Spring Break trip to the Museum

With school out for Spring Break, we decided to take a trip on Friday afternoon April 17th. After much discussion and changing of plans we ended up going to the Astra Museum. This turned out to be a great plan. We all packed a lunch and had a relaxing stroll. Elizabeth lost her other top front tooth during lunch and now looks somewhat like a vampire. It was a beautiful day and everyone had a wonderful time. We started to have our evening Bible study out in the museum, but were informed that it was already past closing time, so we headed back to the building to finish out the perfect end to the perfect day.

Sibiu Lock-in

We had our lock-in April 10-11. Lee had to make a quick trip back to the US to officiate his grandfather's funeral and returned just in time for the lock-in to start. We had groups from Oradea and Pitesti in attendance as well as members from Cluj and Bucharest. A total of about 30 people enjoyed a night of fun and fellowship with skits, lessons, singing, games and food. Sarah and Hannah learned the lines for their skit in Romanian and did an outstanding job. Not to be left out, Elizabeth sang a song she had learned in Romanian. Our hearts fell however, with the arrival of Claudiu from Cluj and the news that his mother-in-law, Violeta, who is one of our members, had passed away. Her funeral was held the next afternoon.

Lock-in @ Oradea

On March 27th we took 10 from Sibiu on a long and very bumby bus ride to Oradea, 15 min from the Hungarian border. We were hosted by the Oradea congregation for a lock-in the next day. It was a great day with singing, speakers, sports and lots of good food and fellowship. Sunday, we worshiped with the wonderful people in the congreation there, and had another great meal before loading back on the bus for the trip back to Sibiu. Elizabeth was thrilled to have some other kids to play with, and several of them tried to stow away on the bus with us.
We are now making preparations for our own lock-in, which will take place April 10th.

March

The last few weeks have been quite busy. March 1st was our first Sunday fellowship meal. We all enjoyed the wonderful foods and great fellowship. It was good to see everyone after our furlough.

Ryan Bunge arrived on March 3rd, and has been helping out quite a lot. He had the chance to meet the director of the deaf school here, and is hoping that she will allow him to do some voluteer work there with the students. He had the chance to spend some time with the students, and really enjoyed it. He has met a few people that are interested in studies. With these and the students that Lee has been able to get back in touch with, the study schedule is filling up quite quickly.

March 6th we had a hamburger/ hotdog cookout after our Friday Bible class. We all had a really good time visiting and laughing and eating.

Sunday, March 8th was Mother's Day here. All of the mothers were presented with a rose on Sunday morning. Those who were not mothers were sent home with one to give to their mother or another mother.

March 11th we started our Wednesday night Bible study up again.

Ryan and Lee have also been putting cork on the movable walls. This will enable us to use these walls for VBS much more effectively. They also look really nice too. We have some more of theese walls being made and also one that will be made into a puppet theater. Some of these walls are going to used to create a nursery for our young mothers with babies and small children.

The girls got behind with their schooling while we were on furlough, so they have been very busy getting caught back up. Alice, one our young ladies from church, has agreed to come and help out with the schooling and our language studies. This has been a tremendous blessing for me, as I was getting extremely overwhelmed with trying to keep up with everything.

The young ladies from church have been working diligently on preparing skits and making plans for our lock-in which will take place April 10th. We have also been making plans to attend a lock-in in Oradea at the end of this month.

The weather here has been very wet. It generally snows in the morning and rains the rest of the day. The pictures show what it looked like this morning when I looked out. The girls had lots of fun playing in the snow at the park and making a snowman. Except for Sarah who believes Saturday's are for sleeping.

We have arrived safely back in Sibiu!!

airport in Munich

Sibiu from the air

We have unpacked our suitcases and put them away, and hope we don't see them again for a little while. We had a very nice trip. We had a little delay in Munich because of snow, and got separated shortly when we ended up on different shuttles to the plane. Other than that we had no problems. We were amazed to get here with all 11 pieces of luggage. This is the first time we have flown into Sibiu on a jet though. The turboprops we used to fly in on do not have that much room for luggage. The new airport in Sibiu is really expanding and is very modern. They even have restraunts, duty free shopping and a Redal(pastry shop) now. If you ever flew into Sibiu to the old building you would be totally amazed with how modern the new airport is. We definitely prefer it to the Bucharest airport.


We really enjoyed seeing everyone. It was a great trip, when we weren't sick. We look forward to seeing you all again when either you come to visit us here, or we return for Jacob's graduation in the spring of 2010. I was writing thank you notes in the car everywhere we went, with the idea of sending them before we left. Unfortunately, we ended up back here with the box, so you all have a hand writen thank you card in Romania. Maybe Ryan can bring them back and mail them when he returns from his trip here next month. Until then "Thank You from the bottom of our hearts!!"


I have updated the wishlist to reflect the things we either forgot or didn't have room for. I originally created it to help me remember what I needed to get while we were in the U.S.. I am amazed that with 11 suitcases and the 8 boxes that were shipped, we could have possibly missed anything. I have had a number of people ask where the wishlist is. You have to click on "view my complete profile" in the "About Me" section on the sideof the page. That will take you to the page where you will find the link to the wishlist.

I have pictures from our furlough posted on my facebook page, if any of you are on facebook and would like to see them. I will be posting more in the next few days.


Once again, I can't thank you all enough for all that you do to support us.
We could not do our work without you.

Furlough

Since December 17th we have been on the road. This has not been very conducive to spending much time on the internet so I have not kept much up to date. We have finished the posted furlough schedule, but we are not done yet. Lee will be back on the road this weekend, while the girls and I work on Bible class materials, getting some things ready to be shipped, along with several other projects that need to be completed. We have about 5 more congregations to visit.
Which will bring the total to about 17 Reports and 2 conferences in 5 States in 2 months. We are somewhat tired, but we have enjoyed getting to see all the friends and family we have been able to see. We have about a gazillion thank you notes we need to write to all those who have fed us, put us up in your homes, and supported us in a myriad of different ways. We love and appreciate you all, and in case I miss someone, please spread the word that we are indeed very thankful for all you've done.
Lots of Love,
The Skeltons

Ladies Christmas Party

Oops, This is out of order. Monday, December 1st was Romania Day. Since

everyone was off school and work we took the opportunity to have a ladies

Christmas party. This was kind of a last minute plan and was not very well

organized, but never-the-less we had a great time. We revisited our

childhoods a little and cut out snowflakes. We also did other crafts, played

games, ate (of course), sang, and had a white elephant gift exchange. It was

a good time to spend time with our sisters, and get to know one another a

little better.