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What a blessing it has been to celebrate Easter here in Romania with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Today was a wonderful day of worship as we were led in both the morning and evening worship services by a mandolin orchestra and various singing groups in the church from the children, to the youth and several adult groups. People were encouraged to bring a flower to church this morning and these flowers helped to decorate a cross that became the centerpiece in worship. Our teens have bonded with numerous teens in the church and have enjoyed some special times of fellowship. Our group sang a song as part of the evening worship serve and I was given the honor of preaching the evening message while Sorin, one of the pastors at Providence translated it into Romani. Tomorrow, today since it is 1:00 a.m. Monday will be our last full day of ministry here. We are all beginning to dread having to say goodbye to all of these wonderful people that God has allowed us to get to know.

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Today we enjoyed a little break in the action and were treated to a trip to Samaria and Transylvania. While there we toured Castle Peles which is considered by many as one of the most beautiful castles in all Europe. It was the final resting place for several Romanian monarchs including King Carol I, who died there in 1914. We also toured Castle Bran which is the infamous castle of "Vlad the Impaler" who the fictional "Dracula" character was created from. During the ride we were able to see some shepherds tending their flocks in numerous locations which gave us a great mental image now for anytime we read about this in the Bible. We aren't quite sure what…but something got Sara and Debbie hysterically and uncontrollably laughing on the ride back. It was a great day of bonding as a mission team with our missionary hosts.

For all of you foreign language teachers I think that I have discovered the way to get students interested in the language. Take them on a mission trip as an introduction to the language and you may just spark a great deal of interest. We have only been here for three full days and several of our students are becoming quite the Romani linguists even being able to communicate pretty decently with some of the neighborhood children. Speaking of the children, Debbie is enjoying photographing them as part of one of our picture frame crafts for VBS and the kids are coming by at all times tapping on the windows and doors hoping to gain an audience with our teens.

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We had our first full day of VBS at Project Ruth today and what a blessing it was! They were hoping that 50 kids would show up so you can imagine our shock and surprise when we had at best guess somewhere around 68. They never all sat still long enough to get an accurate count. These kids love to sing and they sing very well. After lunch half of our group went to the village of Glina which is about 40 minutes outside of Bucharest, to lead a condensed version of the morning VBS and we had close to 30 children attend the afternoon. Once again we were enamored with the singing and the joy of Jesus in the hearts of these young children. What a blessing both of these groups were. While our seniors went to Glina our group of juniors along with Sara Kennedy and Larry Sumpter stayed and painted a hallway in the Ruth School. It was great to return and see that they had completed that project and what a difference a fresh coat of paint can make! I (Danny) was given the opportunity late in the morning to go into Bucharest and tour the Baptist Seminary of Bucharest. What a unique blessing it was to hear words like, "the WMU paid for this building" and to hear names of Virginia Baptists talked about with fondness because of contributions made and relationships that span decades of time as well as the Atlantic Ocean. I couldn't help but think of the passage in 1 Corinthians that says, "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body" and how we all make up and support the body of Christ around the world. I'm proud to be a part of a cooperative program that gives to and supports missions and the work of Christ around the world. Working together we can accomplish so much more than on our own. I'm proud to be a part of a local church body that supports missions in the many ways in which Bonsack Baptist does from the GA's, RA's, Acteens, Baptist Young Men, Baptist Men and Women on Mission. I'm proud to say that we actively support missions in our community, state, nation and around the world. I'm proud to be a part of a church family that sends out and entrusts teenagers with the gospel message. Thank you to our Bonsack family for helping to make this experience possible.

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After a long day of travel on Sunday and Monday, we arrived in Bucharest late in the afternoon on Monday and settled into our rooms which are part of Providence Baptist Church. So that we could get accustomed to the seven hour time difference we had dinner at the Ruth School and then went to the mall and walked around staying up and active until 10 pm when we finally crashed for the night. We all woke up refreshed and ready to begin our ministry here. We are experiencing our first full day in Romania and enjoying meeting some of the children who attend the school. We held an afternoon "Club" which is basically a time where we did a craft with some while others played soccer. The school is on Easter break right now and the kids are enjoying having something to do with their time. Tomorrow morning we will hold our first day of VBS. Moriah's highlight for today was coloring with some of the boys because boys don't typically like to color. Haley's highlight for today was hanging out with the kids and playing some games.