Children's Day

June 1st is Children's Day in Romania. So of course, the question we got from the kids at the orphanage during the week prior was, what are you going to bring us? This year we had gifts from our home church in MI, Fair Haven Ministries. The Wednesday night KICK kids (Kids in Christ's Kingdom) made little gift bags for them in March. A special thanks to our church family back home! It is great to have our church involved with the kids here, and of course the kids enjoyed getting a special gift.

KICK Kids Coloring Cards

KICK Kids Assembling the Gift Bags

Handing out the Gift Bags

Rebecca with Alina - The card reads: Dear Romania, I hope you like kick.

Mark with Marius

Vic - The outside of the card said : Jesus loves all the children of the world, it was in English and Romanian.

Ioana and Vali

More kids checking out their gift bags.

There are a lot of different ways to be involved in our ministry. We covet prayer for us, the kids we minister to, and the directors (Romanian gov't), and guidance for H2H. We are always in the need of more hands, hands to love and hold the kids, to minister to more kids than just the staff can reach. And of course H2H could always put your dollars to use impacting kids lives forever. Check out h2hint.org for more info, or drop us an e-mail if you have any questions.

April - May 2010 Newsletter

Buna ziua din nou din Romania!  Hello again from Romania!  Having finished language lessons in March we were able to focus on our ministry to the abandoned kids here in Romania.

We spent lots of time with the girls at the transition house and got to know them better.  We celebrated Easter with them and did lots of fun activities with them like dying eggs and making cookies.  We had a fun scavenger hunt that told the Easter story using Bible verses in Romanian.

We enjoyed working in the baby hospital more and more and were able to see many babies make great progress.  Often when they come in they are behind developmentally but it is amazing how fast they can catch up with the right amount of attention and care.  We really enjoy holding the babies tight because they love to cuddle.  Some of the older ones like to jump and bounce too, and we love it when they smile and laugh.


At the orphanage we helped with the classes but we focused more on relationship building.  The kids love to talk with us and we can finally (mostly) understand them and can respond back.  They love to hug and climb on us and play games inside and outside.

In between April and May we took a short vacation to Scotland and had such a great time.  We packed a lot into just three days, seeing Edinburgh, Glasgow, and beautiful country.  Everyone there was so friendly, especially our hosts, who made us feel at home and took us on a wonderful tour of the countryside.  It was a great time to celebrate Kirsteen's birthday, (our Scottish missionary friend), and recharge our batteries a bit. 

These two months were great for practicing our Romanian language.  We still have a lot of learning to do but we have been able to translate for teams and have full conversations with people.  We thank God so much for blessing our learning and opening our minds, and we continue to ask for prayers for our language to solidify.  Here are some other prayer requests:
- This summer will be our biggest ministry time as we have camps for the kids, pray for planning, safety, fun, open doors to show Christ to these kids and open hearts so they will recieve Him.
- For God to continue to lead and guide us in everything we do and for us to have the faith and courage to follow.
- For our family, friends, and supporters, prasing God for them and asking Him to bless and take care of them.
- Thanking and praising God for being with us and our organization and our kids, and asking him to continue to watch over us and bless us in all we do.

Thanks again for your prayers and support, we could not be doing this without you!  Remember that we write every week on our blog: www.weloveorphans.blogspot.com .  We love hearing from you so please e-mail us if you get a chance.
In Christ's Love,
Mark & Rebecca Essenburg

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!

An Animal Kind of Day

Friday was the May birthday celebration at the orphanage. We had grilled sausage, pork, cabbage salad and cake! The food is one of the things the new director has improved, he wants the kids to eat healthy and get the proper nutrition their growing bodies need. As we have mentioned before, the monthly birthday celebrations are also the new director's doing.

Rebecca with Doina (a B-day girl) and Vic

Ana with her rabbit she got in her present from H2H

Mark and Lorentiu in front of the gazebo and music (new also)

Spring is here and that means: puppies! Kids with a puppy and cat.

Another new thing is the chickens and pigs. The new director wants to teach the kids responsibility, so they get assigned chores such as giving water to the animals.

Petrisor and Costel with the pigs

Who can resist an animal and kid photo?

I think the dog says "lasa-ma in pace!" Leave me in peace!

Ana and Mark monkeying around.

We are very thankful for the new director's enthusiasm and vision for the kids. Pray with us for endurance and guidance for him (Domnul Matei) and continued great relationship between him and H2H. We really enjoy the new atmosphere at the orphanage, it makes it easier to have fun with the kids and do our programming there.

Canadian Tenderfoot

This past week and a half, we had the opportunity to serve along side a Canadian tenderfoot team. We enjoyed getting to know them, serving with them, and telling some of our story and H2H's story. We did a variety of different activities. One morning we went out to the Girls Transition House to prepare the garden. We also served at the baby hospital, helped at the orphanage and had a special girls day for the graduates. The many hands were much appreciated, they help hold the babies, play with the kids, and help us spread the love of Christ.

Corni and Mark getting pulled around by the rototiller

Debbie giving Mila a summer doggie-do

Janie officiating the arm- wrestling match

Coloring in the heroes class

Music Class

Beam walking

Old friends being reunited (Andrea and I met in 2007)

Ulica goofing off at the Botanical Garden

Eating ice cream, part of the art class's reward

Short term teams are an important part of our ministry, and a great way to see and be a part of the many aspects of H2H. Come be a part of our life changing ministry, impacting the kids and our own hearts for eternity!

Back To It

It is hard to believe that it has been a week since our wee visit to Scotland! So many things have been going on, it's the start of the busiest ministry season of the year. We have a team from Canada here now and are working with them, translating and helping them to help us minister. We have been really enjoying having them here and have been enjoying playing a larger role in working with them since we don't have language classes to go to.

The baby hospital was quarantined again for a week and a half, due to an isolated case of a bacterial infection in another hospital. We don't know all the details but it was due in part to a doctor's negligence. Because of that all the hospitals in Bucuresti were closed. Thankfully we have been able to get back in again because we are supplying a large amount of diapers since the state cut off funding for diapers.

We helped out with the wedding of two graduates of the transition programs, the wedding was at the team house on Saturday. We did lots of work on the house and yard, including laying sod in the front because the grass was so bad. The wedding was great and the weather was beautiful, everything went very well.

Florin gave me a flower for my birthday and all of the kids told me "La multi ani" which means happy birthday. They also asked where the candy was because when it's your birthday you are supposed to bring candy for everyone. I was going to get some but totally forgot, so I sent some along later and it was handed out in my name.

Rebecca and Krista playing games with Ana.

I had a birthday party where I received lots of chocolate. Jenny made earthquake cake which is one of my new favorites.

We took a group of kids out for a reward challenge. At class they can receive points for attending, paying attention, not disturbing the class, etc. We took them to McDonald's for lunch and then to a park for some play time. They were all very excited and had a great time.

Alina showing off her happy meal prize.

Vali enjoyed the slide.

All the kids had fun on the play set, and they even wanted us to join in. It was a beautiful day and it was a great way to reward the kids for their good behavior in class.