Ministry Updates

There are lots of exciting things going on with Ministry right now. First- the Mamarute children's club is still growing. Wen we started 6 weeks ago we had 7 children. This last tuesday we had a record 16 children. We were able to contain the group all in one room of the apartment but noware using two rooms. This actually works great because we are able to put the younger kids in one room and the older kids in another room. Each week we are doing a Alphabet letter, a story, songs in english, and a bible verse that relates to our letter of the week. Last week when we did the letter "R" our craft was a rainbow and we talked about Noah and the rainbow in the bible. We also try to do an interesting snack that goes with the letter of the week. The week we did the letter "T" we gave the kids tomatoes with tuna in them. A big hit- try that on American kids. We also have been blessed with a second Romanian translator. Chilla is a girl one of the American students has got to know. She grew up in an orphanage and is now working in a factory. She has come for 4 weeks now to help and is just great. She is really good with the kids. Magda is the other Romanian that helps. She is the assistant pastor at the church. Please pray for the safety of the children as they travel to and from club with it getting darker earlier.

On another exciting note the Baragon teens club is also growing. We have had as many as 17 kids. Up until this week we had been just been playing games and building relationships with the kids. Sometimes we would talk about how there week was. This week the club broke new ground though and it is scary and exciting all at once. We were going to teach them a christian song that was really fun. When we started to explain the song they all had this wierd look on their faces. One of the kids said " This isn't and orthodox song- is it?" Turns out all the children in our club except the two that go to our church are Romanian Orthodox. Orthodox is pretty much the state sponsored religion. It is very similar to catholicism but much older. They have a patriarch in Romania similar to the Pope in Rome. Under communism this was the only allowed religion. Some Orthodox priests are tolerant of other religions but unfortunately there are many that are not. Kids in the school are required to take Orthodox religious classes unless they get permission to go to a different class. Non- orthodox people (or protestants) are generally called "Pocait" which I do not think is a nice word. Kids can get picked on pretty bad for being a "pocait". When this came up in our teen club we broke up into three groups and tried to define similarities. This at least established some common ground. There were some very good discussions in these groups and the kids really participated. At the end we got back together and said that we wanted to understand their religion and we asked that they be open to understanding what we beleive. God was certainly in those discussions as none of us had planned for that conversation to come. Please be in prayer for this teen group and also for the two kids that go to our church that they would have a sense of peace and be encouraged in their faith.

The teen leadership is also growing. We have 4 Romanians in our leadership group which is great as well as Maurice, Melanie, myself, 2 American students, and 1 volunteer. On Wednesday we had a leadership meeting and talked about plans for future teen activities as well as how to proceed with future discussions. Please be in prayer for this.

Check out the picture album called Ministry October for ministry pictures.

Weekend Retreat

A week and a half ago I went on a weekend retreat with the staff from the Veritas organization, the American students studying in Sighisoara, and volunteers. During the 3 days of the retreat we looked at personality types and how these traits helped us contribute to the organization. The retreat was at a beautiful private chalet in the mountains. During the retreat I had a chance to sing many of the old hymns in Romanian. It was beautiful. We walked up to the top of a mountain through a beautiful forest. God's creation was spectacular. We even saw a mushroom straight from a fairy tale. It was red with white spots. On Saturday morning a few of us got up at 6:00 to drive to a market in the village part way down the mountain. Although they had a vegetable market I was not prepared to see the meat market. There were whole wash tubs of just kidneys or livers. Racks of meat just hanging. I tried to take a picture of them chopping up the meat. This apparently infuriated one of the boss men who starting yelling at me. Then he gave Roberta and I a none to gentle push out of there. Other than that though I found that people in the market loved having pictures taken with their vegetables. The fall foliage was incredible on Thursday and Friday. Maurice and the boys came to spend the night on Saturday and by that evening we had gotten snow. When we woke up in the morning it felt like Christmas. The whole mountains had been transformed into a winter wonderland. The boys were so excited and we had to go out an play in it. Unfortunately, I had not planned for snow and the boys had no mittens. To Nolan's indignation I made him wear socks on his hands. They had a great time but it also nice to get back to our own home. Check out the picture album called "Weekend Retreat".- Karen

Famous First

This past Sunday, October 7th, was a big day here for me and Karen. The Nazarene church had its European conference in Turkey. So almost everyone who in any position of authority, in either church, was out of town for about a week. So Roberta, the pastor for both the Sighisoara and Tsigmandru churches, asked if Karen and I would "run" both services. Karen chose the music for both services and I volunteered to preach at both churches. I know, this was shocking to me also. I came up with a topic to talk about in the service here in Sighisoara, but I was struggling with material for the theme I wanted for Tsigmandru. I talked about it with Karen and she felt that her testimony better fit the theme that I had in mind, so she volunteered to preach in Tsigmandru. Well it went great for both of us. I felt lead to preach, but it was very stressful to do for the first time. The enormous responsibilty and privledge to preach was not lost on me. It is the highlight of my work here thus far. I like to joke that all the Nazarenes left town and turned over the keys of the church to the Free Methodists.

Karen and Melanie were able to go on a retreat this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with the staff, students, and volunteers of Veritas. I have been home alone with the boys, which is much more difficult here than in America. We are doing well and will be joining the group on retreat tommorrow. The retreat ends Saturday at noon, and families are invited to come stay Saturday evening. The boys are very excited because the retreat area is located in the mountains near Sibiu. I am sure that Karen will make a post and put up some pictures of the retreat after she returns home. Maurice

Birthday

Sorry for the lack of entries lately, but now I have three. I will do one each day. Last Thursday was birthday!(Maurice) For those who want to know my age, I am two years younger than S.D. thinks he is and four years younger then P.D. really is. Sorry for the inside joke if you do not get it. Actually that day I went out to the church in Tsigmandru and worked. Karen brings out the nurse to Tsigmandru on Thursdays for the doctor clinic. I usually ahve to stop my construction because it is too loud while the doctor is seeing patients. This past week we decided to climb the hill across the main road from the church in Tsigmandru. The boys went up with us also. We took some pictures which I have posted. We then went home, had a nice dinner, and Karen baked me a cake. I got some phone calls from home, a few electronic B-day cards, and some real cards in the mail. Thanks to everyone who did that. Maurice

What is inside a chicken?

Just wanted to share a cultural difference that caught me off guard today. I had bought a whole chicken to roast. I had done this a couple of weeks ago and there was nothing different than an American chicken. So today when I went to cook this chicken it was a real shocker. First I reached inside and pulled out the neck. I then reached in a pull out what I quickly realized were a pair of chicken feet. Interesting I thougt. I reached in to see if there was gizzard. When I pulled it out and looked at it I quickly realizd it was no gizzard. It was a chicken head. Once the shock was over Mel pointed out that Magda gives these to the cat. So in an effort to recycle I threw the claws and head out the back door. I am sure by morning that one of our many neighborhood cats will be sleeping fat and happy with a chicken head in it's tummy. Just had to share this funny little tidbit. - Karen

Ministry Updates

 

Thought I would take the time to update everyone on the Mamarute Children's Ministry as well as a new ministry that we are starting tomorrow night. Mamarute had a great turnout for our second week. We had 12 children last Wednesday. We worked on the letter "G", made Giraffe puppets, had grapes, and sang Hokey Pokey and I'm in the Army of the Lord. We also did a bible verse about God's creation and talked about what God was doing when he made the Giraffe- was he falling asleep when he was working on the neck or did he sneeze when he was painting the giraffe and so now there are spots. We are trying to get the children to see God as someone real and caring. We asked what he(God)was thinking when he gave Delia rosy cheeks or when he gave Raul a serious look. If you look in the ministry album you will see some cute picture of the kids who come to Mamarute.

Tuesday night will be our first night of the young teen ministry at the Baragan School. The ministry is for 12-15 year olds. It will be an opportunity for these kids to play games, listen to music, hang out with their friends in a safe environment. We also want to build relationships with these kids so we can talk about life issues. Roberta and I went to meet the school administration on Friday to ask them if we could use the school. Everyone we talked to at the school was wonderful. The administrator said yes to everything we asked for and thought it was a great opportunity for the kids. When we had our youth leadership meeting last Tuesday we were also very encouraged because we had a Romanian man from the church named Relu who said he be there every week. What a blessing. Any ministry that we start needs to have a Romanian who can sustain it when we leave. Relu's story really illustrates what can happen when we leave the direction for our lives in his hands. Relu had left his job in Romania and was going to get work abroad. He came back not long after leaving and said he was going to stay in Romania because he thought that is where God wanted him. Now he is getting the opportunity to help start new ministry. Relu also feels that he is being called to start a puppet ministry. Maurice is going to help him build the puppet stage and will start some puppet shows in the young teen and children's ministries. Please be in prayer for him and his family. Another prayer request is for the two American students, Courtney and Rebekah, who are helping to start this ministry. They have had a really rough week due to having to move host families. Ana Maria's mother was there host mother but because Ana Maria's health has deteriorated from the cancer her mother is coming to America to be with her. As a result the girls need to move out which is hard but they also see their "mama & tata" so upset about their daughter and they can't do anything to comfort them. The whole situation in the Lord's hands.

Lastly- Maurice and I will both be preaching on Sunday. Roberta will be gone on Sunday so Maurice will preach in Sighisoara and I will give the message in Tsigmandru. Please pray that hearts will be open to hear and that the words we speak will be God's and not ours. The Tsigmandru church has really grown. I am working with a Romanian there named Hordu to raise him up to be a worship leader. There is the language barrier to overcome but also the literacy barrier. We try to practice music on Thursdays when he is not working or after church. He works on reading the words and then goes home and memorizes him. He has such a heart for Jesus. Last week he prayed a prayer of thanksgiving that his children are learning to pray. Please in prayer for him and his family as they grow in their faith- not that God would improve their circumstances but that God would be able to use those circumstances to witness to others about the love of Christ. - Karen