Pictures Are Worth Thousands of Words

It is wonderful to finally have spring here in Romania.  The sun is out, the temperature is nice, and we can finally get out of the house to walk around and enjoy God's creation.

We have been enjoying seeing all of the fruit trees blossom.  Most people here have many of them in their yards so this time of year is very beautiful.  This is an apple tree at the boys transition house.

Of course all of those flowers attract lots of bees!  We did an outdoor english lesson and all we could hear was the buzzing of the bees.  They don't like to stop for pictures so it took nearly a hundred shots to get a few good ones like this!

Butterflies have all just come out of their cocoons and I'm always keen on taking macro shots of them.  Unfortunately they aren't very photogenic either, they don't like to stay in one place for very long.  I chased this one around for at least 20 minutes before it landed long enough to get a good shot. 

There is also an abundance of other colorful bugs, like this ladybug...

...and this yellow one, the likes of which I have never seen before.

This is a nice example of the beautiful weather we've been having!

There have also been some spectacular sunsets.

This is the entryway of an old abandoned winery that we explored.  It has been vacant ever since communism fell in 1989.

These barrels are massive, holding 6.5 tons of wine each!

They are about 8 feet in diameter, just huge.

There are also many abandoned factories scattered all over the place.

Most of them were shuttered after the fall of communism because there wasn't demand for the products they were making.  Many of them existed just so that everyone would have a job.

I hope you enjoyed this little picture tour.  Would you please continue to pray for us as we work with abandoned kids here in Romania?  Please pray for the kids that they would be open to God, most of them have a lot of head knowledge about God but it hasn't moved to the heart.  They find it very hard to put into practice being surrounded by their peers in a very secularized culture (sound familiar?).  We just pray that God will take ahold of them and give them transforming faith.  Please continue to pray for the planning of summer ministry and for our organization as a whole.  Thank you so much for being our partners in this life changing ministry!

Spring Fun

Spring is finally here in Romania!  When spring comes it brings with it renewed life, hope, and fun because we can finally go outdoors again.  It also means that there will be spring break at school.  This year we had one week of special programing and one of spring break.

During special programing week the kids got to experience and learn differently than they are used to.  I gave a presentation about London and all of the history and sights there.

After the presentation we had English tea and biscuits...

...and we made a craft, little Buckingham Palace guards.  The kids did other things during the week too like go to a bread factory.

Over spring break we had many of the kids over to our apartment to watch "The Lion King."  They enjoyed watching the movie on our awesome home theater system (too bad it was only up temporarily).

This was the second group of kids and they were very well behaved.  The first group was 21 kids and they were all pretty hyped up!

We also continued our apartment visits and enjoyed spending time with our kids.

Our friend Jenny came down for a few days to see what we do here and she enjoyed herself too.

We were finally able to do our English lessons outside at the Boys Transition House because of the nice weather.

After the lesson we went to the forest to pick stinging nettle, which they apparently cook and eat somehow.  We found lots of other things too like lizards, butterflies and snails.

We went past an abandoned winery and went in to take a look.  It was really neat to see but also hard to imagine that there are so many abandoned places like this in Romania.  Many factories and businesses closed after the fall of communism because there was no demand for the products they were making.  Now they are just cool places to explore.

Thank you once again for your prayers and support!  Please pray for all of the teams coming over from now until the end of the summer.  Pray that God will use the people coming on these teams to make a difference in these kids' lives for eternity.  Please also continue to pray for the planning of summer camp and for the kids to be ready to hear God's word and to make a change in their lives.  Thanks again!

Play Day

During the week we work with kids from the orphanages in Rosiori, a town around two hours south-west of Bucharest.  We travel to and stay in Bucharest on the weekends with another missionary couple there.  Because of that we don't usually get to see the kids at the orphanages around Bucharest.  Once in a while though, a team comes and we go to see these kids for a Saturday play day.

We are always greeted with lots of hugs and kisses and questions about why we don't come more often.  The bonds that we have with these kids still run deep.

We sometimes get to make new friends too, like these girls who are new to the orphanage this year.  They really want to learn English and they asked how to say so many things.

We also enjoyed being with our interns Megan and Samantha.

It is amazing to see how much the kids are growing, Petrisor is almost as tall as me now...

...this is a picture of us with him during our first trip in 2007!

Alina still calls us Mommy and Daddy...

...she has grown so much since the first time we met her in 2008!

Alina and I took a walk to look at some swans on the lake near the orphanage.

Don't know what this is but it looked cool so I went for a my favorite: a macro shot.

Here is a bonus picture, I was walking by the open air market the other day and saw this.  I thought it was funny so I figured I'd share it.

Blogs

I read a blog this morning and it didn't really impact me until I began to think about my kids.  It was about how people complain about first world problems and don't even think beyond themselves.  For example I could write a blog about how our new fridge is five times larger than our old one (a first world concern).  Or I could write about the times I can't sleep at night because my heart is so broken for our kids.  

Look at these faces.  These are children who are growing up without parents.

The people that truly care about them in their lives are paid workers (sometimes) and H2H staff.

Many of them will fight their entire life trying to erase lies about their worth and value.

Yes, they are blessed, they have food, clothes, a roof over their head and the opportunity to go to school.  For many of them their future was made brighter when they were given up to the state, a fact that is hard to accept because family should be the best option.

I was thinking about my boy this morning and how he is going to be completely on his own soon.  His own place, working and providing for himself.  I am proud of him.  But at the same time I was thinking of how hard it must be.  He still has a long way to go to remove all the negativity and lies from his past.  And if something where to happen to him and he would loose his job...he has no one.  Okay, he will always have us, but that just feels...wrong.  Why does a Romanian have an American as a closest friend?  Is anyone besides H2H staying awake at night wondering when he will ever turn his life over to Jesus?  Why are we so blind to the injustices right in front of our eyes?  Don't misunderstand me, I feel overwhelmingly blessed to be here and to be a part of these kids lives.  But with that blessing comes a longing for things to be made right, for the struggle against evil to be over.  Right now I am called to bring glory to God's name by working with the kids most precious to his heart.  What is he calling you to?  And will you let him break your heart?  Or will first world problems blind you? 

Art Class with the Boys

This year we have been teaching an art class with the boys at the special school that we work at.  Knowing that these kids love to draw and color we decided to help them develop their creative art skills.  We have taught many of the basics like the color wheel, using shapes to draw different things, perspective and proportion. 

As an intro to how artists work, we did a lesson on making still life portraits, using a bowl of fruit as our subject.

We started off with the bowl covered up, then revealed the it slowly, the kids couldn't wait to see what it was!

The lesson went great and we got lots of different interpretations of the bowl of fruit.  The hardest part was protecting the fruit from hungry kids who apparently don't get much fresh fruit!

Some of the kids need a helping hand from time to time...

...and some do just great on their own.

Here is a proud class with their drawings, they did a great job!

Here we are having one of the students help us with the perspective/proportion lesson.

Rebecca kicked off the next phase of our class where we will focus on different artists and their techniques with Vincent van Gogh's "Vase with Twelve Sunflowers."

We helped the kids to copy the painting as best as they could.

This was one of the closest to the original, a great rendering.

We really enjoy teaching art to these kids because it allows them to use their hands and create something beautiful.  They need to be encouraged to use and increase their talents because this isn't something that they get very much of. 

Our Boys

Each week we enjoy being able to work with the boys in our transition programs.  We have a lot of fun interacting with the boys and we always have a good time with them.

The six boys staying at the transition house in Nenciulesti are (L to R) Adi, Florin, Sandel, Alex, Ciprian, and Marinel.  Doru is a Romanian man who stays with them and teaches them full time, he is such a great guy and he loves these boys like his own.

We teach an English class, we have focused on greetings and basic conversation skills.

Each week we practice what we've been going over the whole time, it is always fun to act out a first meeting and see how it goes.

From time to time we have an intern come with us for the week, here Samantha is practicing with Adi.

Megan, another intern, practiced with Marinel.

 We also cook with the boys to try and get them ready for living on their own after they graduate from the program.  Here we made individual pizzas and they got rave reviews.

Once a month H2H hosts a bible study for graduates and those in the transition programs.  We had a computer party with some of the boys, everyone is into technology!

We enjoy seeing the boys who are in the transition program in Bucharest too, they live in an apartment and take many of the same classes as the others.  They are also doing things like internships and going to hair cutting school and working.  Here are Berki and Marius, and not pictured are Gheorghe and Toader. 

Please pray for all these boys, for them to finish the program well and for them to be receptive to the gospel.