Quarterly Newsletter
Newsletter
Coordinating teams
One of my favorite jobs in our Foundation is to coordinate the teams that
come here in the summers for ministry and mission. This summer we had two teams
so far, it’s been a blessed time. We had the opportunity and blessing to work
with the kids at “Life and Light which is a group home with gypsy kids that are
abandoned or their parents can’t afford to raise them. We were there and played
with them, loved them, told them stories and sang! They absolutely love the
affection and attention of the people in the team. We also went to a Day Care
center “Rozmarin” their we played with little children from 7 to 10 years
who come from very poor families
that can’t afford to take them to a
regular school. The kids are picked up every morning from their home by the
school van and taken to school where they receive breakfast; they have school
until 12:30 when they have a hot lunch and they are taken home by 4 p.m. Most
of the children live in a Gypsy
Village with no water or
electricity. The Gypsy
Village was another one
of the places we took the teams… here we have children who are hungry for
attention and love. It’s a very poor
area and when you go their no matter how many times you have been it can be
shocking.
Team Illinois
On Friday June 13th, our
first summer team came! The team was from Illinois State
and they came from June 13 to 19th. There were twelve people on this
team. There were nine high school students who came (eight girls and one guy)
and three adult leaders. They were a great team. Read all the details in the “Teams – 2008 2nd
Quarter document”
e!
Michigan
Team
On Friday June 20th, our
second summer team arrived! The team was from Michigan State
and they came from June 20th to 26th. There were eighteen
people on this team. There were 15 high
school students who came (8 girls and 7 guys) and three adult leaders. They
were another great team to work with. They were young but still so ready to serve.
Saturday June 21st,
it was the team’s first full day in Romania and it was a hot day. In
the morning the team met at the school for their team devotions. The team’s
devotions for the week were based on the
verse “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10a) and each day two of the
team members took a part of the verse and led a discussion on it. Read all the details in the
“Teams – 2008 2nd Quarter document”
Our team of translators
Did a wonderful job and please pray for
them that God would continue to use them to the His Glory! Ramona, Luminita,
Simona, Tabita,
Niss, Becky.
Prayer Requests
v
Pray for the new term that is starting in
September (for good enrolling, for good teachers,
for opportunities to share the gospel, for more teachers).
v
Pray for spiritual protection against the
temptations
v
Pray for passion for our mission here and
to listen to God’s voice most of all.
v
Pray for financial support
Support Update
Support plan: Some people are called to bless spiritually
through prayer, others financially so if you feel God is calling you to bless
me financially so you help me do His work please don’t hesitate to do it.
I thought of the best way anyone could
help me: The amount of money I need to raise monthly is 400US $, so I need 16
people that want to commit to sent me $25 a month. If you want to do this
please complete the form below, I will contact you for other information. Thank
you so much.
God bless you!
Quarterly Newsletter
(2nd quarter 2008)
For the 2nd
quarter update -. Read all the details in the “Niss’ News 2nd
Quarter 2008 document”
Team Illinois
On Friday June 13th, our
first summer team came! The team was from Illinois State
and they came from June 13 to 19th. There were twelve people on this
team. There were nine high school students who came (eight girls and one guy)
and three adult leaders. They were a great team. Read all the details in the
“Teams – 2008 2nd Quarter document”
On the second day, it was the
team’s first full day in Romania.
Half of the day we were tourists and the other half of the day we spent with
the students from our school for the graduation. In the morning the
team met at school for breakfast and their devotions. At 10:00am we left for
Sighisoara, which is an hour drive from Târgu Mures. We did some sightseeing in
Sighisoara and went up the clock tower. The team also got to enjoy some great
souvenir shopping there as well on the way back when we stopped at a village on
the road. They seemed to enjoy their time in Sighisoara!
Monday
and Tuesday. In the morning the
team arrived at school at 9:00am for breakfast and also for their team
devotions. At 10:45am we all headed out into taxis and went to Life and Light
group home for the rest of the morning. When we arrived there all the children
were very excited to see us! The first half of our time with the children we
decided to spend outside because the
weather was nice. We had a great time with the children outside playing with
balls, Frisbees, jumping on the trampoline and drawing with sidewalk chalk.
When we did our program with the kids it was like a totally different group of
children! All of the children were so excited to sing with us, even the older
children too. After we sang we did a craft with the children (we made key
chains or bracelets).
In the afternoon we
had our first day of our day program at the school with the teenagers. This
team wanted to do an afternoon program with teenagers at the English school. We
advertised to everyone at the school before the team came and the Pastor at the
church we went to on Sunday made an announcement as well. I wasn’t sure how
many people would come because the list was quite low of the people who
registered but we had an amazing turn out!! When I counted how many people came
there were eighteen teens that showed up! Wow, I was so encouraged and my faith
was boosted
Wednesday. In the morning the team arrived at the school again at
9:00am for their breakfast and also for their devotions. At 10:45am we all got
into taxis and went to Rozmarin
School. We split up into
three classrooms and we were there for an hour and a half. We sang with them,
told them a story and also did a craft with them. The children had a great
time.
In the afternoon we
had our last day with the teens for the teenager program at the school. It went
really well! We gathered together in the lounge and sang a couple of worship
songs again. The team leader had a great idea. Her idea was to go around the
town with our groups to do sightseeing and just spend time talking to the
students. It worked really well the team got to see the city more and also have
some really great conversations with the students! Afterwards we went back to
the school to end our program in a time of worship which was great! As we sang
it rained again and I mean it poured buckets of rain and it hailed too. I don’t
think I ever seen so much hail before!
In the evening we ate
dinner and then went back to the school for the team wrap up and debriefing.
Kevin did the briefing. I hope that they were all challenged and encouraged
during the debriefing.
Thursday
June 19th. In the morning the
team had an early arrival at 7:00am for their breakfast and last minute
cleaning and packing. At 8:00am the van arrived to take the team to the
airport.
Overall it was a great week.
I am so thankful the team from Illinois
came. They were such an amazing group and so great with the children and teens!
I am excited about what God did in their
lives during their time in Romania
and I hope they won’t ever forget their experience here
Michigan
Team
On Friday June 20th, our
second summer team arrived! The team was from Michigan State
and they came from June 20th to 26th. There were eighteen
people on this team. There were 15 high
school students who came (8 girls and 7 guys) and three adult leaders. They
were another great team to work with. They were young but still so ready to
serve.
Saturday
June 21st, it was the team’s
first full day in Romania
and it was a hot day. In the morning the team met at the school for their team
devotions. The team’s devotions for the week were based on the verse “Be still
and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10a) and each day two of the team members
took a part of the verse and led a discussion on it.
Day trip to Sighisoara
At 10:30am the team
left to Sighisoara. They took the van and Kevin also drove three
of the team members. They had the opportunity to learn some more about Romanian
history, to do some souvenir shopping, and to see some sights of our pretty
country.
Sports outreach
We got back from
Sighisoara around 3:30pm. The team had a short break and then we all got into
taxis and went to the Weekend Complex for our sports outreach. Five students
met the team there and then other kids join in with us. We played volleyball
and threw the Frisbee around. One of the team leaders got everyone together to
play a game of kick ball. That was fun! Kevin my director rented the basketball
court for the team to use during the time we were there so we had two games
going on at the same time. It was neat how we had some kids join us when we
played kick ball and also Kevin invited five Romanians to join five of the team
members for the basketball game as well. The team also handed out some tracts
to the people they met at the park. It was a good time to hang out together and
also have some fun with the Romanians that joined us there!
Sunday June 22nd, in the morning everyone met at the school for their
team devotions at 9:30am. At 10:30am we all walked to church. We went to the
Libertatii Baptist church. The service was good. I think its neat how people pray
during the service. I translated for the team.
Visit
to the Gypsy Village
:Around 3:00pm Kevin came to the school to
talk to the team about going to the gypsy village (things to expect and what
we’d be doing there). Shortly after that our translators came and then we split
up into groups and took taxis to Dealului
street where the village is.
The time at the gypsy village was an incredible time! I
think the whole village came out to play with them (all of the children and
some teenagers).Children just loved getting piggy backs, wanted to be held or
just wanted to play with you. Around twenty minutes before we decided to leave
we got all of the children together in a large circle and sang with them.
Monday June 23rd, in the morning everyone met at the school for their
team devotions. At 10:30am I split up the team for their taxi groups for the
rest of the week and also the groups for the classrooms at Rozmarin. At 10:45am
we all got into taxis and headed over to Rozmarin School
for our morning ministry.
Rozmarin School
When we were at
Rozmarin the team split up into three different groups (kindergarten, grade 1
and grade 2 and we were with the same children the rest was great! Every morning we pretty much did
the same program with the children. We sang with the kids, did a craft and told
them a story. The children loved having
the team there.
Life and Life group
home . For
our afternoon ministry we went to Life and Light group home for a couple of
hours. Our time at “Life and Light” turned out to be a great afternoon as some
of the kids warmed up to the team throughout the time we were there!
Tuesday June 24th, we met at the school for the team’s devotions in the
morning at 9:30am. At 10:30am we started to get ready for going to Rozmarin.
Then at 10:45am we all piled into taxis and headed to Rozmarin School
for our second morning there.
Rozmarin School
Our second morning at
the school went very well! As soon as we all walked into the classroom all of
the children were very excited to see us. The kids all came running up to us
and greeted us with a hug. It was so sweet and so neat to see how comfortable
they were to come up to us like that especially after only being with them one
day! We sang with the children, told them a story and brought play dough for
them to play with. They really enjoyed playing with the play dough and they
made some great creations.
Second visit
with the gypsy children
After
our time at Rozmarin we came back to the school to have lunch and then
afterwards the team spread out along the centre of the city and handed out
fliers for the English school. Originally we were suppose to go to Life and
Light group home today but when we were there yesterday the workers told us
they would take the children on a day
trip so we couldn’t go today. We then got into taxis and headed to Dealului street to
hang out with the children for a couple of hours. As soon as we all got there
and started walking up the street of the community all of the kids ran out of
their homes and were so excited to see us! The looks on their faces were so
priceless to see how happy they were when they saw that we had returned.
We
sang for a while and the children absolutely loved it. They laughed and smiled
the whole time we sang and it was so worth it and humbling to lead the group in
songs! After we sang for a while we told the children we brought them gifts.
This time before we handed out the gifts we told them they had to sit down and
stay seated otherwise they don’t get anything and it worked.
Wednesday
June 25th
Rozmarin School Our last
morning at Rozmarin went really well!
We had a great time
with the children in the morning. We sang songs with them, told them a story
and did a craft project with them. For the craft we made creations out of
marshmallows. I think it was the first time they saw marshmallows! They enjoyed
making creations but afterwards we gave them a couple to try. They liked it!
Just before we left the team handed out brown paper bags and the teachers got
gifts too. They liked their gifts.
Gypsy village/ mini work project So,
after not knowing what we were going to do most of the day for the afternoon
ministry the decision was finally made! I stayed at the school to help with the
mini work project (painting and cleaning) along with Mary one of the team
leaders, Luminita one of the translators and seven of the team members (Julia,
Kevin, Matt, Molly, Paul, Will and Zach). Andrea decided she wanted to go to
the gypsy village along with Todd and Leslie (the other two team leaders),
Tabita and Simona (two of the translators) and the rest of the team (Emily B.,
Andrea, Niki, Bethany, Emily T. Jane, Nate, Tanis).
Thursday June
26th, the team met at the school early in the morning for their
departure for the airport.
Like I said before the teams blessed me and our ministry in so many ways I
can’t describe.
At the end of this month we will have a
team from England,
I’m very excited to see how God can work even more through us.
Support plan: Some people are called to bless spiritually
through prayer, others financially so if you feel God is calling you to bless
me financially so you help me do His work please don’t hesitate to do it.
I thought of the best way
anyone could help me: The amount of money I need to raise monthly is 400US $,
so I need 16 people that want to commit to sent me $25 a month. If you want to
do this please complete the form below, I will contact you for other
information. Thank you so much. God bless you!
Niss’ Support form
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God Bless and keep you - Niss