Saying Goodbye

It has been a while since our last post and we have been very busy.  We moved out of our apartment, out of Snagov (where we stayed on the weekends), spent time with the kids and had a vacation.  Through out this past month we have been saying a lot of goodbyes.  Three different locations of kids to say goodbye, graduates, church, and other friends.  It has been an emotional time.

Many of the kids wanted one last photo with us, so we can remember them and of course they want a copy too.

Dani was very heartbroken that we are leaving.  The kids have a range of emotional responses due to abandonment, but his was the most extreme.  He sat in front of my car door bawling and saying he was not going to let me leave.

Group photos are not complete without a dog :)

We also gave away some of our clothes.  Packing was a good time to sort through our possessions and share our abundance.  The kids were very excited to find something new to them.

Daniel's new style

Marius looking good!  He was one of the kids I wondered about; he tends to avoid emotional situations.  He stayed strong and kept telling me that he understood it was hard.

Alina asked for an early birthday present

Checking out each others pictures from us.

One last group photo before we drove away.  They already have been asking when we will come and visit them and send them more pictures.

The Guess kids got attached to us when we had spent some time staying with them and were also sad that we were leaving.  They will miss us and all of Mark's jokes.

Friday morning is almost here and before we know it we will be back in Michigan.  Please keep us and all our kids in your prayers.  It is very hard for them and us.  But we know that God will true to his promises and will not abandon his children.  Pray for our adjustment, to find where God is leading us as far as jobs, for the car we will need to buy, and for patience.  We know that this is God's plan for us, but that doesn't mean it will be easy.  We leave with heavy but full hearts, and look forward to being able to come back and visit some day.

Summer 2014 Prayer Update

It is always amazing how summer ministry seems to fly by.  This summer was no exception, for nearly two months we put on camps and a VBS for all of the kids that we work with and more.  Now that it is over we can look back and see what a fun and fruitful summer it was and that God was at work in everything that took place.

We started with a mountain camp that turned into a Black Sea camp because of rain and cold weather in the mountains.  We had a lot of fun with the young adults that came with us. We focused on experiencing God since most of them know about God already but have trouble believing or puting their faith into action.  Through many lessons and testimonies we learned what it means to have a relationship with God and to go deeper in our faith.

With the younger kids we taught about the fruits of the spirit and did lots of crafts and games that helped them learn more about God.  We had a lot of fun with them especially on the days when we went to the transition house where we have a zipline and wide open spaces for them to play.  At the end of the summer we did a VBS program with them at the church which we all really enjoyed.  Many kids accepted Christ and will continue to go to church there, praise the Lord!

We also were glad to attend the baptism of four of the kids that we have been working with.  God has been very good to us by letting us share in the harvest even as we continue to plant and water in lots of other kids.  Being able to see kids come to Christ and be baptized is so exciting for us!

At the same time we have been feeling our time here slip away quickly and it is hard to believe that we have under one month left here.  Last week we sold our car to an organization in northern Romania that was looking to upsize but didn’t have a lot of money to buy another car.  We felt like God was leading us to bless them by selling it at a price they could afford just as it was provided for us in the first place.  We movined out of our apartment and gave most of our furniture to H2H.  We hope that others will be blessed by it just as we have been blessed and well provided for by God.

We have already said some goodbyes and have found that this is and will be the hardest part of leaving.  Seeing the kids for the last time (until we come back and visit) is hard and emotional and this is just the beginning of a hard transition for us.  We will fly home on September 26 into Chicago and get picked up from there so that we can have more baggage.  Then the next adventure begins, we are looking forward to seeing what God has in store with adopting from foster care.  Thank you for being such amazing supporters in prayer and finance.  We could not have served here these five years without you and we hope that you will continue with us in this next chapter!

Please join us in praying...

-for God to reveal his plan to us and to lead and provide for us once we arrive home.

-for God to prepare a child for us to adopt through foster care and for him to prepare us for the child.

-for God to take care of the kids here that we are leaving behind. Pray for them to be comforted and to come to know him.  Pray for seeds that have been planted to grow and mature.

Praise God for his providence and blessings on us and our ministry for these last five years. Praise him for all of our faithful supporters and pray that we can continue this journey together.

In Him,  Mark & Rebecca

You can click on this picture to download the PDF version of the update.

August, a time for more camp!

Our faithful readers may have started to wonder why we have not posted for some time.  We were deciding how to proceed because we had an issue about the privacy of our kids.  One director has taken the law to mean that we can not publicly post pictures of the kids.  No pictures?  What kind of blog is that?  One way around that is to put a password and make it a private blog.  But since we are leaving at the end of September and want to continue this blog, we decided against that.  So for right now, we have made this blog to not be searchable from the internet.  So if you are here, good job, you already know our address  ;)

At the end of July we had our last summer camp with the girls from Alexandria.  Instead of just focusing on the fruit of the spirit, we decided to teach using personal testimonies.  It was an effective and personal way to show the kids God's power and love.

The girls love to sing!

Craft time

Continued friendships

We met Miki in 2008!

The sisters (plus one), they have grown so much

First group of girls

The second group

We had some time in between this and the next and last event of the summer.  During that time we spent time playing at the orphanages and catching our breath.  Then we did a week of VBS at the church in Rosiori.  There were around 50 kids that came, with 80% of them being our kids from the orphanages.  CBC church in CA came with the VBS already prepared and we jumped in alongside of them.

Part of the kids

Everyone who helped in some way for the VBS

Prizes for memory verses with the youngest group of kids

Stefan

Puiu

Cristina

Mihaela, Mihai (and Antonio)

Andreea, Vasi, Dani

We enjoyed working with some of these younger kids from Rosiori again.  We didn't see them much during the school year because of our schedule, so it was great to spend an extra week with them.  It was the hottest week of the summer, so the team made use of the public pool again.

Chillin' with the interns

Mark jumping off the 5 meter diving board.

So you may ask what is next for us for this remaining month.  Well, lots of packing and moving out, one last weekend trip to the mountains, hanging out at Peris, Finland (for two weeks) and in a flash we will be saying goodbye.  Pray for this time of transition.  It is equally hard on us and the kids.  But God has promised He will never leave or abandon them, and that is the hope we cling to!

More Teen Camp

This past week was teen camp with the kids from Rosiori.  Each day we had two testimonies and a big game time as well as free time.  The last day we had a fun swim day at the public pool.  We all had a lot of fun and a great team helping us.

Listening to Maredda's testimony.

Zip line fun!

Lots of fun with the Angry Birds game.

A puppy that wandered into the yard.

On the village scavenger hunt.

Duck, duck, goose

The gang

Intern Jessica showing the view from the 5 meter high dive.

Trying to learn to swim in the shallow pool.

The boys diving together.

We had just an amazing time with the teens that came to camp.  Our hope is that through hearing the testimonies and the word of God that they will come to know him.  

More camp!

Another week of camp, only two more weeks of camp left!  This past week we finished out the boys school camp and then had teen camp in Bucharest.

The boys were so happy to come to Nenciulesti!

Bubbles!

At their request, duck duck goose with water balloons.

They had a lot of fun and can't wait to come back next year.

This year at teen camp the theme was experiencing God and we pared it with life sized games!  They turned out really well and it was a lot of fun.

A variation of Temple Run

Angry Birds

Testimony Time

Park scavenger hunt

Hanging out

Next we have teen camp in Rosiori and then camp with the girls in Alexandria.  Pray for the harvest of the seeds planted, safety, and energy to give these kids all the love we have.