Blessings and Prayers

Time is flying here in Romania!  It is hard to believe that it is May already and that the end of the school year is fast approaching.  As we continue to work with our kids in all of our various programs we have also been busy planning for summer ministry.  Please pray that the plans for the summer will come together so we can have a great one.

We continue to enjoy our reading classes with the younger kids at the special needs school.  We have noticed some definite improvements over the course of the year and thank God for giving us the opportunity to pour into these kids' lives.

We created a board game based on Candyland where the kids have to read the words on their card and go to the next space.  Would you please pray that they be able to learn to read and write?

We have fun doing different art projects with the older kids, they really enjoy art.

We were able to bless a class of kids with some shoes.  They are all from families and do not receive the same things as the kids in the orphanage.  One of the girls missed a lot of school this winter because she didn't have shoes!  The other day they proudly showed us that they were wearing the shoes we gave them.  So cute!

Some of the kindergardeners wanted to show us their headstand skills, they had some crazy energy!

Our tutoring has been going well, with some catching on really quickly and others needing more time, especially for the math.  Thankfully we do the tutoring in groups of 1 to 3 students so we can keep it going at their pace until they really get it.  They need lots of prayers to stay motivated and to study on their own so they can pass their college entrance exam.

The weather has been pretty nice as well, although it is a much wetter spring than normal.  We stopped along the side of the road to get some pictures of our favorite area on our drive from Bucharest to Rosiori.  These goats happened to come along and pose for the picture.

The rapeseed is in full bloom making the countryside light up in this vibrant yellow.

We were blessed to be able to spend some time with our friends Dan and Luella from Canada.  They have come every year since we've been here and we have enjoyed seeing them each time.  Dan and I share a love of photography and in fact a few years ago he gave me my current camera which I really like.  They are always very encouraging and we really enjoy working with them.

We celebrated my birthday with our friends Steven, Haley and Talitha.  They got me this assortment of Italian food and we cooked most of it up for a wonderful Italian meal.  You may have noticed that we've been making a lot of Italian food lately, that's because this weekend we are headed to Rome!  We are super excited and ask that you pray for safe travels and great weather.

Rebecca's birthday present to me is pretty awesome, I get to have as much Gelato in Rome as I would like!  I love ice cream, so I have searched out over 20 artesian gelato places in Rome.  They are said to be the best of the best and I can't wait to taste it!

I also had a surprise party at youth group since it was on my actual birthday.  Extra points if you can guess what this amazing birthday card is based on.  I also received some chocolates and a nice new bow tie from our Romanian coworker Sanda and staff.

We took our car in to the shop this week to have some major repairs done.  It is a really long story but the short version is that not long after we got the car a stone hit the radiator which caused it to overheat very badly.  It was fixed then and was fine for a while but the cylinder head must have been also damaged which has been causing loss of coolant.  Earlier this spring we started asking around for someone to borrow a car from while ours would be in the shop.  We weren't having much luck until last Thursday, when I asked our friend Cristi from church.  He said yes, he is taking a trip so we can use his car until ours is fixed.  That is an answer to much prayer.  Please pray for the issues to be found and for us to figure out the best way to fix it.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support, we are so glad to have you as partners in our ministry here in Romania!