Last week was spent at camp with the older children from
Point of Hope and the mission team from FBC in Lafayette, LA, along with 3
mothers. Although more mothers were
invited, many were unable to come due to smaller children at home.
The primary focus of camp was on the children, with a theme
of “do not fear, for God is with you”.
What an amazing “coincidence” (NOT!!!) that the topic was fear, for one
of the children who attended camp was a victim of domestic violence just the
week before. This young man witnessed
his brother’s murder, and was viciously attacked himself………oh how he needs to
feel God’s presence. His trauma is so
fresh that the nightmares haunt him every night. His mother told us that he refuses to sleep
by himself, and most nights he cries in his sleep. Please pray for this student as his
psychological needs are great, and the resources are few. He will definitely need some intervention,
but will have a difficult time finding it.
My time this week was spent with the moms. Nancy and Lisa, two ladies from LA, were the
point people with activities for the moms; my role was buffer. Although I’ve been working with Gabi and the
moms on a monthly basis, two of the moms at camp I’d never met before. It was difficult to ease into a relationship
with them, as they were very reserved and hung together. Dennis and I broke the ice by sitting with
them at breakfast the 1st day.
They were still very leary, but we did our best to make them feel
welcomed. Dennis scored points when he
brought each of them a cup of coffee J The 3rd mom was the mother of the
injured boy. Maria has been to a couple
of our monthly meetings, and she speaks some English. This came in very handy when trying to
communicate with the other moms, as our Romanian is still very poor (but at
least we tried).
Some of the activities we did with the ladies included some
sewing, scrapbooking, a new form of tie-dye shirts, and photo tiles. Each day we had a new activity, but were in a
room that allowed us to keep the previous day’s activities laid out. The ladies had the freedom to work on
whatever project they wanted. They also
had the freedom to go out and watch the kids in their activities.
As a part of their scrapbook, we also took pictures of them
throughout the week. They really seemed
to enjoy this project the best…….guess it was because they never really had
anything to remember themselves, or their children, by. Oh how we take a picture for granted! The moms were so excited to see themselves
after I took their picture; and I loved to watch their faces as they looked at
it. It didn’t matter if the shot wasn’t
composed just right, or if a flower looked like it was growing out of their
head…..it was them. Since the mission
team had brought a small printer, we were able to print almost
immediately. This was great, until we
ran out of paper on Thursday morning. I
promised the moms that I would print more when I got home. Right now I’m waiting for the mission team to
upload their photos to Dropbox so I can pull what I need. Although we didn’t get all their pics
printed, we did tell them to go ahead and pick out their paper and
embellishments for their next pages.
The tie-dye project used colored sharpie and alcohol (thanks
Pinterest!!!). This was so much easier
to do then traditional tie-dye, with a lot less mess. It also allowed the moms to be creative with
their designs. The original plan was to
place a plastic cup between the layers of the shirt and draw a design over the
cup. Once your design was complete, use
a syringe (minus the needle) to squirt alcohol over the area; then, sit back
and watch the colors run. You repeat the
project until you’re satisfied with the overall look. I did one for Cameron using this method and
it came out ok. Some of the colors are
more vibrant and run better, thus creating an awesome pattern; it was just
trial and error to start. The 2nd
shirt I made for Hunter; this time I just drew the sharpie across the shirt in
a wiggly line pattern. By drawing the
sharpie across the shirt, it allowed for areas where the shirt would pull up
some, creating a dotted line. I really
liked this pattern the best. I finished
his shirt with the shape of Romania on the back. That was a fun project!!!
The sewing project was making yo-yo’s with fabric. We made several and I showed the ladies how
they could sew them onto a blouse, skirt, or pants. They didn’t want to do any of that, but
seemed to enjoy making them. I was
trying to figure out something that we could use them for, when I thought about
a bookmark…….not just any bookmark, but a cross bookmark. So I began sewing the pieces together and
came up with this………
We put a few together for our sewing club. This will be another project that they will
be able to offer for sale. If you’d like
to have one, please drop me an email (swannalofton@yahoo.com)
and let me know if you have a preference for color, and what size (large or small). We will sell them for
$3 each, and I can either mail them to you ($2 mailing cost), send them home
with the next mission team (which will be here on Friday, and the mailing cost
will be $.75 from the states), or bring them with me when we come back to the
states in November.
Each day before mealtime, the kids lined up in their color
groups and had to recite the memory verse.
This provided a great incentive to learn it quickly!! They also enjoyed water balloons, watermelon,
a hike and campfire during the week.
Sometimes I wished that I could have been with them more, but my time
with the moms was awesome. Next week
will take care of that desire, as I will be helping with recreation.
By the end of the week, the ladies and I were at ease with
each other and having a great time together.
I hope to see them all at our next monthly meeting.
The week provided a great escape for Maria and her son, as
they were able to remove themselves from the community in which many guilty
fingers were pointed; guilt, not in the fact that she committed a crime, but
because it was her husband who committed the crime….and against his own
family. Because of the economic
situation in Romania, many people will leave the country to find seasonal work. Maria was in Germany working when everything
happened. I guess there were signs that
something could happen, because she told us that she wanted to come home
earlier. Her boss wouldn’t let her
leave, saying that he might do something to her. Of course, no one thinks that a father would
hurt his children…….but he did. Fortunately for Maria, she is safe; if she had
come home earlier, she would have probably been the first victim, and still
unable to protect her children. Please
pray for Maria and her son, as they both have a very long way for
recovery. She showed great strength and
courage when she shared with us her story; but like everyone else who has experienced great
tragedy, she is just beginning her journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment