Spring 2012 Romania Update

The last few months have been very eventful in our lives and ministry here in Romania. Our regular classes have been going well and we continue to build relationships with the kids. Rebecca teaches part of a Geography and Natural Science class, creating slide shows about different countries. The kids get to try food from a different culture and learn about what other places are like.

We took the younger kids in this class to the museum of natural history in Bucharest. They especially liked the touch screen displays that were at each exhibit. The mammoth skeleton in the main room was also a big hit. After the museum we had a picnic in a local park and had some play time. It was a fun field trip, and we will do another one soon with the older kids in the class.

I teach English classes to a variety of kids of all ages and skill levels. Our most important classes though, are our tutoring classes for the college entrance exam. Last year only 40% of kids in the entire country passed this exam! We are tutoring a small group of kids from the orphanage in English, Math, and Biology. It is very hard because even though these kids have passed all their classes at school, they don’t know enough to pass this very hard test. We are trying to make up years worth of learning in a very short time, and they are struggling because they aren’t used to doing homework or studying for their classes. Whether or not they pass this test will have big implications for their futures, so there a lot is riding on their success.

We also are part of a youth group and that has been going well. Unfortunately we have been forbidden to talk about God or the Bible by one of the directors of the orphanages. So instead of doing Bible study we have been talking about good character traits. We try to fit references and Biblical principles in wherever we can. Each week we are presenting a different person as a hero, some Romanian and some international people. Some of the people we have studied are Martin Luther King Jr., King David, and Richard Wurmbrand, who was a Romanian pastor that was put in jail by the communists and spent 14 years in prison being tortured and brainwashed. By God’s grace he resisted and escaped from Romania and founded the organization Voice of the Martyrs.

God blessed us personally very richly this spring. Even before we came here we knew that we would eventually want a car. This year the need became even more apparent as our sharing of H2H vans became even more complicated and even less convenient. We prayed about it a lot and faced many struggles and obstacles, and one day God provided through a very generous gift from Extol Inc, the company I worked for as an engineer before we came here. The amazing thing is that they asked us what we needed without us having asked first, this is how we know that God was at work. We were able to find a great used car, a 2007 Ford Focus that was brought over from Germany. Many others also gave us gifts so that we could pay for the registration and insurance and have some saved away for upkeep. It has been great having our own car, we have been able to go to events and see friends that we wouldn’t have been able to without one.

God also provided for something else that we had wanted for quite some time, an iPad 2. Having one would be ideal for Rebecca’s presentations for her Science classes. Through a few people’s generosity we were able to get one and it too has been a real blessing. It is so amazing how God works and we feel that through these miracles he is confirming to us that we are doing what he wants here.

We want to thank you very much for your prayers for us and our ministry. We are also very thankful to those who have blessed us with their generous support and gifts!

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