Summer Ministry

The school year officially ended two weeks ago, wow did this year just fly by.  We have had many teams here since May and we have done a lot of different things with the kids because of that.  

We played lots of games at the kids' apartments.  One that they really like is hot potato.  Here little Stefan is frantically trying to get rid of the bear (the hot potato) before the music stops.

We continued to do our art class at the boys special needs school.  We made paintings using dots instead of brush strokes.

In addition to the teams we also have had many interns, Brandon and Becky came to stay with us to help out and they enjoyed the kids a lot.

We have enjoyed spending time with Elena this year, we go way back!  She is planning on being baptized later this summer, praise God!

I gave a final exam to my math students and they gave me a box of chocolates and a neat origami swan.  They did very well for the most part, and hopefully after a couple years when they graduate from high school they will be able to pass the college entrance exam.

We had another reward pool party for the kids in the geography class.  We'll be doing a lot of this during summer camps, nearly every other day!

We also got to visit the other orphanages that we don't normally work in.  We know lots of the kids there because before we moved to our current location we worked at these places.  Aurelia is still Rebecca's girl.

We did a fun art lesson on perspective.

We have had lots of play days too.  We have enjoyed spending time with little Ana who was gone for a couple years and has just returned.

Ana likes to cuddle as you can see and she also likes to play cards, run across the field, and go for piggy back rides.

We even had some time that we could spend some time with friends.  We went out for dessert with Steven and Haley.

Mmmm, macarons, best part is that they are naturally gluten free!

After dessert we went to take some night pictures in Bucharest.

Thanks for all of your prayers for us in these last few weeks.  We have been very busy but have been having a great time with the kids.  We start summer camp on Monday and will need even more prayers for strength, patience, energy, and wisdom.  Most of all for the kids to have a great time, to learn about God and to have a personal relationship with him.

Friends and Pictures

This spring and summer we have the privilege of working with many people from all over the United States and Canada.  They come to work with the kids here in Romania but they also end up ministering to us.

Steph and Lindsey came from one of our supporting churches, Caledonia CRC.  They stayed with us at our place in Rosiori for a week and helped us work with our kids.  

We all enjoyed working with the boys at the transition program and taking a tour around the village of Nenciulesti.  

We have also been able to enjoy the beauty of God's creation around us.  Taking pictures is something that we really enjoy.

There were lots of really beautiful flowers at the cemetery at that time. 

We went up to the mountains for a day to enjoy some of the beauty of Romania.  We hiked to a waterfall that we had never been to before.

We have always liked waterfalls and this one was no disappointment.

We went up to Brasov and walked around the town a bit.

Northern Romania is great, the medieval towns are so charming and fun to explore.

We noticed some funny things with the doors at the place we stayed.  This is the door to get into the complex of houses from the street, it's probably a good 9-10 feet tall...

...and then the door to our room from the hallway, not even 6 feet tall despite the tall ceiling!  Who knows.

We also had a team from Biola University in California come, and we had Aaron and Travis stay with us.  Aaron had been here before so it was great to catch up with him, and it was nice to meet and get to know Travis.  We had a really fun time with the kids who really liked trying out the instruments.

One night we saw a spectacular sunset and we decided we needed to go to the end of town to get some pictures.  We ran all the way there and just as we got there the sun set and the color was gone!  The next night we were prepared and went up there early, and it was worth it.

For one of our intern's birthday we went and saw the new Star Trek movie.  Brandon invited us to see it along with his wife Becky and some of the other staff.  On the way back we saw this great double rainbow.

It has been great to have these teams here.  They are very helpful to our ministry and allow us to do things that we can't normally do.  They have given us very timely encouragement too as we have gone through a rough patch lately.  We have strengthened already great friendships and made many new friends too.  Our family in Christ just continues to grow and support us, and for that we are very thankful!

Kids Having Fun

We love working with abandoned kids in Romania.  God has given us this task of ministering to them and we are so thankful for that.  This spring we have had many teams here and have been able to do special things with the kids.

We took part in Steven and Haley's reading class and got to spend time with this cutie, Diana.  We would like to do a similar class next year where we work in the south.

We had a fun youth group party where the kids played lots of games and got to swim.

We got in on lots of coloring action with the kindergardeners at the special needs school.

We had a team come from Biola University in California who brought their instruments for the kids to try.  They all loved this but especially the boys from the transition program.

Ciprian needs a little work on the fingering positions but other than that played great.

The team did a fun story with musical accompaniment and then let the kids try.  

The team played a song at the beginning of a carnival that we put on for children's day.

The kids had a blast going around to all of the different stations at the carnival.  The face painting station was a big hit as you can see.

Just look at that cute face!

We also watched our kids dance at a children's day celebration.  We are always glad to see them perform and it is fun to wave to them and encourage them that there are people there just to see them.

Thank you for your prayers and support, you make it possible for these kids to have so much fun with us!