It's incredible. I keep saying I'm going to post FEWER pictures tomorrow, and yet it always ends up that I post MORE. This is crazy long. Lest you think I'm just insane, I am trying to post pictures of as many team members as possible, in addition to artistic pictures and pictures that explain what we're doing. Temporarily, this is a multi-purpose blog.
I already wrote a little about yesterday, so I'm just going to quickly caption each of these pictures. I have to make a disclaimer...I process pictures on my own computer and I post them on the Fink's, so now that I'm here on theirs I'm noticing some of the pictures look a little dark. I am in a huge hurry so I'm not going to go back and fix them. Too much work. Right now it's quantity over quality.
Children watching us through the window as we get set up for VBS.
The view of the village of Oserhei from the church (the gypsy camp is outside the village)
This little girl was soundly beaten by her mother for disobeying. In this picture she's happy, but later on I found her looking a little swollen in the face and very sad. Laurie told me that she had brought her baby brother or sister back to Mom so she could color during craft time, but Mom told her to keep the baby with her. She walked away so Mom came over, pulled her out of the church and hit her in the head a few times, so hard that her headband went flying. I was so sad for her.
A few of the kids are barefoot and on these cold mornings, it just breaks my heart. We are all bundled up in sweatshirts and sweaters but being barefoot doesn't phase them.
Also of interest...these are the feet of a little boy.
This kid has earned the nickname "cowboy" because that was his English word that he kept repeating when we first arrived. We think he really likes cowboys and was calling our guys American cowboys, or something. But it stuck, and he's a favorite. He's the son of the church deacon.
A face I will not soon forget.
Tug of war.
I asked Lena if she made them cry or if she just attracted screaming kids. :) 2nd day in a row that poor Lena gets a naughty one. But look at her handling it with grace and dignity. :)
Chrissy has a Little House on the Prairie moment.
Matt (the MAP'er staying with the Finks right now) found his gypsy double.
Some interesting variation of Red Rover.
Red Rover, Red Rover, send ALL the gypsy kids back over!
Pastor Pete watches from a safe distance. :)
Here's one for the National Geographic collection.
Cody led games. He who has the whistle rules the world here.
Some beautiful faces...
Sam hands out crayons...
Darrin puts his talents to good use and designs church pews that the guys will hopefully have a chance to build before they leave. They found out that lumber for the project was EXHORBITANTLY priced (like $15/board!!!) so we may just make enough for the new church in Martihaz.
Rich doing what Rich does best.
The school teacher in Chrissy definitely comes in handy.
Cody shares his Dad's gift for loving children.
A cute Lena/Bethany moment.
The kids have figured out that I can turn the camera around now, so I may appear a little more frequently.
Chrissy teaching a little girl to fold her hands during prayer. Me teaching her that it's cute to have her eyes open for a picture. WOOPS!
Several of the kids have learned our names, but Sam is one that we hear a lot. They like Sam.
A few other team member portraits
We went to Cowboy's house today. They have a TV and their house seems to be one of the nicer ones in the village.
The man looking at the camera is Joseif, Cowboy's dad, the deacon. I really like him...he seems so kind and faithful.
The house from the outside.
Cowboy says that Josh is Superman and that he is the Hulk.
Classic cuteness.
Things we would never get used to seeing no matter how long we were here...
This is a closeup of the previous picture so you can see the little girl playing in this courtyard all by herself.
The "playdoh."
The kids never want us to leave. I can't remember the word for "Be CAREFUL" but we scream it out the windows as we pull away every day.
Driving over to Cheriu, I saw this gypsy woman walking past a Romanian man. It's such a mix of worlds, all in such close proximity.
I love this picture. It just looks so quaint.
The response when I told this girl to say "Funk-ay!"
Darrin the architect still working hard on the bench designs.
Chrissy's voice was gone from laryngitis, so Martha told the lesson and Chrissy did the flannelgraf and sideshow theatrics.
They come to him like the pied piper...
Just to prove, our feet get just as dirty as the gypsies!
Not all the work is exciting, but somebody's got to do it.
Bethany gives a little girl a cracker.
I don't believe this needs any explanation...
Ok, THIS one does...if you click on this picture to enlarge it, you'll see the kid way off in the distance. He's walking down the road with a blanket over his head. I couldn't get out there fast enough to get a direct shot, but I really love it this way anyways...one of my favorites.
Another fav...
Lena stealing Rich's job...
EWWWWWWWW.
Staying in line...or trying anyways...
Guys against girls tug of war.
The human wall...if they didn't do this, the kids would root for their team by running to the end of the rope, grabbing on and joining in.
Cody and Jonathan against all the girls...the boys won.
...and the girls went sprawling all over.
Pastor Tim, however, was not so lucky. He lost his footing right away and the girls totally won.
Pastor Tim's hat for the day.
Jail time.
Jump rope didn't go over so well. Surprisingly, none of them knew how to do it.
So Rich tried to show them how it was done. He doesn't know how either.
Sour grapes, sweet faces.
This man is crippled and gets around very slowly. We found him in the church playing the keyboard after VBS and went in to hear for awhile.
He asked Kara to play, so she shared a song with him for a few minutes.
Mihiala is one of the girls who helps us out with crowd control and translation. She's enjoys trying out her english with us.
A gypsy wagon
The Fink's neighborhood is under major road construction so every day when we wake up, we have no idea if we'll be able to get through or not. We often experience major delays, but so far we've been able to get through. Thankfully the gypsy's really have no sense of time, so if we're late, OH WELL. This is one element in yesterday's obstacle course...a huge pile of dirt in the middle of the road. That's Pastor Pete's van navigating in front of us.
The evening service musical team. The guy on the accordian is the gypsy pastor.
The middle of the street...yep, that's where we all were.
During the service, a wagon came through, and just drove right through our service. Kinda funny.
