Livada's Casa Kids and UK

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New James Blog – Week 5 – Casa Kids aka Livada Kids

This week in Romania was another great one and was just a continuing testament to how much work is being done through all of the servants here. This week was extraordinary because the kids we had were from Livada’s group homes. I’ll be calling them the Casa Kids. They used to be in an orphanage 4 years ago but now are in the care of Livada. Their houses are great and their care takers care about the kids and are not doing it just for the money. All of the Livada kids have a superior experience to the state-run orphanages and they are so well-behaved. Also, there is about 30 of these kids as opposed to the 60 that we normally have. Us interns were very excited going into this week because of the anticipated rest.

I got to be on Team UK this week, my first week having a repeat team. There were four teams so my team couldn’t do any worse than 4^th place. And at the end of the week, after competing our hearts out we won the whole week. Our kids were so excited about that their victory that they were still wearing their fake plastic medals two days later. The team leaders this week:

Me

Erin - the other intern on my team who is almost the opposite of my camp personality. Loud vs. not as loud. She lead the team in a different way than I did. It was nice to have a second intern on the team.

LeAnne – from Little Rock Arkansas with the Grace Lutheran Church team that came for camp this week. She was great to have on the team because she was on fire this week for the kids and for God. She learned a great deal of Romanian before the trip which was good because we didn’t have translators this week.

Cathy - from Little Rock Arkansas with the Grace Lutheran Church team that came for camp this week. If our team had a mother figure, it was Cathy. She was very comforting to the kids on our team. It’s great to have someone like that on the team to compliment other people and someone to cool down with the kids so that they’re not constantly in a state of excitement.

Rebecca – American who works with Casa Rebecca kids and lives in Targu Mures. She knows great Romanian and knows all of the kids very well. It was great to see her be excited for the kids and with the kids as we won competitions this week. She is an obvious leader and just took over lots of times when we needed her. And having another American to relate to is great as well.

Mira – a Romanian educator who works with the Casa Kids and is very dedicated to them. She legitimately loves them and knows what kind of background they come from. She is also from a similar situation, which is great for the kids to have someone to relate to. Mira was creative and led the kids to do more exciting things than I would have been able to do. She was great to have this week.

Daniela – She was a bit more quiet and reserved at camp this week. She wasn’t a practicing Christian which was a push we made for this week. You could tell that the middle of nowhere in Romania was not the ideal place for her to be. Nevertheless she stayed with our team and took care of the kids who maybe started to stray away from the group.

The kids – the most important part:

Levi – 9 or 10 years old – kid with glasses on our team who was great but had some difficulties with behavior and some other issues. His sister was Kati on our team who also was socially awkward. Levi was great to have because he was between little and big kid stages. He didn't want to be little anymore, but still liked to be held and some of the cute stuff. In our team video he played Paul and danced to the YMCA that we dance to every morning. He also wore the Fox 40 whistle, a pretty big privilege.

Kati - 13 or so - girl with such an expressive face. She was at the stage where she was getting socialized and maybe felt awkward or insecure. She didn't like having her picture taken. Some of the other girls picked on her. She was great to have on the team and was an encouragement because she reminded me that these kids are in special care and God has chosen them to not live in the orphanages any more and to have better lives.

Daniela - 8 - cutest girl in the entire continent of Europe. She has beautiful blue eyes and is sweet for the most part. Like most very pretty kids she can be a brat, but because of the great care she has with Livada she is much better off and isn't abused. She was great because when we played the baby food game we won and she even ate the baby food for extra points at the end when she didn't want to. Just look at the pictures of her, she's wonderful and a beautiful little girl.

Stefan - 9 - another little kid who was super enthusiastic. If I wanted to adopt one of the young boys from the Casas, it would most definitely be Stefan. He has a wonderful attitude and would always try to play soccer with the big boys and wouldn't give up even though he was half of their size. They respected him because of that too. They let him play and excluded some of the other boys from playing. He loved to be picked up and thrown around. Not that being picked up isn't a favorite past time of most of the orphans here, but his laugh was great and he was super positive and screamed for our team.

Maria - 16 - a clear leader among the kids who knew some great English. She is part of a large family at the Casas and she is the second oldest and the obvious leader before the oldest girl who is embarassed at ther family. Maria loves her brothers and sisters and takes care of them. Erin sponsors Maria so it was good to see them become closer as the week went on. Maria played Fiona in our video and stepped up to do very well in activities for us when she didn't exactly want to participate. It was amazing to see her attitude switch from apathetic teenage girl to excited kid at camp throughout the day.

Kristina - 14 - became one of my favorites as the week went on. At first she was shy but she opened up by the end of the week and was full of so much energy. We entered her into the body building with balloons competition. My team never does well in that event, but this week we dominated because of how excited Kristina was. There is a video that I will add eventually which shows her awesome moves and the wonderful butt that someone made out of balloons. It is hilarious. She would always say, don't touch me, you are a stinky boy, to me. It was awesome to have someone that age have the same sense of humor as I do.

Cornel - 14 - my boy. I decided to sponsor him this summer after meeting him and finding out that he needed somebody to sponsor him. He is an amazing soccer player who is not as gifted athletically as some of the other boys. He reminds me of myself. He also plays some computer games and is busy being a 14 year old boy who is trying to figure out who he is. This week he had to step up and be a leader which was a great experience for him. Cornel is in need of a male role model and someone to give him advice. Any time I would tell him something to do, he would do it. He listened to whatever words I said, and hung on what advice I gave him. For example, during the game poop deck where you have to run and not be faked by the leader, I told him just to listen to the person and not to look up when he could be faked out. He ended up winning and told me that he won because I told him that. I imagine the feeling I got when he told me that is like that of a proud father. It was great to see him grow. He also wanted to be more Christian and more manly. I could see him starting to think about prayer and to think more about God as something real in his life. Cornel is awesome.

We won. Enough said. My team rules.

Friday we went to a gym because the Weekend was filled with a giant rock festival that we didn't want to interact with because it might have gotten some of our kids or the people there in trouble. The gym was fun and we played lots of games to pass the time. We played a big game of soccer and it was so much fun to hang out with the older boys.

Saturday we went to print pictures of the kids to pass out to them. I took some pictures of the kids and some of them told me they wanted prints of them to have. Jake and Brian got some prints of our mustache model shoot. If you haven't seen those pictures yet, I would suggest that you find a way to look them up on facebook. The pictures are great. Brian and Jake got poster sized print outs of our album cover shot in black and white. Pretty hilarious stuff. When we got to the casas it was wet outside so no soccer. But we hung out with the older boys and played some video games. We hadn't played any video games since America, so it was fun to play some Goldeneye and Need for Speed. I got to hang out with Cornel and I am so glad that I've made connections with the kids at the houses. One girl, Ibi, loves me for absolutely no reason and gave me a journal with her name on it. Little Daniela told me she loved me in English. It was great.

Sunday was Christmas in July. We decided that Christmas was a necessary part of any mission trip and the best way was to have a white elephant/Yankee swap Christmas party.

But before Christmas, I got to go to Ludus to see the babies and to Zau for the kids. That was my last visit to both places and it was incredibly sad. A team of teenagers from Florida came and I was kind of their tour guide for both places which was neat, but it was sad to leave those babies. I know that the blind 4 year old girl may not be in the best place for her, but I hope that someone can find some room to pray for her with me that she would find happiness and that God would use her to affect other people to draw them closer to God. When we left and went to Zau, I was so excited. Last time I was greeted like a rock star. This time was no different. I had kids who I'm sure remembered nothing about me other than my face run to me and climb over me. I got to see everybody from my France team and I got to hug them and throw them around. We played games and I held their hands. I don't remember everything from that visit but I know that when heaven rolls around and I meet those kids there I'm going to have some of the same feelings that I got when I went on Sunday. Unfortunately, the rain started while we were there so we went inside their castle. The kids all got chocolate bars from the Zau staff and the kids were giving away their chocolate to us Americans. It was so amazing to see that their spirits are led to give and not just to receive. And when they give, they give something that is special to them like chocolate that they most assuredly get whenever their is a group of international people there that the staff want to impress. Zau was so sad to leave. If I said that I didn't tear up giving Lidia and Erika their hugs, I would be a horrible liar. I will always miss them and pray for them.

Christmas night was last night and we all had our Sunday night dinner and Bible study. We got Chinese food which felt appropriate for Christmas. Our Bible study was intense and was hard, but was good because we all prayed over each other. After that, we had our Yankee swap game. I bought a really bad Romanian CD without knowing what type of music it was along with some candy to make the gift worthwhile. Yarabi, the band, were techno and was not the best gift at the exchange, but it was fun to watch everyone be sly and steal gifts from each other. I ended up getting a counter decoration which looks like something that my mom would buy thinking "Oh this would look so cute near my pantry. " I had an opportunity to trade it and I refused. The gift also came with some candy too. Everyone was so happy last night and it hit me yesterday that I really will miss the people here.

This week we have the Reghin kids. We went to Reghin today and I knew from the start that it was going to be hard. The kids are older and have special needs. There aren't any of the fluffy cute kids that I've been blessed to have throughout this summer. My team is Romania, which is super amazing. My kids are going to be tough to work with, but it will be beyond rewarding. There is a couple on my team, a girl who is sweet but doesn't say much and another girl who burst into tears at least 3 times in the 3 hours we were there. Please please pray for me this week more than any other week. I need patience. I need strength and resilience. I need my heart to be softened for these kids. My heart can't be hardened just because the trip is winding down. Pray that God would keep my heart fixed here and not prepare me to go home quite yet. Pray for these kids, that their futures would be secure with God. The kids who don't find places to go after they are done with Reghin get placed in asylums. Pray that God would provide a place for them. Pray for safety at camp. Pray for the teenagers who are here from Florida so that they can be prepared for camp. Pray for all expectations to be shattered. Pray that this week of camp that everyone is there for God and they will be on fire for God. We need prayer this week very badly.

I leave on August 4th and I thank everyone who has read so far. I will post more pictures as time goes on. Thanks for the prayers and the emails and the comments on my blog.