Primavara 2012 Romania Update

Did you know that we serve a God who is always working in us, through us and around us?  Often times it is difficult to see God working in hard situations but we have to cling to the hope that he never will abandon us and will always fight for us.  Here in Romania we often get to clearly see God working and would like to share a few recent stories with you.

We’ve been talking a lot about the director who got upset last summer when some of our kids were baptized.  He told us that if we wanted to work with any of his kids we wouldn’t be able to talk about God, so we have been praying a lot for a change of heart or for him to be moved.  We have just found out that he has been moved and that the new director seems to be more open to what we want to do.  We don’t know her very well yet but we are praying that she will support our goal of sharing the love of Jesus with these kids.

We were recently at a wedding of some friends from church and someone told us that the groom’s parents had adopted a girl named Flori from the hospital that we worked at on our first trip here in 2007.  We instantly remembered that cute little girl and wondered if this was her, so we went to talk to the parents to find out.  One of the hard things about working at the baby hospital is that once the babies leave it is hard to know what happens to them.  But in this case we found out that our little Flori was in fact adopted by a great family and is now a healthy, happy, flourishing little girl.  We are so overjoyed that we were allowed to see how God has worked in her life and were given a glimpse of hope for all the other babies that are left at the hospitals each year.

 There are of course many situations that are still ongoing that we are waiting to see how God works.  The kids who have just graduated high school have to take a test in order to go on to college.  We have been tutoring some of them and it has been an emotional rollercoaster becuase they haven’t been very motivated to study or work hard.  They often feel overwhelmed and that there is no way that they can pass and they feel worthless and stupid.  It has been a challenge to encourage them that they can do it; they need lots of help from God right now.

 

 Two of the five boys in the transition program found jobs in Bucharest and moved there already.  The others have been getting impatient and one of them left the program even though there is such a short time left.  After talking with him and our leaders a lot over the last couple weeks and searching all over town for him, I (Mark) was able to bring him back into the program.  Now he just needs to be patient and endure and know that God has something in store for him.

 

We have also done many special things in the last few months too, like take many kids on field trips, be part of the filming for a new H2H video, have guests stay with us from Michigan and Austria, and have many birthday celebrations.

  

Please Continue To Pray:

- Praise God for replacing the director who wouldn’t let us talk about our faith and pray for the new director to be open and willing to work with us.

 - Summer camps are starting now!  Please pray that all the details come together and that God uses this time to work in amazing ways.  Pray for him to work in the hearts of the kids and to give all of us workers the strength and wisdom to do his will.

- Pray that the high school graduates who will be taking the college entrance exam will be prepared and will pass the test.

 - Pray that the graduates of our transition program will be able to find jobs and an place to stay.

 

 

- Pray for our family and friends especially for some specific health concerns.  Pray also for us to stay healthy as we come into the busiest time of the year.

- Pray for all of the volunteers that are coming, for safe travel, health, energy, and funds to come in.

- Praise God for all of our support partners and pray that God will bless them and continue to provide for us.  Pray also that H2H and our churches will be fully funded.

 Thanks so much for reading and praying and for being a part of our ministry!

If you would like to print out this newsletter please just click on the picture above.  We would love it if you distributed this with your family and friends and those at your church.  The more people that know what we're doing and can pray for us and our ministry the better!

Birthday Adventures

In May and early June we had a lot of staff birthdays and we wanted to celebrate them all differently, which led to some fun adventures!  The most outstanding one was a trip up to the mountains for Kirsteen's birthday.

We took the trip up to also find the road in to where we will be camping with the boys from the orphanages this summer.  We have been there before but had never driven ourselves so we had to find the right way through many winding mountain roads.

The first thing that happened was that we had to stop on the road for a dump truck that was being filled up due to a washout, and it was a pretty steep incline.  When the road was clear we tried to go but one of the vans wouldn't start.  Everything pointed to the starter not working, so the only thing I could think of was to roll start it down the hill.  Of course I had to go backwards with no power steering or power brakes on a curvy one lane road with no guard rails!  Thankfully after a few tries it started up and we sent that one into the nearest town.  We continued on with the other van and now I can say that I've done some mud running in Romania!

This lake reminded us of when we went to the highlands of Scotland, very beautiful.  We made it to the camp and talked to the guys that we'll be staying with, and then we headed back.  There was one fork in the road that we weren't quite sure of which way to go so we went the way that the sign was pointing.  After a while things started to look unfamiliar and soon we knew that we had gone the wrong way.  Since we were going down the mountain we didn't want to turn around and go back, but we should have because the road we were on seemed to go on forever.  We finally made it to Sinaia after we drove on that detour for an extra hour and a half!  We were hoping the whole way that this road would lead us to somewhere where we could find our way back, and thankfully it did.

After that long drive we went and relaxed at the Irish House restaurant and had a nice time with Kirsteen for her birthday dinner.

We ended the time there with a wonderful dessert - papanasi, which are doughnuts with sour cream and fruit sauce on top, yum.

We went downtown Bucharest to celebrate Steven and Haley's birthdays.  After walking around quite a bit trying to find a good place to eat, we arrived at a great Turkish place and had a wonderful dinner there.

We tried a little bit of everything, we had a couple of kebabs...

...and some Turkish dumplings and this stuffed eggplant with chicken.  Turkish food is so good! 

After dinner we searched around for a great dessert and found one at a place called Chocolat - this chocolate cake with raspberry sorbet, chocolate ganash  and raspberries.  Wow, it was so good, a great way to end a great evening.

Downtown Bucharest is really pretty at night, and I am still enjoying using my new camera to get cool shots like this one.  This is the supreme court.  We also celebrated Josh's birthday with a pizza and game night.  We played a lot of catchphrase and had a great time. 

Hope

I (Rebecca) had a conversation recently with someone who encouraged me to share not only the good times, but to also share when things are not going well.  Things mostly are going well, but it has been emotionally heartbreaking recently.  Sometimes it is just so hard to stand by and watch your kids go down a path you would never wish for them...so here is a tiny glimpse into it.

It is easy to focus on the good, the easy; the things that melt your heart. The kids running up to you giving you kisses, calling you mom and dad, them appreciating what we are doing, seeing hearts seek after God, and the list goes on. But there is so much more to our work than that. There are days when you watch your heart get ripped out of your chest, devastating disappointment, feelings of despair and wondering where God is in the midst of hard situations. Watching a child you deeply care for fight everyday against a million lies, lies of not being good enough, of being stupid, of being a failure, hopeless. 

Watching them give up and walk away from a chance of something good, a better life. Watching a heart turn hard towards God, watching them make bad decisions. Seeing a 4^th grader not be able to spell her name and wondering what type of future she will have. Hearing that kids are not as safe as we wish in their apartments, watching directors get thrown out for standing up for the kids. Hearing the bad advice the psychologists give the children. Hearing the kid's stories and truly understanding how hard it is for them to believe that God has always been watching out for them and loving them.

Questioning God's timing and patience, doubts that our work will not change anything. This is the every day battle, sometimes more obvious than others. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 It is a battle that takes all your strength and brings you to your knees, knowing that God is the only one who can change any of this, and clinging to the promise that He is victorious. 

 “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 

“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:5

Pray with us, for us, for our kids, their futures and their salvation...their lives depend on it.

Bingo!

As the end of the school year has been approaching we have been keeping busy with all of our classes and doing some planning for the summer.  The kids have been asking us all year if and when and what we will be doing for camp, but now they are ramping up their efforts.  They are also getting vacation fever so it has been just the right time for us to change things up a bit.

The younger kids still love coloring so we are having them color sheets with letters and pictures on them that represent the alphabet.

But with the older kids we have been playing English Bingo and they really love it!

I call out words in Romanian and they have to find the corresponding word in English on the Bingo card.  They are always really excited to get a Bingo...

...Especially since they get a candy prize for each Bingo. Playing Bingo has been a great way to help the kids learn English because they are having to translate the Romanian words that they hear and try to find the English word on the card.  We also say the English word so they can hear it too.

The kids have been finding lots of lizards lately, look how pretty this one is.

As always we love spending time with the kids whether at school or just hanging out and playing games.

 

This week we have also heard many new things about the directors here where we work.  This whole year we have had problems with one of them because he wouldn't let us talk about God at all.  So we and our prayer warriors and many others have been praying for him to either have a change of heart or be moved and replaced with someone more open to God.  Praise God that as of this week he is gone and we have a new director who seems to be more open to us.  We don't know her very well yet but the first impression is good and hopefully she will be willing and even excited to work with us.  Please pray for her to really help us work with the kids and share Jesus' love with them.

The director at the special needs school was so great to work with this past year.  She wanted to be a voice for the children and wanted to make things better for them.  She had a passion that we hadn't seen in other directors and she stood up for the kids when they were mistreated.  And for that we heard that she also has been removed, the politics of it all and the higher ups didn't like her rocking the boat by trying to improve conditions for the kids.  This is sad news, although she will still be a teacher and one of the other teachers will take her place as director, we will miss her as the director.  Please pray that the new director will continue what was started and maybe finally we will see some change here. 

Thanks for all of your prayers, they are fuel for our ministry and we ask for even more as we move into the summer time.  We are starting camps in just two weeks so it's coming fast!!!  We will need energy and guidance from God so please keep praying and maybe even ask your family and friends and church to pray.  I'll write more about the coming summer plans soon and I'll give more specific prayer requests.  Thank you for praying for us!

An Awesome Romanian Adoption Story

Last weekend we went to the wedding of our friends Daria and Claudiu who we know from church and our small group Bible study.  It was a really fun time with great food, music, and fellowship.

While we were at the wedding someone told us something really interesting.  Four years ago Claudiu's parents adopted a little girl from the baby hospital where H2H used to work.  When they said her name is Flori our ears really perked up.  We asked how old she is now and they said around six years old.

Our first trip to Romania was in April of 2007 so that would make Flori (on the right) about one year old at that time.  One of the girls at the hospital was named Flori and I thought this was too much to be just a coincidence.  So I went and talked to Claudiu and showed him the pictures I have of her from then, and he was amazed that it was his little sister!

During the short time that we were here back then Flori was my girl, such a sweet little baby who loved to be cuddled and talked to and played with.  She often tried to steal my glasses and liked playing with my name tag.

We always wonder what happens to the kids from the baby hospital but we rarely find out.  We had heard that Flori was getting adopted but who would have thought that we would end up friends with her new big brother through church?!?

Flori was adopted about a year after our first trip, so she was two years old then.  Here is a picture of her that Claudiu gave me a from year or so after her adoption.  Rock ministries was another organization that worked in that hospital. 

Here is Flori playing the guitar like her big brother, Claudiu, who is in a really great band.

Here is a picture of Flori (on the right) at the wedding last weekend.  She is growing up in a wonderful family and is strong and healthy, a perfect little girl.  We are so thankful to God that he has taken care of her and it is so cool that we got to find out about her!  She spent her first two years at the hospital, abandoned but not alone, thanks to all of the people who came in and worked with her and the other kids.  We love working at the baby hospital but sometimes it is hard to see the impact of the work there.  Really though, it is so important for the babies to develop into healthy children and adults.

If you went on a trip with H2H around 2007-2008 and have pictures of Flori would you please send them to us?  Her family would like more pictures because there aren't many of her at that age.  Everyone who has worked with and will work with babies there should be encouraged, it makes a huge difference in their lives!

More Fun

We've been continuing to do well, here are some more of the fun things that we have done recently.

We met up with our friend Amanda who was an intern here a while back.  She was in Romania for a month working with the world race program.  We got to have lunch and hang out for a while while she was stopped over in Bucharest.  We hope that she will come back to work with us again someday.

We went to Peris for a play day with our friend Sarah from Michigan, and saw lots of our kids that we don't get to see that often.

We looked at plant and animal cell structure with the boys in the transition program as part of Rebecca's biology lesson.

George caught a fly and we checked it out on the microscope.  I took this picture by just putting the camera up to the eyepiece, I was amazed that it worked!  Thanks Tim and Terry for donating this microscope to us, the kids (and us) really enjoy using it.

Robbie checking out the fly.

Steven took me rock climbing for my birthday, we found this cool indoor gym and went for the afternoon on Saturday.  I was reminded how out of shape I am especially compared to some of the other people climbing there, I have a long way to go to get to their level!  But it was still fun and I was able to climb up the straight sections at least.

Steven tried out the bouldering holds, it's quite an inverted angle and it's really hard.

Here I am scaling the big wall...

...and making it to the top!

Here are some bonus macro shots, I have always loved taking closeup macro pictures and now I have a camera that excels at them again.

Thanks for all of your birthday wishes and for your continued prayers.  We would love to keep hearing from you and to keep in touch, we really cherish our relationships and even though we are a long ways away we are still close in our hearts and through our heavenly father.