February - March 2010 Newsletter

Hello all from Romania!  We hope that everyone is doing well and we would like to thank you for your prayers and support!  We have now been in Romania for 7 months, which is hard to believe because it has flown by so fast.  These last couple months were really busy so let's run through some of the highlights of what happened and how we were able to minister. 

We started off February welcoming Danielle and Ryan, our interns for 5 weeks.  We stayed at the team house with them and also JT and we helped them settle in and get into ministry with us and the rest of the H2H staff.  We really enjoyed spending time with them and it was fun working with them.

We went to the orphanage as often as we could, continuing to deepen relationships that we have with the kids there.  Rebecca picked up some unwanted pests (lice), and this picture is the photographic evidence of exactly when we think it happened.  We spent a week and a half combing through her hair and shampooing before they were all gone.  There was an outbreak at the orphanage which happens from time to time and we didn't know about it until it was too late.  It was a nice bonding time for us though in our busy schedules, and we learned a lot about lice, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

Here is a special boy who really loves to hang out with me, when we arrive at the orphanage he runs right to me every time.  He is on medications which keep him "out of it", so I was surprised when he told me that he prays for us every day.  I think this says volumes about the impact that the ministry with these kids has, and it is a thrilling reminder of how God works in their hearts.  The more that we are at the orphanage the more we get to know the kids and the more we can impact their lives.  They continue to have an impact on us as well.

We were finally able to get back into the baby hospital after nearly 4 months of the quarantine.  It was wonderful to see the babies again, we love loving them so much!  They grew a lot and cut their first teeth when we were gone, and they all stayed healthy, besides the standard colds.  Rebecca's little boy Eric was placed in foster care which is great, we hope more have that opportunity.

Me with my twins, now they're big enough to be in the toddler room and are just about walking!

At the end of March we finished up our language lessons!  The last two months were very hard, with lots to remember and lots of homework.  Many times we spent whole days on homework, writing papers on bible stories, Christian apologetics, and imagined conversations with kids. We would then discuss them in class, correct them, and learn new words and grammar that had to do with what we wrote.  We aren't fluent yet, that takes a lot longer than 6 months, but we can have conversations and get our point across.  We have much practice to do and there are many more words to learn, but we are looking forward to when we think in Romanian.  It feels great to be able to understand the language now, to be able to communicate with people and not feel so in the dark everywhere.  For our last class we went on a tour of the city with our teacher because she is so interested in history, she showed us some of the beautiful architecture that wasn't destroyed by the communists.  

Now that we are done with language lessons we will be working in all the areas of ministry, we will have many teams here until after the summer so we will be able to work on our translating skills a lot.  We are excited to be able to focus on ministry now and are looking forward to how God will use us in the following months.  Please pray for us as we go forward.  Thanks again for staying involved with us and for keeping up with what God is doing through is here in Romanina!

- Pray for my (Mark) arm to heal well after I fell hard at the orphanage the day after language lessons ended.

- Thank God that he helped us finish language lessons well and helped us make it through admittedly one of the hardest times we've faced together.

- Pray for our language skills to continue to grow.

- Pray for God to reveal his will to us and the other staff of H2H so we will find areas to minister.

- Pray against the evil one's attacks and for safety and health

- Pray for the kids to know Jesus and for God to use us to minister to them

- Pray for the kid's situations at the orphanages to improve

- Pray for continued adjustment to life here in Romania.

Until next time, remember to keep checking the blog for the latest happenings and pictures, we try to write every week:www.weloveorphans.blogspot.com

In Christ,

Mark & Rebecca