English workgroup from London
Team leader: Henk van der Meer
1-7 August 2011, Ozd

Before we left:

Into the mountains
and over the sea,
Dr. Acula will be interesting to see;
Gonna build a staircase,
Sweat all over my face;
Might be tired and happy,
Definitely gonna be Hungary...

and when we arrived back:

By plane or car,
We travelled wide and far,
To spend a week in Romania,
For the castle of Ozd is in Transilvania.

We were at Bonus Pastor,
Spoke with Andrei the director,
“This is a therapy center,
With people of different character”,
Levente had the idea,
Look how it has grown, mama mia!
Working in the castle was great,
But bread I now hate,
The magical pipe of Ozd
To us was lost,
For we dug and dug,
In the end, no luck.

The team which went,
Felt they were heaven sent;
Henk the leader,
Joseph the snail killer;
Sam the birthday boy,
While Cherill is full of joy,
Pim the iron woman,
Sonia the war machine;
“Having fun in the dirt?”,
Simon asks with a smirk.
It was a great adventure,
Thanks everyone for your prayers!

Follow the yellow dust road...Well, Ozd; what can be said? It was a tremendous experience in so many respects, meeting so many kind and dedicated people at Bonus Pastor (both staff and clients) was a truly humbling experience, and helped me examine my priorities as a Christian.

Bonus Pastor is a fantastic project that has clearly helped a lot of people, yet I believe it needs to increase its profile as a charity/project in order to reach it's true potential. Hopefully once the castle renovation is complete that will become more of a reality.

Regards the rest of the week, I had a very enjoyable time, and I've become a pretty mean Uno and Monopoly player now and think I'm ready to go pro. It was lovely to spend time getting to know the rest of the Tab team better, and feel I've really developed some wonderful friendships as a result, despite the snoring. The work was satisfying too, it felt like we were achieving something, even if in reality that wasn't the case (damn that water pipe!), and so thanks must go to the wizard of Ozd (I had to get that pun in there somewhere) Sandor for keeping us all occupied during the week.

Overall I felt greatly blessed to be involved in the trip, to encourage those at Bonus Pastor and to be encouraged by them. God spoke to me in many ways during the week not least in regards how I judge others. I would like to go back in future years to watch the project grow and help out where I am able. I pray that God will allow the project to grow and as a result increase his glory throughout Ozd, Romania and beyond!

7 people from ELT church went to volunteer for a week at Bonus Pastor Foundation’s therapy centre in Ozd. Ozd is a small village of about 200 residents and about 1.5 hours drive from Cluj, the unofficial capital of Transylvania. Ozd is the last village on a dirt road leading into the mountains. We discovered three shops that are open only a couple of hours a day.

It is here in Ozd where Bonus Pastor runs a 9-month therapy course for people that suffer from addictions. We met all the clients and their addictions varied: alcohol, drugs and gambling. We introduced ourselves to each other early in the week and it was a humbling experience to see how open they all are about their problems and their need for help. (How much am I open about my need for a saviour and my struggles with sin?) During the week we got to spend more time with the clients and develop friendships and got to learn and see how much restoration is needed in their lives. We could see the importance of community as they also learn to look after one another and support one another in their difficulties and also in their joys.

Our initial task was to build a staircase, but when we saw the detail of the project itself we realised that we don’t have enough skills and experience between us to complete the project. We started on something else, which we knew we were able to complete during a week. We started clearing some of the cellars and also digging a drench to connect the water pipe leading into the Castle to the main water supply. Some were given the task to iron bed sheets and also work in the garden. Being busy with work gave us time to reflect on what we have seen, heard and experienced.

We stayed in a house in the village. That gave us the opportunity to meet with ‘outsiders’. We were literally the ‘talk of the town’ for that week as everybody was talking about the ‘people from London’. Bonus Pastor provided enough food provision for us to have breakfast and dinner during the week. We joined the clients for lunch everyday.

The last day of our stay we decided to provide a meal for all the clients. We did a barbecue for them. We broke the normal routine of the group by having dinner outside in the open air and also not having it on the exact scheduled time. They all enjoyed what we had to offer.

Our time was blessed in many different ways and God spoke to each one of us individually and we were also challenged in many ways. All the travels went well and we enjoyed the exposure other cultures.

After the week in Ozd we took a train to Hungary and stayed in Budapest for 2 days. This was very relaxing as we treated ourselves to be fully tourists.

Many thanks for your prayer support to this expedition. We all want to go back again in the future.

Respite at Ozd Therapy Centre

Seven of us went to help at this Rehabilitation Centre. There are 4 men and 3 women; the young one, the eldest and one middle aged. Two members of the staff came to collect us at the town near the centre. We had to go in 2 cars because we simply could not get into one car. We were accommodated in a lovely two-bedroom house, which is in the walking distance to the Centre where we had lunch every day. After a fresh up we followed Henk, who had been here several times, to the centre to have dinner with them. They particularly had late dinner in order to wait for us to be introduced to the clients. The food was deliciously good Rumanian style.

We were told to come back tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. and to be informed what we could do. We were to see to breakfasts and dinners ourselves. They provided a lot of foodstuff both in the fridge and on the table. We asked for vegetables, which they picked from their own garden the following day. We finished breakfast by 9:00 a.m. and walked to the centre. We met Sandor who was in charge of delegating us work. All men and the young girl are to work at the Castle: digging the ground to find water pipe, a trench for drainage system to be installed, making steps to the underground catchment, so on and so forth.

The eldest and the middle aged are working together at the centre. We were asked whether we minded ironing. There were lots of bedding sheets and cases needed to be done and the woman volunteer could not come to work at the moment. We were there to help whatever asked, naturally we accepted to do. Second and third days we kept on ironing, for which we finished earlier before 5.00 p.m.

We therefore volunteered to cook dinner for two evenings. The third evening we enjoyed watching football played by two mixed teams of our side and the host side. The host won. This evening we had cold meat, cheese and salad for our dinner.

The fourth day the two women asked to iron the sheets again because the clients/patients preferred to work in the garden. We finished all the ironing work for the week. We were glad that we were able to relief them from the job they do not like to do for one week. While we were ironing, we had a good opportunity to talk to a number of clients. They are very happy to come for the therapy at the centre. They feel confident that the Lord is working in them to be cleansed from whatever addicts they have had. Some came back for second time as well but this time they say "never again" I will come back as a patient. They love to come back as a visitor or a volunteer to help at the centre. It sounds very encouraging to me for what is done at this place.

The fifth day the women were asked to pick tomatoes from the gardens much as possible. After lunch we chopped the tomatoes up and minced them in the grinder to get juice from which was boiled to make thick sauce for making soup or any dishes which are required tomato sauce. They do not have fresh tomatoes from garden in winter. Saturday we did not work but we had BBQ party for them in return for giving us lunch for the whole week. Sunday we went to the local church to worship the Lord together with them. The pastor was so marvellous to summarise the sermon in English about Abraham's faith in Genesis: 22 and Roman:4.

I like to go back to respite at the Bonus Pastor again. Next time I hope that we will be allowed to sit in one of the clients' meeting as observers, which is one method of the therapy as a whole.

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