Matthew 28:6a He is not here: for He is risen, as He said.
Greetings to you all during this springtime of the year. It is such a beautiful and refreshing time when the trees start to bud and we see the greenery of new life beginning. It reminds us of the wonderful celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as the verse above states very well. We pray that you all had a blessed resurrection celebration and were able to focus and concentrate on the miracle that God provided to us, salvation through His Son! Here is our update for April and March. It has been a very busy and exciting time for us with so much going on. Below, you will see the Ghijasa de Jos Easter pageant, the Nocrich youth activities including a recent weekend retreat, visitation with neighbors and from fellow workers, church activities including Robert preaching at a wedding and other Windsor's Fair Haven camp activities and all in just the last month or so.
Most recently, tomorrow, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday with our village church in Nocrich. Jody is part of the worship team and Robert assists in the technical area with music. In Romania, most churches have several services the week leading up to the celebration of the Resurrection Sunday. Our church held it's service on Friday evening where we commemorate the Lord's Supper also during this time.
GHIJASA DE JOS
Thank you for your continued prayers for the ongoing work in Ghijasa de Jos. Our kids are continuing to come, ranging in ages from preschool to 14 years old. In our weekly English class, we use the Bible to teach English. The kids memorize Bible verses and learn conversational English. We are still having around 9-12 in attendance on a weekly basis. Our most recent celebration with kids, was our annual Easter pageant. This year we opted to have it in the village school room where we teach the children. This allows the parents to see the improvements made in the room, but is also much easier to heat than the larger community center.
The younger children sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children" with sign language hand motions, accompanied by Robert on the guitar.
The older children sang, "By Him, Though Him, and For Him were all Things Made." Several of the children memorized poems and Bible verses. They all enjoyed the "Year in Review" video presentation.
We also offered our free portraits again this year, and will deliver them next week to the children and their parents. Once a month, we try to visit with the families of these children in their homes. It is truly sad to see the conditions in some of these homes, and not just the physical but the emotional conditions as well. We provided refreshments after the program to the children and their families. Even though we had 35 in attendance, most were sisters or other relatives of the children. Over half of the children didn't even have one parent attend. We try to encourage the children even though their parents don't come to see their progress. Please continue to pray for them, their families, and for us, that God give us wisdom as we continue to shine the Light.
VISIT FROM MARK WALKER WITH ANDY DWYER
We were glad to have a visit from our colleague and fellow EBF member, Mark Walker this month. Thank you Mark for the water storage container! As seen in some of our Nocrich youth camp pictures, we had the pleasure of having the company and assistance of Andy Dwyer, a young man that came with Mark and stayed with us during Mark's visit here in Romania. Andy helped with some cabin work, assisted Robert in repairing our neighbor, Lenuta's fence, and participated in our Nocrich youth camp.
WEDDING
Last Sunday, we were at our church in Cisnadie, Stanca and after church, Robert preached at Tony Timar's wedding. It was held in the town center church in Cisnadie. His text was from Colossians 3 encouraging the bride and groom to put on humility, love and kindness, using Phillippians 2:8, Christ as our example.
WEEKEND YOUTH RETREAT
After the wedding, we stopped by Nocrich, and picked up 7 of youth that were able to come, for a weekend retreat here at Windsor's Fair Haven, since they started the first week of their two week spring break. It was a beautiful time together. We were able to practice some volleyball, learning good sportsmanship, as well as, focus our Bible studies on the upcoming week of Easter. We read in Mark- the account of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. Everyone was able to make their own tye-dyed t-shirts to remember the camp. Robert was the counselor for the boys, and Jody for the girls. We slept in the cabins with the youth. Jody did the cooking while Robert was busy with activities and lessons with the youth. We were even able to go out into the community and sing an Easter song to several of our neighbors. Afterwards, we had pizza for lunch, and it was a big hit for everyone!
OTHER NOCRICH YOUTH GROUP ACTIVITIES
 |
| Youth Cookout at the Nocrich church |
 |
| On our way to Christian music concert at Stinca in Cisnadie |
 |
| Youth Cookout at the Nocrich Church |
 |
| Film in Sibiu |
AT HOME
The first two weeks of March, we continued with our weekly neighbor visitation with Lenuta, and Ilie, as well as, our weekly classes in Ghijasa de Jos and Nochrich with our new youth group. We praise the Lord that He also gave us the strength to finish the downstairs camp house project in order for us to move downstairs.
MARCH AT WINDSOR'S FAIR HAVEN CAMP
March is the first month the camp is opened for the year. Although it is still quite cold in March, we are still able to open the camp for weekend retreats for our own youth, or host other camps.
Mid-March brought the Torchbearers back to Windsor's Fair Haven for their annual leader training camp. We enjoy hosting this studious group. The conference room gets the most use from this group as they do alot of planning and training sessions there. Here are a few pictures for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment