Our recent week-long visit to Caminul Felix Villages was as always, enlightening. With every visit, we have the opportunity to meet another family, to listen to another child’s dream, and to share our hearts with many happy children.

We enjoyed this week’s backyard bonfire and watching World Cup 2006 soccer matches with the kids. It was a fun experience learning how to make langosi and placinte with Elena. We met a U.S. mission team of ten students serving at CF for two weeks. Representing various Christian colleges, their home base was just 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky.

We also met two students from California who were interning for three months with children with disabilities in a special school and at the children’s hospital. We shared lunch and an evening of stories with a couple from California in their 11th month working at CF. We witnessed the CF teenagers unloading a trailer truck filled with furniture and work supplies for a Rotary team from California completing two apartments at the Teenage House for the children making the transition into independent living.

The common thread in all of these people and their stories was their service with their hearts and their hands for the children. These generous folks were bringing to life the words of Caminul Felix’s founder, “Each child deserves a happy family.”

One of the most inspirational events for us was meeting Joe, a 76 year-old gentleman from California. This was his 21st visit to Caminul Felix Villages. He and his wife have three children and two grandchildren. He shared about his love for the “thirteen grandchildren in the Calvary House.” The mutual affection is evident when he showed us the popcorn machine he had brought as a present and the welcome notes posted by the children on their house door.

As one of 58 team members who had built the Calvary House, he vividly recalled his first visit in 2000 commenting, “I have never done anything in my life that I enjoy more.” He owns a plumbing and heating business and has not yet retired. He has assisted CF with numerous installations from kitchens to bathrooms to the village conversion from propane to natural gas “digging by hand 2 1/2 miles and 36 inches deep.” He will visit CF three times in 2006 and serve as part of another team build next month.

With his eyes sparkling, he said, “Caminul Felix is like a disease…the doctors have not found a cure yet. You must visit.”

At every turn of this journey, we have been confronted with the beauty and the simplicity of giving. Our smallest acts of kindness have brought us unspeakable joy and contentment. We have also experienced the humility of receiving often in the most unlikely circumstances.

We encourage you to open your heart to experience the passion of giving. It is a promise that receiving will never feel the same again.– HSR