Romania 2008

In August a group of 10 people travelled to St Laurence’s Hospice in Cernavoda, Romania, with the aim of spreading the Word and the love of God to the children and young people at the orphanage and the surrounding area. The group then split into two groups on the Monday and one went off to Cataloi whilst the other stayed at Cernavoda to work with Pastor Claudiu and his wife Corina in his two churches in Seimeni and Cernavoda and a local area called Columbia.

Seimeni - We worked for three mornings with 12 children in this small Church and did a range of activities with the children including a puppet show of the lost sheep, a craft of a cross which said ‘Jesus loves you’, fun games and face painting. On the last Saturday we ran a bible study on the Fruit of the Spirit and the children produced a tree with fruit on it representing each fruit e.g. love, patience, kindness etc. This was then displayed on the previously empty Church walls.

Columbia – One of the poorer areas of Cernavoda, just down the hill from the Orphanage was Columbia. We spent three mornings and five afternoons working with 20-40 children and on the last Saturday afternoon there were 60 children. We had a lot of fun with the aid of puppets and drama, telling bible stories such as the Prodigal Son and Good Samaritan. We also did numerous crafts, face painting, singing songs and playing football, basketball, water balloons games and many other games. It was especially great when one of the children brought us an album of pictures he had drawn to show the story of the Good Samaritan which we had done the previous day.

St Laurence’s Hospice – We spent the evenings with the young people from the Orphanage. We enjoyed fun and fellowship together singing songs, drinking hot chocolate and playing uno. We joined them on two evenings on their camping trip by the Danube River, where they fished, played games and had a barbecue. We also spent some time during the day with the special needs group at the Orphanage and played parachute games, sang songs, did painting and played with the puppets.

The trip was a very successful one and everyone worked very hard. Although it was tiring due to the busy schedule it was very rewarding working with the children and seeing their happy faces as we spent time with them during the week and taught them more about Jesus. We hope to send another group to Romania next year and your continued prayers for the children and staff in Cernavoda and Seimeni are appreciated.

Mark Inkpen

Photographs: Top right - Seimeni, Bottom left and middle - face painting and games in Columbia, Bottom right - Disco at St Laurences

Report of holiday in Cataloi

During our stay in Romania, five of us travelled to Cataloi to run a 5-night holiday for children with special needs, their mothers and the children’s siblings. The holiday was based at Casa Valentin, a purpose-built centre owned by the British Charity called the Sunflower Fellowship. There were 21 children in all on the holiday.

Pat Naylor, Ian Roberts, Ingrid Cooney, Maddee Smits and Jean Langford were in the team and we are all involved with children and young people’s work at St Christopher’s Church, Southbourne.

During the holiday, we used puppets and drama to tell the stories of the Lost Sheep, the Good Samaritan, Fishers of Men and the Creation. The puppets were very popular, although they did get mobbed! Both the mothers and children joined in the action songs with great enthusiasm. Everyone drew round their hands and we stuck them together in the shape of a cross, with a red heart in the centre. The cross was put on the wall in the Baptist Church in the village.

We organised a programme of activities for the children including games, crafts and went for a walk on the hill near the centre.

The team helped everyone to take part in the sports, which meant wheeling, carrying or helping many of the children with the races. The mothers joined in the fun as well. This is Raul (left) in one of the races.

We also spent time with the children who had special needs on a one-to-one basis.

Alexandru, (right) aged 11, cannot walk or speak but he held out his hand and his eyes lit up each time we approached him. Here he is with Maddee.

It was wonderful to see Mihai (left) having fun!

We were asked to help at a Bible Holiday Club, which was being run by the Baptist Church for children living in the village. Ian and Jean went out into the village with a translator to invite the children. They thought that it was something of a novelty that English people were inviting them! It was anticipated that about 20 children would attend the Club but more than 60 children and young people aged from 6 – 17 years turned up each evening! This was very promising in an area where the Orthodox Church dominates peoples’ lives. They enjoyed sports, games, crafts, learnt memory verses and sang songs.

Some of the children and young people at the Bible Club with Pastor Adrian Popa.

It was very difficult to say goodbye to the children on the holiday, particularly as we felt that some of them with special needs would benefit so much from treatment, help and support in Britain. However, it was a real privilege to have shared the holiday time with them and we shall never forget them.

Romania 2007

It’s not so much Enid Blyton’s ‘ The Famous 5 Go on Holiday’ but ‘The 10 Go Off to the Unknown in Romania’. After 3 previous trips to this lovely hospice in Cernavoda, Romania, you may well ask – what could be possibly unknown about the trip? In truth the previous trips have built up our contacts and knowledge of the young people and the staff team, and we are really looking forward to meeting the 3 new toddlers who have brought the nursery house up to 5 in total. However Romania and the people are the unknown factor. We have already had major changes with the small Baptist church, and we now do not know exactly who will be there, and the workload will be quite different this year.

A major unknown factor is the arrival before us of all the equipment which has been collected and bought for this trip. We now know that the goals, play equipment, toys and basketballs are all safely in Romania – we also have to think about the construction and fitting of these in a country where there is so little guarantee of nails, screws, drills etc. The concept of locating a B & Q is still very foreign to them.

All the things which we take for granted – clean healthy water, constant electricity supply with safe plugs, supermarkets on every major junction, fly repellent etc. are not necessarily available, and we need to be constantly aware of God’s provision to us in all we have and can do. This year 7 of the team are travelling to Romania for the first time, and we have enjoyed the preparation times. We will all really appreciate your prayers for the trip which is from 24th August to the 3rd September, especially as the temperature in the last week has been over 40 degrees.

One of the most important things in this Newsletter is however to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to all those who have given of their time, talents and money to make this trip possible. The work will include laying a play area for toddlers and providing sports equipment for the young people. Those who travel receive far more from the Romanian boys and girls than you can imagine – faces of excitement just to meet you and share time with you, hugs from people who are HIV positive and know they are ostracised in their society, the joy of understanding Jesus loves them too – so many things which make these people so very special to us all. Thank you again We arrive back for the Sunday 9th September service when we will take the opportunity to share the experiences with you.

Romania 2006

The work this year included refurbishment to the hospice in Cernavoda to help create a new unit for mother and babies with HIV, and also upgrading the accommodation for the children and young people who are HIV positive.

An initial report about Romania 2004

As the BA Airbus touched down at Heathrow Airport on Sunday afternoon with the team returning from Bucharest Airport , there were many emotions and feelings. Sheer relief at a safe return for all (except one injury); tiredness because of the temperature in Romania (30-40 degrees) and the change of environment and work; sadness at leaving such a lovely group of boys and girls, and their leaders; and an overall sense of God's achievement in all that had passed during those 11 days since we left England

Over the next few months we hope to be able to tell much more, but first of all we must thank you all for your prayers in supporting the team during their visit and for fund raising so that the required work could be done and equipment could be purchased whilst there. Your prayers and efforts were truly blessed by God who had His own agenda for us, as well as our own.
< br/> A matter of concern however is Jean's dislocated thumb that happened accidentally with one of the children. Upon her return to England she has been 're -plastered' and told that she may need an operation in due course. Please support her in your prayers.

Editor comment: More photos will appear here when I have time to edit. To catch a preview of the whole album look (click) here

Abbreviated highlights

6 rooms in 2 of the hospice houses have been cleaned, prepared and decorated to enable young people to be re-organised in their homes.
1 room was changed into a new kitchen and new units were purchased and fitted. The wall tiling was completed and new floor tiles were purchased ready for laying.
The 38 boys and girls who live in and around the hospice are truly amazing people. Some are affected physically and mentally, but all have an immense sense of family. The majority are really friendly and included us all within their family very quickly.
Many occasions for praise and worship developed over the 11 days, and the children were eager to take part. We also had opportunities of sharing the Good news of Jesus Christ. We needed to be creative in our preparation, as none of us had ever presented the gospel in Romanian before!
The money that was available to us by your generosity enabled us to purchase all the necessary materials for the decorating, kitchen units, tiling etc. In addition a new power drill was needed and the ‘SS Christopher’ was bought for the children. This is a 3metre inflatable dingy which has already given much pleasure and which may also be used for fishing trips. Craft materials were also bought.
On the last night the children had assisted in the making of special 'Thank you' medals made of card for all their carers, and we left every child with a coloured greetings card designed by Kirsty . They also sent us away with a card each, but also made the 'sun' which is up on the blue panels in the church entrance area. This is a wonderful reminder to us of all the lovely boys and girls who live in Cernavoda .

First reflections

Jevohah Jireh - means God Provides and is one of God's names in the Old Testament. We really did know God's provision for us on this trip. We lacked nothing. We might have liked more Western comfort, but we were safe, catered for, and able to carry out our tasks. We also were provided by God with a mission - to tell the stories of Jesus, and to worship in a foreign language - and it all happened by the gifting of God with the team. (We even had an English translation when we went to church on Sunday morning!).
God's Family. For many of the team we now have some of our family living in Romania. We will need to discover how to 'keep in touch' with our new family over the coming months and years.
The urgency of the gospel. Over the last 10/11 years St Lawrences Cernavoda has cared for about 120 children who are HIV positive. There are about 38 boys and girls now. The statistics speak for themselves. Our concern is for their physical and spiritual health. It is planned that we will send over a tape and Video of action songs and stories to continue the work of the gospel to these kids. More news of that shortly. Under early discussion is also the area of 'skills' workshops - so that these boys and girls can prepare for work at some stage. Alan, from the team, is sending out a large amount of tools to help and we will be praying over this matter.

Alan, Anthony, Bob, Henry, Jean, Kirsty , Margaret, Nick, Nigel and Richard