Friends and Pictures

This spring and summer we have the privilege of working with many people from all over the United States and Canada.  They come to work with the kids here in Romania but they also end up ministering to us.

Steph and Lindsey came from one of our supporting churches, Caledonia CRC.  They stayed with us at our place in Rosiori for a week and helped us work with our kids.  

We all enjoyed working with the boys at the transition program and taking a tour around the village of Nenciulesti.  

We have also been able to enjoy the beauty of God's creation around us.  Taking pictures is something that we really enjoy.

There were lots of really beautiful flowers at the cemetery at that time. 

We went up to the mountains for a day to enjoy some of the beauty of Romania.  We hiked to a waterfall that we had never been to before.

We have always liked waterfalls and this one was no disappointment.

We went up to Brasov and walked around the town a bit.

Northern Romania is great, the medieval towns are so charming and fun to explore.

We noticed some funny things with the doors at the place we stayed.  This is the door to get into the complex of houses from the street, it's probably a good 9-10 feet tall...

...and then the door to our room from the hallway, not even 6 feet tall despite the tall ceiling!  Who knows.

We also had a team from Biola University in California come, and we had Aaron and Travis stay with us.  Aaron had been here before so it was great to catch up with him, and it was nice to meet and get to know Travis.  We had a really fun time with the kids who really liked trying out the instruments.

One night we saw a spectacular sunset and we decided we needed to go to the end of town to get some pictures.  We ran all the way there and just as we got there the sun set and the color was gone!  The next night we were prepared and went up there early, and it was worth it.

For one of our intern's birthday we went and saw the new Star Trek movie.  Brandon invited us to see it along with his wife Becky and some of the other staff.  On the way back we saw this great double rainbow.

It has been great to have these teams here.  They are very helpful to our ministry and allow us to do things that we can't normally do.  They have given us very timely encouragement too as we have gone through a rough patch lately.  We have strengthened already great friendships and made many new friends too.  Our family in Christ just continues to grow and support us, and for that we are very thankful!

Kids Having Fun

We love working with abandoned kids in Romania.  God has given us this task of ministering to them and we are so thankful for that.  This spring we have had many teams here and have been able to do special things with the kids.

We took part in Steven and Haley's reading class and got to spend time with this cutie, Diana.  We would like to do a similar class next year where we work in the south.

We had a fun youth group party where the kids played lots of games and got to swim.

We got in on lots of coloring action with the kindergardeners at the special needs school.

We had a team come from Biola University in California who brought their instruments for the kids to try.  They all loved this but especially the boys from the transition program.

Ciprian needs a little work on the fingering positions but other than that played great.

The team did a fun story with musical accompaniment and then let the kids try.  

The team played a song at the beginning of a carnival that we put on for children's day.

The kids had a blast going around to all of the different stations at the carnival.  The face painting station was a big hit as you can see.

Just look at that cute face!

We also watched our kids dance at a children's day celebration.  We are always glad to see them perform and it is fun to wave to them and encourage them that there are people there just to see them.

Thank you for your prayers and support, you make it possible for these kids to have so much fun with us!

Spring 2013 Update

This spring we have been able to do many different things in addition to our normal school classes.  The weather has been beautiful which has allowed us to do lots of outdoor activities.  We went to the Bucharest Zoo a couple times as a reward for the kids’ good behavior and participation in our classes.  Many of them had never been to a zoo at all so it was a really fun experience for them.  Many of the kids loved taking pictures of the animals and each other.  Knowing that they love to take pictures, we had a week of photography classes for them.  Dan who heads up H2H Canada came over to lead these outdoor classes.  The kids enjoyed applying what they learned about light and composition by taking lots of pictures.  We were proud of how they did!

We also did lots of nice things with our transition program boys and girls and also the graduates from previous years.   The highlights were the special days that the Canadian team planned for them and the Easter celebration.  As more and more teams came over, our boys got to practice their English that we have been learning all year.  Each time they improved and they are now able to introduce themselves and talk about what they like to do in the program and in their free time.  They have been the most excited group we’ve had about learning English and they are doing great.

Our geography and animal classes continued to go well, as well as the tutoring class for the after high school math test.  In our art class the kids enjoyed drawing still life pictures and learning about famous artists like VanGogh and Monet.  

In youth group we watched the History Channel series “The Bible,” which was very well done.  The kids had lots of questions, some seemed very interested and others very closed off.  We have been talking a lot about putting faith into action but they are finding it a very hard thing to do.  This is our biggest burden at the moment, that we are facing so much resistance to believing in and following God.  We also felt an increase in spiritual warfare personally and as a staff as weariness and fatigue set in.  Added to that were knowing that many kids are being abused, a close friend here lost her baby late in her pregnancy, and seeing how jam packed the summer months will be.

We know that God has called us to minister to these kids and we know that it won’t always be easy and fun, but that in the end His plan will be fulfilled.  Thank you so much for your faithfulness in supporting us in prayer and financially.  We couldn’t do this without your help which God is using to provide for us.  Thanks so much for partnering with us to do God’s work!

Please Continue To Pray:

- Praise God for always watching over us and providing for us.  Pray that we will stay healthy and safe as we come into the summer months. Pray for energy in a super busy time

- Pray for our family, friends and supporters that make it possible for us to be here.  We could not be the hands and feet of Christ were it not for their love, prayers and support.

- Pray for the kids that we work with, that God will till the soil of their hearts and make them ready for planting, watering, and harvesting.  Pray that they are open to God’s word and will. Also pray for their safety and health as many of them face abusive situations

- Pray for us and the rest of the staff as we plan for summer ministry, there is much yet to do and the time is quickly approaching.

- Pray for those coming on short term mission trips to help us here and for those working on coming here full time, that God would provide for them and prepare them for his ministry

- Pray for God to provide for this ministry and give wisdom to everyone involved so that it is always focused on honoring Him

You can download a printable copy of this newsletter by clicking on the picture below:

Zoo Trips and Photo Classes

Who likes going to the zoo?  Many of our kids had never been to a zoo before so we decided to take a field trip.  Those in our animal character class got to take part in this fun outing.

These are our kids from where we work, in Rosiori, about two and a half hours south-west of Bucharest.  We took them up to the Bucharest Zoo, which is a pretty modest one, but they had the basics: monkeys, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) and many more.

We stopped on the way back from one of the trips to take a picture near the rapeseed field.  This is what canola oil is made of, and it is very beautiful when it is blooming.

We celebrated Easter with a big get together with those who graduated from or are in the transition programs.  It also happened to be the day before my birthday so we celebrated that too.  It was also Marinel's birthday so we shared the glasses and tiara.  It was probably the biggest birthday party I've ever had and the singing was great!

We had a team from Canada here, and their leader Dan came to stay with us in Rosiori.  He lead a photography class for all of our kids and they really loved it.

We think we may have some future photographers on our hands!

One of the kids took this beautiful closeup shot.  They always enjoy taking pictures and were able to learn about lighting and composition.  We also enjoyed having Dan and his wife Luella stay with us and they were a big encouragement to us.

Please continue to pray for these kids and the difficulties they face in their lives.  Pray that they will flourish like this flower and that they will open up their hearts to the light of Christ.  Thank you!

Pictures Are Worth Thousands of Words

It is wonderful to finally have spring here in Romania.  The sun is out, the temperature is nice, and we can finally get out of the house to walk around and enjoy God's creation.

We have been enjoying seeing all of the fruit trees blossom.  Most people here have many of them in their yards so this time of year is very beautiful.  This is an apple tree at the boys transition house.

Of course all of those flowers attract lots of bees!  We did an outdoor english lesson and all we could hear was the buzzing of the bees.  They don't like to stop for pictures so it took nearly a hundred shots to get a few good ones like this!

Butterflies have all just come out of their cocoons and I'm always keen on taking macro shots of them.  Unfortunately they aren't very photogenic either, they don't like to stay in one place for very long.  I chased this one around for at least 20 minutes before it landed long enough to get a good shot. 

There is also an abundance of other colorful bugs, like this ladybug...

...and this yellow one, the likes of which I have never seen before.

This is a nice example of the beautiful weather we've been having!

There have also been some spectacular sunsets.

This is the entryway of an old abandoned winery that we explored.  It has been vacant ever since communism fell in 1989.

These barrels are massive, holding 6.5 tons of wine each!

They are about 8 feet in diameter, just huge.

There are also many abandoned factories scattered all over the place.

Most of them were shuttered after the fall of communism because there wasn't demand for the products they were making.  Many of them existed just so that everyone would have a job.

I hope you enjoyed this little picture tour.  Would you please continue to pray for us as we work with abandoned kids here in Romania?  Please pray for the kids that they would be open to God, most of them have a lot of head knowledge about God but it hasn't moved to the heart.  They find it very hard to put into practice being surrounded by their peers in a very secularized culture (sound familiar?).  We just pray that God will take ahold of them and give them transforming faith.  Please continue to pray for the planning of summer ministry and for our organization as a whole.  Thank you so much for being our partners in this life changing ministry!