Why are we in Romania

Lots of people are asking me why did you take your family to Romania for Christmas. Back home I tell people that Janelle Schellenberg, a friend of ours who organized the trip, told us we would get to Scuba dive.  The climate here is much like our winter and I thought my joke was funny but when our Romanian drivers showed up and I told them the joke they didn't know what scuba diving was.  Maybe it wasn't a funny joke anyways.

We are here for the holidays working with a group called, Outstretched Hands of Romania.  The group works in an area of Romania that is quite poor with high unemployment. Lack of education is an issue that forces this area to continue the cycle of poverty and lack of hope.

During our trip to Romania we spoke to a number of people from Romania and told them where we were going.  They all said the same thing, stay in Bucharest, don't go to Calarasis, there is nothing but poor there nothing for us to see.

It is for that exact reason that we are where we are.  I just hope that our groups small efforts to share with these people will have some positive effect.  If the Christmas season is about giving then we are in the right place.

So far the group we ave met from the mission are awesome.  We are living in a cement housing complex that looks like out of a movie from the outside.  I will have pictures later but it was dark when we arrived.

None of us have gotten much sleep in the last three days and my entire family is now sleeping but in a couple of hours our whirlwind trip in Romania begins.