The Construction Team RECAP!

After a very productive and informative trip to the Point of Hope Center in Tarnaveni,
Romania, Larry and I have just about readjusted to central daylight time. While still thinking about the trip, I thought I would put thoughts to paper and share with the world.

Our part of the mission was to work in the center's third floor to prepare a room for an indoor playground for the preschool children served by the center. This involved a lot of prep work, as the walls had been covered with numerous coats of paint and some sort of rubberized top coat. This is due to the fact the building was originally a medical facility for the workers of a now shut down chemical factory. We used a variety of interesting techniques, including things like portable blow torches, hammers, axes, putty knives and good old elbow grease to get the walls ready for sheet-rock. Another thing learned about real old buildings was that there is no such thing as a square wall or level floor. The on-site director of the center, Liviu, is a whiz at making all the necessary corrections to accommodate these quirks. Larry, John Frank, Bonnie and I quickly became proficient at using Mastik to mud and hang the large panels of sheet rock. On Wednesday, we took a break from all that hard work and took a ride out to the camp that the group from Illinois was holding for the children from various group homes.

We were blessed to join their music session being amazed at how quickly they embraced the song, "The Eye of The Storm" by Ryan Stevenson. The children made bell sticks and shakers and played along with the video in praise of our Lord. The setting for the camp was spectacular. We enjoyed the ride thorough the countryside and a very wonderful meal at a roadside restaurant. Dacian was a wonderful hosts and we enjoyed getting to know him better. Thursday brought more progress to the room, however, it was progress provided by the contractor hired to do things above our pay grade. I may note here that being above our pay grade is a very easy thing to exceed. They spent the day hanging the suspended ceiling panels. Larry and John Frank were able to assist by holding up the panels with long poles, but I was only good at passing the necessary tools to the various workers. I felt a lot like a surgical assistant handing the instruments to the surgeons. Larry and I were able to cut and hang the gap panels of drywall and got a fairly decent start on the task of taping the seams. With the ceiling finished on Thursday, Friday was an all-out assault on finishing the dry wall. John Frank worked on the large panels and Larry and I cut, hung and taped the gap panels. One particular accomplishment was that we were able to measure, cut and trim a hole for an electrical box that actually turned out to be in the right place, the right size and looked really good.

​

Sometimes, it is the small things in life that are very satisfying. We also finished taping all of the seams that were finished before stopping for the week. After our usual very delicious lunch at the center, we took a trip to Targu-Mures to scout out the Cultural Palace, the fortress and the Orthodox Church for future trips. The Cultural center is beautiful to say the least. They have two theaters for musical and theatrical performances.

Either one would be a performer's dream but the large one was especially impressive. It boasted a large stage, a beautiful pipe organ, a beautiful grand piano and acoustics that rival the best in the world. There

was also an art exhibit consisting of the works of Roth Miksa who was one of the first to do stain glass works with the glass produced by the Tiffany method. This artist produced all of the stained glass throughout the cultural palace. Sadly, because of the anti-Jewish laws and regulations of the World War II era, he was stripped of his ability to produce his art and died in abject poverty in his home.

It is good to know that we were able to further the mission of Another Child Foundation. We were able to meet the preschool classes and the children at camp, thus providing some interaction with them. Our efforts moved the playground project forward by about 2-3 weeks and we also saved a lot of labor costs to the center by providing about 40 man hours of labor at no cost. Our very presence makes an impression on the people of Romania as we explained on multiple occasions that our reason for being there was to be God's hands and feet in service to those who are the least of us.

There was a man in a wheel chair on the streets of Targu-Mures who read the back of my ACF tee shirt and made a point to tell me that it spoke the truth because surely "LOVE IS” best describe in I Corinthians 13. A young lady who was selling Hard Rock Cafe items at a kiosk in the Bucharest Mall, wanted to know why we came all that distance to work so hard for the Roma children. It was a beautiful moment to share God's love story with her. And last but not least, a young lady in the parking lot shuttle after arriving in Houston asked about our trip and its purpose and expressed an enthusiastic interest in joining our cause. (She was quickly given my card, I hope to hear from her.) God's work is not always measured in terms of decisions for Christ or numbers of contacts in which the story of salvation is shared, it is sometimes only being willing to be there, be visible and do whatever is asked of you with a smile on your face and a willing and humble spirit in your heart.