Travelling is something that everyone wants to experience in this life. Some can do it for all their life and turn it into passion, some can make it a job. I - like many others - will try to make it a passion and like all of you..share my feelings and cultural shocks :) [View Full Entry]

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Today I'm on the train to Istanbul, passing through Rumania and Bulgaria. I have lots of food, a nice bed, and will hopefully arrive relaxed and well fed in Istanbul on Wednesday morning. [View Full Entry]

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We've made it to Romania. This was one of the countries I was most looking forward to when I was planning to cycle this route. I had heard of great mountian chains, bears and dracula. It is so beautiful here and we are here in a heat wave, this part is not so good for cycling so we are rested up in Sighisoara, a beatuful UNESCO recognised medieval citadel and the bitrhplace of Dracula, aka Vlad the Impaler. We finally managed to leave L'viv after struggling to fit the new local tyre I had bought there. The road out of town [View Full Entry]

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It seems that I exist in a time vacuum, having no concept of the days of the week, or the uncanny ability that time has to fly by. Really it's unbelievable to me that it is now August, another month is gone, and another country awaits. However, the next stop will not be reached without a considerable amount of suffering as my train trip from where I am now in Suceava, Romania to Kiev, Ukraine will take me roughly 23 hours. I can't say that I'm very much looking forward to this one, especially considering the last few trips I've taken [View Full Entry]

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Time has passed again without me even knowing. Two more days have come and gone before I had a chance to tell you everything that is going on here in Romania. Yesterday (Tuesday) we visited the village of Nushfalau and set up the clinic in their church there. They have a two-story church and we were able to set up the clinic upstairs and the VBS/waiting room down stairs. The clinic saw about 200 people and Tom was able to share the gospel with those that were waiting upstairs. We had VBS downstairs and were able to even share the Bible [View Full Entry]

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I have to apologize for not keeping up with the journal this time. As you can imagine, we have been extremely busy and getting time to compose my thoughts is not easy. Yesterday (Sunday) was our first “work” day. We met the drama team and the colstruction team at the Gypsy church in Nushfalau. It was a wonderful time for us all to be together again for a little while. The teen drama team sang a few songs and we participated in the service. It was a very special day for this church. About 7 people have completed their first year [View Full Entry]

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Well, day one is now officially over. But let me start with our trip over yesterday. We couldn’t have asked for better flights. We made all of for brief connections (some of us by a few minutes). Unfortunately, not all of our luggage made the connections. Of the 68 pieces of luggage that we checked, 40 didn’t make it to Budapest with us. Being the great planner that he is, Tony had a plan B and sent 14 of us ahead to Romania and waited with the rest until the luggage arrived on the next flight from Frankfort. They were able [View Full Entry]

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Today started out with breakfast as usual (in Romania I mean). We were greeted with a brief thunderstorm this morning, but it soon cleared off for another beautiful day. Then the drama team (teens) met us at Tony’s house for the first time since we got here. We loaded two busses and Tony’s car and started our hour and a half ride to Camp Joy. We twisted and turned through the mountains and ended up on the side of a hill where several buildings stood. We were happy to see that the construction team was hard at work. We got to [View Full Entry]

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Alright, back to more informative (but slightly less awesome) blog entries. Liz here, reporting from surprisingly hot Transylvania... We just stepped off the train, so please forgive my incoherence. A lot has happened in the past few days, so here goes. We parted ways with the lovely English girls we were staying with in our guesthouse in Dubrovnik, after an amazing three island cruise (advertised as "fish picnic"... thought that was funny) and made our way up through Croatia into Bosnia. The bus ride was pretty sobering... we saw entire villages that had been abadoned, buildings completely burnt out, and more [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, January 5, 2005 Ten pairs of hopeful eyes waited quietly in the remarkably pleasant coolness (for mid-winter) of the Romanian city. Each one of them so full of joy, though we each knew that behind that joy lay a unique painful story. They were the children of the orphanage that we had heard so much about- the House of Hope. Today, the fifth of January (or Ianuarie, as the Romanians would have it) of 2005, the team traveled to Oradea for a life-changing experience, and Marios and Alina came with us. From a trip to the piata (marketplace) in that [View Full Entry]

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