And So It Begins-Summer 2013

ROMANIA-SUMMER 2013

This is the view from my window 

This summer I will spend two months in the Transylvania region of Romania where I will be interning for Livada Orphan Care for a second time (www.livada.org). There are 11 other interns from all over the United States who will be with me.

Livada has several ministries that we will be part of. They have a VBS styled day camp for state orphans, a literacy program in the Ogra gypsy village, and a partnership with a local hospital where babies, who are too young to be in a state orphanage/group home, live. 

8 Interns will be working at camp, 2 will be in Ogra, and myself and another returning intern will be at the baby hospital.

Last year my role as an intern was to help facilitate and lead the day camp but this summer I will be working with the infants and toddlers! Many of them have delayed physical and cognitive development because they have not been nurtured and cared for in the way they need. I will be assisting with daily therapies and exercises that will help these children to develop into healthy adults. It is very eye opening to see what a lack of face-to-face interaction and affection can do to a child—God designed us to love and be loved! Since I am a Child Development major, this is incredible experience. I’m grateful that I get to surrender my passion for kids to the Lord and that he has chosen to use me in this way!

THANK YOU for all of the prayer. The group of 12 interns, myself included, arrived this morning after 4 days of Orientation in Dallas and 24 hours of travel. I’m happy to report that this year we didn’t lose any bags! We flew from Dallas to London, and from London to Bucharest, Romania. After a 6 hour bus ride through the night we made it to Casa Rene (the name of Livada’s guest house). 

Everyone is in good health and is taking the day to fight off jet lag--jet lag is so real--I had pizza for lunch but my body was saying, "why are you eating pizza at 5 am". Romania is 8 hours ahead of Dallas time

This week we will prep for camp, Ogra literacy ministry, and the baby hospital. There is so much to be done! I will be updating my blog each weekend with news from the week and current prayer requests

PRAYER IS CRUCIAL to everything that we do and I would be so thankful for as much prayer as possible

[Don't let those old posts confuse you! They are from last summer but feel free to browse through them]