6-1 Children's Day

(ee gads I need to finish my Romania journaling)

June 1st is Children's Day in Romania. It was established during Communism, which didn't make sense to me at first, why a communist dictator would care about children. But, if you think about it, children are a very important resource, and are easily brain washed, so it's prudent for a dictator to try to win them over.

Anyway, Children's Day still exists as a national holiday. Many museums offer free admission for children and there are all sorts of parties and carnivals for the kids.

Due to the late night we had had Sunday in combination with thelong day we were about to have, breakfast was made optional so people could sleep in a bit. I, however, never skip breakfast if I can help it. I ate rather quickly and then went with a few others to the Mega Image grocery store. I bought some more chocolate for gifts and some other Romanian snacks I had become fond of.

Back at the house we had worship and devotional time led by Matt and Amy Beth. Then the day got interesting.

The original plan had been: eat lunch, then go do a concert and carnival at Peris. However, after lunch we were informed that the orphanage directors had taken all of the "good kids" to an event at a different orphanage being put on by the Chinese ambassador. Instead, we went to where most of the kids were (an orphanage called Voluntar) and put on a concert there.

Favorite moment #1 of the day was as I was putting together my clarinet. I felt a little tap on my arm and turned to see Marius with the biggest grin on his face. I successfully said hi in Romanian as he gave me a big hug and asked him "che fach?" (how's it going?) his smile widened as he exclaimed "bine!" (good!) and ran off to greet other Winds members.

The concert was one of the most disorganized ones I have ever done, but considering it had been planned an hour before we put it on, not bad. After being thanked by the Chinese ambassador and the orphanage director, we loaded the vans and went to Peris where we did the same concert, but for ALL the kids.

Then, chaos ensued, carnival time. It was amazing how much we had been able to pull together. We had popcorn, face painting, hair wraps, magic show, limbo, ring toss, balloon animals, crafts, games, the fishing game, and a cake walk. Katie D. and I ran the cake walk. I took care of controlling the music and she did the number picking and candy giving.

After a few rounds we figured out we could just pick the number by looking at which kids had not had candy yet. I think only a few of them figured out we were rigging it, lol

Favorite moment #2 for the day was when Katie picked the number for an older boy and as she leaned down to get candy, he grabbed the little girl behind him and pushed her into his spot so she would get the candy instead.

We began the clean up when the kids were summoned for dinner and returned to Pipera for our own dinner. Night light was filled with excited chatter about our favorite kid moments of the day and instead of hot seat we had a special guest interview afterward.

Kostel is Jim's Romanian counterpart. He shared about his personal experience in the Revolution and about the effect of H2H's ministry in Romania. Kostel is extremely passionate about ministry and God, and also a very funny man. Favorite Kostel quote: talking about Jim always wanting to expand ministry "Jim like sin, bigger and bigger, but I like it." lol