So since the trip is over, I am thinking that I am probably not going to be posting in this thing any longer.  But since I am leaving m final remarks right now.  I think it is good to say that Sunday the 19th is going to be the day when the teens share what God did in Romania.  So be there.

As the last post for this trip in Romania, I think that i will keep it short and sweet by saying that we are going to miss this place.

Two days left of our Romania trip and we still have so much work to do.  unfortunately, the crew insulating the room had to restart several times, but we never quit.  The attic is looking great and we are looking at a tidier Horizon of Hope.  Tomorrow will be some final clean up, but mostly we will be saying goodbyes and packing.

Our last sunday was filled with teary eyes and happy goodbyes.  The group that went to visit the village for the last time shed enough tears to make up for the ones that stayed back to nap.  After our evening service, we went to our favorite American-ish pizza place where we ate till we we could eat no more.  For a relatively uneventful day, we had one adventure take place.  The tale takes place in a small village in Romania where a young Michael Semon finds himself asleep during the time the vans all depart for the church.  Upon his awakening, he discovers that, not only is he alone, he is locked within the Horizon of Hope building.  When word of his absence reached the group at the church, a search party was sent to retrieve him.  Luckily, we found a shaken Michael making a puppy dog face in the window begging for a rescue.  He found comfort in knowing that his adventure was worthy of making the blog.

At long last everyone finally got to visit Dracula's Castle.  In my own opinion, I thought it was far smaller than I imagined, but it was impressive all the same.  After our tour, the group swarmed throughout the shops and stocked up on souvenirs and also armed their arsenal.   For lunch we experienced a truly cultural meal at Mcdonald's in Brosav.   The fact that their employees understood English raised my standards for the mono-lingual McWorkers back home.  The heat must have been getting to the group, because everyone wanted to get back to Horizon of Hope to relax and enjoy some cheesy potatoes.  As for our day off, It went fairly well by my standards.

After a solid three days of body-slaughtering soccer, we have reached the end of our ministry days in the village.  The goodbyes were hard, but we have a feeling we will be seeing them again.  This evening, we had the opportunity to go to the home of a woman who has been preparing our meals.  It was probably the closest thing to a Garden of Eden.  They had every type of fruit with honey bees and goats.  If you were to look at the house from the outside, you would never imagine that a lush garden was kept inside.  Beyond all that, today was pretty laid back.

You get the pleasure of enjoying two posts today since I missed yesterday.  So to recap yesterday, we pretty much did the same thing as Wednesday except a team of about 8 stayed back to work on some more of the projects around the building.  Surprisingly, we got a comparable amount of work done in contrast to the amount of work with the entire team.  After our standard day and routine, we closed out our evening with a nice time of testimonies, prayer, and worship.  Just recently Charity has been leading the girls in a morning Bible study and the guys have been studying Matthew in their own morning study.  So God is definitely moving all up and about this place.

Today was our first day of ministry in the villages.  We took the morning to visit a village in some distant land while the afternoon was spent at a smaller village just across the way.  The first village consisted of a wide age range of people who all flocked to come see the bewildered Americans.  After Brett shared a Bible lesson, the girls took care of the crafts and snacks while the guys got their butts kicked on the soccer field.  As Alex said it well when he said, "We are pretty terrible."  It also didn't help that they out numbered us... not that we are making any excuses.  Never before had we all craved water so dearly after visiting that village.  It was almost a taste of the reality that these villages had to face.  The next village we visited was much smaller and seemed a little more impoverished, but that didn't change the joy the kids had when they saw us unruly Americans file in.  We, once again, shared a Bible story and did a craft, but instead of playing an organized soccer game we just let the kids show us how they play.  I can honestly say that even though we had no words that we could share, we understood each other perfectly well.

Sorry to say, but I come to the blog bearing no new pictures, yet again.  Today was just another work day for us and a day of disaster for others.  For instance, the crew that worked one tacking boards to the ceiling had nothing but troubles with measurements.  Luckily for their self esteem, the room was at fault and not their measurements..  One typical member of this crew (Kenzie) fulfilled her calling and managed a small injury.  When she was standing on a walk bench to set the boards, the legs folded on her and the bench collapsed.  Fortunately, her suspected broken wrist just turned out to be jammed a bit.  Beyond the excitement of things going together very roughly, today was a fairly tame day.  You keep it classy, America

Sunday was a nice break from the work, but today marked a new day of work.  A group of elite boys handled the new out house named, "Papa Squats," and the rest either primed the walls for painting or did some more insulating.  Today was a 9-6 work day (which is a 9 hour day for all you homeschoolers.)  Not the most exciting stories came out of today, but I think God was pleased.  We finished out our day with a little worship, testimonies, and prayer.  I would say that today was a successful day.

During some down time between services, the group went ahead and jammed out to some church song classics.  While the men rallied around mark and the guitar, the ladies got wild all up in there with the actions to "Lord I lift Your name on high."

Today was a Sunday like no other.  Normally, these Wisconsin kids are used to having two one hour services.  today we all had the pleasure of enjoying the first hour of the service and fighting to stay awake during the second hour.  But in all seriousness, the services were very enjoyable and everyone got better than front row seats... everyone got to sit on the stage. So our head nods and drooping eyelids were hid from no one.  after the mornign serve and a delicious lunch, we broke into two teams and went into separate villages. Our time in these villages was mostly spent on giving a bible lesson and playing a game or two.   At this point, it was time, yet again, to go to another enjoyable service and share some more testimonies.  The day was rightly ended with supper at an ironically American restaurant that served some huge pizzas.  Until next time, this has been your Romania Update.

To whom it may concern,
These fine young men (Including Petry) have put their minds and bodies to the limit to accomplish the rigorous task of ripping into the basement floor.  I can't say that any of the wrecking crew members were too disappointed about their line of work.

After a long night for everyone, we all had an early 7 o`clock breakfast without any showers.  The guys got the pleasure of man handling insulation in the attic.  If any of you have ever gotten down in some insulation, you would know that it is among the least enjoyable project one can get tangled up in.  The ladies cleaned house on the second floor.  Unfortunately, this left us with a massive cloud of lung crippling dust.  After the air became a little more life sustaining, a few guys fulfilled their dreams by breaking a hole in the basement floor as deep as they could go.  It was smashing....  Anyways, after a filling lunch, the crew geared up for an exhilarating trek to the top of the mountains.  Though few dared to climb beyond where the cable car carried them, the elite made a valiant effort to make it to the top of the ridge.  Unfortunately, we only made it halfway and Alex did a number on his toe nail during the treacherous decent.  Once again, the heavenly floodgates burst wide open and let the waters rain down on us.  While two groups made it down, our third group was stranded at the top until the storm passed.  We then made our way to the church to rehearse our songs and enjoy the company of the Romanian church goers.  I like to think we hit it off well since they decided to join us for dinner.  Now that we are all fattened and tuckered out from hiking, I should say we are about due for a good nights sleep.  You keep it classy, Wisconsin.

While waiting in the Chicago airport, we found ourselves making a scene.  Pastor Tom had the wild idea to sing our Romanian song to the people of the airport.  After several rounds of applause, we found out that the group sitting next to us was a youth group from Eden Prairie, Minnesota going to Italy.  Once we were united as one large voice, we sang our song together as a wall of sound for all of Chicago to hear.

If you direct your attention to the image above, you will notice two terribly unfortunate Baptist girls.  They had the grand displeasure of losing their luggage for a day and sustaining themselves with an overnight kit.

At 6:30am Romania time, I managed to scrape all the guys out of bed before the ladies.  Luckily, the guys had the pleasure of enjoying one morning with a real shower before getting acquainted with the camp showers.  Once breakfast was served and enjoyed, the team got right to work on the day's projects.  As you might imagine, Destiny, Mark, Brett, and Ethan were the first to volunteer for digging the new out house location.  The rest of the crew cleaned the mounds of wood and cement from the building and shaped up the general area.  Right at the end of our work day, the flood gates opened in the heavens and we enjoyed a nice down pour.  Several of us adventurers took the opportunity to shower under a drain spout.  We are now just waiting for a nice meal before the rest of our evening activities.  Keep it real, Chetek guys

Let it be known that we, the Chetek guys,  have made it safely to Horizon of Hope.  The only set back we had at all was the luggage for Destiny and Charity being delayed.  So they are free to enjoy an overnight kit until their luggage arrives.  So now that we are here in our own castle like resting place, it is about time that everyone hits the hay.
Signing off at 11:20 from the Distant land of Romania,
The Tilt Youth group.

So one hour into our adventure, Mark Isaiah Duffy, bangs his head into a bathroom door and leaves a healthy gash on his eye brow.  He seems to be handling his misfortune well.  Please enjoy this image of his attempts at dressing his wounds.

Two days away... so, as you can imagine, teeth are grit and chomping at the bit.  Just a reminder that this blog will be updated daily if not more frequently.  So make it a point to check this stuff out at least once a day.  Keep the prayers pumping.

New option for logo design

I made a new version of the logo due to the poor quality of the other image.  I can redo the quality of the other one or, if everyone likes this one, we can go with the new logo.  

Logo

Word on the Street

Though I am not one who ever thought he would make a blog, I have slapped together this page to keep you on the up and up.  It will be as if we never left.