July - August Newsletter

This summer was a busy one as usual. Right after our mountain backpacking trip we went straight into our July day camps. We had three groups of kids come over from ten to five for two days each. They were from three different orphanages, one where the kids go to regular school, one from a boys special needs school, and one from a girls special needs school.

Coming to camp is something that these kids look forward to the whole year, they started asking us about it early this spring already.

We did lots of fun things at camp like a scavenger hunt, hide and seek, crafts, story times and skits.

Since it was so hot we did lots of water games too which were always the most anticipated part of the day.

The second part of the month we had teen boys camps where they stayed with us two days and nights. We had boys come from all of the different orphanages that we work in.

We did lots of fun things at these camps too, like swimming and kayaking in the river. There was even a small waterfall that we could jump off and kayak over, this was one of the highlights for everyone.

We also did an obstacle course through the whole yard and a scavenger hunt through the whole village.

The most important part of the camps wasn't the games or activities that we did but the bible studies. We created a ten lesson series on accepting salvation through faith in Jesus and growing in a relationship with God. We talked about how to live out a new faith and how to be an example to the world.

We taught the boys the basics about becoming a Christ follower and talked about many of the hardships and stumbling blocks that normally keep them from accepting Christ.

Each night we had a campfire where we did our bible studies and had snacks like smores and popcorn. There were also testimonies and fun stories. The last night of camp one of the boys shared his testimony and we were all moved. Five of the boys accepted Christ right then and we praise God so much for this! God really answered our prayers that the boys would be touched by him. Only through him were these camps a success and we are so excited that he is using us to make a difference here.

After all the camps we went on vacation around Romania. We saw many of the well preserved medieval towns in Transylvania and enjoyed the hospitality of the local people we stayed with.

We went with our German intern Carolin and saw many of the fortified churches that were built by the Germans who settled here in the 1200's.

And we also toured the painted churches in the north which were also built very long ago. We had a great time seeing the beauty that this country has to offer. The rest of the month we have been going to the different orphanages and the baby hospital.

Thanks so much for your prayers for this summer ministry. It turned out to be greatly successful. Now the follow up work begins, with all of the kids who heard about salvation. Please continue to pray for those that accepted Christ that they would grow in their faith and that they would be protected from the evil one's attacks. Please pray for those who didn't accept Christ yet that they would continue to be touched by God and that they would come to him. Also please pray for one of the boys who fell and broke his hand, he has had surgery and it isn’t healing well. He is having a hard time with the situation. Please continue to keep us and our ministry in your prayers. Look out for our two year update very soon.

For a printable copy of this newsletter click here: July - August Newsletter

Rebecca's vacation thoughts

For the past two weeks I have been on vacation in Romania, visiting cities all over. Romania truly is a beautiful country! If you know me at all, you know at times I can be very quiet. And at times I was very quiet on vacation. Silence for me can mean many different things...but sometimes it is the way I try to process all that is going on. Vacations are supposed to be fun, relaxing times where you leave all the stresses and worries of normal life behind. I found that I was bombarded by many different things, things that make you stop and evaluate your life, your purpose, your very existence while on vacation. It was the faces of the children begging in the train stations, the thoughts of what is their future, and wondering how cold your heart has to become to not be touched by them. It was thinking about the kids I love, "my kids," and wondering about if they will ever accept the greatest love possible...wondering what their futures will be like. I was thinking about a friend from back home who is battling cancer for the second time. This is the exact kind of thinking that brought us here full-time...when we were stuck in Amsterdam for two days in 2008 on our way home from summer camp here in Romania. And I had to ask myself again, am I really following after God with all my heart? Do I sacrifice all of myself, do I love with all that I am and more? Does my life bring glory and honor to God? It is only in God that my life has any value, purpose, only in him do I find the reasons to go on and to have hope. There are so many things in this life that no matter how much you think about them, you can't make them right...only by trusting that God is in control and is doing his perfect, pleasing, and good will, can you find any balance. In the faith that he is doing something good, bigger than we can imagine behind the scenes and moving through all the chaos of life and the consequence of this sinful world. In that faith I rest, I trust, and can move forward, full of hope for the complete restoration that is to come.

So in conclusion, vacation for me apparently means wrestling with the truth and getting my heart broken again for the things that break God's heart.

Who is ready to vacation with me?

Romania Tour Week 2

Our last post left off with us being in Hunedoara, Romania on our tour of Romania. After we saw the big castle there we headed off to Timisoara. We got in really late at night and then spent the next two days there. Timisoara is in the very western end of the country.

Timisoara has a beautiful center square, and there are even a few other large squares in town. The sides were lined with cafes and restaurants. We enjoyed the best Mediterranean pizza there and also the best raspberry smoothies. The revolution of 1989 started there because the communists were trying to forcefully evict a Reformed pastor and the people protested. We went to a great museum where we learned the history of the revolution. We also went to the art museum and enjoyed looking in the various old buildings. We stayed next to a mall and we saw Cars 2 which we really enjoyed. Timisoara was a great because we had a nice mix of the old town history and the modern convenience of the mall nearby.

We then flew to Iasi, which is all the way on the eastern side of Romania. We saw this palace of culture but unfortunately couldn't go to any of the museums inside because it was being restored.

From Iasi we headed over to Suceava which was our base for seeing the world renowned painted monestaries of Bucovina. We started off our tour by seeing an old fortress.

The monasteries we saw on the first day were all very nice in their own ways. One was painted inside by Romania's best painter, another was very new so the paintings inside were really vibrant. They all were in beautiful settings.

I don't think I mentioned before that we were on this vacation with our German intern, Carolin. When we decided we wanted to tour around Romania she asked if she could come because she had the same idea. We had a great time together.

The second day of the tour we went to the painted monasteries, all of which are UNESCO world heritage sites. They were painted on the outside so that people who couldn't read would be able to understand important events of the Bible. They were built around 1400-1500 and the paintings have survived outside for that long. They are so beautiful and the pictures don't even come close to capturing it.

The Voronet monastery is called the Sistine Chapel of the east because of the vibrant colors and the uniqueness of the blue color used. This is a scene of the last judgement, in the middle on the top is God the Father, then under that is Jesus, and under that the Holy spirit, each performing their tasks.

More of the paintings. I would encourage you to click on the picture so it comes up in a full sized window so you can see the detail.

This is another similarly painted monastery.

All of the monasteries are surrounded by huge walls and defensive towers. This is typically where the monks and nuns live.

After seeing the monasteries we came back to Bucharest and showed Carolin some of the sights there. We had a really fun time on our vacation and are so thankful that God was with us and watched over us. It was a great opportunity to see the country we're working in and we were able to find so much beauty here.

We were also reminded about the immense needs in this country, seeing kids and older people begging just about everywhere we went. God didn't want us to forget why we're here, to help the people in the greatest need. We had several opportunities to share the gospel with people and to help them out. God broke our hearts again for a people that is hurting and largely without hope because they don't truly know their savior.

Romania Tour Week 1

We have been touring around Romania for a week now already and have been really enjoying ourselves. After we helped pack up and organize everything after summer camps we took off on a train for Brasov. Brasov is in Transylvania in the Carpathian mountains. It is a medieval town with much of the walls in place and many of the buildings too.

This is the black church, a large cathedral that is the center of town. There is a nice square too where the city hall is.

Another large church in Brasov.

We enjoyed some great food there too, we had Mexican at Bella Musica, a restaurant with great atmosphere in a wine cellar. We found lots of other great food too at the cafes, with the highlights being a cappuccino croissant and a strawberry-rhubarb bar. Around Bucharest nobody has even heard of rhubarb so this was an exciting find!

We continued our tour of the medieval towns in Sighisoara, which has this great clock tower in the center. This is also the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the impaler, the inspiration for the Dracula story.

The streets are lined with colorful houses like this, making it a very fun place to explore.

We also enjoyed great food here at the international cafe, the spinach quiche and blackberry apple pie were awesome. The cafe is run by the Veritas organization which works with people of all ages helping them better their lives. Our friend Jess worked with them here a few years ago.

We made a quick stop in Medias to see the church there.

Then we traveled by bus to Nemsa, which barely shows up on a map. We stayed at a really nice guesthouse where we talked over dinner with the owner about the history of the area. This area was settled by people from Germany in the 1200's and they built churches like the ones in our pictures in all the little towns. Many of them were fortified with large walls to keep out invaders. With all the recent wars involving Germany and then communism most of the Germans have left, especially after communism fell. The villages are so much different now, with the houses being lived in by Roma people now. Being there we could just feel the history and were witnesses to how quickly it can change.

We walked nearly an hour and a half with our backpacks through the mountains to arrive at Biertan, one of the best fortified churches. We asked some people if we could go up the hill through their garden to get a good picture. Then we caught a ride with a German couple back to Sighisoara because there was no public transportation at all.

We then went on to Sibiu, the European Cultural Capital of 2007. There is another huge cathedral there and we walked all the way up to the top of the bell/clock tower to see the city. We also went to an art museum but we didn't have much time because we were feeling sick earlier that day so we were resting.

We then went on to Hunedoara to see the spectacular Castle Corvinilor. This castle was built by one of the kings of Transylvania in the 14oo's and was added onto and modified by many others.

The dining hall was the neatest area, looking just like what you'd think of from a movie.

We're having a great time so far, and we have one more week to go. We are continuing to pray that God takes care of us and leads us to the right places, which he has done so far. This is our first vacation backpacking in Europe and also the first one where nothing is really planned out. So far everything has worked out just right though and we are having a lot of fun!

Boys Camps

It is so hard to believe that I am saying this: summer camp is finished! These past five weeks have flown by and we worked with so many different kids. The last two weeks we had four boys camps where we stayed at our boys transition house and had lots of fun and learned about God. We used the same lessons as we had on our backpacking trip which were about how to accept God and let him change us how he wants. We talked a lot about having a personal relationship with God and how to accept his love and forgiveness.

We also played lots of games, soccer of course being a favorite.

These kids are really good, we were pretty happy to even touch the ball and get a few blocks.

Another big hit was the obstacle course, which we made go through the whole yard.

Going through the yarn spider webs was a challenging part of the course. One of the boys did the course ten times to try and win the coveted prize: a brand new soccer ball.

We took a walk to the forest and played some games like capture the flag there.

The village wide scavenger hunt was fun too.

One of the highlights though was going to the river, there was a small waterfall and it was really deep there.

We also went kayaking on the river.

Pool and ping pong were big hits too and we had some tournaments.

Campfire times were well liked by everyone and we had some really great conversations there.

We roasted marshmallows and shared testimonies, and even told some ghost stories.

Some of the boys played around with light writing, using a long shutter speed and writing with a flashlight.

We were so proud of our three boys who were recently baptized. Each of them prepared for and lead one of the devotional lessons at their camp. They also helped answer questions for the other boys about how they changed their lives and how they were growing in their faith. They are great examples to the rest of the boys and are excited about helping others and telling them about God.

At the last camp our discussions were great and the boys had lots of questions, but we were amazed at the miracle that God did at the end. The last night at the campfire we shared some personal stories and then one of the boys shared his. It was so touching that many of the boys were in tears. We asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ in their life and five out of the nine boys said yes! They prayed out-loud after me to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior! God was really there and he answered our prayers by working in these boys lives. Many people have poured into them over the years and we were given the privilege of being there for the harvest. We are so thankful to God that he blessed all of these camps and used us to work for him. Thanks so much for your prayers and support, we couldn't have done this without being sustained by God's power through prayer. Praise be to him who holds everything in his hands!