Reno Team

The Reno team came right as school year was ending for the kids. So we were able to do different things with the kids. Every afternoon we had story and craft time with three apartments of younger kids. In the evening we had a time for the older kids focusing on preparing resumes and interview skills.

Having fun during craft time

Showing off their Spider Man drawing

We got to work with many kids that we don't normally get to work with because of their school times and because we usually only spend two days at this location.

We also had a party with all three of the youth groups. We met in the park and had a minute to win it final competition. Every week all the groups had been competing in these games in addition to our time of study.

All of the kids had a fun time and we enjoyed working with the Reno team.

Biola And Baptisms

Last week we finished up our time with the Biola team. We really enjoyed ministering with them, and hearing their music was very uplifting. The brass pieces that they played reminded us of the "Horns of Power" that used to play at our church at home.

They put on a concert for the kids and everyone enjoyed it. Music is a universal language that everyone can appreciate.

We got to catch up with some of the kids that we don't see very often...

...and we all had lots of fun running around and playing.

Here we are with the entire team, we are looking forward to their return in the future.

We had the tremendous joy of witnessing four of our kids get baptized on Sunday. We have been seeing so much fruit this year and this baptism was a confirmation from God that He is moving here. We looked on as proud parents to these kids and are really looking forward to continuing to help them grow in their walks with God.

They each gave their testimony before they were baptized.

The service was very nice with lots of special music and it lasted around three hours.

Each one of these young people have made big changes in their lives and now have taken a big step, especially special because they are in a place that views repentance as a bad thing. In this culture "repenters" are really looked down on because they have turned away from the "true faith" of Orthodoxy. Apparently Acts 2:38 is ignored here, it says: Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. " Repentance means to turn away from your sins and follow God so it is hard to understand why it is viewed so negatively. Thankfully God has given them the desire to grow in their relationships with him dispite any resistance they may face.

These young people need lots of prayer, would you join us in praying for them? There were some problems when their director found out about their baptisms, he didn't want to let them go. He then barred them and all the other kids under his control from seeing us. We prayed a lot about this and God worked in amazing ways, finally changing his heart completely this week to the point where he is excited to have us working with his kids. Only God could do that! Please continue to pray for a good relationship with him and that God will use us and these kids to make a huge difference here for God's kingdom.

Our friends Cristi and Amy came to the baptism too, it was nice to see them since we have been away from Church for a while being with teams.

God has been working mightily lately. Both couples that are working on coming here full time have set their arrival dates for around the beginning of September. We are so excited. Please pray that our fall schedule will work out so that we will have time to spend with them. Please continue to pray for our summer camps which start next week! Pray for strength for us and the other staff and the people coming for shorter trips. Pray that the kids will be open and that lives will be touched for Jesus. Thanks so much for your partnership in prayer and support!

Biola Team

This past week we have been working with a team of college students from Biola University in California. It is a music school and they are all in the band. We had part of the team come and stay with us in our apartment and work with us in Rosiori.

The canola fields are really beautiful. Soon the sunflowers will bloom which will be a pleasure.

We started off by having some carnivals for the kids, we had different stations including bean bag toss, bowling, face painting, musical chairs, balloon pop, bobbing for apples and wet sponge throwing at someones face.

The kids of course had a fun time, we enjoyed hearing their laughter.

We also had a party for the youth, with competitive games for each group that we formed. It was a great time and many young people came, even more than those who normally come to our youth group. It was a good way to connect with more people who we normally don't get to work with.

The rest of the week we had music classes for the kids which they absolutely loved. We also did crafts as part of these classes.

The kids wanted to try out every instrument, especially the percussion!

We had some other classes too, the cooking class decorated cupcakes. In our English classes we played Bingo.

We are having a great time working with the Biola team. Even though we were living together in very close quarters we had a lot of fun. We went on walks in the evening, ate ice cream and Saorma together, and watched UHF, Weird Al's movie. We laughed together a lot but most importantly we had a great time working with the kids together. We had lots of significant times with the older kids. We are really excited because four of them are getting baptized this Sunday, please pray for them, for strength and for God to use them to impact the people around them. Please continue to pray for God to use our ministry to have an impact on the kids here.

'A Trip to the Symphony,' or 'The Garden is Growing'

Last weekend we were in between teams so we took some time to have fun and relax a little. We went to a symphony orchestra concert in Bucharest. They played some great music from a Romanian composer and also some Beethoven, it was very fun.

This outing was also one last thing we could do with our intern Dori who left later in the week. A new intern from Germany, Carolyn had just arrived earlier that week. After the concert we went out to eat at a place called Chocolate, how can you go wrong with a name like that? It was delicious, we had a smoked salmon sandwich and for dessert tiramisu and chocolate mousse.

We also had one last tea party with Dori, she made some wonderful basil-feta scones.

Later that night we went out to eat at a Lebanese restaurant, courtesy of the Canadian team's generosity. We enjoyed a wide spread of different things, similar to tapas style. We don't go out to eat much so this was a special weekend for us.

Our garden is really taking off too. This is a tomato plant, we have 18 in all.

This is a green pepper plant, there are 18 of them too.

These are cucumber plants, we have a few rows of them.

We have lots of beans too. The only thing that isn't fun about gardening is weeding, I could really do without that!

The transition house boys have come up and are staying with us again, this time they are insulating the house. Most Romanian homes are constructed with concrete and bricks with no insulation whatsoever, so they are very expensive to heat in the winter. This insulation should cut down on the heating bills considerably.

Everything is blooming here, and we do love flowers.

Things are going very well with the kids too. They are getting summer fever, asking us every time we see them about camp and what we'll be doing. Speaking of that, we will be having many different camps this summer. I will lead a backpacking trip in the mountains again. I am working on the scheduling, food, and devotions with Rebecca's help. I will also be leading four other boys camps that will be based on the backpacking trip. Rebecca will go to one girls camp while I am in the mountains and then after that she will help me with the boys camps. That is nice because we'll be together more. We'll also have a couple weeks of day camps for the younger kids who aren't coming to the other camps.

It is going to be an exciting summer. Please pray for the summer ministry and for the kids to be open to accepting Christ. Please also pray for us as we enter a very busy time starting this week. We need to rely on God for strength and wisdom and guidance, and we ask you to pray for us. Please also pray for the rest of the staff and all the other people who are coming to help us, for safe travels and a blessed time. Thanks for partnering with us in prayer, it means a lot and we know that God will honor our requests!

Great Scott!

May has been going by fast already. It has rained quite a bit but we've had nice days here and there that are giving us glimpses of summer. The garden has been planted and things are growing, and the grass is growing out of control. Some of our Canadian team stayed an extra week to have a photo class with some of the kids, and they left just before an important day.

I celebrated my 30th birthday! The staff made me Indian food and we had a small party. I received a very nice wok, a camera lens pen, the new Rebecca St. James CD, and some chocolates. It was a fun day.

The next day Dori and Rebecca threw me a tea party, with bruschetta, death by chocolate scones, chocolate bread and tomato walnut salad with raspberry balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Very yummy.

Quite a spread of great food.

On my birthday another treat was that a team came from Scotland. We knew Wanda, Maggie, and Leslie already and we got to meet many new people who are great fun. We quickly made new friends. Here are Douglas and Elaine, a couple that is newly engaged, congrats! We enjoyed having them here a lot because we don't usually have another couple to hang out with. Even though this team was only here a short time we got to do a lot with them.

We went to the boys transition house for part of the day.

We went to visit the little ones apartment for English class, and Georgiana came out to greet us. She is always at Rebecca's side or on her lap and when we leave tells us that we can't, or that Rebecca has to stay and she can sleep in her bed. Their bond is very strong, lots of love!

Mitica is my buddy, his face always lights up when we come and he runs up to give big hugs.

We went to the boys school to do some wee crafts with our Scottish friends, they enjoyed meeting the kids and helping color.

The boys in the English classes received prize bags for being in class and behaving for five weeks.

Another notable moment in these weeks was that I preached a sermon at the church in Rosiori - in Romanian! I was pretty nervous and I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare, but God gave me the words to say. I talked about how to discern God's will and used our journey to Romania as an example. It was actually pretty fun and the Pastor told me I should do it again sometime.

God has also been answering prayers in a big way lately. H2H's problem with the IRS has finally been resolved and they were totally cleared. Our friends Josh and Missy who are raising support to come here full time got accepted for monthly support from their church and are now much closer to coming. We are getting better health wise. We are so thankful to God for his providence! Please continue to pray for what I've mentioned before and these requests:

-For us to find a room in our southern town to have our youth group and for guidance on how to attract non-christian youth and how to partner with local churches for help.
-For the summer plans, finances, logistics, materials, and people coming.
-For us to be healthy throughout the whole summer.
-For God to open the hearts of the kids so that they will come to faith in Him, and for a very fruitful summer.
Thanks for your prayers and support!

March - April Newsletter

March and April were fun months, and we did lots of special things with special people. There were many special highlights that will stay in our memories.

Rebecca had two weekends with girls sleeping over at the apartment. They had a lot of fun and talked about lots of important things.

These teen girls are facing lots of changes in their lives and are at a very impressionable stage. Pouring into their lives with values based on the Bible is so important in a world that is telling them to live for themselves and to go with the flow.

While Rebecca was with the girls I stayed with the boys at the transition house, which was really fun. These boys need lots of instruction to especially in spiritual matters and it was great to build deeper relationships with them.

The boys stayed with us for a week too which was a lot of fun. They were a little spoiled eating American food and having lots to do in the village though, they didn't want to leave! It was the week before Easter and the last night we watched the Passion of the Christ, a very moving movie. To think that Jesus went through all that for us! That is why we love him and we teach those we love about him too, so they can be saved as well.

We had many great teams with us in these months too. The mission possible team from Michigan came and we enjoyed spending time with them, since last year when they came we were so busy with our language lessons. Speaking of that, we had our one year anniversary of completing language lessons!

The Canadian team came too and we had lots of fun with the boys and girls days that they planned. We got to spend time with our friends Dan and Luella, it is always encouraging to us to have people that care about us come and work with us.

The Canadian guys helped finish our fence project at our place, the boys did a great job working on this project and felt proud of their work. The ladies made cookies and snacks for kids at the orphanage while we were working on the fence.

We also had a great intern Bekah and some great ladies Judi and Charlotte working with us, we had really good times working with them!

I gave the Nenciulesti tour to the teams that came and got to know more people in the village, especially deepening my relationship with Catarina. She always makes people feel welcome with her warm smile and hugs and words. She is such a blessing and it is neat that God is using us to be a blessing to her. Nenciulesti is a small village and is almost always an eye opener for people because the way of living seems unchanged by time. The people there are also very friendly, it is always a pleasure walking around there because people are so eager to talk.

Of course the kids are always a highlight, they are what we're here for!

These kids are happy to show off their new prize bags which they got as a reward for being in class and behaving five weeks in a row. The cool thing is that the bags were made by kids at our church, Fair Haven Ministries. It is neat to hear the kids reactions when they hear that they were made by American kids the same age.

The cards say "Jesus Loves All the Children of the World" in English and Romanian.

As always we thank you for your prayers and support! It is very encouraging to us to know that so many people care about us and what we're doing and that we are prayed for so much. Here are some specific requests for you to keep in prayer in the coming months.

-For health, we and most of our staff have been sick for the past month so we would love to be healthy as we enter our busy team time.
-For our kids, that they would remain open to God's love and to accepting Jesus
-For us and our family and friends as we are far away
-For our supporters and churches that they would be blessed to be a blessing
-For wisdom and guidance for planning the summer ministries

New! Download the PDF version that can be printed out here: Mar-Apr News 2011