August

August was indeed a summery month -- lots of our employees took vacation and the weather was on their side! But we still had a lot of work to do.

The first week of August we all enjoyed a Hamburger Day together and the kids from Darius Houses and Amy's House along with the staff from the office had an outdoor lunch! We had juice and music and it was great fun.

In the second week of camp one of our board members, Marti Caroll, came to enjoy a summer week in Romania. She worked with Natalia the PT to provide therapy for kids, especially Luci and Angelin who had surgery at the beginning of the summer.

Picture taken by Marti Carroll during her recent visit. This is Natalia, one of RCE's physical therapists, working with Luci after his recent leg surgery.

The third week was fun for kids at Darius Houses as they were away at camp! They had a fine weather and enjoyed the time there. They slept in teepees and wagon trains, had water fights and camp fires! The sky was fabulous each night. (More details to come about this camp in a future post!)

Currently, the RCE campus is under renovation. We hope to have a new playground and bike path for the kids by the first day of school on September 12! Thank you for your prayers as we transition into the new school year.
 

Summer camp in the mountains

Some of our poverty prevention team members joined a visiting team of 17 Americans from Fourth Presbyterian Church of Maryland in the Carpathian mountains for a week of camp. We served 60 kids in our programs from Arad County.  

We had a great time all week playing water games, soccer, and volleyball, making crafts and worshiping by the campfire. Kids had the chance to learn more about God's mighty power, His love for us and the fact that we are all part of His plan!

We want to thank our American friends who helped run the activities, which gave our children a week of fun. The video is just a glimpse of the wonderful moments we spent together!

After the visiting team helped at camp, they spent a day working very hard at a site in a village helping making a dream come true for a family with four kids: owning their own home!

This was the same project pastors Todd Smedley and Corey Gray worked on this spring, along with other pastors and friends of RCE from the US and Romania.

Here are some posts from the teenagers from Fourth Presbyterian about their trip. Thanks again for sending this team!

Hi! Today has been an awesome day. We woke up around 8 and traversed the city of Arad. Beautiful city full of gorgeous cathedral-type buildings and landmarks. Ovi bought us pretzels and McDonald’s ice cream which everyone enjoyed. We then visited a field of sunflowers. Each one was bigger than my head! Our last stop was the camp. We unpacked and then ate lunch with the kids who are all so fun to be around. We played soccer today America vs. Romania. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to beat them but we enjoyed the game immensely. We ate dinner and then proceeded into a time of worship. Overall, it was a great day and I can’t wait to see what new joys and challenges the Lord brings us tomorrow.

Abby V.

We’ve had such a great first day here at the friendship camp. Last night we stayed at the sunshine school and got to camp around noon after getting a chance to see the beautiful buildings in Arad. The kids here are so full of life and excitement and the games we played with them were fun if tiring. We had an American and Romanian soccer match (and lost) but it was great anyways. Looking forward to a great week getting to know the kids.

Claire F.

I hope you are having a relaxing time without us. We are all having a great and fun time with the kids at friendship camp. We have played many fun games and spent a lot of time in the sun. On July 27th, which is today, we got a short break and Ovi took us to hike to a castle where we climbed a few parts of it. After a long march  up a mountain, we finally made it to the top. When we got back to camp, we played a lot of water games and did a slip and slide. So far this trip has been a life changing experience and I’m really glad to have gone on it. Miss you, Amy, Gracie, Mom and Dad! 

Joey G.

Here at the camp not many children know English. I thought this would be a real problem for me being that I don’t know any Romanian, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was sitting with a little girl named Myla, one of three sisters at the camp, and we somehow made a system where I would point to an object and and she would tell me how to say it in Romanian. Although I would pronounce the object completely wrong, she encouraged me to keep trying until I got it right. I did forget most of what she taught me, but it turns out that you don’t need to know a language to have fun.

Angela R.

 On the last full day at Camp Friendship in Romania there was a complete mix of the Romanians and us (Americans) interacting and enjoying each others companionship. It has been an amazing experience to see how no matter what differences and barriers that might exist between us, our shared faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can unite us all in friendship and fellowship. It has been awesome to be here and serve with RCE.

Jesse R.

Iosif turns 17

Great joy at Amy's House, as Iosif celebrated his 17th birthday! He got to invite some friends, to have a birthday cake and receive the gift he asked for, a GUITAR!

It was great to be around him, seeing his joy to host the party and be in the center of attention. 

Sometimes, I wish we could celebrate birthdays more often, so that we can party more! But, we still get to party a lot, having at least 30 birthdays per year, one for each child!

RCE’s Poverty Prevention Team is bringing help, hope, and spring cleaning!

Mrs. Trandafir was weak from hunger and trying to nurse a newborn when Doina Martin (Coordinator of RCE’s Poverty Prevention Program) first met the family a few years ago. Three small children huddled around their mother and stared at Doina with the kind of fear and uncertainty that is born of poverty, dirt, and darkness. The two-room dwelling had a dirt floor. There was a small wood stove with a hot plate serving as ‘kitchen’ and single source of heat. There was no running water. The father was not working.  All the children were at risk.

The first thing Doina did was go to the grocery store.

Filling hungry bellies is easy. Solving the root problems of poverty and hunger takes time, patience, strategy, resources – and more patience.  Doina and RCE’s poverty prevention team have committed to providing all of these things and in time things have changed dramatically for this Roma family.

Enlisting the local church and American partners (three US teams helped build the family a real house with indoor plumbing, a small kitchen, bedrooms), Doina put together the building blocks of change, which included the not-always-willing support of the father.  The children started attending the weekly Bible Club RCE started in the village (in partnership with Child Evangelism Fellowship) where the Trandafir kids join fifty other children to hear the Gospel and make friends in the community

The oldest boy, Laurentiu, was failing in school. RCE teachers, counselors, and psychologists consulted and assisted and now, with the help of a tutor, he is keeping up with his peers.  Laurentiu has a fierce desire to learn and is thriving in his new, more ordered life.

The family is also benefitting from the alternative Christmas gift program.  (Thank you for your gifts!) They have a ‘Christmas goat and Christmas chickens’ – the milk and eggs save them money and add nutrition to an inadequate diet.  Seeds are in the ground in the small plot of land next to their new house.

The family is still poor. Mrs. Trandafir has mental health problems. But they are not starving; they are living in dignity and with hope for the future – and now they have clean house!

Follow along with stories like these on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

And, mark your calendars now for RCE’s fall event on October 21st! Come hear stories of mercy and grace from the man who makes mercy happen for so many, Mr. Ovidiu Martin, (General Manager), and hear great music from the ‘Petrean Family Singers’.

The Petrean family is a Love House family who adopted Gigi and Paula from Darius House. Paula and Gigi are now a very loved part of this large, musically gifted, and dynamic Christian family.

Director's perspective: Pockets of spring in Romania

Every few weeks in this space, one of RCE's directors or board members will share the heart and philosophy behind the ministry. This week's post is by Mary Ann Bell, a co-founder of RCE who serves as Executive Director.

C.S. Lewis paints a picture in The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe of a frozen landscape where it is “always winter and never Christmas.” Then Aslan comes and “the trees shook off their robes of snow. Shafts of delicious sunlight struck down onto the forest floor and overhead you could see blue sky between the tree tops.”

“This is no thaw,” the dwarf remarked, “This is Spring!” 

Romania had its own long winter of communism with a very wicked dictator who ruled with an iron fist. This was followed by decades of corrupt and often inept “democratic” governments.  Today there are pockets of a thaw but it is hardly spring in Romania, especially for the poor and oppressed, the widow and the orphan.

However, if you look closely, you can see the Gospel at work in and around the city of Arad bringing shafts of delicious sunlight and very blue sky to poor families and to children who have endured abandonment, neglect, and abuse at the hands of those who were meant to protect and nourish them.

These shafts of sunlight are brought by brave men and women who are unashamed of the Gospel and are committed to loving and serving the God of all compassion. Each RCE Love House family (a Romanian family that takes an orphan with disabilities into their family for life through adoption or permanent placement) is a point of sunlight.  

In time, this biblical truth has dawned on my too-often pragmatic heart and soul: that the broken and oppressed of this world have more to teach us, more to give us than we have to give them. Sitting in the humble home of a Romanian family that has chosen to take a very disabled (often disturbed) child into their family for life and watching the pride and joy they take in this cherished child is to see the face of God. Sharing in a beautifully prepared meal with them that is offered out of limited means in gratitude to us - for bringing this beloved son or daughter into their lives - is to taste and see that God is good and that His love endures in a place where the weak things of this world do confound the wise.

Photo credit: Future/Past Visual Adventures