What - US tour 2011
When - September 14th-November 22nd
Who - Alex&Alina together with Mela&Calin Petcaru and their 2 year old son
Where - 10.000 miles/16.000km, driving from WA, OR, CA, AZ, TX, CO and back to WA
How - by a van offered for free for this tour by a family in OR whose son serves with us in Constanta
Why - to meet our faithful partners, to see our friends, to share in churches and home groups and to make new relationships

Looking back to the 9 weeks spent traveling in the States, we are thankful for God's protection and we are excited for the opportunity we had to see again our wonderful friends and to share with people about what the Lord in doing in our lives and through the ministry in Constanta.

During this trip, we made new connections in both Romanian and American churches, we built new relationships and we are excited to hear that some people are interested into coming to serve with us and joining our partners team.

Even though driving in Romania is more wild than in the States, the customer service is low in stores, we don't have Walmart and Subway here and Alina misses using the clothes dryer, it feels so good to be back home! Home sweet home!

The decorations were up, the food smelled great, a couple of children were still taking showers and others were helping set up the chairs in the classroom, one boy needed shoes and now was proudly showing others his new white sneakers that he just got from the Day Center, a few ex-Day Center staff came to visit us with their toddlers :-), a group of YWAM staff and students have just returned from outreach in Bulgaria minutes ago and came to join us, one older boy went to the store next door to get batteries for the Day Center photo camera, another boy was sweeping the court yard, other children were practicing their poems, a couple of them are very curious what gifts they will receive this Easter........everybody was preparing for this special day.

We were blessed by a Swedish family who came to Constanta to serve for a month. They have 4 wonderful children and they brought joy to the children at the Day Center by talking them bowling (it was the children's first time), taking them out to lunch and buying crafts for them. One evening we went out to visit some poor families to offer some medical help. After the program at the Day Center was over, together with the children we went to their homes where, Lors took people's blood pressure, gave some medicine and some medical advice.

14 children said good-bye to their parents and went VERY excited on a 5 day camp, one hour away from Constanta! They were VERY excited to spend 24 hours a day together!

The highlights of the camp were the snow and the atmosphere inside when they played, had meals, slept in, went to a clean bed in a warm room, took showers..... when they did normal things :-)

We thank the organization that offered free food and housing for the children and the staff for this camp!

A year ago ago, going to the States together with a Romanian family it was a crazy idea. Now it's something that we look back to and say that the Lord opened doors for us and blessed our time in the States.

The 10 year US visa we received in June was the first big door that opened for all of us. Then a family from Oregon lent for free their van to us to use while we were in the States. In September we left and for 8 weeks we traveled from Washington state, to Oregon, California, Arizona and Texas. We flew in and out of Seattle, Washington and covered over 10.000miles/16.000km. Never stayed in a hotel but enjoyed the hospitaliy of over 20 host homes. We shared in American churches, Romanian churches, small groups, youth meetings, Christian schools, etc.