August - Mid-September 2012

Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

We are so truly thankful for all of you who have prayed for us during our busiest camp season. As previously posted, our plans were to host a week long children's camp with our sister church, Stanca Baptist in Sibiu, and also have a weekend marriage seminar. As it worked out, we were also able to squeeze in there, another weekend cell group retreat near the end of the month with our Stanca Baptist Church in Cisnadie. 

The Lord has blessed us so much this month with giving us the energy, desire, strength and help to fulfill all the plans and even more for the month of August. We were so blessed to be visited by Jody's father, Art Merrill, who stayed for 6 weeks, and Will LaRose, who came specifically for the marriage seminar and stayed for a week. They were truly servants. We are so grateful for the both of them, and their hard work and assistance while they were here. 

I will just take this opportunity to tell you a little about each of the camps or retreats during this time. Since we are going to go ahead and include the first couple weeks of September, we will also tell you about the Stanca Baptist Church's teen weekend retreat just this last week. 

First of all, the children from Stanca Baptist Church in Sibiu were 13 and 3 women leaders. They were in charge of their own program, planning and food. We were basically just hosting it. It was the first time this group had used the camp. The first couple of days everything was going well, but very soon, we ran out of water. The back-up water supply system that we made of 250 gallons was gone in just 2 days, and we had to wait for the well to fill back up. With the drought being so extensive this year, it was necessary to limit the water use after the 250 gallons were gone. They were able to stay until the day before their planned departure. We assisted in getting the campers back to the church. All in all, we learned a few things that we needed to work out logistically. We stayed busy throughout the week with our regular Ghijasa de Jos meeting, and youth activities, as well as, being available to fix any problems at the camp. 

The marriage seminar was amazing for us. It was the first time that we have been able to have a marriage seminar at the camp. We had 21 total including Will LaRose, Art Merrill, the three of us, and one kitchen helper, Toader, from our youth group in Nocrich, and our translator, Danuti Mogoasa. The seven couples, including the pastors and wives from Stanca Baptist Church, and our Nocrich church, took part in the marriage seminar. The first evening, Pastor Simon spoke about God giving us the best suited mate for us. We had a dinner, individually served to each couple at their andlelit tables in the gym, and then the "Newlywed Game" after dinner. Will LaRose addressed the group before lunch the next day, speaking about the importance God puts on love and respect in the marriage. Jody had a short time of prayer and devotion with the ladies earlier in the day about having a gentle and quiet spirit, and Robert with them men, speaking about men of valor. Robert, Jody, Will, Art, Danuti, and Toader cooked and served the food throughout the weekend. The retreat ended after prayer and lunch. We were blessed to be a part of this very special weekend and consider it a privilege to serve in this way. 

On two different weekends, we were able to host weekend retreats for Stanca in Cisnadie. The last weekend of August, we shared in the fellowship with the Stanca cell group weekend retreat. It was refreshing for us to just sit back and share in the fellowship of Bible studies, singing and eating! 

The teen weekend retreat this last weekend was a blessing for us, as we see God continuing to work in the lives of teens that we have known over the last 13 years! We were blessed to be able to host a part of the Stanca Cisnadie youth for a few days. How wonderful to see these youth seeking the Lord, reading and studying God's Word and having good Godly fun! 

STANCA BAPTIST CHURCH CISNADIE YOUTH

As for the rest of the time during these 6 weeks, we have been continuing our youth group meetings in the homes of families of the church. At one point, we did have 15 teens attending our Sunday evening meetings. Our usual core group is usually around 10 or 11 in number. We ended our last meeting in the homes of our church families last week, and now will begin a new program for the school year. We are going to start meeting with our teens during the second half of our Sunday morning service to try to encourage the teens to be more faithful in church attendance. It is also a better schedule for our teens as several will be traveling over an hour on Mondays to get to school. Please continue to pray for these youth to make a commitment to Christ, especially since school is starting and other temptations will become more prevalent.


Please also keep praying for the children of Ghijasa. We have continued our weekly meetings and have moved back into the old schoolhouse in the village for these meetings. We were able to get the key again, and are so thankful for that. It was wonderful to see 2 of our older students return before they leave for school next week. Thanks to sponsorship, we have been able to start giving the kids fruit every week. It is our hope that we can assist in the children becoming more healthy. It was very encouraging to have 14 in attendance this last week. God has provided one of our youth that has committed her life to Christ, Crina, to come and help with our 5 preschool students in the group. She is doing a great job and expressed a desire that God has given her to work with these children. 

As far as construction projects, since our last posting, we were able to get the 1st story of the new mess hall building built, as well as, one of the upper story walls, and the subflooring installed. the building has a total of 953 squre feet on each floor. The top floor will provide additonal sleeping rooms for the camp. Robert was able to hire 3 or our youth from Nocrich to help at different times. Here are a few pictures of the new construction. 

It is our hope to have the outer walls of the second story and the roof on before the snow flies! Please pray to that end with us. The last two days, we have been waiting on the wood order that was suppose to be delivered last week, and still has not come. Lord willing, we will have that wood next week and start building again. Please pray as the following projects need to be finished before winter hits: back up water supply system, and the amended heating system. 

We praise the Lord for His provisions, guidance and grace that He gives us every day. Thank you all for your prayers and support. They are truly priceless to us. May God bless you and grant you peace as you seek to serve our Savior.