Full Disclosure: I may have held out on you in the last post. #sorry 

I can only speak for myself, but by far the MOST frequently asked question I get is “Do you know your teammates?” or “Are you going with friends?”

We had our second and final pre-trip team meeting this past Tuesday night. We gathered in the Yancey’s kitchen around their 10 seat dinner table for a simple spaghetti dinner complete with garlic bread. This massive yet warm and welcoming table is clearly the heart of their home and knowing Rob and Liz an important tool in their practice of Biblical hospitality. We took this time to get to know each other a bit better, talk more logistics, and divvy up supplies we are taking with us, such as blankets and physical therapy items. After a quick ice breaker, the findings suggest that many of us are excited about meeting and especially playing sports with the Romanians, a little nervous about our lack of Romanian language skills, and do not snore. Yay!

So back to the question, a few of us have previous connections to one or two others, but for the most part we have met each other all of two times and know very little about each other. Our team has a nice diversity of gender, churches, and age. We are a team of 10, with 7 guys and 3 gals. I think we have 4 local churches represented. Our youngest teammate is 10 years old, we have 3 high schoolers going, and the rest of us are “older.” We’ll just leave it at that. We seemingly share very little in common. We all have different jobs, or go to different schools, live in different areas, and definitely root for different sports teams. However, we can be united by nothing earthly, while still sharing the bonds of our common faith and relationship with Christ. This is the beauty of the church.

Our team is so privileged to get to go on this trip together and share our faith and these experiences together. There is a comfort in knowing while we may struggle to connect on our favorite basketball team or video game, we will not be left with nothing to talk about. So while we don’t know each other well now, we can pretty safely say that we will know each other well soon enough.  

Thank you for your prayer and financial support!

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!

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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!

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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. 

If you received a support letter from a member of our team or checked out our About page, then you’ve probably already heard about our construction project. Is now the time where I admit I know nothing about building a house? Oh wait, we will just be doing grunt work, and helping a skilled Romanian tradesman. Whew!

Now that we have that covered, meet the Croitoriu Family, who I will now lovingly refer to as the C Family. Can we just take a minute to imagine 9 people living in a one-bedroom apartment? Struggling? As I sit here typing this in my small 1,300 sqft condo, let me just say “me too, friend.” You will note we are building them a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. The middle-class American and realtor in me is screaming, “that’s not big enough!” However, it’s important for us to remember our goal is not to make them rich in material possessions. The goal of missions is to praise the Lord and makes disciples. Our goal is to make them rich in Christ. Rich in His love and mercy and grace. We aim to restore hope for the C Family, so they may fully enjoy God!

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2

Prayer Requests:

1. We are the first of 4 teams that will help build their home this year. Please pray the weather cooperates and we are able to complete the foundation and first floor walls, so as to not delay future teams.
2. McLean is located in Fairfax County, one of the richest counties in the country. Please pray our eyes and hearts would be opened to the needs of families like the C Family. Pray when we come home to our comfortable lives, that we will have been made more like Jesus and the Spirit would stir up the desire to secure justice for the poor and uphold the cause of the needy.
3. This project will be life-changing for the C Family. Pray we would be a blessing to them and show them Christ well.

We will be enjoying multiple meals with the C Family, and look forward to sharing more about them during our visit. Who knows? We might even learn how to properly pronounce their name. So stay tuned! #goals

I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.
Psalm 140:12

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