summer 2009

Summer 2009

.....and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.

2 Thesalonicians 1:11

Dragos-to your encouragement and first of all to God’s glory we declare that fruits that last started to show up and Dragos is one of them.10 years ago, he started to to attend the weekly Bible studies ,he came in the camp, trusted the Lord ad that’s where the great journey of his start. About 3 years ago we had as a missionary focus on India, Indian food, Indian dresses, Indian culture and words, Indian prayer requests and the needs in the Indian mission field. In all this time the Lord was working in Dragos heart. So he started to work among high-school mates and among students in Universities in Pitesti and just days ago he came with the news “ I am going in India in this coming September”.We are all excited how God is using Dragos and we pray for His protection over Dragos as he is serving Him in a dangerous area.

What can I do in return?

We continue to pray and work with our little ones Andrew –soon to be 7 and Dany soon to be 4.Just couple nights ago ,while talking about God’s love and Jesus’s sacrifice Andrew became very concerned about this issue and all of the sudden he asked “ if He loved me that much, what can I do in return?” This question brought so much joy in our heart and we encourage you to keep praying for Andrew and Dany to know the Lord, and to trust Him in all aspects of their lives. As for Dany he learns new words every day. Soon kindergarten will start and your prayers are appreciated as we need to buy and prepare lots of things for both of them. We are also asking lots of prayer requests for their dad and for us as we are approaching Department of Child protection regarding Dany’s adoption in the next days.

Summer camps

Either we were too blind before or did not see so many wonderful things. We had only 3 camps for kids(136) and 1 for teens (35) this year.. Each of them different with a special touch of the Holy Spirit.

One week we had 15 out o40 kids attending for the first time a Christian camp. It was precious to see Betty,Ralu,Geanina and others trusting the Lord to become their Saviour.

Georgi-from Poienari(in this huge village there is no Christian church at all,but for the last year she had the desire to participate into a Christian camp and know about the Lord and know The Lord. The day before they left we talked about things in heaven and things that can not be found in Heaven and her prayer was so simple” Thank you dear Lord that in Heaven is safety”. Alma is another girl coming for the first time in a Christian camp with her brother. She became a Christian and we believe God is going to use Alma in a wonderful way. She dreams to use her talents(watch the flag she made in the camp) and she wants to do paintings and use them in caritable purposes for poor kids.

The third week-it was from our knowledge the first time we had a boy from Bucharest ,member of EMO( a Satanist movement ). At the end of camp he promised to come back “ I was impressed and amazed. I really loved it .It was not what I expected( he asked his parents before he came, if drinks and disco’s are available at the camp) but I really enjoyed it “.

In the teens camp-it was our turn to be amazed-a worship leader from a very well known church in Romania, a gypsies church came 2 evenings in row to talk about worship and have real worship with teens .The Holly Spirit was just moving, touching , awakening (for the ones that do not know in our churches leaders do not allow instruments or alive music, so this helped all of us to see what a heart of worship does).

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Tract distribution

For about 2 weeks Vio took young people that we knew in the last years ,most of them with a relationship with the Lord and we were pleased to see that 12 of them responded to invitation of helping with Christian booklet distribution .First time when I saw them back I was “little “ surprise that in our car can fit 11 young people .They went in far ,far away villages, where people or other Christians won’t go and gave out 30,000 Christian tracts called “ Meet the king” .Of course they had all kind of experiences ,good ad bad, but it was so encouraging to see them all in the evenings coming back with “reports” and touching stories.(the distribution team in picture)

Open air Evangelism and tent ministry

Having helpers it makes the work little easier .4 of the young people we trained in the last years joined in the open air evangelism ministry this summer .Thanks to this team, kids from 9 new villages

heard the Gospel : Lunca Corbului, Negreni, Aninoasa Cariera, Berindesti and so on. In some places kids and neighbors heard the Good News. Praises to the Lord for this and thanks to the ones helping.

In 3 of this places we are planning to open up weekly bible studies for kids-your prayers are valuable o this issue.

The reasons we shared all these with you are 2 at least:

You will understand ad forgive us why to writting so much

For you to rejoice that starting with the beggining of summer ,when Estera teached 2 weeks at a Bible Institute for Children’s workers, throught the whole summer God has blessed us with many miracles , some helpers, lives changed, stronger teens in their walk with the Lord, “ our” two kids with many improvements and we all know this is in part because He is good ,but the other part because you care ,you pray and you give.

Now you worked hard for the summer to go smooth here on our end , therefore you deserve a break. As for us ,not yet, since there is a workers retreat ahead, kindergarten and weekly bible studies to start or reopen in some villages.

Still resting with you in His promises

Vio,Estera,Andrei and Dany

Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old.
Lamentations 5:21

Crisis and restoration sounds to be linked...after crisis restoration needs to take place ..and since spiritual crisis ,financial crisis and all kind of crisis take place around us we are looking for restoration ,but only the one coming from above..

One of the crisis in our lives as a family started as soon as we got the two little kids and we did not even know the size and the impact of it The kids are doing wonderful from all points of view ,God even provided a bunk bed for them and they are happy and we are trilled to see little more space in that room. However Andrew is a real challenge to us in so many spiritual ways ,not just by keeping us busy but the things that get into his mind and lips ,the things he learns from his dad when they meet the evil plans he makes even though he is not even 7 took us by surprise and gets most of our spiritual power. Because his father still has his rights ,Andrew loves his dad and his dad loves him and because the deal was to keep him just for a while ,(with us having no right to discipline Andrew in any way)we pray this “deal time “ to come to an end .His dad hates Dani from the bottom of his heart and he wants us to keep Dani for good or to adopt him.

Please pray for restoration in Andrew’s heart ,in our walk with the Lord and our time with Him.


God is giving us strength however and helps us to go on ,by encouraging others to take the Good News to other kids .In April we had the chance to be in Targu Mures and do a training week there .The students were mainly from an organization there reaching kids from troubled homes and areas .We were very encouraged by their efforts ..and our prayer is that the Lord will restore in every possible way Dacian and help him go on with the great work he does in that area and may all students be restored in their walk with the Lord (many of them will do something for the Lord if they get paid and this takes away the chance from many kids to hear the Good News and benefit from different services given by this organization).



By blessing others we get blessed –we experienced that in the last years of ministry .God blesses people with jobs and they bless us with their donations, God gives people awareness of prayer’s power and we get blessed by seeing the result of their prayers .Recently we have been blessed because a wonderful ministry has been blessed with shoes , lots of shoes and out of nowhere we got a phone call to go and pick up shoes for our area .Another man from the church has been blessed with a van and he allowed Vio to use it and bring the shoes..so the story goes on..others were blessed-they blessed us .We have been blessed and blessed others ..

There are so many touching stories about this distribution of shoes that you won’t believe .In one family(Vlasceanu family from Pauleasca) there were 8 kids ,all of them had their shoes out of use and the older ones asked their dad for shoes…the answer they kept getting was “ have no way of giving you any” .Their parents were crying and praying for days in row and one Saturday Vio gets in the village and gives to each child from this family a pair of shoes ..the exact size .It takes a little bit of heaven on earth to comprehend the meaning of those tears ..kids were crying out of happiness ,parents were weeping out of thankfulness ….

There is still restoration to take place and many new things to happen. Therefore we need your prayers for:

• Andrew and the issue regarding his situation ..whatever God has in His plans for his dad so he can take Andrew back( because his dad not having him brings lots tension and suspicion from his side) .

• From 29th june to 11th of july there will be multiple activities going one, including Estera teaching in the Insitute ,Vio running a camp, plus we need to see what to do with the kids in the meanwhile. Before that lots of materials need to be prepared.

• We need prayers to experience God’s faithfulness regarding finances for the ministry and personal expenses-since we are in debt .

• In 4 villages the kids from weekly bible clubs have different ages and Vio needs to separate them in kids and teens ,but workers are needed for this.

May we all be restored and return to Him for forgiveness, strength, provision and hope

Viorel &Estera Dani & Andrew

Hope

Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.
Jeremiah 14:22b

In time of crisis ,hope is what people are looking for .In time of crisis Hope is what we have left ,therefore we try to share our hope with others and help others to share their Hope as well .The hope that in Romania the new generation will know God and trust HIM gives us strength to do what we do…


Just two weeks ago we had a training week in Constanta-it is the place in Romania with majority muslim population .We had hopes in the past and for the future and other Christians in the area asked our help to train them reach out the kids …
So here we went for few days to spend a wonderful time with young people in the area and He has done great things there for us …
Using the car so much ,the car became a little danger for Satan, and our oil tank broke because of the bumping roads …it was another challenge due to the need of the car in the work and also due to the funds needed to fix it .Praise God He has been faithful as always .

Valea Bădenilor it is a village we talked about a lot ,but never before we have seen so much power from above …It is a gypsies village and many people working among gypsies loose hope after a while-they change so fast ,have so many hide reasons in searching God ,so fearless and so on..well, all of these theories failed when God started to work in their lives .We were meeting in a house of theirs ,so small ,could not have lots of kids attending, plus some of the adults started to show desire to know God ..without asking or expecting any help from any source or resource ,some of the adults said “ we need to have a little bigger place where kids could meet ,and we could meet too. One man gave part of his yard to build a small house that will become a little church .Within 3 weeks the little building was ready, built by them ,they came up with the wood ,arms ,food whatever it took to build this .From our experience looks to be the very first gypsies church built in Romania by gypsies alone without any help coming from outside .This was just to be the beginning; beside our meeting with kids (now we have about 70 kids attending bible classes) ,but adults meet EVERY EVENING to study the bible .The Lord “is the one who does all this “indeed.


Andrew and Dany are doing just great ,so many improvements in all aspects ,thought to be honest Andrew represents one of the biggest challenges in our lives :they both pray and love bible lessons. Please pray we will have wisdom and patience to raise them up for Kingdom and help them find The Way to Heaven.


Looking ahead there are some activities we need prayer for ,so we need to ask help for one more time .

• In April 6th to 11th this year we will have a training week in Targu Mures .We are glad we can help in this area ,but our prayer is that the ones attending the course will grasp the vision of God for children in their area.
  
• Cotesti-for a while there has been some work in this village ,some years ago but then there was no place to meet with the kids. Now, Toader Family opened up their home for children ,so a weekly bible study will be every week in this village.Also they asked Vio to help them start a youth Bible study for teens in the village ,so we ask for wisdom in how to divide the time and passion for lost teens
  
• Berindesti –is a village that benefit from shoe boxes .Petrica Nitu helped Vio find this village ,now he wants a weekly bible study there and Vio accepted the challenge.
  To be able to continue the work we need you to pray for God’s provision regarding funds .We have seen His faithfulness and we pray circumstances will not take away our eyes from HIM .
  
  
  Thank you for praying for us ,helping us and encouraging us ..it is wonderful to know that we are not in crisis of friends and prayer partners .God bless you with HOPE

Viorel,Estera,Dany and Andrew