Today was a grand day. We started our morning off by going to the Romanian church where we got to experience beautiful singing, friendly people, and a lack of air conditioning. We got to see many of our new friends (the orphans) after the service and shared smiles and hellos before heading back to Daniel’s to discuss camp planning. I (Ben) was lucky enough to sit next to my new friend, Elvis, an orphan. Over the past few days through hanging out in the park and united worship at church today, Elvis and I have become quite close and I am excited to get to know him and his story on a deeper level during camp starting tomorrow. I am thankful for these opportunities to be with the orphans before camp so us Americans can go in with a higher level of confidence.
This afternoon we spent many hours in the church building preparing for camp (which is tomorrow, holy cow!!). Between learning this year’s camp dance to the song, Restart, by the News Boys and dances from previous years, Get Down, and Toby Mac’s, Made to Love, I (Ben again) built up quite the sweat! We are all very excited for camp and feeling pretty prepared after two straight afternoons of planning.
This afternoon we went to the city center of Craiova to hang out with our orphan friends and eat some delicious Romanian soft serve ice cream (Trent’s favorite). I think we may have set a world record for pictures taken by a single group in an hour… The cameras were constantly flashing! The buildings surrounding us were beautiful but the people were even more so. During our ice cream social, Sarah and I (Trent), attempted to get a picture with a man in a snazzy fur coat but found ourselves engrossed in a deep conversation about his life and experineces in America. After 15-30 minutes of great talking, we finally succeeded in getting our picture (posted below…maybe). Conversations and more pictures continued throughout the night, even after Lief anounced it was time to go. We finally loaded ourselves into the vans and headed back to Daniel’s house for a delicious dinner of chicken, cucombers, tomattos, peppers, and an interesting and delicious rice concoction. And now, currently underway, is the packing of bags for camp. It’s a little chaotic but we trust everyone knows what they are doing! Our clean up and packing is almost finished and our team is winding down. Ahead lies a good nights rest in preperation for tomorrow (the first day of camp!!!).
It’s hard to believe camp is less than twelve hours away! We are excited, nervous, smelly, and excited for camp 🙂 (give us a break, it’s late here). More posts to come (when possible) throughout the week, no promises as we don’t know the availablitiy of the world wide web at the camp.
SHOUTOUTS!!!
First shoutout is to Jenna Hersh who is joining me in the eastern hemisphere for a few weeks (then staying here for a couple weeks longer… or months)
Shoutout to Momma Pedersen and Pappa Pedersen for being the awesome people you are! Thank you for giving me opportunites like these to witness the immense beauty of God and His crazy love for all of us. And to Kyle for being a steller older brother and example to me and to Corey for being the young sappling of a boy…God’s still working on you 😉
Shoutout to Momma and Poppa Hersh for sending her two oldest kids to the other side of the world at the same time! Enjoy the quiet while you can… And to Icecream Can Dan and my boi Noah P. Miss you guys and can’t wait to camp on your roof Noah! And Dan, I’m dissapointed at the lack of comments thus far (same goes for my Hondo roomies Evan and Nnamdi). Luv you guys!!
To Greg, Jed, and Josh for softening up Beni last year for us. His biceps are still fabulous. (I love you Greg <3) (You too Jed and Josh <3 <3)
Shoutout to Ben Hersh for being the best roomate ever and not snoring (just kidding he does…a lot) and having a pretty kick butt beard.
#PrayforAngie #AngieisOkay
Signing out, Trent and Ben, the two Musketteers/roomies/spelling extrordinares
Praying for you all to get a good nights rest to be ready for a great adventure this week.
Hugs to Alyssa P. from Mom and Dad:)
Thanks for sharing the great news! The Schumachers are praying for your first day of camp!
Love love love the pictures 🙂
Wish I was there!praying often for hearts ,minds, souls and strength!
I can almost feel the nervous excitement for camp tomorrow! With all the planning you guys put into it, sounds like you are well prepared. Plus Restart and Made to Love are pretty kick butt songs so that helps too 🙂 Have a great first day of camp – can’t wait to hear how it goes!
#PrayforAngie is a thing because this trip is when Angie gets a break from Lief but this time she has to put up with Lief for the whole trip! Other than dealing with Lief longer there is nothing wrong.
Thanks for the shoutout!! I’m currently in Amsterdam about to board my flight to Kenya. I’m glad to hear that you guys are having a blast and I so wish that I could be in 2 places at once so I could join you at camp… But I guess I’ll have to make due with a semester in Kenya instead. Love you all! And will everyone please give Ben Hersh a hard time for me? And a giant hug?
Jenna
I second the request for Ben Hersh – a hard time and a giant hug – this time from his mom! Thx for the S/O. Yes, it is crazy to have 2 of your kids halfway around the world! But God is good and He is there taking care of you guys. His world is big and amazing – just like Him. Glad you both are able to get out and explore it . . . continue being a light in the darkness!
To the team: wow! continue with your great work at camp. The enthusiasm seems high and that will be reflected back to you all. Shine the spotlight on God! He’s up to amazing things – can’t wait to hear about them!
Hugs & Prayers! – – the Hershbergers
Awesome post Trent and Ben!
S/O to all of the leaders…you guys are awesome!!! Thank you for the ways that you are loving on those amazing students, though I suspect they are doing the same right back at you all! Praying for camp!
BTW…Ben’s beard needs a hashtag.
These pictures are so awesome. Brianna and I were looking through them all wishing we were right there next to all y’all. God is (and has been) doing amazing things in Craiova, and now you are all a part of that in a new, fun, and beautiful ways. Seeing you all smile in these pictures and hearing all these stories is a reminder to me of how good God is. We, your faithful blog-readers, are blessed to be able to experience Jesus through each of you.
SO to Lief. When your energy level is at it’s lowest, you are still out of control (in a good way). It’s a gift to the team and is contagious.
SO to all my Fitchburgers! Though I am obviously proud of everybody on the team, I gotta give a special shoutout to the Fitchburg gang. Sundays are a little less exciting when I don’t get to see you guys.
SO to Angie. Your gifts are a perfect fit for this trip. Be a courageous leader and don’t hold anything back. God is going to use you in big ways.
SO to Sarmale. You have caused my taste buds to experience the love of Christ. Your cabbage-y outsides and meaty center are a perfect balance of flavors. Oh how I crave the taste. I want you more than I want Chipotle right now…
What a blessing for the team to have experienced worshipping God and fellowshipping with other believers on the other side of the world. Doesn’t it just make you realize what a BIG God we serve?? It sure does that for me!
So cool to hear about the relationship you’re fostering with Elvis, Ben! I’m praying that God uses you, and all the rest of the team, to flood the orphans’ lives with the love of God (in Trent’s words: the crazy love of God… I mean, who, in their right mind, would give us so many chances, when we – ALL of us – grieve Him so incredibly with our sin?! His love is incomprehensibly amazing!)
“Little (or not) Bear” Trent – You’re really getting this packing thing down, huh? So looking forward to you coming home and staying put for at least a little bit! I’m assuming that if you’re eating lots of ice cream, that means the you’ve conquered the giardia bug? Just remember what the dr. said! 😉 On a lighter note, get yourself in more of those pictures! I want to see your beautiful smile!! Oh, one more thing, there’s nothing more that Dad and I want more for you than to experience the immense beauty of God and His crazy love for you!!! You are oh so welcome for the opportunity to be on the Romania team.
P.S. Team – Every time you lack A/C just keep telling yourself over and over that it’s building character in you.
I’m praying for you guys! thanks for the shoutout! I’m really looking forward to hearing how God is going to be using you guys!
Oh I love all the pictures!! I am sure that camp is going to be amazing, challenging, rewarding and life chantings! It always is. 🙂
As far as the #prayforangie thing…. it is hysterical!! Not sure why this hasn’t been a thing before. Why does Angie need to leave the country with Lief to get a hashtag that represents how awesome she is?!?! I might want to change it to #praisingGodFORangie though. 🙂
Love to you all!
Sarah