School Classes and Italian Night

We have been enjoying continuing with our classes at the special needs school we work in.  One thing that we love about going to the school is that the kids are so loving and excited!  When they see us coming they wave and get ready to welcome us.  They run up to us, hug us, ask if we have class with them, ask when is camp, how many points they have, when they will win a prize, and even say they love us.

We are always doing new art projects, this one being a painted forrest scene.  We put tape on the paper first and had the kids paint the ground and sky over it...

...then we took the tape off and the white space was for the trees.

Alin went above and beyond our expectations, he is quite an artist.

Most of the kids earned enough points to get a prize, so we had lots of choices for them.  They were so excited, the big problem was which one to choose.

We continue to really enjoy our reading classes with the younger kids.  We are going through the alphabet with grades one and two since they don't know all of their letters.

Each time we have our class the kids color a page with the letter.  They have space to practice writing the letter and some pictures of things that begin with that letter.

We also occasionally read stories to them to and they really enjoy it.  With the older kids we are focusing on how to get from reading every letter to forming whole words, and it is proving to be quite a challenge.  We use flash cards, games and worksheets and it looks like the key will be repetition and patience.

One thing that we don't enjoy about working at this school is that we see how poorly the education system is there.  Special education is so far behind here that it is often little more than babysitting rather than teaching.  The teachers aren't prepared or equipped and often aren't even in the classrooms.  This is why we are focusing so much time and energy here this year, because we want these kids to have a chance, and they need to learn how to read and write.  We just pray and ask you to pray too for them and that God will open up their minds and also motivate the teachers.

We got to hang out with our friends Steven, Haley and Talitha Saturday night and we had an Italian themed night.  Steven and Haley have been to Italy so they are already experts.  We are going to Rome with Talitha in a little under two months for a long weekend, so we thought we'd celebrate!  We started with an Apertif, a drink which is supposed to stimulate the appetite.

For the appetizer I made Bruschetta, with the bread fried in butter it just melted in our mouths!  Thankfully we can get gluten free bread here so Rebecca was able to enjoy some too.

For the main course Haley made oven roasted potatoes and pesto chicken with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.  It was a wonderfully light and tasty course.

For dessert I made Tiramisu which is one of my favorite desserts, right up there with creme brulee.  I used macaroons instead of lady fingers so it would be gluten free, and it turned out great!  We love having themed meals like this with our friends, it is great to hang out and have fellowship like that amidst a busy schedule.  Praise God for good friends and good food!

Once again we thank you for keeping up with us on our blog and for praying for us and the kids!

Art Class and Winter Fun

Winter arrived a little late this year in Romania.  We did a winter art project before there was even snow on the ground!

One of the things the things we often here from the kids when we show them the example is "I can't do that."  But after we help them step by step they see that in fact they can!

We did an another art project that was a little more challenging, a 3D hand or vase.

Some of the older kids did quite well with the project and their hands popped off the page.

We did vases with the kids who found the project more challenging.

And then towards the end of January the snow came, and boy it sure came!

This was about half of the snow that fell that week.  The next week there was a mid-semester break and we spent the week with the kids in Bucharest.

The lake was frozen so we spent some time sliding on it and playing with the kids.

We also went ice skating with some of the graduates.  It is a fun challen to try to teach them how to ice skate.  It was a nice warm sunny day and we enjoyed ourselves.

Spring is coming, just around the corner!  Lets keep praying for new growth and faith in Jesus Christ!

Fall & Winter 2013 in Romania Update

After a busy summer things settled down a bit so that we could start planning for our fall ministry.  We were able to go to the orphanage near Bucharest nearly every day which was nice since we don’t normally work there.  We love keeping up our connections with those kids.  At the end of September we traveled to France to celebrate our ten year anniversary.  We had a wonderful time seeing the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, and many museums in Paris, the chateaux of the Loire Valley, and the stunning north west coast of France.  We thank God so much for blessing us with ten years of marriage.

When we got back from our vacation we started our fall ministry.  We continued with our art class from last school year for the older kids at the special needs school in our town.  This year we are trying to do more in depth art instead of just drawing and coloring pictures like they normally do.  Our first project was to decorate Christmas ornaments that were made out of salt dough for people back home.  We started English classes at the Boys Transition Program as well as budgeting class.  We continued to lead youth group for the teens that live in the orphanages, teaching them how to improve their lives by living with a Biblical perspective.  We also continued our tutoring classes and added many more students this year.  We teach math and English to around 15 high schoolers in order to help them pass the college entry exam.

We were the most exited this fall about starting a reading class for the young kids at the special needs school.  Since Romanian is a phonetical language it is expected that once the kids know the alphabet they will know how to read, but that is not always the case.  In addition, the teachers aren’t well trained and many of them don’t believe that the kids can learn at all.  They just try to keep the kids occupied and pass them through regardless of if they learned anything or not.  We are trying to help the kids learn how to read using a variety of methods like worksheets, beginner books and games.  It is fun to see them get excited about learning and to see their progress.

We were also able to spend a month at home reconnecting with family, friends and churches.  It was great to be home and to see everyone even though we were extremely busy.  When we returned we went to Christmas programs and hosted a team who came to do Christmas activities with the kids.  Christmas is always a fun time of the year when we can share about the true reason for the season, the birth of our lord Jesus Christ.

Please Continue To Pray:

- Praise God for blessing both of our trips in the fall and for blessing us with time to recharge our batteries after the busy summer ministry.

- Pray for continued wisdom in following God’s leading in our lives and for him to always be with us.

- Pray for the kids that we work with that God will protect and provide for them.  We have seen more closely the neglect and abuse that they face as a normal part of life and we want to pray for God to give them justice and for the evil one to be bound from hurting them.

- Pray for several young adults who were baptized in the fall, that they would continue to grow in their faith and that they will become part of a movement of God in Romania.

- Pray for us as a staff and organization to be unified and to not succumb to spiritual attacks.

- Pray for those coming on teams that God will use them to further his kingdom.

- 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.

Thanks so much for continuing to partner with us in prayer and support.  We really appreciate all of the encouragement, please keep it coming!

Also don't forget to download and print off a copy of this newsletter by clicking on the picture of it below.

Reading Class Fun!

School is back in session and we have already completed two weeks of reading this year.  Helping the kids learn to read (Romanian) has been such a joy.  When they sound out the letters and form the word we all feel a sense of accomplishment.  Finding the games and activities and translating them is a challenge, but reading is one of the basic skills every child should learn. 

Forming words and reading them on a scrabble like board

Finding vowels in words and forming a snow-flake

With the youngest kids we are coloring through the alphabet

Aren't these nice coloring sheets?  

The older kids hard at work writing a few words...

And then using letter tiles to form the word again.  

Through repetition and different forms of learning, we hope that the kids will learn faster and find it easier to remember.  I have realized how spoiled most of us are, to have excellent teachers in America and parents at home who practice with us.  Some of the teachers we work with are great and really try their best, but the special education system in Romania is lacking to put it nicely.

We have done some pretty cool artwork too with the kids.  Maybe some close ups for the next blog...

Keep praying for these kids.  Not only do some of them have learning disabilities, behavior problems is another challenge we face.  None of this is surprising considering what they have gone through in their young lives, more reason they need us on their side!

12 Days of Christmas

Christmas time always lasts a bit longer here in Romania.  We start giving out gifts early and don't stop with holiday activities until after the new year.  The director of the boy's transition house took his vacation and the five boys stayed in Bucuresti.  We occupied them with many different activities.

Play time at Peris

Mark with Laurentiu who we hadn't seen for years (he moved orphanages)

We took the boys ice skating, it was the first time for all of them.  Some of them got the hang of it by the end of the hour, but one really enjoyed falling.

Three of the boys with a Riley, a holiday team member.

Another thing we did was take the boys to a 3D movie.  All the boys are from Rosiori where there is no movie theater, so it was another first for them.

Christmas Day included opening gifts in the morning.  Gifts are not a new thing, but the family atmosphere in which we opened them was new for some of them.

Later in the day all the graduates came over.  Here we are with Elena.

After Christmas the team arrived and we split up and went to all the orphanages to hand out gifts.  The boys also went with the team and were great helpers.

After the gift giving was done, we had plenty of time for games!

 And somehow we even found time to have a tea party with Dorothy!

Our time with the holiday team is over now.  For us it is back to our regular schedule and teaching.  Lets keep praying for the kids to take the Christmas message to heart and for Jesus to not be left behind in the New Year!