July 2012

1Thess. 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

We want to greet you all with thankful hearts for the prayers and support on our behalf during this last month of July. It is a very busy time of year for us, as always, when the camp season is more prevalent in the hearts and minds of everyone. 

But first, we would like to update you on our church activities in Nocrich. You heard about Jody training the ladies of the church last month. This month, she had a meeting with them, and they all brainstormed and wrote down the crafts, lessons and games to be taught throughout the summer. She was able to turn the children’s church program over to the ladies and they are doing a great job. Jody still assists on the worship team from time to time, and Robert is still busy helping with the sound equipment and teaching on Sunday mornings when needed.

We began a new program with our youth group for the summer, meeting in the homes of some of the members of the church. This has helped our church in knowing our youth better, and our youth getting to know the members of our church. This has even drawn some of the family members to attend that do not usually attend church. 

Our youth group has grown to a total of 12 when they all come at the same time. At this time, we have one committed Christian in the group. She was one of our assistant leaders for the Ghiajsa camp this month. Please continue to pray for our youth to make a commitment to Christ.

We had an intensive Leaders hip Training Camp the first weekend of this month. We had 4 leaders, Ovidu, William(our son), Flavia, and Crina,  and 3 days of leadership training in preparation for our Ghijasa camp, covering important leadership qualities such as, patience, humility, grace, cooperation, kindness and mercy. 

Through object lessons, exercises and discussions our leaders learned about these qualities, as well as, learning all the lessons, songs, crafts and games for the week of camp. Even though two of our original girl counselors cancelled, God provided the leaders He desired to be blessed through this week.

Our Ghiajsa de Jos camp was a week-long camp with our beloved Ghijasa de Jos children. With our leaders, and assistants, we had a total of 18 for the week. Our leaders taught using memory verses to their individual groups every morning and then the entire group came together after morning activities for the morning Bible lesson. Robert taught the steps of salvation using a ladder as one of the object lessons throughout the week.

 The gospel was clearly presented throughout the week in the Bible lessons, verses, songs and skits. 2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, was the base Bible verse for the week. Many of the campers received awards for Bible verses and answering lesson questions correctly. Our leaders helped keep the kids busy throughout the day with games, crafts and competitions. 

We were even able to squeeze in a trip to the mountains one day, and a trip to town to the bowling alley another day. Our leaders did a great job. It wasn’t an easy week, with some of the kids being very difficult, but God gave them and us strength through it all. Every evening the campers practiced their creation play, that we hadn’t performed yet. Each child represented a day of creation and another memorized the verse for that day. On Friday evening, the parents of the campers and leaders, as well as, our neighbors here in Ighisu Vechi were invited to the camp for the creation play and another play presented by our leaders and older campers. The kids did a great job with the program, singing songs, reciting Bible verses, and performing the skits. We served finger foods, appetizers and drinks to the visitors. This was the first time the parents had been to the camp, and gave them an opportunity to tour the camp and visit the children. Jody was the cook for the week, and craft lady and sometimes translator. Robert taught the lessons, and coordinated the activities and schedule. Every evening, Robert and Jody took the kids for an hour to give the counselors time off.  Saturday was a sad day even for our counselors, when some of the children cried about having to go home. All of these children come from difficult home situations. It is always a hard day to say good bye, but we are so thankful that we can continue to work with them in their village. Please continue to pray for these children as God works in their lives, and for us that God continue to give us wisdom.  We will make a separate posting of the videos hopefully sometime this week.

As a follow-up to the camp, this last week, we were able to take our youth from Nocrich to Ghiajsa and cook out with the kids in Ghiajsa . William coordinated the games and one of Robert’s previous students from 10 years ago, Florin Ursu, provided the meat and grilled it for the cookout.

As far as construction projects, William, Robert and one of the young men, Tuader, from our youth group, poured the floor for the mess hall just before our leadership training camp. William has been such a big help in his visit home. We just hope that we haven’t worked him too hard! The drainage backfill project at the back of the camp property was finished by William and Robert while digging the foundation for the mess hall. The upstairs camp enclosure and roof was also completed just after the Ghiajsa camp, when we finally were able to receive the rest of the ordered material for that job. Thank you for your prayers about safety and the completion of these projects.

Mid-July brought us a visit from our Romanian daughter, Carmen, who left for Spain a few years ago. She came to visit and assist in the ministry for about 10 days, and also a visit from Jody’s father, Art Merrill. He will be staying for 6 weeks, and assisting in ministry and construction projects.

Our other scheduled weekend retreat has been postponed until September due to work schedules. Lord willing, we will be able to have our music weekend retreat at that time.

Upcoming events, for the month of August…. We say goodbye to William until at least our planned furlough in the fall of 2013. This is difficult for us all. Please pray as he will be seeking a place to live in his area. Thank you for your prayers for the elderly woman that he has been staying with. She is doing better, but will probably be moving to an assisted living home soon. Please pray for William as he continues his college education and seeks a place to live in the Chester, Maryland area.

Other events, on this side of the globe, we have a children’s camp scheduled the first full week of August. Please pray that we get rain to be able to have enough water for this camp. We are hosting this camp for our sister church, Stanca in Sibiu. We also have a marriage weekend retreat scheduled for later in the month of August. Will LaRose and Pastor Ioan Simon, as well as, Robert and Jody will be teaching during this weekend.

Continued construction projects that could use your prayers include the following: the water reservoir system for the camp’s dry summer season, and the mess hall building. This building will not be able to be finished until after camp season, but we will work on it as we can.