Club Beyond Service Project

Jay and I spent nearly two weeks in Romania, coming back this past Tuesday. The first week and a half was spent doing a mission project with Club Beyond, a ministry organization for our youth here in Schweinfurt. We met in Cluj, Romania with 400 high schoolers. Most of the kids took around a 30 hour bus ride to get to Cluj. Jay and I were lucky enough to get to fly there!

We had Club every night, singing lots of loud songs and hearing a message from a great speaker. Here they are, jumping around during worship.

During the week, we had four different programs going on... building a playground at a local school, Vacation Bible School, Club, and a Sports Camp. For those of you unfamiliar with Club, it's an hour long ministry opportunity for the kids, playing lots of crazy games, singing songs, and hearing a short message that pertains to their current lives. Much like Chaos and Big House back in Cedar Falls.

 Don't these smiles just light up your heart!

 Doing a skit for Daniel and the Lion's Den

Jay's job throughout the week was to be hands on with the playground. He and another guy were in charge of it all. The goal was for our high schoolers to do all the work. Jay did a lot of teaching... how to use a saw, how to use a drill, making concrete, digging holes. It was so neat to watch him interact with the kids and give them a chance to try something new. He was so patient and really let the kids try, even if the drill ended up wrapping their shirt up into a knot!

 Painting tar on to the beams to help waterproof them before going into the ground.

 Do you see the big rocks and pieces of bricks below... those were all dug out of the holes. We dug up more giant rocks than dirt! It made for a much more difficult time digging!!

 32 holes had to be dug in all... it was quite a daunting task!

 After many laboring hours, this boulder finally was pulled out of the hole being dug. It took a long metal pipe and Jay's belt to finally pull it out! Jay was pretty excited to have that hole done!

 The finished product... monkey bars, platforms, balance beam, rings, chin-up bars, and swings.

 The two construction contractors... Jay and Kevin.

 Enjoying the new swing set.

I worked on the other three parts of the trip. My title for the week was all about Relational Ministries. Before we even left for Romania, I put together a VBS program, Club, and the sports ministry for the week we were there. Thankfully we had some great curriculum to use already, it just took a lot of organizing. Along with the VBS lesson, we did crafts, games, and songs. Club was very similar, but more geared for the older kids. I didn't have to do any of the teaching once we got there. Instead, I handed all the plans over to the high schoolers and let them go. They put together two hours worth of fun for the Romanian kids. When the kids were busy teaching, they were outside playing all sorts of games with the kids. A lot of neat relationships were created throughout the week. The hardest part of it was that we had to say everything through translators. The kids couldn't understand us at all and we couldn't understand them. We had three high school girls with us that translated for us.

One little girl really stuck out to me the whole week. She came on Monday, but was very nervous and shy. She stood in the doorway for the entire VBS portion of the day, not wanting to come near us. We kept asking her to come join us, but she kept saying no. We all went outside to play soccer in the afternoon. The girl came outside with us, but she sat against the fence on her own, not playing or talking to anyone. I went and sat by her, not really sure what to do. You have to remember that they kids speak only Romanian. So holding a conversation was not possible. After sitting beside her for 20 minutes, I finally tried to get her to smile. I picked a thick piece of grass and whistled with it. Then she tried. She would barely smile, but I did see it a few times. Then I went to get some bubbles and we blew a few bubbles together. By the end of the day, she still wasn't too sure of all of us. Nonetheless, Dana came back every day that week. She learned to love us and had so much fun. By Thursday and Friday, she was all smiles. Throughout the week we learned each others' name. That was all we could say to each other. So whenever we crossed paths, we would yell out each others' name and give a hug. Even though we couldn't talk to each other, a hug and a smile went a long ways!
Here she in on Monday...

And by Friday... she was my best buddy.

The last day we were at the school, we held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new playground and then held a carnival. All of our high school kids manned 20 stations that the Romanian kids could go around to. We handed out candy and prizes. It was an awesome afternoon. I really enjoyed just sitting back and watching the work that God had done throughout the week. We have no idea how many lives were touched last week and never will, but seeing smiles and hearing laughter made for an amazing experience.

Jay and I were really blessed to be on this trip. It was such a strong reminder about how spoiled we really are. We had so much more than any of those kids, but you would never know by the smiles on their faces and the light in their eyes. They were just excited to be alive. It didn't matter to them that they wore the same clothes every day, or that their homes didn't have running water, or that the bathroom was really a pipe dug down into the ground in the back yard. They had life and they were happy!

Such a great reminder... God gives us everything we need to live. We just need to be happy with what we have and use it to the fullest.

Club Beyond is heading back to Romania again next year. Jay and I are really hoping we can go back too!

On a side note.... I also got to see this wonderful friend, which made my trip even better!! Elizabeth moved up to England to continue ministry with a new group of kids. I miss her so much, so was glad to be able to spend the week with her!