Our Christmas

In the previous e-mails we were asking prayers for shoe boxes situation .Finally they arrived ,little too late ,but they arrived .Thank you for your prayers and we are also thankful for the help given by some helpers .The church we started to attend 3 years ago, allowed us to use their building for storage and that helped a lot ,plus we did not pay any rent Due to this delayed our schedule became little crazy .

We had to beg principals from some schools to bring kids in school some how-they were already in vacation .In some schools was not possible so we still need to meet with kids after 10^th of January.

We got about 10,000 show boxes and are thankful we were not alone . When the truck arrived we got helpers 2 of them from Rucar orphanage .The hardest was for Vio as he had to lift up and carry boxes and then to call people from all over the county and give them some boxes to distribute in their own area .

In spite of all this crazyness , there were few testimonials we would love to share with you .

In Rucar – for the first time we went and talked to the principal of the two schools and we were allowed to share the Christmas story with kids alongside with shoe boxes .It was difficult since there were so many and we met them on the hall way .There were about 520 kids divided in 3 groups .At one point kids got little wild and the 9 teachers plus the principal could not make them quite .So we felt like we have to do something about it since our time was so precious and it was extremely cold there and were already sick due to some flu . I asked for a chair stood up and just looked at he kids .Within few seconds was quite and I could give my first message “ We need you to be Quite or else we will have to ask you out !” Well, it worked! The principal is the guy with mustache in the dark jacket and he could not believe it .He was so pleased that he is open for partnership. The other ones standing up are the teachers .We thank God for giving us ideas in making the kids quite and also for giving us the chance to share the truth about Christmas .After this the same school in a sport room ,had about 200 kids.

To start well we used the same “ challenge” “ We need you to be Quite or else we will have to ask you out” .At the end of the program one of the teachers came and confess “ Kids for sure learned something new ,but I want to tell you that I learned new ways in approaching them from you” We give praises to the Lord that teachers see potential in Christian teaching and methods in working with kids .

With the boxes there was the “ Most precious gift “book .Some kids almost forgot about the box itself ,they were so captivated by the book ,its message and pictures. Praises to our Lord for all the ones helping so that the books could be given away for free and our prayers will be lifted up so that the message of the book will get their hearts.

One of the things we enjoy the most beside sharing the story of Christmas is watching kids opening their boxes .To see how anxious they are .Some of them opened them while we were still there and asked so many questions of things they never seen before and did not know what are for .Others we got them opening their boxes on the street ,in the middle of road even .

In Podul Dambovitei we were for the first time .There are about 5 Christians in the whole village .Leonid is one of them and he gathered some kids .Hard to expect some knowing how hardened the people in that area are .However 35 kids showed up and we promised Leonid form 12 to start a weekly bible study in that village .Beside the surprise of having 35 kids we had another surprise : Fernando ,he grew up in the orphanage ,we had him over in our home living with us for a while some years ago and all of the sudden some one wanted him, for he was good to work .Now he is 12 and we met him in this village The twinkle in his eyes brought to our minds so many memories . The world is small ,but it is good to find some of the kids that we thought we never see again.

In Micesti it is known that not many kids come to weekly bible studies .Vio had the idea of giving out some invitation in the hope to gather some more kids .And it did happen .About 72 kids showed up at the program ,so praises to the God of impossible for this miracle .

Thank you for being part of our team in 2007 and we pray 2008 will bring you fulfillment and a deeper joy of being part of the team working in Romania

Still spending Christmas and giving out boxes

Vio & Estera

Please see more pictures from distribution of shoe boxes on

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=211274250/a=91878311_91878311/t_=91878311
It is free to register and you could see many other pictures from the ministry