day 2 on the College of Business Campus

One of the team members, Scott has traveled to Romania for the past 20 years, so he prepped us for lots of Romanian customs and life in general before we left. I was very thankful for his insider tips, it made a few of the shocks, a little less shocking. One was tips on showering. He advised us to bring baby wipes as it is very expensive to heat the water. Most Romanians do not turn the hot water on until the winter months. No warnings could prepare me for how cold the water was, NONE. Great thing about showers is they are the hand held shower heads, so I QUICKLY washed off my body, dried myself off, got my clothes on and decided to wash my hair over the side of the tub. As I am rinsing the conditioner out of my hair, I notice the temperature is beginning to rise in the water - I had not let the water run enough to get the hot water to kick in. Everyone else had hot water that morning for their showers, me I learned the importance of patience.

We took the subway to downtown Bucharest to meet the rest of the team from Campus Crusade and our team. We were the first to arrive so we started to pass out invitations to the business seminars that we would be hosting that week. We also distributed Crusades on-campus magazine - Fitzuica (translated - Cheat Sheets for Life). I met several students, most everyone spoke English. They were all very interested in my camera and my photography business. Most of the students are very pessimistic and an over-whelming sense of "being the victim." We tried as a team to encourage them about the many opportunities that lie ahead for them and their country.

I met one girl, who pretended she did not speak English, b/c she did not want to talk to us. I was talking to her friend who was a marketing student who was interested in photography as a hobby. I could tell the girl was listening and I knew she could comprehend by her reactions. She finally acknowledged she understood and was just tired from a night out with her boyfriend. They had been out watching Emperor's New Groove. She is one of the faces I carry in my memory and my heart this week. When I think of the college students in Romania I think of her. They do have so many opportunities, but they feel so hopeless. Very few knew Christ and did not want to know more about Him, I just hope and pray we planted a seed that some day some one else can water and then harvest.