MCFC in Romania

The first European Member Care Foundations Course was held in Prod, Romania and as I am working more and more with people across the Central European Region, it felt right for me to come and learn some more skills to help with leading the wonderful people of YWAM in this region. It was also useful that they had shortened the school to two weeks, which is more manageable for me, and with pre- and post-courses it will still be all of the wonderful content of the 3 week course.

There were 17 students and 4 staff, and we had a wonderful two weeks together:

We were in deep rural Romania, and the terrible internet was sometimes annoying, but at the same time also meant we had some peace from the outside world. It is as if time stood still:

 We did work hard, we only had one day off in two weeks and spent most of the time together in the classroom working around tables during lectures, or in pairs:

We did sometimes take time for more fun activities:

Outside the classroom, there was a little time at lunch to go for a walk: This is me with some of the walkers: Rod from Australia, Bodil from Norway and Jessi from the US:

That day we walked to the horse farm across the village and I go to treat the horses to some clover. The rest of the time when we went past the horses they weren't interested, but it was fun that one day!

Most evenings a new friend, another Jessi (also from the US) and I went walking together. I didn't get a pic of us walking in the dark (with her torch!) but we went to Sighisoara on our one day off and so here the two of us are in the old city:

Besides making new friends, I also had one fun evening with some old ones: Anni from Romania, Helga from Germany working in Romania, Bodil from Norway working in Bulgaria and Misha from Bulgaria working in Hungary. It was a lovely time together with others who work in our region! 

On our last day we had a lovely festive lunch together. The food all week was cooked for us by two lovely Romanian ladies (standing in the back with Rod) and the food was beyond delicious! I walked twice each day to be able to eat it all and not come back with more kgs! (and managed to come back at the same weight as when I left - 15kgs down since May!)

I felt I learnt so many useful skills and have a lot of good tools to be able to use to help people to help themselves. These are things that will not only be useful in my leadership role with YWAM in Central Europe, but also in whatever I do. I am so grateful that I decided to do this course and for all the wonderful friends that I made while doing it!