Thanksgiving and English Lessons

This past Saturday we had our H2H Thanksgiving celebration. There were 62 people there, past graduates, current guys from the transition house, staff, and a few friends. It is a time of great food, being thankful and a time of fun together.

Mark's Cranberry Jello Salad

Waiting for food line to be clear

Mark hanging out with the guys

Rebecca at the girls and Costel table

Us with Cristi and Amy

Mark's english lesson at the boy's transition house

Reviewing the verb: to eat

Mark and Marius

Us with Cili and his Thanksgiving Turkey Drawing

The following video is a short excerpt of an english lesson that Mark taught. Here the boys (Cezar, Adi, Razvan, Catalin and Aurel) are going over questions relating to the verb to eat.

It's been very interesting teaching english, it has forced me to delve deep into our grammar to find out why we talk the way we do. When we talk we don't even think about the why and how of our language, but to someone who's learning it as a second language it is a lot different. English and Romanian don't have a whole lot in common grammatically as the sentence structure is mixed around. Who knows when to use the verb infinitive vs. the verb gerund? How about the difference between the simple and progressive present tenses?

It's a big challenge to teach english to kids at all different levels. In the classes with the younger kids we are going over the alphabet, four letters per week. We have the kids color a sheet with the new letters and pictures of something that starts with that letter. With the older kids we are starting with the most basic present tense verbs and will work our way through the different tenses eventually. The hardest part is getting the kids to remember what they learned already since we only have classes once a week and they don't have time allotted to study. That's okay though, because through the classes we are getting to know them and that's our overall goal. Our prayer is that they come to know Jesus through our actions and testimonies, and along the way hopefully they'll learn some english too.

Bathed In Prayer

It is hard to believe that November is already half over! I guess time does fly when you are having fun! Not that ministry is without kids with bad behaviors, problems with attendance and room availability and bad days. But working with these kids brings joy to our hearts, especially seeing the kids taking real interest in seeking after God.

We ask for continued prayers for the kids to open during our times at youth group.

Prayer that the kids who have started to read their Bible will understand and come to a full knowledge of God their savior.

That we would not be distracted by the busy bodies of the young kids, but be able to focus on building relationships with these kids.

That we would not be distracted by the troubles thrown in our way, but that we'd keep our focus on Jesus and truly be his hands and feet.

Prayer that the faith promise offering at Caledonia CRC this Sunday would help enable us and H2H to serve these kids in every way we wish.

That our friends Josh and Missy who are raising support to come here would be blessed and their church would support them.

That H2H would be overwhelmed by prayer support and the financial support they are in a great need of.

That the boys in the transition house will continue to be appreciative of the program and have the endurance to stay and receive all the benefits of it.

That every child we work with will be eager to learn and kept safe when we are not with them.

That we will continue to have favor with the directors and that our ministry will be able to continue unhindered.

Thank you so much for your prayers, they are the fuel God uses for our ministry here.

September - October Newsletter

September brought many changes for us as we started our second year here in Romania. Being done with language lessons we were ready to start our full time ministry. We were put into teaching teams: Rebecca with Sanda and Mark with Mariana and an intern, either Shannon or Krysten. We started September by coming up with class outlines, syllabuses, and classroom management plans. We also managed to go to the baby hospital a few times to see our cuties.

How precious these babies are, we love loving them.

We are always thankful for the time we get to spend with the babies, they are so fun.

We also went to different orphanages to play with the kids there and continue building on our relationships with them.

We saw our girl Elena again and were very happy to find out that we would be working where she lives every week. We know many of the kids there from camps that we've been and we wanted to work more with them.

We moved from our apartment in the city to a house in the country, and it was a big adjustment. The girls transition program is usually in this house but this year we didn't have enough girls for the program. We moved there with the interns and Mariana in order to take care of the house. It has been nice there, quiet and not in the hustle and bustle of the city, but at the same time it is farther away from everything.

We have a yard and garden again which is nice because that is something we really enjoyed back home.

At the beginning of October we started teaching classes at the orphanages. Rebecca started her science classes. She teaches through hands on experiments, something that isn't common here at all. The kids are always so excited to see what she has to show them.

Rebecca teaches at three different orphanages and the classes have been going really well. Translating her lessons into Romanian is very hard because of all the science terminology.

Mark started teaching english classes at the orphanages. For the little ones we are learning the alphabet with pictures and for the older ones we are learning conversational english.

Being teachers is something neither of us thought we would ever do. Now that we are though we are enjoying it very much. Of course the overall purpose of the classes is to build relationships with the kids, and that has been going very well.

At the end of these two months we are beginning to get settled into everything that has gone on. We are looking forward to many more great months as we continue to share our hearts with the kids we work with.

It's hard to believe but Christmas is right around the corner. Last year many of you asked how you could send us a Christmas gift, so we wanted to tell you in advance. If you send H2H a check made out to Mark and Rebecca Essenburg it will be put in our account that we have access to here in Romania. The gift won't be tax deductable, but if you make it out to H2H and get the tax deduction it will go into our general expenses account which we don't have access to.

Also, one of our friends makes handmade soaps and is donating a portion of the sales to our ministry. They would make good Christmas presents, the ones labeled Essenburg Fundraiser are here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/AmarahEve.

As we go forward please pray for us and our ministry. Please pray that God gives us strength, endurance, and wisdom so that we can be effective at reaching these kids for Christ. Please pray for the kids, for protection and for open hearts and minds. We have several youth groups where we are seeing changes in kids lives, please continue to pray for all of them. Please pray for health for all of us that are working with the kids and for the babies and kids too.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support, we appreciate you all so much!

Another Good Week

Last week we felt that God was with us in our ministry and blessed us with a very enjoyable week. We are getting used to our schedule and more importantly, the kids and workers are also following through on their part. We enjoyed teaching the kids and they responded positively. We thank God for his blessings and continue to pray for his guidance and protection.

Shannon, Razvon, Adi, Catalin, Mariana, Mark, Cezar and Aurel during english class at the boys transition house.

Cooking pancakes at BTH

Catalin flipping his first pancake

Sanda showing the kids at Peris the proper techniques

Rebecca teaching science

Leaf artwork, Rebecca and Oli

Mark and Cili

Rebecca and Georgiana at english class

The english class is taught by Mark and Mariana's team, but the kids always ask where are Sanda and Rebecca. This week Sanda and I were done early enough at the boys school that we had time to spend with these young kids that we otherwise do not get to work with. When it was time to leave, Georgiana told me that I couldn't leave. I asked her where I was going to sleep and she told me with her, in her bed. Then I asked what about Mark. She then told me that he can sleep with me and she'll sleep with one of her sisters (she has four). This kids are so sweet and respectful, eager to be loved.

Mark and Mihaela

Fall Fun

What a wonderful week. Everything went so well with our kids this week. They were excited to be with us in our classes and the schedule worked out well for the first time so far. We're getting to know the nearly 100 kids from at least 5 different orphanages better and are building some great relationships. It feels so great to have kids run into our arms when we arrive to the orphanages, we know we're becoming people in their lives that they can trust and love.

Rebecca with Adrian, who likes to pretend he's car.

Listening to a story ready by Shannon and Mariana at the boys school.

We also enjoyed some beautiful fall weather. Rebecca and Dorothy raked up leaves and walnuts into a massive pile. Of course jumping in and playing around followed.

We also planted wheat in the garden which I tilled up last week. The hope is that the wheat will grow a bit before the ground freezes in order to overwinter the garden. Then in the spring after it grows to full maturity it will get tilled in to improve the clay.

Mila came and joined us playing in the leaf pile.

We grew a few pumpkins in the garden and it was time to carve one for Halloween.

Next year we're planning on growing more so that we can each have one.

After our fun with carving the pumpkin we cut it up, skinned it, and boiled it for about an hour. Thanksgiving is coming up and that means we need some pumpkin pie. Unfortunately canned pumpkin isn't available so we have to make our own. Just this one pumpkin made enough for 11 pies, so there will at least be enough for our Thanksgiving feast with the transition house graduates.

Thanks for your prayers for us and the kids here. We are starting to get into the swing of things and God is blessing our ministry. Please continue to pray for strength and wisdom and against attacks from the enemy.

Beginning of School

We have been teaching in school for about three weeks now. We have been keeping busy and also we haven't had much internet access (we now have internet in the house) so we hadn't much chance to keep up the blog.

Rebecca and Sanda have been teaching science- hands on with experiments and cooking/life skills class. Mark, Mariana and Shannon have been teaching english language and are starting some math and computer classes with the boys transition house. Classes have been going well, we have had to make (and still are making) minor schedule adjustments, but that is fairly common and the beginning of the year.

Our basic schedule is:

Sunday late afternoon- leave for Rosiori (2-3 hour drive)

Monday- Mark- Boys transition house, english at kids apartments

-Rebecca- Boys school, youth group (Mark is there too)

Tuesday- Mark- Boys school, Rebecca- Boys transition house

- evening return to Bucuresti/Snagov

Wednesday- Mark- afternoon: V. orphanage, youth group (Rebecca has day off)

Thursday- Mark- V. orphanage morning, rest of day off

- Rebecca- V. orphange, P. orphanage, youth group (yes a very full day)

Friday- Staff Bible study, evening AlphaOmega Bible study

Sanda and Rebecca teaching science

Rebecca with the bag of mystery contents

Rebecca with Florin and his picture of the 5 senses

Sanda showing the kids how to properly brush their teeth

Shannon (an intern) with the kids coloring alphabet pages

English class

Mark coloring with the kids

Mark with kids from boys school

Mark teaching english

Mariana checking over the kid's papers

Shoes! We gave out shoes to all the orphanages we currently work in. Thanks to a 14 year old boy, Andrei, who was adopted from Romania to an American family. He raised all the money to help out the kids and came on a short term team with his mom.

Mark hanging out kids while we handed out shoes

Rebecca and Aurelia

Fall is here and the leaves are changing!

Prayer Requests:

For H2H to receive the funding they need so we can continue to impact lives

Safety in all our travels

Health and energy

Wisdom and guidance in planning

For the youth groups to be a productive way of reaching the kids for Christ

Continued Romanian learning

For our ministry to be for God's glory and after His will

Thank you for your prayers and interest in our ministry! It is a blessing to be working with God's precious children here in Romania.