When you begin conceptualizing and planning a trip, it always seems so far away. You pay the initial deposit on the beach house or book the cruise, and there are still so many sleeps and what feels like eons of days of work, before the trip. Then all of a sudden the trip sneaks up on you! The last half of the deposit is due and that packing list just isn’t going to write itself. We are there folks! Maybe it’s just me, but June is going to fly by and another trip is sneaking up again. It felt so far away when I signed up for this missions trip, but now we are only 30 days away from departure!!
Our previous post gave you a big picture look at our trip; below you will find some of the finer details that complete the picture. Those of you who enjoy lists and logistics, as much as me, will appreciate. Enjoy and keep your questions coming!
How long will it take to get there?
We will have, in total, about eighteen hours of travel time. Thankfully only 9.5 of those hours will actually be in-flight. Another 3 hours are accounted for driving from the airport to Arad. The remainder of the travel time includes a short layover and plenty of airport time.
What will the weather be like?
Temps should be similar to DC in July, hot days and warm nights. A real person hasn’t confirmed this, but the interwebs say the humidity should be less. Yay! Nobody will complain about a reprieve from the oppressive DC humidity!
What is the time difference?
Romania is 7 hours ahead of the East Coast. This will cause our travel to span over two days on the way there, but on the way back it will work in our favor and we will be able to complete the trip all on the same day, Saturday.
What is the best way to communicate?
We will have Wi-Fi on the RCE campus. We should be able to email, and we plan to update daily via the blog and Facebook.
What is the spiritual atmosphere of Romania?
The majority of Romanian’s identify as Christians. Great things are happening in our local churches, but God is so much bigger than DC. We really are traveling to see our brothers and sister’s in Christ. As Romans 12:5 says, we “are one body in Christ”.
We have been advised that church services are in Romanian. Rob was also advised he should be ready to preach. The big question: Will he be preaching in Romanian?
Will you be staying with host families?
We will not be staying with host families. We will all be staying on the RCE campus. RCE is an awesome host and in addition to transportation and a place to lay our heads, they will provide all our food, drinks, and snacks. Hopefully some traditional Romanian fare. A quick Google search could easily reveal what exactly that is, but why ruin the surprise?
Will you need to speak Romanian?
No. One of our wonderful Romanian hosts will always be with us to translate, if needed, but most Romanians under about 35-40 years old speak English anyways.
What will you be doing in any free time?
We will be enjoying long summer nights playing volleyball and soccer, running around the playground, and taking walks with the children… and sleeping. Just kidding! But seriously, after our travel schedule, construction projects, and recreation activities, we will sleep well!
We love your questions about our trip! If you have another question or you know something about Romania that we should know, drop it in the comments below.
New Mercies Seen 