Romania Compassion Mission

Well I think I have finally caught up on my rest.  I have decided that I am not as young as I used to be - either that or jet lag is a real bummer.

I have begun to upload some of our pics.  I will be adding more in the future but the day is getting late and I must prepare for tomorrow.  We will be presenting the mission at church in the morning.

Til then, blessings to you all.

Goodmorning...or is it afternoon?  All depends on whether you are on American time or Romanian time

We arrived safely home last night at JFK around 8:30 - transfered Amber and all her baggage to her parents car and sent her off to Guatemala.  I am certain she is one tired girl today so please continue to keep her in your prayers.  The rest of us arrived in Bethel around 1:30 or so.  Allen and Sharon drove on home - another 2 hours so needless to say we are all a bit road weary.

Our time in Romania has come to a close for this year but the ministry and people there remain ever in our hearts.  It was difficult to say goodbye to our Romanian family, they are such dear ones to us.

I have decided to do a journal/scrapbook this year that will be easily carried with me to share the work there in Romania.  Our team will be presenting the mission on Sunday at church.  If any of you would like to have us come to your church (provided its not Tri-County) we would be happy to do so. 

There were so many highlights, so many needs and such wonderful miracles as God took our little and made much.  Its true when they say "God is GOOD ALL THE TIME!" 

I will post some pics later today and fill you guys in on more of our exciting time in Romania. 

Again, a huge thanks to all who made this mission possible.  Without your financial and prayer support none of this would have been possible.

A few days ago I asked for prayer for Amber and said in the blog that she would "not" be going from JFK to Dulles.  It was a typo that I will blame on the Romanian keyboard (don't tell anyone but its just like ours).  I meant to say she will "NOW" go from JFK to Dulles without a stop at home first.  Do continue to keep her in prayer as this will really be a tiring time for her.

This is our last day here in Romania.  We fly home tomorrow.  The trip has been very short for me but I think most of the team is about ready to come home to the USA. 

God is SOOOOooooo Good!  Pastor Nicu and I sat down today with the funds I have left and reviewed the various needs that have been presented.  In addition to the almost 1400 bags of groceries, paying for our own food, ground transportation, and lodging, we are able to:

1.  Pay to have a well dug for several families in the village of Galbineshi

2.  Pay to have a house completed so the state will not take a child away from its adoptive parents (long story that I will elaborate on later)

3.  Pay half of the amount needed to compete a very small church that is bursting at the seams with both children and adults.

4.  Bless Pastor Nicu with two month's worth of salary ($1,000 in our money)

5.  Bless each of our interpreters with small stipends

and more. 

As Pastor Nicu and I have talked, we are both amazed and blessed with the faithfulness of our great God.  Only He could do what has been done in our short time here.

There is so very much I want to share and will take more time when  I return to the states to do so, but, for now I will just say again THANK YOU to all who have helped to make this amazing mission possible.

Today we have surpassed our goal - we have distributed 1400 bags of groceries.  I don't mind telling you that is nothing short of a miracle.  Pastor Nicu is surprised and praising the Lord right along with us!

We had Amber's dreaded cabbage today.  It was very good and I am happy to report that she actually ate about half of hers.  I cannot say she particularly enjoyed it but she was able to eat it none the less.  Jevon on the other hand turned it down.  Of course the fact that we had been given ice cream not more than an hour before eating here at the foundation led to his non-appetite.

We are all a little sunburned on our faces especially.  The trip yesterday in the mountains was very refreshig but the sun was strong none the less.  Amber's cheeks now blend well with her red nose.

Tomorrow is our last full day here.  I am not certain what Pastor Nicu has planned other than a pow wow with me regarding the remaining funds.  I do know there will be a house cleaning event happening where we are staying.  It is a beautiful home, however, the lady of the house has been in the country visiting relatives and left behind her husband and two oldest boys.  Sue and I plan to give the entire house a good cleaning before leaving.

I would like to express a special thanks to all of you who have made the trip possible.  It seems unfair that you do not get to experience what we do but I will try my best to exbound on the trip more when we get home as well as posting many many pics of our trip.  God knows of your giving and I know He will richly reward you for all you have done to bring hope and help to many Romanian families.

Blessings,

Darlene

What a beautiful day we have had.  It has rained here in Bucharest for the past three days - many times quite hard.  Streets have been flooded and it does wonders for one's hair.  Sunday we attended church with Pastor Nicu in the AM and then the chuch of our driver from the first part of our trip.  This is a small church located in the back alleys (there are a lot of those here).  They have been under construction for the past three and a half years.  Their vision is to open a kindergarten first to minister to the neighboring children and then of course to finish the entire building for usage.  Some of the team spoke with the elders about bringing a construction team over next summer to help complete the building.

Today we went to the Carpathian mountains.  We did not go to Brasov as originally planned but had a wonderful day none the less.  We did play our soccer game - the Romanians won of course.  While they played I met with the head missionary of the work we visited on Friday.  I am quite impressed with this work and he would like for me to bring teams over to work with them in the villages to the south.  It is an area of many gypsy villages that have not been reached with the Gospel message to date.  I am excited about the prospect of working with him.

The first half of the team leaves for the US in the morninig.  We have another 200 bags to fill and then decide how to disperse any additional funds.  Our trip is coming to an end all too soon.

Due to older computers here in Romania I have not been able to post any pictures but plan to do so soon after arriving home.  We will get home around midnight on Thursday, the 16th. 

Pray for Amber.  Due to some changes she will not go directly from JFK in New York to Dulles Airport in Virginia to catch her plane for Guatemala.

Today we started out with 100 bags of groceries for a new work that Pastor Nicu had learned about.  Located in the south of Romania, a missionary has begun a wonderful work in several gypsy villages - beginning with children's outreaches and then establishing consistent loving contact with the children and adults.  This area is extremely poor and the health care is almost non existent so they also provide basic first aide once a week as they focus on a village.  One of the poorest of the villages needed another 100 bags so we have purchased the food and they will come to Bucharest on Sunday to pick it up.

In all it looks as though we may actually fill 1350 bags before heading back to the States.  That my friends is God and God alone.

The weather today has been cooler for which we are all thankful.  We had a soccer game this evening Americans against the Romanians.  They won but I told Pastor Nicu it was unfair as the grass needed mowing and it started to rain.  It was great fun anyway and we returned home tired out.  This is a good thing when you have energetic young people always looking for something to do.

Tomorrow is People's Palace and shopping.   Whoo Hoo!  Monday we will visit Brashov and Dracula's Castle.  Another soccer game is planned for the afternoon.

Its is stiffling hot here in Bucharest!  Our temps have been in the upper 90's all week and we all feel as though we are melting.  The humidity is very very high as well.

Things are going very good but I don't always have a computer available for use thus the lack of pics and blogs.  Til all is said and one we will have filled over 1,000 bags with groceries - that is nothing short of amazing considering we have less money than in the past two years.  God is SOOOO Good!

Today is Allen's birthday and one of our Romanian interperters has been singing to him all day.  What a Hoot!!  We will be having surprise birthday cake for him later.  The surprise is it will be a Romanian cake which is different from American cakes.  The rest of the team arrive late tonight.

I am very happy to report my back is much better.  It takes me a few seconds to rearrange my bones when I stand up but once up I can keep going pretty well.  Thanks for the prayes and keep them coming.

Here we are on day four of actual ministry.  The day has not started off real well since my back went out (without me) this morning.  Needless to say it is very painful to move.  I am frustrated as I don't feel like I am pulling my weight with the team today.  They have had to handle all of the bags and distribution.

Thus far we have given out 320 bags of groceries along with clothing to eight villages.  I have met some new pastors and it is exciting to see what is happening here.  Today we were with a pastor who ministers in five villages.  The church in one of his villages now has 80 adults and 70 children attending in a building about one quarter the size of Tri-County's sanctuary or the interior of Good Tidings in Beltsville.  This is an on fire spirit filled church that is growing faster than they can keep up with.  An addition has been started but they have run out of money to finish it.  Only $1300 will give this congregation the spaced needed to continue their ministry.  I am hopeful that we will be able to supply this need.  I  am determined that if I cannot meet this need while here, I will be working on getting theneeded funds together after i get home.

Tomorrow we will be traveling quite some distance to a see another pastor who ministers in five villages.  This is quite common here in this country and it is amazing to see the dedication of these men and their families to the ministry.  The pastors are not paid so in most cases the wives must work to help the family or the pastor works and ministers as well.  They are willing to do with less so that the Gospel message continues to get out.  Tonight we will be filling 160 bags to take along to this area.

PRAYER NEEDS:

Pray that God will take our money and stretch it even further than ever before so we can help bring the message of help, love and encouragement to more.

Pray for my back.  It has been a long time since it has hurt this intensely. 

Pray for the second half of our team who will be traveling here on Wednesday.

Greetings from Romania.

We arrived safely but very tired yesterday afternoon (Thursday) and til we finally fell into bed most of us had been up for more than 30 hours.  Needless to say no one had trouble sleeping.  We are staying in the home of a Christian brother that goes to Pastor Nicu's church.  Pastor Nicu's wife, Gabby is studying for finals at the university and it was generally felt she needed to  have some peace and quiet, thus we are not staying there this year.  Our accomodations are very nice.

Today we have already been to Bicumei.  This is one of the poorest villages just outside of Bucharest.  The pastor there, Pastor Alexander, is deeply loved by the children and they tend to follow him everywhere he goes when he is in the village.  We left food and clothing for the children along with goodie bags for the children with some simple school supplies.  In a few minutes we are headed to Gabinach to distribute more food.  We have been to this village in the past also.  Pastor Marion will be with us for that leg of the journey.  From there it is back to the Carrefour to fill more bags so we can set out for Chiselel and other villages to the south in the morning.

Thus far we have not had any cabbage so Amber is smiling.  It is very warm and humid which makes it difficult to work up any great amount of energy.  Our nephew, Allen, injured himself on the job Sunday evening and there was some concern about infection.  I am happy to say his finger looks great and is healing nicely.  Praise the Lord.

Please continue to pray for us.