Keeping Up With the Kissingers: Romania Mission Trip

Each semester the students have a 10 day break to travel anywhere they'd like. Nearly half of the students choose to spend their break serving others on a mission trip. The University helps facilitate mission trips to Sweden, France, Hungary, Slovakia, and several locations in Romania.

Our family joined a group of 8 students on the trip to Baia Mare, Romania.

Baia Mare is about 9 hours (by car) directly east of Gaming. From Austria, you travel through Hungary to reach Romania. On our way there and back, we broke up our drive by staying the night in Budapest, Hungary (more on that in another post).

This was our family's first time traveling East into formally Communist countries. Both countries are now part of the EU but have their own currency and language. (Hard to imagine traveling 9 hours in the US and changing currency and languages twice!)

We were in the central part of Romania called Transylvania - which is a large area; we were 6 hours from Dracula's home (didn't make it there). Romania apparently does have several interstates, but we did not encounter any. Rather, we traveled slowly on two lane roads, often slowing down even more when we encountered locals traveling by horse wagon.

Our purpose in going to Baia Mare was to serve at the Sacro Cuore Foundation. They are an amazing foundation that serves at-risk children and teenagers by providing them with meals, a place to stay, tutors to help them with their studies, and a faith-filled community. We were helping at the after-school day care center for the poor and at-risk children, grades K - 8, who come to the center from noon to 5pm each day.

High school students come one or two days a week and are the regular volunteers for the younger children. We also came to minister to these students. So from 5 - 7pm our University students spent time getting to know the high schoolers and sharing their faith and testimonies of God alive in their lives.

One evening with the high school students, Brian talked about God as Father - and His love for us as a father. Our kids were good props for his talk :) He also shared part of our story, how God brought us together, and what it means to lives as a married couple with God at the center of our relationship. We, of course, got to show our wedding highlight video again!

Most days we were able to gather in the chapel of the Foundation for Mass (in Romanian -- never ceases to amaze me how you can always follow the Mass despite the change in language) or Adoration.

Everyone placed their phones at the altar as a way to "surrender" during Adoration

Each morning our group went to local high schools to talk to their English classes about American culture and why they chose to go on mission (due to the affects of Communism, volunteering is a foreign concept for many). They start learning English in Kindergarten (as it is the universal language in all of their neighboring countries) and they know a great deal about American culture. Some of the things they seemed baffled by were Donald Trump and why Americans own guns. Most of them hope someday to be able to visit the United States.

Our first full day in Baia Mare, the high school students took us around the city (population 136,000). We climbed Stefan's Tower for a great view of the city. And we visited the city's largest Eastern Orthodox church, which is still under construction. Over 80% of Romania's population is Eastern Orthodox; close to 5% of the population is Roman Catholic.

Each meal of the day we gathered together for a delicious home-cooked meal prepared by the Sister and some of the girls who live at the house on the Foundation's property. It was a long and exhausting week, but so powerful to be able to see the work the Foundation does and the Franciscan students at work serving them. I don't know of many universities where, given the choice to spend your long break in Europe anywhere you want, nearly half of the students decide to go on mission and serve others. Brian and I are continually in awe of the students here, and so blessed to have them as loving role models for our children.