New Beginnings

Every year the arrival of fall brings with it cooler temperatures, shorter days, changing colors, and the beginning of all of our programs again after a long summer of camps and special ministries.  The beginning of the school year is always an exciting and busy time, and this year it was even more so because of a couple extra programs starting.

We welcomed six boys into the boys transition house (BTH) that is run by our fellow staff member Doru.  These boys have all aged out of the orphanage and are able to come into our program to learn how to make a future for themselves.  They will learn construction and building skills and also other useful things like English, cooking, budgeting, and how to take care of their own place.

They are excited for the opportunity that they have to better their lives and to grow in so many ways.

We are teaching them how to cook so that when they get out of the program they eat more than just french fries which is the one thing most of them already know how to make.

We made some Mexican food, complete with homemade tortillas, Mexican rice, and chicken.

We found out that Ciprian is an excellent tortilla roller even though he said he didn't want to learn how to cook because someday he'll have a wife that will do that for him!

Florin reeaally enjoyed cutting up the chicken!  Sandel didn't get to help in the kitchen because he was busy getting tutored in Biology by Rebecca so that he can pass the college entrance exam next year.

Two other programs also got started, the girls transition house (GTH) and a totally new one, the alternate transition house (ATH).  The girls are taking different classes and also learning how to live independently.  The boys that are in the ATH are staying in an apartment and are learning many of the same skills as the girls while looking for jobs.

We started youth group as well and are so glad that this year we have a new orphanage director who is letting us talk about God freely!  We are doing a bible study on 1 John and focusing on what true love is and how we can live a life that pleases God.

Another change in our program is that I (Mark) am not teaching English anymore and instead Rebecca and I are teaching art together.  We are excited to give the kids a more hands on lesson and hope that we will be able to have lots of fun with this.

Here is Mariana, one of our fellow staff, with a class of kids and their coloring pages.

Please continue to pray for the kids that we are working with, that we will be able to have a great time together and for us to be able to show them the love of Christ at all times.  Pray for us and our fellow staff for energy, ideas and guidance.  Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!

It Happened On A Very Special Day NINE years ago...

 Wow, today is a special day, it is our nine year wedding anniversary!  Nine years ago today on a cold and blustery October's day we were pledging ourselves to each other and starting a new life together.  We vowed to stay together and by each others sides through thick and thin, no matter where life would take us. 

We wouldn't have guessed that nine years later we would be spending our anniversary in Europe, Eastern Europe no less.  Now we have spent one-third of our married lives working in Romania since we've been here for three years already.

Our fellow workers and friends Steven and Haley were married on the same day only five years later, so we decided to go celebrate our anniversary together in the beautiful medieval town of Sighisoara.  We've been there before but went by train, this time we drove and finally found it after some scenic detours, aka the road names aren't marked well here so we sometimes had to drive in circles to find the way.

We stayed at a guest house with traditionally decorated rooms.  This part of the country was inhabited by Germans from the 1200's so this looks more German than Romanian.

We had a really nice view!

This is one of the nine defense towers that form part of the wall around the citadel.  Sighisoara is one of the best preserved walled cities that is still inhabited in Europe.

This covered staircase takes people up to the old German church and graveyard.

One of the graveyard entrances, it was so interesting to see all the German names there.

This is one of the things we love the most about Sighisoara, the winding streets lined with brightly colored houses.  It has a sort of fairy tale feel to it and is really fun to explore and discover the most beautiful places.

 Here we are by one of the citadel gates with a cool neighborhood behind us.

Even the places that haven't been recently restored have lots of character, showing the bricks under the plaster and the different colors of paint, it gives a real old world feeling.

 We had a wonderful European breakfast at a nice little cafe.  With our coffee we enjoyed croissants, bread, eggs with cheese and an assortment of different meats, veggies, and jams.  The weather was really nice, right around 70, and it was really fun sitting outside at the cafe and enjoying each others company.

On the way back home we stopped by to see several of the fortified churches, just about every little village has one.  In the old days the people here didn't have enough resources to fortify every town, so they just built fortifications around their churches so they would have somewhere secure to defend themselves against invaders.

We stopped by the ruins of an old fortress, Rupea Fortress which is currently being restored so unfortunately we couldn't go inside.  It is pretty impressive though as it sits on a hill that towers over the rest of the surrounding land.

The drive back was really fun because we could just stop and explore wherever we wanted to.  

Another fortified church.

On the way home the main highway was closed so we had to take a detour - a winding road through the mountains and many small villages.  It took a lot longer to get home but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.  This mountain was the standout place and it was just a reminder of God's awesomeness and how wonderful his creation is.

As we start our tenth year of marriage we want to take a moment to thank all of you who have been with us and supporting us all this time.  Thank you for praying for us especially since we have been in Romania working far from home.  Thank you so much for being a part of our lives.  Please continue to pray for us to have a strong marriage that can be a good example to the kids that we work with so that we can show them what a godly marriage looks like.

Rebecca's Thoughts

Someone told me on vacation that basically everything they see about what we do is filled with happiness.  And while it is true that there is an amazing amount of joy in what we do, there is also so much pain.  (But who takes and publishes pictures of an unhappy child?)  Sometimes we feel so helpless, like we can't do what we would like to change the situation here.  I thought about this a lot during vacation.  If you remember my post after last summer, you would know that vacation provokes many thoughts.  For the few people that did see us while we were home for my sister's wedding, maybe you weren't aware of how I was really feeling.  I tried my best to hide it...but I didn't want to be there.  Ouch, I know...

There was only one place I wanted to be, next to "my kid."  I wanted to be there for the frustration, fears, despair and anger felt.  For all you who are parents, how many of you could go on vacation (alone) if you felt your child really needs you?  That is how I felt.  My kid kept telling me to have fun and enjoy myself, and I did, but it wasn't easy when every free thought I was thinking and worrying about what was happening halfway around the world.

I am glad to be able to say that the future of my kid is looking positive, H2H will be helping to build a bright future.  But what about the others, our organization touches around 600 of the 100,000 orphans here.  And even of the 600, there is no way we can help every one.  Some of them go out into a society that doesn't support them like it should and are basically alone.

When you think about the negatives, it can be so overwhelming.  But I remember something I read one time about a man throwing starfish back into the sea.  A person asked him why, what was the point when you can't save them all.  And he replied that for the one he just threw back in, it mattered.  We can't focus on what we can't change, what we can't do, on those we can't reach.  We have to focus on what is before us, what we can change, what we can do.  For Mark and I, we get to love the kids who let us into their lives as well as teach them about what things matter most.  For you readers, you can support us like most of you already do.  In prayer most importantly, we and the kids need it so much.  And secondly, through financial support.  God has blessed us and we are fully supported.  But you can always give (directly to h2h) to help the kids.  It helps us help them...from shoes to a chance to succeed and everything in between.  I can't stop children from showing up abandoned, or the tears over their families who couldn't support them like they needed, or all the hard things they go through.  But I can be there, I can listen and let them know about the only hope we all have.  And you can be here too...by physically coming or knowing that your support is what makes us be able to be here.  And we will keep showing pictures showing the joy of ones chosen to be thrown back in.

Summer 2012 Recap - Romania

Summer in Romania is always a highly anticipated time that we look forward to all year long.  Working with the kids through summer camps enables us to minister to them in a whole new way.  We get to take them out of their normal environment where feelings like loneliness, anxiety, and oppression are ever present and bring them into a high energy, fun filled time.  We also have more freedom to talk and study about God and to share His good news with them and make it real through our testimonies and interactions.  This summer was no exception and we really had a great time!

We started out with a special camp for teen girls and two trips to the mountains with some of the older boys.  The girls enjoyed an olympic themed camp at the girls transition house.  In the mountains with the boys we set up our tents inside the protective fence of the mountain rescue station to keep out the bears and other animals that roam around there.  We did lots of hiking and sight seeing and we had many chances to talk about God and what it means to be his follower.  We focused on how we can honor God, grow, and be joyful in the trials that we face.  We also followed the life of David and used him as an example of how to be a man after God’s own heart.  We had an awesome group of guys come from America to help us and they contributed a lot to making these trips great.

We then started day camps with the younger kids, from ages 3 to 14.  We brought them out to our transition house in small groups and did a sort of VBS program with them.  We sang, learned about the Bible, and did olympic themed crafts and games.  The weather was so hot most of the time, usually mid 90’s to low 100’s, so we played lots of water games like duck, duck, goose with water balloons, balloon toss, and slipping and sliding on a giant slip and slide.  These camps were the highlight of the kid’s summer and they never wanted to leave!

After two more older boys and girls camps were finished a small team from FairHaven Ministries, our home church, came to help us run a fun VBS program for the kids at one of the orphanages.  We had a really great time ministering with them and they did a great job of working with the kids.  We were really encouraged and blessed by them coming and are hoping that more people will come on a trip that we are planning for next year. 

At the very end of summer we headed to Vienna, Austria to visit our friend Carolin, who was an intern with H2H last year.  We really enjoyed touring three palaces, seeing impressive cathedrals, going to a Mozart & Strauss concert, and eating amazing food.  We then headed home for a short visit which included being part of Rebecca’s sister’s wedding.  We enjoyed seeing family and friends but our time home was way too short to even begin to see everyone.  Don’t worry though, we’ll be back sometime around Christmas for a longer time so we’ll get to share with our churches and spend more time visiting with everyone.

Please Continue To Pray:

- Praise God for such a great summer. He sustained us even as it was very busy and taxing.  Pray that the seeds that we planted will grow into faith that will be put into action

- School is starting soon!  Please pray for guidance and wisdom for us and all of our staff as we plan our classes and work on scheduling

- Both transition programs will also be starting soon, for the first time in two years for the girls program. Pray for the kids coming into the programs that they will have a great growing experience in the programs.  Please also pray for all the staff that will be involved in these challenging programs

- None of our students passed the college entrance exam, only 40% in the whole country did!  Pray for their next steps as some enter into our transition programs and others will be helped by H2H to find apartments and jobs.  Some will continue to study to take the test again next year

- 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.  Pray for staff unity and for a great year in which we can see a big change!

To download a printable copy of our newsletter click on the picture of it below and download it.

Also check out the promotional video that H2H had made with all new footage from this spring!

New H2H Promotional Video

Thanks as always for your prayers and support, we couldn’t do this without you!

Beautiful Vienna

After all of our summer camps and the busy summer ministry are done we usually get some time to recharge and take a vacation.  This year we headed home for Rebecca's sister's wedding which is this weekend.  On the way over, we stopped in for a short visit in Vienna, Austria.  We met up with and stayed with our friend Carolin who was an intern with H2H last year.

Vienna is a really beautiful city with many palaces, churches and buildings with amazing architecture.  This is one of the three imperial palaces there that we saw.  Inside was an art museum with lots of classical paintings.

At the palaces the landscaping is always immaculate with flowers, shrubs and fountains.

This is the banquet hall in another one of the palaces, unbelievably big and so ornate and rich.

In the old part of town there was limited car traffic and lots of horse drawn carriages.

There were also many well kept parks.

We also had the good fortune of going to a symphony orchestra concert where they played Mozart and Strauss pieces.  It was really fun and we enjoyed hearing such classical music in the place that it was composed and first played.  That is one of the neat things about touring different places in Europe, there is so much history there.

This is one of the main churches in town, St. Stevens.  I climbed the 343 steps of the bell tower to get a great view of the whole city.

The inside was amazing and we got to do something that we've never done before, going down into the catacombs underneath the church.  It started off as just some normal looking rooms that were nicely finished but as we went further they got darker and older feeling.  Then we were able to look inside some rooms and see the bones and old rotting coffins.  It was kind of creepy knowing that these were real bones and skulls that used to belong to real people.

In the streets there were many statues and monuments like this one.

This is the altar inside of another church that we visited.

This is the state opera house all lit up at night.

This is one of the palaces that we visited and it looked really cool at night.

You can tell that Vienna takes a lot of pride in their city and loves to show off the beauty of their historical buildings.  This is their town hall.

We stayed with Carolin and she was a very good hostess, arranging all sorts of good breads and cheeses and cooking for us the first night after we arrived.

The following nights we went out to eat and had some delicious Indian, Thai, and Austrian food.

We really had a good time in Vienna and with Carolin.  It is always fun to see a new city especially one as nice and full of things to do as Vienna.