Christmas Celebrations!

This week we had the joy of attending the Christmas Celebrations for many of the kids we work with. Each school had its own program where the kids sang, danced, performed plays and read poetry. We sat in the audience with the feeling of proud parents, these being our kids, and we enjoyed each celebration so much.

The girls sing a song at the girls school.

Here we are with Miki and Veo, they are still our friends from summer camp in 2008!

The boys sing a song and celebrate with sparklers at the boys school. I have to admit when I saw them with lighters and burning sticks I was a little worried, but all went well and they had lots of fun.

Me with Alin, my buddy from summer camp this year.

We got a surprise invite to another orphanages' celebration so we rushed there, leaving our cooking dinner on the stove to see our kids. Thank goodness we did because it was so fun, especially seeing our precious little girls singing and dancing. When they saw us in the audience their faces lit up, knowing that someone they love came to watch them! At some point someone overheard Georgiana asking her supervisor if she could go sit with her mommy, and she came over to sit on Rebecca's lap. How precious they are indeed.

Our team with a couple boys and the director of one of the orphanages. She is so excited to have us working with our kids and she is always encouraging us to work as much as we can with them.

We were going to have a big get together with all of the older kids that have been coming to our youth groups in three different locations. The kids were so excited to see eachother again after they made friends from other orphanages at summer camp. Unfortunately we had some car issues that prevented us from transporting the kids from the Bucharest area so we had to call it off. It was a hard decision but we had to keep the safety of the kids as our top priority. The kids were disappointed but took it well, knowing that we'll reschedule some other time. Most of our part of the team was still in the south in the apartment H2H has there, so I went to pick them up. Some kids came over to hang out as is the usual custom when we're there, we had a fun time talking.

Rebecca with Elena, who kept telling us how much she would miss us while we're on vacation. We pray that all of our kids will have a great Christmas vacation filled with the grace and mercy of Christ.

When we got back to Bucharest we had a surprise birthday party for Rebecca, with the best pizza available (Dominos Pizza - recently in Romania) and a great chocolate dessert with ice cream.

As part of our birthday tradition in the H2H family Rebecca got to wear the birthday crown. The party was a fun way to end a hard day.

We've had some beautiful weather with just enough snow to be pretty and still have decent roads.

Driving back we enjoyed all of the millions of lights in Bucharest, it is really decked out!

Please pray for safety and traveling mercies as we fly out on Thursday - through London where there are major weather issues. We are supposed to arrive home at 6:45 PM Thursday evening on flight BA 5379. We are looking forward to our time home and to seeing our family and friends. Please pray that everything goes well.

Backpacking Exploring

Last week I went backpacking in the Carpathian mountains! Soon we will be bringing 11 boys on a backpacking trip through the mountains, so we needed to scout out the route and find out everything we needed to know. My friend Matt who I've known since fourth grade flew in the night before along with Richard. JT, who is working on coming as full time staff, came a few days earlier so we could make sure we had all of the right materials. It was an amazing experience and we were really lead by God in all of the planning.

We started at Sinaia, where the Peles Castle is located. We took the cable car up the mountain and headed out from there.

There were many sheep and cows grazing the mountains.

Which way does the trail go?

If you look closely you can see the cross, a 70 foot tall monument to the heroes of WW1. We were constantly in awe of God's creation, everything was so beautiful. This was near the spot where we set up camp the first day - where our plans completely changed. We put up our tents and started cooking when the skies opened up and poured. After that a man drove up to us on a quad and told us we couldn't tent camp anywhere in the park because of bears. We were really surprised since we did lots of research and talked to several people, but he was very forceful so we packed up. It was almost dark so we went to the nearest hostel for the night and tried to figure out what to do. We had planed on tent camping all over so this blew up our entire route.

We talked to the innkeeper who was very helpful and we planned out our next stopping point. This rock formation is called the Sphinx.

We hiked down the other side of the mountain to a place where we heard we could camp in tents, and were blown away by the beauty there.

Our destination was the mountain rescue station. Once we got there we talked to the leader there who was really nice. He allowed us to set up camp within their fenced in area so we'd be safe from bears. He also agreed to let us stay there for three nights with all 16 of us, and we'll be able to use their water, bathroom, and fire pit. He will also find firewood for us and buy us bread for the days we're there. It was so amazing how accommodating these guys were, it had to be God working because everything came together so well. The mountain rescue guys also agreed to tell the boys about what they do and some stories which we are going to tie into our need to be saved by Jesus' sacrifice.

This monastery is very close to our base camp, we will go there and explore the cave behind it with the boys. I talked with the priest there about what we're doing and he said he would give us a discount for the boys to get into the cave. Another God moment.

The new plan is to do day hikes from our base camp at the mountain rescue. We think the boys will be blown away at the beauty of the place and we pray that our discussions will penetrate their hearts.

The morning dew covered the entire valley, as if encasing everything in tiny crystals.

This stunningly beautiful butterfly played hard to get but he finally landed long enough for me to get a great shot.

The last day we took the cable car to Busteni, our final destination for this trip. We went into the house of culture and met a great man who was so excited to tell us stories. He was hosting a recital and he introduced us to the players who were practicing, showed us a big book of signatures of famous people, and played his Transylvanian flute for us. After that we boarded a train back to Bucharest. It was a beautiful ride and a fun experience.

This trip was amazing in so many ways. We enjoyed beautiful scenery, met many nice people, and finalized the plans for when the boys come with us. We asked God to lead us and He definitely did, and now we pray that he continues to lead us when we bring the boys. They will arrive today and we'll leave for the mountains tomorrow morning. Please pray that everything goes well and that this is a life changing experience for the boys.

Village Museum and Babies

On Thursday we had a free day because the painting team went up to the mountains. We went and visited the Village Museum (Muzeul National al Satului) and Herastrau Park. It was a nice and sunny day, with the temp in the upper 80's. We enjoyed learning more of the history of Romania and how life was before communism.

A House and Farm Buildings

Wooden House...I think they should go back to these!

Loom, work area inside

Living and Sleeping Area

Stove, probably good for making pizza...even though pizza isn't Romanian!

Mill

Wooden Church

Often I wonder what life was like 200-300 years ago. It seems much simpler, and although it was a hard life, I wonder if the lack of distractions was helpful to keep focus on what is important. Family values, community, and most importantly a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

A Smile from a Baby: Absolutely Priceless!

Mark and Rebecca with Ryan and Danielle

Mark Sweating it out with Two Babies

What a privilege it is to love God's precious children!

Ministry Time...

This week we were able to be involved in almost all of Heart 2 Heart's areas of ministry.  Monday we went to the orphanage to help with the programs there.  Not all of the kids had returned from spring break though so we mainly played games with those that were there.  We spent Monday night at the girls transition house and then worked with them in the yard on Tuesday morning.  That afternoon we went back to the orphanage and helped with the music class.  The rest of the week we went to the baby hospitals to love the babies there.  We were able to help at the old hospital again which was nice even though there are only a handful of kids there.  Saturday was the civil ceremony of marriage for two of the transition house graduates in Rosiori, so most of the staff went there to share in this special time.  The wedding will be in a few weeks but in Romania people need to have the civil ceremony in the town that they are from for their marriage to be official.  

Walking from the maxi-taxi stop to the metro station we had a chance to see some more sights.  This is Arcul de Triumf, a war monument similar to the one in France but not quite as big.  We drive past it on the way to church from the team house but this was one of the first times we were near it on foot.

There are lots of flowers going in all over town.  We enjoy seeing them as they give nice contrast to the tons and tons of concrete that make up the block buildings all around us.  We really enjoy seeing the tulips, we will miss seeing them in Holland this year.   

At the orphanage we let some of the kids try on our glasses, they always want to so we finally gave in.

We are getting to know the babies really well since we've been able to be there so often lately.  This is my girl, since she doesn't have a name and she's so cute we call her Princessa or Pebbles.  She has the biggest smile...

... which I finally caught on camera!  If only adoption were open here!

Rebecca is holding Ryan and Daniella, whom we named after our Canadian interns.

This is Bam Bam, we call him that because he flails around in his crib a lot and is very strong for his age.

This is Ramona...

... and her twin sister Ana-Maria.  They were at the hospital when we started and have stayed in our room the whole time.  

This is Kirsteen, a fellow missionary, with a boy from the other room.  You can see that we really enjoy the baby hospital ministry, what a blessing it is to help these kids in their early development, this time period will have lasting impact on their entire lives.

At the end of the week Rebecca came down with a cold and is still fighting the sore throat and congestion.  Please pray that this goes away quickly.  Please also pray for the planning of summer and fall ministry.  Summer is a busy time with camps and orphanage programs and in the fall we will have a specific ministry focus.

Spring- New Beginings

Spring is coming here! Today was in the 60's and sunny. After winter we all look forward to spring. Just like after difficult phases in our life we look forward to less difficult ones. We have been in Romanian for over 6 months now! And what does that mean? We are almost finished with language lessons! We have one more, on Friday, and we are going to tour some of downtown and talk about the architecture and history. Does this mean we can speak Romanian fluently? No! But it does mean we understand a lot and can speak Romanian, we just have a lot more work ahead of us. As we took a walk today through the park- Tineretului Park is just down the street- I was thinking about the new life springing forth and how a lot of things are just a matter of perspective. The following two pictures are our view from our apartment.

We could think about how much less space we have, how we don't have a garden or a yard for that matter, how many people are around, OR we can be thankful for a nice place to stay, being close to a metro (subway) stop, having a little market just outside our building, and the opportunity to impact all the people around us. And have our eyes open for the gems amidst the concrete jungle. Like the school below for example, way cooler than my high school!

Below are some picture of the lake in the park. Which side do you prefer to look at?

And I had to include a picture of Mark's favorite friends, some of them are actually very pretty, just not the ones that poop on our window sill :)

Part of moving to a different culture is finding ways to join in the new culture while keeping part of who you are. Eating gogosi is an easy way to be a little Romanian! We are thankful to be here, to be learning the language, the culture, and getting to know the babies and our kids at the orphanage. It hasn't always been easy, but we know God has a great purpose here and we keep looking for the signs of new life...and sometimes the smell of gogosi.