Lo / Ro Mission Trip 2009...post 7

Four hours from Bucharest was Braila and Galats. Don't check my spelling please. This is where we spent the bulk of the time in Romania. Our first outdoor concert was in this town square in Galats. It was packed. All songs were in English, except one the students learned in Romanian. And whenever someone spoke, a translator helped out.



Another view. This man who has his back to us picked the flowers (he was sitting on) and threw them and some kisses at one of the girls on the front row. It was interesting.


Jarrett (green) sharing the gospel and the translator helping (red).

The students are finished performing and waiting for Jarrett to finish so they can go pray and mingle with the people. See this pile of backpacks. I should have taken a picture of the whole pile. There were hundreds. The students that "had" to have them and didnt realize the dangers of walking around with a backpack left theirs in a big pile while the performed. And we had to form a human wall around them because people would walk or run by and try to take off with one. Crazy. We were close to a very very poor area (which I will blog about next) where the gypsys live. They do whatever it takes to survive. We met some great people with interesting gypsy stories.


One of my favorite pictures from the night. A group of our guys sat with a group of Romanian guys for such a long time (and without a translator). Side note: most of the younger generations are taught english, but over in this area most are not educated. They sat there and shared the gospel with them and laughed and tried to teach each other words for most of the night. It was a cool sight.

Lo / Ro Mission Trip 2009...post 6

same day of touring with lydia.
drove by the arch d'triumph. alot like the one in france. in fact, a lot of the architecture (well, before that dictator bulldozed it all and built up the ghettos and housing blocks to control the people) resembled france.





visited this little outside museum. it was so cool. it had all these examples of homes and churches from all the different villages and areas throughout romania. obviously, most people do not live in these style homes anymore, but some very very remote villages still do.


one of the churches from the villages....


lydia and jarrett walking thru the villages....


left side, some area of romania had these blue homes. since everything back then was man made, my little imagination created the blue paint from blueberries. i love the little world i live in...


after the villages, we walked thru this amazing park.


me and j on the bridge.


i know its tough to see, but there were these huge statue heads all around this fountain. famous romanian men.


walking towards the exit of this park. this is where the skaters were (rollerblading was very very popular here). i dont know who all the statues were of that lined this walkway.

Lo / Ro Mission Trip 2009...post 5

sorry for the delay in updating. the last 10 days has been hectic. i hope to finish posting this trip this week.
we arrived in bucharest and were taken around town by a new friend, lydia. first stop, the people's palace / house of the people. i don't have the whole history down. its the second largest building in the world. (first is the pentagon). over 300,000 square feet. it was built for and by the communist leader, Ceauşescu, who dominated romania and kicked all the people out of their homes and moved them into blocks, rationing food, clothing, you name it. they were under this communist rule for 50 years, receiving their freedom in the late 80's. we met a family (the stanciu's) and to hear the stories from michael and christina was depressing. their whole familly was expelled from romania for professing to be christians and teaching the bible.

Outside of the People's Palace. Not built for the people actually, but for that mean leader. Building it as he is stripping people of their homes, freedoms and dignity. He died before it was complete. Never got to enjoy it, now it houses all the government offices and 5% of it is open for touring...



Close up of the side entrance.



jarrett and i standing on the outside balcony that faces the main road in bucharest. this balcony (and view) is where dictators address the people (who gather in the streets). michael jackson famously addressed the people here..."hello buDapest..." uhhh. its bucharest.


Small examples of the extravagance (all while the people are losing their possessions). One of the ballrooms had a retractable glass ceiling so a helicopter could come pick up whats his name in case of attack.



These are considered "small chandeliers" in the palace. All goldplated with real crystal. Over 2,000 in the palace.



huge "gone with the wind" staircases and tapestries everywhere.


Marble floors throughout. This pattern was all over the place. We found out its actually a map of the whole palace so the workers would know how to get around. Its that big.


I loved the ceilings so here is another example.



Arched hallways with intricate ceilings throughout.


Handmade tapestries and all these bronze busts of all his communist buddies.

Lo / Ro Mission Trip 2009...post 4

i cannot remember the area, nor read the sign on the street, but I do remember being told that the architect purposefully built the 2 buildings and the street to form a semi-circle. its really cool.



we took the train over to notting hill. it was so quaint and cool. very quiet, not quite as bustling as the movie portrays and although they did have a bookstore, it was not a travel book shop and there was no hugh grant, or julia. that was a great day just hanging out eating and of course scarfing down many many cupcakes from this great little cupcakery - hummingbird cupcakery.




as rachael ray would say - they were delish!


the streets of notting hill. they did have fruit stands and vendors to resemble the " life thru the seasons without anna scott (julia)" scene as he walks thru the market. playing my favorite song from the movie -"ain't no sunshine when she's gone". what is funny, we got back to our hotel room that night and the movie that was playing...notting hill. funny.


cute little sandwich shop/bakery. we walked by it 3 times thru the day and they had this adorable car in their storefront that featured the specials or the baked goods they offered. so clever and looked so yummy. would have eaten there, but cupcakes were our main source of sustenance that day. paid for it later!


this is what the trip was all about. i wish i could play a video of it for you. this was the hightlight of my trip. being around the students and watching them in action. their energy and passion for Christ was amazing. this was a show they did in london. their schedule was intense. they did have fun and see some sights, but they were serving or canvasing the area to get the word out for that night's show or practicing or performing. the adult "sponsors" are called family group leaders and there are 2-3 of them assigned to a group of about 14 kids for the entire trip. but the groups meet weekly months and months in advance to get to know each other, learn how to share their testimony and the gospel and to focus on their mission on the trip. they become super tight knit and then spend pretty much every waking moment together on the actual trip. the adults on this trip were the cream of the crop. amazing energy and amazing attitudes thru the 10 days - i don't know if i could have done what they did, but i have always wanted to.