Christmas Cheer

Even though Christmas was over a week ago we have still been having fun celebrating and enjoying our time with the kids and with the holiday team.

The boys from the transition house program stayed up in Bucharest for a while for their Christmas vacation. We went to the park and played soccer and then went out to check out the lights in the city. We stopped at one of the parks and had some Kürtöskalács which are also called chimney cakes. They are made of a thin dough wrapped around a rolling pin and then roasted over coals, then they get coated with cinnamon and sugar, yum!!

In the city they really go all out in their decorating for Christmas, each one of the main streets is decked out like this, and some of the main parks are really beautiful.

We celebrated Christmas with the boys too and then had a Christmas party with all of the graduates of the transition program.

We went ice skating which was really fun, we got to teach them how to do it since it was their first time. We tried to get fancy by trying to skate with one foot and spinning around.

The rest of the week we spent having Christmas parties with our kids with our holiday team.

We had such a good time at each of their apartments, we played games and had snacks and handed out Christmas presents.

We played Christmas bingo and hot potato with music, and we made ornaments out of paper.

These boys were having fun playing with their new flarp which was part of their present.

The holiday team is really fun because the kids are on vacation from school so we get to work with more of them than usual. We have special parties and have lots of fun.

And of course we enjoyed spending time with "our daughters" at their place.

Seriously, how could my heart not just melt?

We had a really blessed time and are so thankful that we were able to spend this time with our kids. We were happy to bless them with a fun time and presents and we were blessed by their energy and excitedness and love. We have had a great time getting to know the people on the team too, that is always a really special thing for us now that we are on full time staff here.

Christmas Celebrations!

After coming back to Romania we got to meet our kids again at the first Christmas program of the season. We were all so excited to see eachother, they missed us a lot and we missed them too. They put on a wonderful program where they sang carols, performed a skit, recited some poems, and danced.

Our Romanian partners Sanda and Mariana put together this program and it turned out very nice. The kids enjoyed themselves very much.

This was a skit about the birth of Jesus.

Here was a dance.

And here we are with some of our friends!

Later in the week we went to the celebration at the boys school.

They put on a fun program too.

They were really happy to see us too after our long absence, thier warm hugs and smiles were so great to come back to.

After that we went to the girls school to hand out their Christmas presents.

We usually only see these girls at special times like when we hand out school kits or go to their programs or have them at summer camp.

Seeing them that little they are always excited when we come.

We celebrated Rebecca's birthday with the youth group, they sang "La Multi Ani," their version of "Happy Birthday."

We had a great week and were so warmly welcomed back to Romania. It was really great to see our friends on staff too, they came to all of the programs with us and it was fun to catch back up with them again. We were also able to catch back up on sleep after our really long trip back. Thank you to everyone who makes it possible for us to be here, through your support and prayers, we are so grateful for the opportunity to work with these kids!

Layover in Munich, Germany

We're back in Romania, just in time for Christmas! We had a long trip this time, first flying to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to Munich, Germany. We had a 13 hour layover in Munich and even though we didn't sleep much on the plane and were really tired, we went out to see the city. Since we are becoming world travelers we just couldn't pass up an opportunity to see a new place!

In the main square we saw the Glockenspiel, a clock tower with figurines that dance around at noon. It is a very impressive building and the square it is in is really nice.

There were booths set up all over the place with Christmas ornaments and snacks, the smell of roasted almonds was enough to make anyone have a craving!

Christmastime is a neat time to visit different places, although it would have been a little nicer if it was snowing instead of raining. I'm sure I remember seeing something like this on Rick Steve's travel videos!

This is a museum that was once part of the ruling family of Bavaria's house.

Munich is a very nice looking city.

We enjoyed breakfast at a cafe.

One of the many impressive churches there, it looks almost exactly like the one we saw in Timisoara, Romania.

The inside of this church looks just like the one we saw in Biertan, Romania. It is really neat to see the German influences in Romania and it was cool to see the origin of the influence.

The church in Biertan had an organ in the back just like this one too.

We went to take a tour of the Nymphenburg Palace, which was the summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. It is part of a huge complex of buildings and gardens which give a pretty good idea about the decadence and richness of these rulers.

The ballroom was a sight to behold.

We really enjoyed our short visit to Munich. We love to see new places and this stopover was an unexpected chance to go somewhere new. Now we're back in Romania after a wonderful time at home spent with our family and friends. It went really fast but we had a great time, and now we are ready for all of our Christmas celebrations here!

Great Time and Timing

In the last few weeks at home in Michigan we continued to have a great time visiting family and friends. My oh my how fast time flies, our time here has come to an end. We have done so much in a little time and have been super busy, but it has been a blessing to be home.

We haven't had much snow at all which has been nice for driving. On our trip to Canada we did go through a beautiful winter wonderland where all the trees had a nice coating of snow.

We took a trip to Canada to see our Oma (grandma) who was 102 years old. We enjoyed visiting with her, but that night she fell and fractured her hip. Only a few days later she passed away and is now with her savior Jesus in Heaven. We were able to go to her funeral the following week and we marveled at the timing of it all, being home to see her one last time and then having time to go to her funeral, we can just see God's hand in it. We will miss Oma but we know that she lived a long and full life and is now in a better place.

We also got to see all of our Canadian relatives and we enjoyed visiting with them.

We went to a hockey game with some friends and enjoyed seeing our Grand Rapids Griffins win!

We continued to spend lots of time with family...

...And friends.

We have had lots of great food while we were here, many people cooked us delicious meals and we ate at some wonderful restaurants. At our friends Christmas party I (Mark) was inspired by this mango chutney to make some Naan bread. I grilled it over charcoal and it turned out great!

Our friends made orange chicken, Mongolian venison, and egg rolls, mmm.

Lexi's favorite gift was her "Christmas underwear," she kept going around and talking about it to everyone. She really wanted to come with us to Romania, she didn't want to let us leave. She told Rebecca that she is her kid, she is just too cute. We will miss everyone while we are in Romania, please keep in touch, we love talking over e-mail, Facebook, or Skype.

We are flying out Thursday and will have a long layover in Munich, Germany. We will try to see the city if we're awake enough. Please pray for safe travels. Thank you so much for your continued prayers for us and our ministry in Romania. We are looking forward to going back and seeing our kids again and we know they are excitedly waiting for us to return. We have had a really great time at home and are extremely thankful that we have such supportive family and friends. Thank you all for being a part of our lives and ministry.

Home Time

We've been home in the magical mitten for two weeks already, it is crazy how fast time is flying. I guess that is what happens when you're having fun. We have been really enjoying spending time with our families and our friends. It is so good seeing everyone again and we have just been having a really blessed time.

We spent a weekend with my mom and soon to be step-dad. We played lots of games, watched some movies and ate lots of good food. My sister and brother-in-law and brother came for a day to hang out and celebrate and Christmas.

We also spent a weekend with my dad and step-mom and we celebrated Thanksgiving with them. We watched some football games, played some games, and watched some fun TV shows.

We've also been spending lots of time with our friends, pretty much every evening we've been getting together with someone different.

And of course we have been having a great time hanging out with "our" kids, they still all remember us (thankfully we talk on Skype frequently) and play with us like we had never left.

This is a common scene from way back, the kids always surround me when I get on the computer, they're hoping to play "the racing game".

We've also been sharing our story and talking about our ministry at our supporting churches, which has been going great. We have been showing a video that we made this summer of the testimony of one of our kids who has committed his life to Christ and was baptized this summer. He has a very moving story and hopefully we'll be able to share it with you in a future blog post. Besides just telling what our ministry is about in Romania, we've been really trying to encourage people to get more involved in missions. Helping people realize their potential to make an impact in God's kingdom is something that is really on our hearts.

Jesus called us, even commanded us as his followers to spread his love and his teachings to all people. You don't have to be called all the way to Romania to do that, even your own neighborhood is a mission field. Leaving our lives behind in order to serve God in Romania doesn't make us superstars who are doing what most people can't, we are just normal people following God's will for our lives. He has been providing for us all the way and we also really appreciate the support and prayers from all of you. We are very blessed to have such great and supportive family and friends and churches.