We are still alive!! I promise!

The week has really crept up on us as we have been very busy with the Romanian team here. Here's a run down of what we have been up to!



Sunday

We were able to go to Draganesti to a local church where Michelle and Kevin attend. This church is pastored by Pastor Raul who planned our village vists around Draganesti. It was great to be able to see another body of believers in another country worshiping God in a different language. The singing was also very neat as we were leading songs in English and they were singing along in Romanian. Dr. G. preached a message both in the morning and evening services. Between services we were able to relax in the AC, yes, AC it was amazing after being in the heat in the humidity for even the short amount of time we were.

Monday
Monday really began our work. We started out in a run as we ran 3 classes in 3 different villages. The team really came together as we set up computers and began our first class. It was really awesome and fun trying to teach the kids how type. We learned very quickly to say the home row a.k.a. "asdfjkl;" in Romania. Along with the word "da" which means yes. :)

The first village was in a remote village that only had one classroom in which we set all 8 of our computers. I was amazed at how fast some of the kids picked up on what we were teaching, especially with our limited communication skills. The second place we went was a school which surprising had very nice computers with access to the interent. There were a lot of more advanced students that knew English quite well so we were able to teach them more. I started of the class with perfectly suited student for me. The girl I was working with was learning very quickly but she very much liked to push my buttons and tease me to see if I was paying attention to how she was typing. She was very much a character. After typing with this class we were able to go outside and play "futbol" and frisbee. It was awesome to be able to play outside even with the heat! The third class was very laid back as many of them had been to the class the year before. We were able to be more social with Raul's family as we had typing wars between him and his wife.

When we were finally able to come back after classes the team was ready to crash after the long day that was hot and sticky. It was definitely a rewarding day.

Tuesday
The team was a lot more organized today as we knew a little more of the routine that was planned for the day. We got to the first village and were able to recognize faces! It was so cool to continue our relationships we had started the day before. I had two little boys that were quite the handful as they were trying to share a computer between the two of them as much as little boys can do. Nathan had a lot of fun teaching his boys how to "fist bump" before they left for the day. We were able to learn a lot of new songs from Christi (one of the leaders that translated for us). It was a lot of fun doing "Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes" and watching Dr. G. speed up the tempo. The second class is doing very well. They started Word today. We were also able to teach an advanced class with one of the boys. I was able to teach him the Excel program and he would now put many of my classmates to shame at how much he knows how to do. As an example of how fast he is learning Caleb and I are going to start teaching him HTML tomorrow. In Draganesti, where our third class was held, we were able to really connect with some of the older students. Nathan was able to have some very good conversation with some of the guys. I was also able to start a presentation for Pastor Raul for the Mission project to be presented to churches.
We are finally back to Michelle and Kevin's from our long day. Today was about 37 degrees Celsius and humid. So I am definitely glad to be back in the AC.

Some prayer requests that you can be praying for are for the team to continue having energy through all of the long days with not only the heat but with loving the kids. We also need prayer as we are going to try to catch a train on Saturday to go to our next village. We are really nervous since we only have one minute to get all of our luggage on the train and all of us on before it starts going. Also, be praying for two of the boys in Draganesti as Nathan has been carrying on some very sensitive conversations with them about our faith and how we are different. Pray that we can help the pastors make connections with these boys.