Christmas Celebrations!

After coming back to Romania we got to meet our kids again at the first Christmas program of the season. We were all so excited to see eachother, they missed us a lot and we missed them too. They put on a wonderful program where they sang carols, performed a skit, recited some poems, and danced.

Our Romanian partners Sanda and Mariana put together this program and it turned out very nice. The kids enjoyed themselves very much.

This was a skit about the birth of Jesus.

Here was a dance.

And here we are with some of our friends!

Later in the week we went to the celebration at the boys school.

They put on a fun program too.

They were really happy to see us too after our long absence, thier warm hugs and smiles were so great to come back to.

After that we went to the girls school to hand out their Christmas presents.

We usually only see these girls at special times like when we hand out school kits or go to their programs or have them at summer camp.

Seeing them that little they are always excited when we come.

We celebrated Rebecca's birthday with the youth group, they sang "La Multi Ani," their version of "Happy Birthday."

We had a great week and were so warmly welcomed back to Romania. It was really great to see our friends on staff too, they came to all of the programs with us and it was fun to catch back up with them again. We were also able to catch back up on sleep after our really long trip back. Thank you to everyone who makes it possible for us to be here, through your support and prayers, we are so grateful for the opportunity to work with these kids!

Layover in Munich, Germany

We're back in Romania, just in time for Christmas! We had a long trip this time, first flying to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to Munich, Germany. We had a 13 hour layover in Munich and even though we didn't sleep much on the plane and were really tired, we went out to see the city. Since we are becoming world travelers we just couldn't pass up an opportunity to see a new place!

In the main square we saw the Glockenspiel, a clock tower with figurines that dance around at noon. It is a very impressive building and the square it is in is really nice.

There were booths set up all over the place with Christmas ornaments and snacks, the smell of roasted almonds was enough to make anyone have a craving!

Christmastime is a neat time to visit different places, although it would have been a little nicer if it was snowing instead of raining. I'm sure I remember seeing something like this on Rick Steve's travel videos!

This is a museum that was once part of the ruling family of Bavaria's house.

Munich is a very nice looking city.

We enjoyed breakfast at a cafe.

One of the many impressive churches there, it looks almost exactly like the one we saw in Timisoara, Romania.

The inside of this church looks just like the one we saw in Biertan, Romania. It is really neat to see the German influences in Romania and it was cool to see the origin of the influence.

The church in Biertan had an organ in the back just like this one too.

We went to take a tour of the Nymphenburg Palace, which was the summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. It is part of a huge complex of buildings and gardens which give a pretty good idea about the decadence and richness of these rulers.

The ballroom was a sight to behold.

We really enjoyed our short visit to Munich. We love to see new places and this stopover was an unexpected chance to go somewhere new. Now we're back in Romania after a wonderful time at home spent with our family and friends. It went really fast but we had a great time, and now we are ready for all of our Christmas celebrations here!

Great Time and Timing

In the last few weeks at home in Michigan we continued to have a great time visiting family and friends. My oh my how fast time flies, our time here has come to an end. We have done so much in a little time and have been super busy, but it has been a blessing to be home.

We haven't had much snow at all which has been nice for driving. On our trip to Canada we did go through a beautiful winter wonderland where all the trees had a nice coating of snow.

We took a trip to Canada to see our Oma (grandma) who was 102 years old. We enjoyed visiting with her, but that night she fell and fractured her hip. Only a few days later she passed away and is now with her savior Jesus in Heaven. We were able to go to her funeral the following week and we marveled at the timing of it all, being home to see her one last time and then having time to go to her funeral, we can just see God's hand in it. We will miss Oma but we know that she lived a long and full life and is now in a better place.

We also got to see all of our Canadian relatives and we enjoyed visiting with them.

We went to a hockey game with some friends and enjoyed seeing our Grand Rapids Griffins win!

We continued to spend lots of time with family...

...And friends.

We have had lots of great food while we were here, many people cooked us delicious meals and we ate at some wonderful restaurants. At our friends Christmas party I (Mark) was inspired by this mango chutney to make some Naan bread. I grilled it over charcoal and it turned out great!

Our friends made orange chicken, Mongolian venison, and egg rolls, mmm.

Lexi's favorite gift was her "Christmas underwear," she kept going around and talking about it to everyone. She really wanted to come with us to Romania, she didn't want to let us leave. She told Rebecca that she is her kid, she is just too cute. We will miss everyone while we are in Romania, please keep in touch, we love talking over e-mail, Facebook, or Skype.

We are flying out Thursday and will have a long layover in Munich, Germany. We will try to see the city if we're awake enough. Please pray for safe travels. Thank you so much for your continued prayers for us and our ministry in Romania. We are looking forward to going back and seeing our kids again and we know they are excitedly waiting for us to return. We have had a really great time at home and are extremely thankful that we have such supportive family and friends. Thank you all for being a part of our lives and ministry.