Waynesburg University’s Lamplighters Touring Choir took their service trip to Nashville, Tennessee last spring. Though the choir’s service trips usually stay in the U.S., their next service trip is planned for Romania.

The Lamplighters will serve at an orphanage Caminul Felix. For ten days in May, though the exact dates have not been decided, students will stay at the orphanage to raise awareness and funds. They will accomplish this by performing concerts in multiple towns while charging for attendance. While at the orphanage, the choir will spend time with the children, teach them singing, and perform manual labor.

Connor Hoffman, junior children’s youth ministry major and officer in Lamplighters, said, while this will be a new experience for all of the choir, they are quite eager for their future tasks.

“We all feel really excited about this opportunity, and the different challenges that come with it,” said Hoffman, “as well as the opportunity to not only to go to a different country, but also help the people of that country.”

The 200+ acre orphanage is part of a biblically-centered non-profit organization called Felix Family Farms. The orphanage is run by a village of families that adopt the orphans and raise them to adulthood. Caminul Felix has 16 families that raise over 200 children.

Melanie Catana, director of choral music, said the process of the orphanage sets them up with over 10 children..

“A couple will say, ‘ok, we are here to be house parents,’” said Catana. “Caminul Felix sets them up with 12 to 15 children; there’s a big house; they live in it; and they raise these kids until adulthood.”

Romania may have never been a destination for the Lamplighters had it not been for some well-timed connections. Catana’s husband – who is also headlining for the Lamplighters’ concerts when in Romania – immigrated from a communist-governed Romania at the age of 17. Because he has family still there, the two have visited multiple times.

A university maintenance worker, Daniel Mecea, also has ties to Romania. Mecea and Catana met up at one point, and discovered that  Mecea’s brother-in-law and sister run Caminul Felix.

Flying overseas takes a considerable amount of money. With this in mind, the choir students have already started raising money. While each student is writing to their family members for aid, Connor Hoffman, a junior children and youth ministry major attending the trip, says the choir is trying its best to raise money on campus.

“Right now, we are selling pasta,” said Hoffman. “Each one of us has a packet to sell, but the whole choir is doing a combined fundraiser for pasta. We will be doing a different one of those each month.”

 

To buy one of the pasta packets, talk to any student from the Lamplighters Touring Choir.

 

For more on Caminul Felix, visit https://caminulfelix.org/project/caminul-felix-romania.