work and beauty. We went and had a wonderful picnic lunch in the Mountains there in Boga. After we ate lunch, I asked everybody if they wanted to walk down to the creek to play in the water. I had shared while we were eating lunch about how much fun we had last year playing in the creek. So I said, "Kevin the interns last year walked all the way across the creek", and of course he could not be out done by a bunch of girls. So he took his shoes off and rolled up his pants legs and commenced to step into the creek which is very cold. As he eased his way out to were the water was moving much faster, not realizing how slippery the rocks were under his feet. Well Kevin started to do a little break dance for us all, not by choice and it wasn't long before he was in the creek trying to stand back up, but down again he went.We laughed so hard, that we almost went down standing on dry land it was hilarious. Kevin slowly moved his way back to the rocks soaking wet, very calm and collected as if nothing had happened (kinda of a macho thing for us guys, like this was all planned). We packed up the lunch stuff and headed to the van were I had a towel that had got left in the van from camp the week before, ( it was my towel that I had used all week, just a little dirty) so he dried off the best he could and we put blankets on the seat for him to sit on and we rode all the way back to Oradea before he could get changed here to the apartment, which was over a hour away. It was a great ending to a great day. Kevin is one of those guys who doesn't have to say anything to be funny, it just comes naturally. Kevin has been great this summer JUMPING IN and doing what ever is needed. He has been a true blessing to us here in Romania and the ministry. We Love you Kevin and may God continue to Bless you in all you do for His kingdom!! Here is a picture of Kevin in the Creek and us enjoying. Enjoy!!!

Nihil Sine Deo.....Randy

My favorite topic.... FOOD

So before I left, I had Grace teach me a little bit about cooking since it would just be Randy and myself for the majority of the summer. Well I can assure all of you that I have eaten well.. in fact I may have put on a few pounds. However, I have not posted anything about either of my two counterparts this summer. So, I am blowing our cover and giving you a glimpse of what it is like to be a missionary for two months with Ernest and Baby.

Ernest's cooking has been great... if you like grilled cheese with ham 20 meals a week. (I cannot say much because that is all I can cook.) We eat cereal and eggs for breakfast a sandwich for lunch and then figure something out for dinner. Since I am not a picky eater by any means, I just eat whatever comes my way. My saying for the summer is "sure, why not" when someone asks if I would like more food. I may need to stop that. Anyway, tonight was GREAT! Ernest made chicken wings with french fries and coleslaw with some sweet tea. It made my stomach very, very happy.

Now I would like to introduce you to my second doppelganger:

As you can see, she has a rough life. Just laying around and sleeping man life must be rough! This is the one and only Baby! Always sleeping and taking naps. But in all seriousness she does a great job at attempting to keep Ernest and I in line and on task. She is fantastic at keeping us informed since we are not exactly fluent in Romanian.

So these are the two counterparts that I have been working with for the last two months and they have really helped me out with everything. So in my weird way of saying thank you, thank you. But for me readers, if you ever see them out and about they would love it if you called them out by Ernest or Baby!

Camp in Dezna

What an amazing last ten days. It was very nice to see people from home, however I did find myself quite distracted. I became very homesick after the first couple days and did not feel as if I was as effective as I could have been. Anyway, the camp was GREAT! Even though we were interrupted by rain on almost a daily basis, we were able to make things work.

This camp was not about seeing how many people would come to know the Lord as their personal Savior, but rather about teaching them to teach. The oldest group taught at each worship session and it was incredible to see how the lives of these children have changed since last year.

The kids in this camp have a very special place in my heart because they are the ones who I first got to love and get to know. If you would like to know more about this camp, I would encourage you to talk to someone on the team from Rich Fork, they will be able to give you an update relatively quickly. If you want to know more from my perspective, please email me or leave a comment on here. I have so much to talk about but not nearly enough time to express everything on this blog.

We are preparing for the last camp and the closer it gets, the harder I find it for myself to prepare mentally. We have the hospice camp next and we will be working with very sick children. After working with the ladies there at hospice for the last two months I have heard some pretty incredible stories and know that I will be an emotional wreck having to leave them next Saturday. As for now though, we need to go get the van fixed. I will do my best to update again before I leave for camp.