Wedding, Playing, And Praying

Last weekend we attended the wedding of our friends Cristi and Amy. We went with many of the H2H staff and had a really nice time. This was our first Romanian wedding and it was quite the experience, and we didn't even stay until 5:00 AM when it was done. The ceremony started at 6:00 PM and after lots of pictures after that the reception started. The first course of appetisers came out at around 9:30 and the main course came around 12:00. We left after we ate the main course, there was probably cake later but we were all too tired to stay longer.

Sunday afternoon Rebecca moved to the girls transition house along with several other staff and interns to prepare for the girls camp that will be starting soon. Older girls will come to the house and will be pampered, have a scavenger hunt, and learn how to be the kind of woman God wants them to be. I stayed home and have been working on preparing for the hiking trip with JT, who is in the process of raising money to come on full time staff. We will be taking 11 older boys on a backpacking trip in the mountains with a few other volunteers. The boys will learn how to rough it, do orienteering and geocaching, and will learn about purity and what kind of men God wants them to be. After the girls and boys camps we will be running two separate camps since we'll be working with kids from around 6 orphanages. It will be non stop fun.

We also went to two orphanages when we had time in between all the prep work, as we also have a short term trip going on here. It was fun playing with the kids as always. There was a line for piggy back rides, and we colored and played games.

The balloons were a big hit too.

As we start the summer ministry we will be in different locations and have different schedules than normal, and we're not sure what kind of internet access we'll have. We'll try to keep the blog as up to date as we can.

Please pray for these things during this time:

-for God to supply us and the rest of the staff and volunteers with strength, energy, patience, and overflowing love. We know we can't do this without God's provision.

-for opportunities for us to share Jesus' love with the kids and for the kids to have open hearts and to receive Jesus in their lives.

-for safety in traveling, we'll all be doing a lot of it.

-for us to be flexible and to be lead by God to follow His plan.

-against the forces of the evil one who will try to stop our ministry because we are giving glory to God and making disciples.

Thanks so much for your prayers and your faithfulness. We really appreciate your support and thank God for your involvement in our ministry.

A bit of everything

This past week we did a bit of everything. We helped prepare for summer camps, went to the baby hospital, helped get the Girl's House ready, and visited the kids from the orphanage. This is the last week before summer craziness begins. To have an idea of what summer is like, we had a staff meeting and devotion over the summer plans, and it took 2 hours to get through our schedule until the beginning of August. So much will be going on and we will need lots of prayers!

Making pinatas with our interns, Krysten and Amanda

Painting flowers for girl's camp decorations

Florica

Mark with a little girl

Krysten with Andreea

Ryan

Another precious girl

Mila

See the big cherry (Mark)? We picked 3 buckets full!

Rebecca and Lola (after brushing her for a long time!)

Where are we going to visit the kids? We passed sheep on the way....

And Alina found a snail there...

The Black Sea...on a nice rainy day

Venturing out on the pier. We decided although we'd have liked to see the sea on a nice day, it was best for the kids to have extra entertainment on a rainy day. It seems it is less about having your plans be met, but more about your attitude that matters! Stay tuned for a post of summer prayer requests.

Another Orphanage

Around Christmas time we went to this orphanage to deliver Christmas presents, and we've gone back only a few times. H2H is hoping to have our program here next school year. This orphanage has a lot of the younger kids, they are so adorable! The director here is a visionary and really loves "her kids." The kids are pretty well behaved and are eager for us to be there more often. This is a place we'd love to work at next year!

The kids loved the balloons (which didn't last very long :)

Mark and Kristi (short team member) with some of the new kids

Rebecca and Aurelia

Mark put a couple of the boys in the tree, they loved the new view

Playing with the parachute with the Clarksburg Team

Andreea blowing bubbles

One of the real little ones, Alexandru, who was three or four (he gave two different answers when asked how old he was)

The kids in line for lunch

They hold hands and go two by two into the lunch room...so precious!

Will you continue to pray for H2H's plans for the summer and fall ministry? For God to open the doors for us to serve these precious children who are close to his heart and for these kids to learn about the Father who loves them.

Heroes Carnival

Last week was the end of the school year so we had a fun carnival to celebrate. We have studied heros during the year so we brought in costumes for the kids to dress up in.

Lots of the girls dressed up as princesses, like Ana and her sister Flori.

As always Alina was all smiles, she loves to be held up high and to cuddle.

Her brother Marius had a blast, he enjoyed being Superman.

We had many stations set up with different games, relays, and activities. Each activity had something to do with the qualities of heroes that we studied, like integrity, honesty, loyalty, etc.

And here is the best princess of them all!

We also watched the kids' graduation program and were very proud of the kids.

The next day we went back to play some games, and it was really hot, nearing 100 degrees. We played water games and were soaked within five minutes. We made up around 150 water balloons and had so much fun.

Sunday the transition house girls and boys graduated from our program. We had a ceremony for them, then a meal and swimming party. Many of the previous graduates came to celebrate too. We are really proud of them and ask for your prayers for them as they move on to the next phase of their lives.

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.