We meet Mondays
9:00-10:30 p.m.
at St. Thomas’s Parish
276 S. College Ave.
Join us for worship at
St. Thomas’s Parish
Sundays
8:00 am - Rite 1 Eucharist
10:30 am - Rite 2 Eucharist
5:30 pm - Inclusive Language Rite Three
Wednesdays
12:10 pm - Rite 2 Eucharist
Photo: The Rev. Sarah Brockmann, Interim Campus Minister and Assistant Priest at St. Thomas’s Parish, on the 2008 mission trip to Romania.
Episcopal Campus Ministry at the University of Delaware
Volunteers to Romania
by the Rev. Sarah Brockmann, St. Thomas’s, Newark
Thanks to the generosity of the Diocese of Delaware the people of St. Thomas’s Parish, and many friends, members of Episcopal Campus Ministry (ECM) spent this year’s Spring Break in Romania, working on a building project with Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program. From March 28 to April 5, the group of seven women travelled, toured, and worked in and around Pitesti, an industrial city about two hours outside of Bucharest.
The day started at about 8:30 a.m., when the team’s driver, Adi, picked up the group at the Hotel Muntenia. After a stop at the local supermarket and wonderland that is Pic, the group continued to the worksite in Oarja, a village just outside of the city. Most of the week was spent installing fiberglass insulation in the second floor of a new building, which will eventually house eight families. Though we numbered only seven, we worked much more quickly than the site manager, Cristi, had anticipated, causing him to “find” additional work for the team doing a bit of plastering in an apartment block on the site. The group worked hard, rested when we needed to, laughed a LOT, and ate large quantities of Nutella at our daily picnic lunches.
Apparently, the ECM team left a positive and lasting impression at Habitat Pitesti. Alexandru Manu, the Volunteer Coordinator (as well as excellent translator and very entertaining guy!) reports that when a recent group came to work, our group was cited as an example of how much work even a small group can accomplish. The work was, of course, more than just fiberglass, wood, and plaster; the team also made friends and brought hope to a struggling people. ECM’s mission trip to Romania will have a lasting effect not only on four Romanian families who will have a warmer winter next year, but also on the seven women who spent a week working, praying, eating, and living together under the auspices of doing the work of Christ in the world.
Photo: The new building that the team from ECM helped to build on their Habitat for Humanity mission to Romania over spring break.