Hi everyone,

Well it’s almost time for our CitD summer teams and activities to start out in Romania, just about two weeks to go!
So I’m off on holiday. Yes just for a week and then the full summer madness will begin!

Beth and I fly out to Romania on the 26th May and the next day our first of two school mission teams from Manor C of E academy York will arrive along with some old friends to lead them Lawrence Rab and Karen Forrester with Lawrence staying on for both groups spread over two weeks.
Both Beth and I love having the young people there and more often than not they behave better than some of our adult groups. Of course they work very hard and bring a lot of energy and fun to our projects but most of all continue to make a difference to the people and families who we serve through Cry in the Dark and our Romanian arm Asociatia Lumina.

Then starting on 17th of June our intrepid bike riders arrive – Pete Ling, Stan Harrison, Martin Lisle, Bernie Andrew aka the a Dark Destroyer and Dr Lucy Slocum as well as myself aka The Pale rider! We will be cycling 600 miles right across Romania to spread the word of our paediatric palliative and hospice care services.
At one point on the ride we will be climbing 2500 meters on the famous Transfagrasian road over the Carpathian mountains which took me around 3.5 hours on my mountain bike two years ago, so it will be interesting to see what happens this year! Especially as this year we are doing it on road bikes! Watch the blog and Facebook for updates.  The ride this year is being sponsored by BCR Bank Romania the start of a long friendship we hope.
This year Beth and I return to the U.K. for a week on the 1st July returning to Romania on the 9th of July just in time for our Micro Gappers to arrive.
Chloe, Katie, Hannah, Daniel and a returning Gapper Jack!!!!!!!! No it’s true Jacks back.
But honestly, it’s a great blessing to us to have him back he is a good lad with a great heart for what we do. Megan Cooper will be also be joining us for the first month of the Gap. I’m hoping the Micro Gappers this year will write blogs too, so again watch out for their updates!

In August we have some individuals flying out Abi, Davey (both previous Micro Gappers) and my son Sean will be joining us for two weeks,  personally I can’t wait for my son to join me it’s a highlight for me to have Sean working with me and the teams!
In August we have our mission teams which include a mixed group organised by our friend Terry Norrington seeing a few old friends returning and a couple new ones too!
We have a youth group from Comberton Baptist Church which we are looking forward to as this is a new group.
Also, this year we have a mixed youth & adults group from Zion Baptist Church.
So it’s all good!
Maybe we will get some of these guys to write blogs too? That’s if they have enough time of course.
We like to work our volunteers hard!! Well not too hard we try to leave time for a quick dip in our pool….did I say pool I meant fire reserve water tank lol!

At the end of August we are all going to a wedding as we have Rozi and Danys big day on the 27th of August. Rozi and Dani a couple on our community Hospice programme.
Dani & Rozi have a Prieten Sponsor who is turning into their very own wedding photographer – Helen Burt and her assistant are flying out to take the snaps of the special day completely free of charge! Thanks guys.
Already some of our brilliant friends and supporters have helped us to make this day truly wonderful for Rozi and Dany by donating on our special wedding gift page.
All proceeds will go towards the wedding to help these guys have their dream come true.
This is especially important as Rozi can often be very sick, so we wanted to help them both have their dream wedding this year as we don’t know what the future holds.
I’m sure that the pictures will be up on Facebook and you will actually be able to see their dream wedding day unfold!
If you think you would like to help make their dream come true please click here and share with your friends.

Well that’s about it, time to get back to some serious sun bathing before all this stuff begins.

I hope you all have a great summer whatever you choose to do. Maybe next year see you in Romania?
With blessings and thanks
Steve.