July - August Newsletter

This summer was a busy one as usual. Right after our mountain backpacking trip we went straight into our July day camps. We had three groups of kids come over from ten to five for two days each. They were from three different orphanages, one where the kids go to regular school, one from a boys special needs school, and one from a girls special needs school.

Coming to camp is something that these kids look forward to the whole year, they started asking us about it early this spring already.

We did lots of fun things at camp like a scavenger hunt, hide and seek, crafts, story times and skits.

Since it was so hot we did lots of water games too which were always the most anticipated part of the day.

The second part of the month we had teen boys camps where they stayed with us two days and nights. We had boys come from all of the different orphanages that we work in.

We did lots of fun things at these camps too, like swimming and kayaking in the river. There was even a small waterfall that we could jump off and kayak over, this was one of the highlights for everyone.

We also did an obstacle course through the whole yard and a scavenger hunt through the whole village.

The most important part of the camps wasn't the games or activities that we did but the bible studies. We created a ten lesson series on accepting salvation through faith in Jesus and growing in a relationship with God. We talked about how to live out a new faith and how to be an example to the world.

We taught the boys the basics about becoming a Christ follower and talked about many of the hardships and stumbling blocks that normally keep them from accepting Christ.

Each night we had a campfire where we did our bible studies and had snacks like smores and popcorn. There were also testimonies and fun stories. The last night of camp one of the boys shared his testimony and we were all moved. Five of the boys accepted Christ right then and we praise God so much for this! God really answered our prayers that the boys would be touched by him. Only through him were these camps a success and we are so excited that he is using us to make a difference here.

After all the camps we went on vacation around Romania. We saw many of the well preserved medieval towns in Transylvania and enjoyed the hospitality of the local people we stayed with.

We went with our German intern Carolin and saw many of the fortified churches that were built by the Germans who settled here in the 1200's.

And we also toured the painted churches in the north which were also built very long ago. We had a great time seeing the beauty that this country has to offer. The rest of the month we have been going to the different orphanages and the baby hospital.

Thanks so much for your prayers for this summer ministry. It turned out to be greatly successful. Now the follow up work begins, with all of the kids who heard about salvation. Please continue to pray for those that accepted Christ that they would grow in their faith and that they would be protected from the evil one's attacks. Please pray for those who didn't accept Christ yet that they would continue to be touched by God and that they would come to him. Also please pray for one of the boys who fell and broke his hand, he has had surgery and it isn’t healing well. He is having a hard time with the situation. Please continue to keep us and our ministry in your prayers. Look out for our two year update very soon.

For a printable copy of this newsletter click here: July - August Newsletter