Biola Team

This past week we have been working with a team of college students from Biola University in California. It is a music school and they are all in the band. We had part of the team come and stay with us in our apartment and work with us in Rosiori.

The canola fields are really beautiful. Soon the sunflowers will bloom which will be a pleasure.

We started off by having some carnivals for the kids, we had different stations including bean bag toss, bowling, face painting, musical chairs, balloon pop, bobbing for apples and wet sponge throwing at someones face.

The kids of course had a fun time, we enjoyed hearing their laughter.

We also had a party for the youth, with competitive games for each group that we formed. It was a great time and many young people came, even more than those who normally come to our youth group. It was a good way to connect with more people who we normally don't get to work with.

The rest of the week we had music classes for the kids which they absolutely loved. We also did crafts as part of these classes.

The kids wanted to try out every instrument, especially the percussion!

We had some other classes too, the cooking class decorated cupcakes. In our English classes we played Bingo.

We are having a great time working with the Biola team. Even though we were living together in very close quarters we had a lot of fun. We went on walks in the evening, ate ice cream and Saorma together, and watched UHF, Weird Al's movie. We laughed together a lot but most importantly we had a great time working with the kids together. We had lots of significant times with the older kids. We are really excited because four of them are getting baptized this Sunday, please pray for them, for strength and for God to use them to impact the people around them. Please continue to pray for God to use our ministry to have an impact on the kids here.

'A Trip to the Symphony,' or 'The Garden is Growing'

Last weekend we were in between teams so we took some time to have fun and relax a little. We went to a symphony orchestra concert in Bucharest. They played some great music from a Romanian composer and also some Beethoven, it was very fun.

This outing was also one last thing we could do with our intern Dori who left later in the week. A new intern from Germany, Carolyn had just arrived earlier that week. After the concert we went out to eat at a place called Chocolate, how can you go wrong with a name like that? It was delicious, we had a smoked salmon sandwich and for dessert tiramisu and chocolate mousse.

We also had one last tea party with Dori, she made some wonderful basil-feta scones.

Later that night we went out to eat at a Lebanese restaurant, courtesy of the Canadian team's generosity. We enjoyed a wide spread of different things, similar to tapas style. We don't go out to eat much so this was a special weekend for us.

Our garden is really taking off too. This is a tomato plant, we have 18 in all.

This is a green pepper plant, there are 18 of them too.

These are cucumber plants, we have a few rows of them.

We have lots of beans too. The only thing that isn't fun about gardening is weeding, I could really do without that!

The transition house boys have come up and are staying with us again, this time they are insulating the house. Most Romanian homes are constructed with concrete and bricks with no insulation whatsoever, so they are very expensive to heat in the winter. This insulation should cut down on the heating bills considerably.

Everything is blooming here, and we do love flowers.

Things are going very well with the kids too. They are getting summer fever, asking us every time we see them about camp and what we'll be doing. Speaking of that, we will be having many different camps this summer. I will lead a backpacking trip in the mountains again. I am working on the scheduling, food, and devotions with Rebecca's help. I will also be leading four other boys camps that will be based on the backpacking trip. Rebecca will go to one girls camp while I am in the mountains and then after that she will help me with the boys camps. That is nice because we'll be together more. We'll also have a couple weeks of day camps for the younger kids who aren't coming to the other camps.

It is going to be an exciting summer. Please pray for the summer ministry and for the kids to be open to accepting Christ. Please also pray for us as we enter a very busy time starting this week. We need to rely on God for strength and wisdom and guidance, and we ask you to pray for us. Please also pray for the rest of the staff and all the other people who are coming to help us, for safe travels and a blessed time. Thanks for partnering with us in prayer, it means a lot and we know that God will honor our requests!

Great Scott!

May has been going by fast already. It has rained quite a bit but we've had nice days here and there that are giving us glimpses of summer. The garden has been planted and things are growing, and the grass is growing out of control. Some of our Canadian team stayed an extra week to have a photo class with some of the kids, and they left just before an important day.

I celebrated my 30th birthday! The staff made me Indian food and we had a small party. I received a very nice wok, a camera lens pen, the new Rebecca St. James CD, and some chocolates. It was a fun day.

The next day Dori and Rebecca threw me a tea party, with bruschetta, death by chocolate scones, chocolate bread and tomato walnut salad with raspberry balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Very yummy.

Quite a spread of great food.

On my birthday another treat was that a team came from Scotland. We knew Wanda, Maggie, and Leslie already and we got to meet many new people who are great fun. We quickly made new friends. Here are Douglas and Elaine, a couple that is newly engaged, congrats! We enjoyed having them here a lot because we don't usually have another couple to hang out with. Even though this team was only here a short time we got to do a lot with them.

We went to the boys transition house for part of the day.

We went to visit the little ones apartment for English class, and Georgiana came out to greet us. She is always at Rebecca's side or on her lap and when we leave tells us that we can't, or that Rebecca has to stay and she can sleep in her bed. Their bond is very strong, lots of love!

Mitica is my buddy, his face always lights up when we come and he runs up to give big hugs.

We went to the boys school to do some wee crafts with our Scottish friends, they enjoyed meeting the kids and helping color.

The boys in the English classes received prize bags for being in class and behaving for five weeks.

Another notable moment in these weeks was that I preached a sermon at the church in Rosiori - in Romanian! I was pretty nervous and I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare, but God gave me the words to say. I talked about how to discern God's will and used our journey to Romania as an example. It was actually pretty fun and the Pastor told me I should do it again sometime.

God has also been answering prayers in a big way lately. H2H's problem with the IRS has finally been resolved and they were totally cleared. Our friends Josh and Missy who are raising support to come here full time got accepted for monthly support from their church and are now much closer to coming. We are getting better health wise. We are so thankful to God for his providence! Please continue to pray for what I've mentioned before and these requests:

-For us to find a room in our southern town to have our youth group and for guidance on how to attract non-christian youth and how to partner with local churches for help.
-For the summer plans, finances, logistics, materials, and people coming.
-For us to be healthy throughout the whole summer.
-For God to open the hearts of the kids so that they will come to faith in Him, and for a very fruitful summer.
Thanks for your prayers and support!

March - April Newsletter

March and April were fun months, and we did lots of special things with special people. There were many special highlights that will stay in our memories.

Rebecca had two weekends with girls sleeping over at the apartment. They had a lot of fun and talked about lots of important things.

These teen girls are facing lots of changes in their lives and are at a very impressionable stage. Pouring into their lives with values based on the Bible is so important in a world that is telling them to live for themselves and to go with the flow.

While Rebecca was with the girls I stayed with the boys at the transition house, which was really fun. These boys need lots of instruction to especially in spiritual matters and it was great to build deeper relationships with them.

The boys stayed with us for a week too which was a lot of fun. They were a little spoiled eating American food and having lots to do in the village though, they didn't want to leave! It was the week before Easter and the last night we watched the Passion of the Christ, a very moving movie. To think that Jesus went through all that for us! That is why we love him and we teach those we love about him too, so they can be saved as well.

We had many great teams with us in these months too. The mission possible team from Michigan came and we enjoyed spending time with them, since last year when they came we were so busy with our language lessons. Speaking of that, we had our one year anniversary of completing language lessons!

The Canadian team came too and we had lots of fun with the boys and girls days that they planned. We got to spend time with our friends Dan and Luella, it is always encouraging to us to have people that care about us come and work with us.

The Canadian guys helped finish our fence project at our place, the boys did a great job working on this project and felt proud of their work. The ladies made cookies and snacks for kids at the orphanage while we were working on the fence.

We also had a great intern Bekah and some great ladies Judi and Charlotte working with us, we had really good times working with them!

I gave the Nenciulesti tour to the teams that came and got to know more people in the village, especially deepening my relationship with Catarina. She always makes people feel welcome with her warm smile and hugs and words. She is such a blessing and it is neat that God is using us to be a blessing to her. Nenciulesti is a small village and is almost always an eye opener for people because the way of living seems unchanged by time. The people there are also very friendly, it is always a pleasure walking around there because people are so eager to talk.

Of course the kids are always a highlight, they are what we're here for!

These kids are happy to show off their new prize bags which they got as a reward for being in class and behaving five weeks in a row. The cool thing is that the bags were made by kids at our church, Fair Haven Ministries. It is neat to hear the kids reactions when they hear that they were made by American kids the same age.

The cards say "Jesus Loves All the Children of the World" in English and Romanian.

As always we thank you for your prayers and support! It is very encouraging to us to know that so many people care about us and what we're doing and that we are prayed for so much. Here are some specific requests for you to keep in prayer in the coming months.

-For health, we and most of our staff have been sick for the past month so we would love to be healthy as we enter our busy team time.
-For our kids, that they would remain open to God's love and to accepting Jesus
-For us and our family and friends as we are far away
-For our supporters and churches that they would be blessed to be a blessing
-For wisdom and guidance for planning the summer ministries

New! Download the PDF version that can be printed out here: Mar-Apr News 2011

Special Times

For the whole last week we had the boys from the transition program staying with so that Doru, the leader of the program, could have a little time off. We had a great time with them and they had a great time here with us. We worked a lot in the yard and on the garden to get it ready for planting soon. I also had them work on a big project for us.

In the weeks prior I had designed a fence for the garden and had them prep the materials at the transition house workshop. We have wanted a fence for a long time to keep the dogs out and to protect the plants from stray soccer balls in the summer.

We dug the holes and mounted the steel posts first, measuring as we went and filling the holes with cement. This was a hard days work which resulted in a very sunburned neck for me.

The next day we mounted the boards, which was much easier work.

Dan and Norbert from the Canadian team came to help and we finished up quickly.

We then had a ribbon cutting ceremony with the whole team, the project was a huge success! I am very happy with how the fence turned out and the boys are very proud of their work. For them seeing this kind of accomplishment means a lot.

We also went to the orphanages and played Easter games. We took the opportunity to tell the true reason for Easter.

We had a big celebration with the transition house graduates and the current boys. Aurel found the special golden egg which countless other people had come so close to. There was a cash prize for finding it so I had hidden it really well.

Here we are with the entire Canadian team and many of our staff.

Rebecca and Bekah, one of our interns.

Us with our boys and Dori, our other intern.

Lastly, when I went to take the boys home some of the Canadian team came with so they could see the villiage where the boys live. We went on a walk and naturally stopped in to see our friend Catarina (middle). She invited us in and gave us each a dyed red egg. Tradition holds that when the burial cloth of Jesus was taken from the tomb it was put in a basket that had eggs in it and the blood from the cloth turned the eggs red. Then we hit our eggs together saying Isus a inviat - Adevarat a inviat. This is an easter tradition where the person who wins collects the egg that cracked and the one with the most eggs at the end wins. It is always fun to take part in the celebrations of another culture, and the people in this village are always friendly and eager to share.

Catarina is always so welcoming and told me that I don't need to address her in the formal tense anymore because we are very good friends. She said that we are her best friends. It is so neat to be able to build this kind of relationship with the people around us. It opens up doors for ministry to a whole different group of people than the kids we normally work with. Especially in Catarina's case I think again of James 1:27, which calls true religion caring for orphans and widows. By how excited and happy she is every time we visit I can see how she longs for meaningful relationships, just like our kids. God has called us here for this very purpose.

Please continue praying for strength and wisdom especially as the summer approaches. Also please pray for health, Rebecca has a bad cold and I have had a milder one on and off for the last couple weeks. Now we think we have caught a stomach bug. Please pray for energy and against the attacks of the evil one. Thanks so much!