My Boys

I feel compelled to talk about my boys. Earlier this week I dropped them off at school in the morning. They took off their winter clothes, put on their slippers (worn in schools here), went into their classroom, and waved goodbye to me through the window. It really hit me that day. I am so proud of them! In a culture where I sometimes struggle with the language, culture, and being away from home, they are unbelievably great examples to me. I drop them off at a school where the kids do not speak english and the go every day without complaint. They embrace the culture, the language, and the entire experience of Romania. They live in the moment and enjoy every day as it occurs. What a great experience for them and me as they teach me about life. Maurice

Just Plain Busy

We are sorry we have not posted more often. I can not believe that it is almost December! November has flown by with a whirlwind if activity. I will try to catch you up:

Last week we went Budapest, Hungary for the Free Methodist European Church Leadership Conference. It is an event that is held every other year for missionaries, pastors, and church leaders from the European Free Methodist churches. It was a great time for use to learn, share, worship, network, and relax. It was excellent, there were 15 countries with 13 different languages represented. Here is a link to Larry Winkles blog that describes it in more detail if you like http://winckles.typepad.com/update/.

Then on Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving. In Romania, it is just another day. So I went to work in Tsigmandru and the boys went to school. I would be lying if I said it was easy working on the holiday. I am all about the Thanksgiving meal and watching football with family and friends. Then in the evening we went down to Roberta's for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Wow, was it great! It definately felt great to eat. It made it easier to be away from home on a holiday. We ate with the five of us, Roberta, Hans from the Netherlands, Morag from Scotland, and nurse Annie from England. It was very multi-national, yet very American. Maurice

Baragan Teen Ministry Update

Up until this point I (Maurice) have been part of the leadership team but have not gone to the teen club in Baragan on Tuedays evenings. I went this week for the first time and was a little overwhelmed at first. We have a classroom that we rent in the school there. The club has been growing each week, with a high of 17, this week we had 26! It was a little loud and chaotic, but also great in another sense. After an hour the teenage Romanian boys, who are very macho and proud of their muscles, lined up to arm wrestle me. After about six straight boys my arm was ready to fall off. Then us boys went outside to play basketball in the dark. It was only after a few minutes of investing time in them and they were very attached to me. It was remarkable to me that they are so hungry for attention from an adult male. I instantly felt a bond to alot of the boys. Most of the boys play handball in school, and they were all telling us when their games are and asking us to come. For me, it was the first ministry that I really felt needed and God drawing me to. It is a place that I feel I can really make an impact. Maurice

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