New Beginnings

Every year the arrival of fall brings with it cooler temperatures, shorter days, changing colors, and the beginning of all of our programs again after a long summer of camps and special ministries.  The beginning of the school year is always an exciting and busy time, and this year it was even more so because of a couple extra programs starting.

We welcomed six boys into the boys transition house (BTH) that is run by our fellow staff member Doru.  These boys have all aged out of the orphanage and are able to come into our program to learn how to make a future for themselves.  They will learn construction and building skills and also other useful things like English, cooking, budgeting, and how to take care of their own place.

They are excited for the opportunity that they have to better their lives and to grow in so many ways.

We are teaching them how to cook so that when they get out of the program they eat more than just french fries which is the one thing most of them already know how to make.

We made some Mexican food, complete with homemade tortillas, Mexican rice, and chicken.

We found out that Ciprian is an excellent tortilla roller even though he said he didn't want to learn how to cook because someday he'll have a wife that will do that for him!

Florin reeaally enjoyed cutting up the chicken!  Sandel didn't get to help in the kitchen because he was busy getting tutored in Biology by Rebecca so that he can pass the college entrance exam next year.

Two other programs also got started, the girls transition house (GTH) and a totally new one, the alternate transition house (ATH).  The girls are taking different classes and also learning how to live independently.  The boys that are in the ATH are staying in an apartment and are learning many of the same skills as the girls while looking for jobs.

We started youth group as well and are so glad that this year we have a new orphanage director who is letting us talk about God freely!  We are doing a bible study on 1 John and focusing on what true love is and how we can live a life that pleases God.

Another change in our program is that I (Mark) am not teaching English anymore and instead Rebecca and I are teaching art together.  We are excited to give the kids a more hands on lesson and hope that we will be able to have lots of fun with this.

Here is Mariana, one of our fellow staff, with a class of kids and their coloring pages.

Please continue to pray for the kids that we are working with, that we will be able to have a great time together and for us to be able to show them the love of Christ at all times.  Pray for us and our fellow staff for energy, ideas and guidance.  Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!

It Happened On A Very Special Day NINE years ago...

 Wow, today is a special day, it is our nine year wedding anniversary!  Nine years ago today on a cold and blustery October's day we were pledging ourselves to each other and starting a new life together.  We vowed to stay together and by each others sides through thick and thin, no matter where life would take us. 

We wouldn't have guessed that nine years later we would be spending our anniversary in Europe, Eastern Europe no less.  Now we have spent one-third of our married lives working in Romania since we've been here for three years already.

Our fellow workers and friends Steven and Haley were married on the same day only five years later, so we decided to go celebrate our anniversary together in the beautiful medieval town of Sighisoara.  We've been there before but went by train, this time we drove and finally found it after some scenic detours, aka the road names aren't marked well here so we sometimes had to drive in circles to find the way.

We stayed at a guest house with traditionally decorated rooms.  This part of the country was inhabited by Germans from the 1200's so this looks more German than Romanian.

We had a really nice view!

This is one of the nine defense towers that form part of the wall around the citadel.  Sighisoara is one of the best preserved walled cities that is still inhabited in Europe.

This covered staircase takes people up to the old German church and graveyard.

One of the graveyard entrances, it was so interesting to see all the German names there.

This is one of the things we love the most about Sighisoara, the winding streets lined with brightly colored houses.  It has a sort of fairy tale feel to it and is really fun to explore and discover the most beautiful places.

 Here we are by one of the citadel gates with a cool neighborhood behind us.

Even the places that haven't been recently restored have lots of character, showing the bricks under the plaster and the different colors of paint, it gives a real old world feeling.

 We had a wonderful European breakfast at a nice little cafe.  With our coffee we enjoyed croissants, bread, eggs with cheese and an assortment of different meats, veggies, and jams.  The weather was really nice, right around 70, and it was really fun sitting outside at the cafe and enjoying each others company.

On the way back home we stopped by to see several of the fortified churches, just about every little village has one.  In the old days the people here didn't have enough resources to fortify every town, so they just built fortifications around their churches so they would have somewhere secure to defend themselves against invaders.

We stopped by the ruins of an old fortress, Rupea Fortress which is currently being restored so unfortunately we couldn't go inside.  It is pretty impressive though as it sits on a hill that towers over the rest of the surrounding land.

The drive back was really fun because we could just stop and explore wherever we wanted to.  

Another fortified church.

On the way home the main highway was closed so we had to take a detour - a winding road through the mountains and many small villages.  It took a lot longer to get home but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.  This mountain was the standout place and it was just a reminder of God's awesomeness and how wonderful his creation is.

As we start our tenth year of marriage we want to take a moment to thank all of you who have been with us and supporting us all this time.  Thank you for praying for us especially since we have been in Romania working far from home.  Thank you so much for being a part of our lives.  Please continue to pray for us to have a strong marriage that can be a good example to the kids that we work with so that we can show them what a godly marriage looks like.