Another Busy Week

The team has finished the second week of teaching classes! We taught 22 classes and 2 clubs this week. It’s such an amazing privilege to be able to teach in Romanian public schools, and when I pictured what we would be doing on this trip, I didn’t imagine that we would be doing anything like this. It’s so encouraging to see that God is controlling what we are involved in on this trip and giving us the tasks that we need to be doing.

On Monday night, we had a chance to hang out with some of the students that we met on the tour with the University of Oradea. These particular students are the ones that have helped us out a lot, whether by translating for us or by introducing us to popular snack food. We all got coffee and shaorma and had a great time together.

Tuesday through Thursday evenings we held our usual weekly debate clubs. On both Tuesday and Thursday we had about 15 students. Katie, Thomas, and I are working to get these students ready for a debate tournament, which will be held (by us) sometime next week. During our club meetings, Felicity gets paperwork done back at the apartment. One time she even baked us banana bread while we were gone, and it was delicious. 🙂 It takes a lot of skill to bake banana bread in a roasting pan with only a mug as a measuring cup.

On Friday night, we went to the city square in Oradea to watch a soccer match between Romania and France. A huge screen was set up to display the match, and a crowd of probably about 2,000 people came to watch the game on the big screen. Soccer is a huge deal in Romania, so the crowd was enthusiastically energetic, and there was a lot of jumping up and clapping. The game was very close, but we were all disappointed that Romania didn’t win.

This coming week will be our last week of teaching classes. We will also be practicing debate rounds during the clubs in preparation for a tournament for the students. Additionally, the larger team will arrive on Thursday to begin their work of building greenhouses and running a VBS.

Katie, Thomas, Felicity, and I have met somewhere between 600 and 800 students over a span of about 2 weeks. Because we have met so many students, it is difficult to connect with them personally. While there is no way for us to interact with all of the students individually, please pray that God would bring the right students to the clubs, tournament, and camp. Pray that we would be able to show His love through our actions, even without words.

Also, please pray that we would each be mindful of God’s will above our own and that God would make his will clear to us for each moment.

Thank you!

Abby Stocker