Cumbrian Messenger hands over The Blog to Romanian mission

I am pleased to hand over this blog for the next few days to a group of people who have gone out to Romania to help create a safe haven for young girls and their babies.
John Dawson from Brough has coordiated the project and he will be writing his blog about the tripo which started this weekend.

John set off from Brough at 8pm on Saturday night to go and pick up Maud from Thirsk. From there we carried on to Leeds to pick up Ray and Anita, and then onto Luton Airport.

John at Ray and Anita's house before setting off for Luton

Due to being in the early hours of Sunday morning, the M1 was quiet and we made good time, actually in plenty of time, but better to be early than late. By 2.30am we had officially made it into the souwf as we stopped at Watford Gap - 2 Yorkshire folk, and 2 southerners.The northerners were making it through by stealth but any boffer and the southerner would get us through.




At the Airport Carparkz: Angela and Guy Hollis,
Gary Kird and Andrew Melville

 We made it to our car parking venue for 3.30 and were greeted by the helpful staff at Airport Carparkz.

Outside Carparkz

We were dropped at the airport ten minutes later and went into the terminal - 2 hours before the opening of check in. John proceeded to enjoy the benefits of the Luton Airport Hotel and went into the land of nod.  Where there's no sense there's no feeling.


John enjoys a sleep before departure





The intrepid explorers were suitably filled with tea and hot chocolate and then got down to praying for a safe flight. 



Praying for a safe flight.




The fight was uneventful and we 'wizzed' through the air to land on-time at Cluj.  Levi was there to pick us up and took us to our first meeting at the gypsy church in Pata Rat. 

Arriving at Cluj Airport





Now we were to see real life Romania and the reason why we were distributing the aid that so many people had graciously given. Romania has embraced new EU emissions regulations that require zero emissions. We enjoyed celebrating with the gypsy Christians and as the video clip shows, we got into the swing of the traditional music.



Levi tooks us further up the Gypsy camp which consisted of people just living in shacks and then over the hill to the rubbish dump where he showed us the homes of people who actually live inside the dump. They make their living by sorting through the rubbish and seperating the recyclabe stuff to sell to the recycling busineses. Next time you complain about sorting the recycling at home, remember that you don't have to do it to survive.



The mood in the car turned sombre as we headed away from the camp and to where we are to spend the rest of the week. Fortunately for us, Levi and his wife, Ioana, have given their house over to us and we have enjoyed a well prepared meal of pork and rice wrapped in a cabbage leaf - extremely tasty. We are in stark contrast to the living conditions of the gypsies that we left today, and this once again reinforces why we wanted to see the people who would benefit from the aid.





Tomorrow, Monday, we are scheduled to work in the warehouse sorting out clothing and other materials for distribution to the needy. We have been told to be ready for 08.30am for prayers and then into work, which we are told will be cold. Not as cold as those who live in the shacks will be. Please do not give up giving to the missions mart.