Life In Romania

Fall Fun!!

2009-10-08T05:04:00.000-07:00

Here are a few highlights of the last month.

Andrew & Mike got to go fishing with 2 friends (George and Adi). We didn't catch anything worth keeping, but we had a good time!!

You should have seen the one that got away!!!

BCA Secondary Retreat!!

The staff and students enjoyed some beautiful days at Casa Elim as they deepened their relationships and received some good teaching in Revelation.

BCA Secondary

Enjoying some Soccer!!

Enjoying the view

Waiting on the train!!

OSCER Leadership Retreat

2009-09-09T04:14:00.001-07:00

In the beginning of Sept. we spent time with the leaders from across Romania talking about our individual journey with God and the vision and mission of OSCER. It was a good time to re-clarify this with a set of new leaders as well as encouraging them to consider God's calling on them to serve at a national level in OSCER!!

It was nice to have some time to play volleyball and enjoy the warm water of the Black Sea!
The university year in Romania will be starting on the 1st of Oct. Please pray for us as we plan some activities and try to contact students in the first weeks of school. The student group in Iasi, as well as the other organizations and churches which were involved in the outreach last spring, are planning an outreach this fall in another dorm area in Iasi. Please pray for them as they organize this, and that the Lord would bring about fruit from this outreach.

Summer 2009 USA

2009-08-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

For 9 weeks this summer we spent time in the U.S. visiting friends, family and churches. We kept a very full schedule meeting people and making contacts with new churches. There were many high points visiting old friends, meeting our new nephew (Lukas), going swimming and teaching the children how to canoe and use a kayak. A ministry highlight was visiting an international student Cafe held by a church in DE. for international students working in Rehoboth Beach, DE for the summer. Each summer thousands of students, many from Central & Eastern Europe get a special visa to come and work in the US. Most of them get jobs in tourist areas and work 2 jobs, usually about 70 hours a week. Some of the churches in Rehoboth Beach have been working on ways to reach out to these students. We were invited to come and visit one event that a Presbyterian Church has been holding for a few years. Each Thursday night from 11:00 pm-1:00 am they hold an International Cafe. They invite students to come and enjoy some desserts and as they eat they engage the students in discussions about the Bible and religion.

On the Thursday night we were there we met 4 Romanian students. Two of the Romanians where from a city in the north and we found out they are believers and that we have a mutual friend. The second two we met were students in Bucharest and we found out that they live right around the corner from us during the school year! Please pray that we can make contact with them this fall and talk some more to them!!

On Monday, 31 August Kris and the children will start up the school year at BCA. Rebekah will be in 10th grade and Hannah & Andrew in 7th grade. Kris will be teaching 3rd grade this year. Pray for them as they "get into the swing" of school again, and for Kris as she adjusts to teaching 3rd grade after teaching 2nd grade last year.

Also, from 31 August - 5 September Mike will be at an OSCER leadership conference. Pray for us as we focus on defining more clearly the vision of OSCER and how to reach out to the students of today.

Spring Ministry Update

2009-06-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a few highlights of our Spring ministry activities!

National Leaders Meeting

Each year we meet twice with one or two leaders from each local student group. This spring our meeting took place in Paltinis, near Sibiu. We had times of worship and devotional thoughts from Luke 15, some teaching on how to lead and organize a project and a time for each group to share and be prayed for.
Partners in Ministry

In May over 30 mission organizations met outside Brasov to talk about ways to motivate and support Romanians in cross-cultural mission work. There were representatives from over 30 organizations and we determined to partner together to help Romanians send out missionaries to countries that may be harder for western missionaries to enter. It was especially exciting to learn about how OM, Wycliffe and the three major denominations are focusing their efforts at sending out Romanians.

Graduation

The end of the school year always brings a time of good bye's to those that are graduating and moving on. This year there were 12 graduates and it is always encouraging to look back and remember these students from their first year and see how much they have grown and changed over the past 3 years in Bucharest.

Cristi has been serving as a part-time staff in Bucharest for the past year. He will be staying in town and continuing to help with the student group and hopefully working on a Masters in engineering.
Alin has grown so much in his 3 years at university. He has been invovled in the student group as well as a study in the dorm where he lives. He has reached out to friends in the dorm and has been a strong witness for Christ. He will be staying as well in Bucharest next school year!

Spring Girls' Club and Cub Scout Camp Out

2009-05-15T00:54:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a beautiful weekend with the Cub Scouts and Girls' Club at the Spring Camp Out! We had 25 parents and children together for a fun time together of cooking, hiking and relaxing!!

Spring Family Update!!

2009-05-04T20:25:00.001-07:00

After a few busy months we are now gearing up for the last month of school and planning for a 2 month trip to the US. During June and July we will be in the US meeting with family, friends and churches. We will be sending out our schedule in the next few weeks and look forward to catching up with many of you when we are back in the US!!

Spring Break (Late March) In Brasov!!

We enjoyed snow, sun and good food with friends for a few days in Brasov for Spring break. We also celebrated Hannah and Andrew's birthday there!

In English class Rebekah worked hard on writing an essay "This I believe...". One evening all the students presented their essays. Rebekah wrote about the gift of childhood, using her experiences helping in a home for unwed mothers with babies.

Easter Vacation!!
During our Easter vacation Kris' father and his wife, Vicky, came to visit us. We took time to travel up to the Bran area north of Brasov. We visited the old fortress of Rasnov, Brasov and Poiana Brasov.

Visting a cave (called the bat cave!!!)

May 1st weekend (a holiday here)
We attended a family conference with our church at Baile Olanesti! We had great teaching and we were able to take a hike and enjoy the beautiful surroundings!

BCA Talent show
Andrew played the guitar with a senior, Matews who has been giving him lessons. Marco, a first grade student, sang Jehovah Jireh.

Hannah and Lexi, her friend, sing at the Talent show!

Iasi Outreach

2009-04-16T03:51:00.001-07:00

Thank you for your prayers for the outreach in Iasi. It was a very encouraging week for everyone involved in the outreach. We saw God work in many wonderful ways!! There were over 100 Christian students involved, and after a week of knocking on doors we talked to a total of about 5,000 students in the Tudor dorm complex. We gave out many New Testaments and had great discussions with them. Often when we shared with students about grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ, they told us that they had not heard this before. During the week I only talked to two really post-modern students. The rest were fairly open and interested in discussing their ideas related to faith and God.

There were many stories of how God worked during the week. One night around 1 am. a student involved in the outreach that lives in the dorm complex heard two students discussing outside the dorm the fact that one of them had heard that salvation came through faith by grace not by works. This is what we had prayed for, that the dorm complex would be filled with the scent of grace and forgiveness.
Saturday we were able to present a seminar to the students on how to use Scripture with their friends and lead investigative studies. Becca, from the UCCF team, led the seminar and the students felt it was helpful. Pray for them now as the students go back to those they met during the outreach and try and set up some Bible discussion groups!

Mike, Ionel (OSCER Staff) and Luke (UCCF Staff) leave a meeting

It was great to see how open the students where to talking to us in Iasi and how many came at night to the apologetic presentations and then stayed for over an hour asking questions. One young lady came from an invitation she received from a Christian student that lived across the hall from her. She had lots of questions and even went out for pizza with a group of us after the meeting. It was amazing to see how open she was. Then she came to a church service on Sunday morning where I spoke on grace.

Please pray as the follow-up continues in Iasi. We have already heard of a few students that have accepted Christ due to the outreach. Pray for the Spirit to continue to work in students' hearts!

Mid Week Report Iasi Outreach

2009-04-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

The UCCF Team at the largest Orthodox church in Romania

The outreach in Iasi is going very well this week. Thank you for your prayers, we really appreciate it. We have seen God working in many ways. There are around 100 students who have joined together from 9 different organizations and groups to reach out to the 20,000 students in the Tudor dorm complex. The Christian students have been very encouraged at how open the students in the dorm have been to discussing. We have had 2 apologetic nights and there have been a 70-80 students coming to these short presentations and then they have an opportunity to ask questions. The topics have been:
Tues. night "If God is good, why do suffering and evil exist?"
Wed. night "Do all religions lead to God?"
Thurs. night "Is the Bible reliable?"

Luke and Whitney Cawley

Luke worked with us for 3 years in Bucuresti and now is on staff with UCCF in the UK. He is a very talented evangelist and has been giving the apologetic talks at night. He has done a great job at answering difficult questions in a way that is easy for the students to understand and constantly leads them to focus on Jesus.

Radu Onu

Radu was a leader in OSCER at the beginning and now is the pastor of the Eclesia Church in Iasi. They have a house right in the dorm area that we have been using for the apologetic talks. Radu has a huge heart for evangelism and has helped gather together a team of people to lead and pray for this week of outreach.

On Sat we will have a seminar to help teach students how to use Scripture with nonbelievers. Pray that this will be a good tool for Christian students to use as follow-up to the conversations they have had this week and pray that students would be open to studying God's word.
Thank you!

Aidan & Abi pose by the signpost pointing toward London!

Outreach in Iasi

2009-03-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

Next week (April 6-12) in the North-East city of Iasi (pronounced ‘yaw-sh’), the OSCER student group along with 8 other organizations and churches will be joining together to reach out to students in the Tudor student complex. We will have a team of 5 UCCF (IFES in the UK) staff and students who will join us for this time.

We are looking for folks to pray for this outreach to 20,000 students. There is an overall population of evangelical Christians in the city of about 1.5%!! It has been encouraging how God has drawn together this group of over 100 students to reach out to these students.
We would appreciate your prayers as we join together with a team of staff and students from the UK to reach out to the students of Tudor in 6-12 April.

Here are a few Prayer Requests:

1) Unity among the different groups that will be working together in this week of outreach
2) Openness of the Romanian students in the dorm complex
3) Tues. - Thurs. nights we will have some apologetic talks. Please pray for students to come and be open to discussions.
4) The Christian students to have wisdom and guidance in their discussions with the students in the dorm area.

Keeping Focused in the midst of the Crises

2009-03-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

We ran across this article from a Colin Smith a pastor in IL. It gives a great perspective for the way we should focus during these difficult times! Click on the link below to go to the letter.

http://www.unlockingthebible.org/archives/read/101008OpenLetter.asp

Another resource we just saw on another blog is a free audio book download. Click on the link below to check it out! This month the free download is, Disciplines For The Christian Life by Donald Whitney (Nav Press).

http://christianaudio.com/free_download.php

Ski Camp Feb. 2009

2009-03-02T02:12:00.000-08:00

Feb. 20-25 The student group in Bucharest, OSCEB, had their annual ski camp in the Parang mountains in western Romania. It was a great week with snow, ski lessons and lots of good discussions about faith and Christianity.

Preparing to leave in the morning to "hit the slopes!"

Two of our Great Ski instructors Ebbe and Joseph

The Ski lessons begin!

Taking a break for lunch on the slopes!!

Returning back at the end of the day (tired and sore!)

At the end of the day we had small group discussion where we looked at God's standard for us and the judgment we will face, Jesus as the Good Shepherd and what it means to follow Jesus.

Overall, it was a great week and we are truly grateful for God's protection (no one was seriously hurt) and for all the good discussions that took place during the camp!!

Cold Weather Camping

2009-02-17T04:20:00.000-08:00

Andrew got in his second camp out (Feb. 6-9) with the Boy Scouts! The weather was quite warm in the day for a hike, but cold at night in the tent!!

Learning to start a fire

Hiking in the warm winter weather!

Making bread around the campfire

Then the next weekend we had a Cub Scout camp out with the boys at BCA. We had a blast sledding at Predeal and helping the boys cook!!
Andrew & Zach going downhill!!

Middle & High School Banquets Feb. 2009

2009-02-17T04:09:00.001-08:00

Andrew and Hannah attended their first middle school banquet on Feb. 6. They had a great time and got to eat Mexican food. Needless to say Mom and Dad were quite jealous of the food!

Middle School Banquet

Hannah and her friend Emma

The High School Banquet was the next weekend and they ate Lebanese food!

Rebekah, Erika & Daniela

OSCER in Iasi and Suceava

2009-01-20T22:30:00.001-08:00

Last week Mike traveled up to the north-east corner of Romania to visit the student groups in Iasi and Suceava. He was with Alex Ilie the OSCER national director. Overall it was an encouraging trip. The groups in both cities are growing. One of our goals in going was to help the group in Iasi to prepare for an outreach event we will have in April with a team from the UK led by Luke, a former teammate who now works with UCCF, IFES in the UK. While talking with the students they said that this fall they had felt God calling them to get out and do more in evangelism. They see this event as an answer to their prayer!! We were very encouraged to be with them and a prayer meeting with 25 students. The leaders apologized that there were so few students! They said they usually have 35 students!

Meeting with Students in Suceava!

Please pray for this event in April that God would give wisdom to Ionel, volunteer staff, and the students as they begin to plan and talk with a few churches about working together on this event. Thank You!!

Christmas Sights and Sounds

2009-01-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas break the elementary students at BCA made gingerbread houses. Kris organized this event for 25 students. All the children had a Great time!!

During December all the student groups across Romania had a special meeting to celebrate Christmas. Students invited their friends to the meetings and they sang carols and had a short presentation of the meaning of Christmas and how it is relevant to us today! Here are a few pictures from these meetings.

Students in Pitesti

Students from Bucharest

Students from Brasov

As we have lived in Romania we have become familiar with the Christmas customs here. One is going Christmas caroling on Christmas eve! Another one is that children come around singing Christmas carols at your door the weeks before Christmas and expect money or candy. Also there are folks who go around with a small band and someone dressed as a bear or a goat and play some kind of unique melody and wait for people to toss money to them out of their apartment blocks. Since we live on the ground floor we got these videos from a friend here in Bucharest! Enjoy!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-27T03:13:00.000-08:00

In Romania there is not just one day of Christmas, but two!! The 25th and the 26th are both holidays. We had two celebrations this year.

A Redskin hat and an Eagles Shirt! We are ready for at least one team to move on in the playoffs!!

On the 25th we had a more traditional Romanian Christmas with a woman from our small group from church. She made sarmale (cabbage roles) and Mămăligă (made from corn meal and a bit like grits). We ate and enjoyed time together!
Then on the 26th we had a more American dinner with Turkey and all the trimmings! We had another American family and a Romanian family over. They came in and sang a traditional Romanian carol (see video below) to us and we enjoyed a HUGE meal and games into the evening.

News in Romania

2008-12-15T01:47:00.000-08:00

Well the new Romanian government has been formed between two old political rivals. Here is what the Eight O'Clock Online Edition had to say about this:

The Democrat-Liberals (PD-L) and the Social-Democrats (PSD) struck a deal for a joint governance, signing the protocol of collaboration called “Partnership for Romania.” The PSD leader Mircea Geoana estimated it ‘a historical moment’, when political forces apparently irreconcilable join after 20 years their efforts. “We have grown up. It was a complex process of negotiation, the formula found by PD-L was the only one able to assure the stability of Romania,” Geoana said. The Social-Democrat leader stressed that his party and the future Government will assure the protection of the minorities’ rights, referring to the discontent of UDMR (party of ethnic Hungarians) that it was not co-opted to governance.

In his turn, the PD-L leader Emil Boc declared: “We start with one objective: an efficient and stable governance in hard times. We have coalesced in this document both right and left wing measures.” Boc and Geoana announced that they will back different candidates at the presidential elections from 2009. “We are partners, but also political and electoral competitors,” Boc said.

This protocol will be valid until 2012.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-05T01:11:00.001-08:00

We were able to return to Rucar, where we had English Camp this past summer, to celebrate Thanksgiving in Romania with 4 other American families last weekend. We had good food, cold temperatures outside, snow and a good time together!

Over the years we have read the Lincoln proclamation of 1863 setting aside a day of Thanksgiving. Part of the proclamation reads, "I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

We do give thanks to our great God for His overflowing love and grace to us! Thanks to you too who stand beside us as we minister to staff and students in Romania!!

Here are a few photos of how 5 families celebrated Thanksgiving in Romania!

Lots of time for games and coffee, tea or hot chocolate!!

Rebekah celebrated her 14th birthday as well on Sunday! Hard to believe how the time flies!!

Romanian News This Week

2008-12-04T04:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some headlines from this week in Romania!

The elections are over now and the process of trying to form an alliance government is the talk of the town, since no party won an absolute majority of the vote. What 2 parties will get together to form the government? This is an important step in seeing who will be the next prime minister of Romania. Maybe next week we will know. In the elections only 34.50% of registered voters turned out.

In a move to try and improve domestic car sales the government raised the tax on imported and second hand cars in Romania. Dacia-the Romanian car manufacturer, has closed down production for a few weeks and hopes to reopen in mid-December.

On the bright side of things Romania's economy registered an economic increase for the third quarter of 2008 of 9.1% compared with the same period last year. This is the largest increase in the EU for the third quarter.

Romanian News this Week

2008-11-07T01:42:00.000-08:00

We wanted to try and keep you up-to-date with a few current events in Romania. Here are a few news items:

--Talks of a possible strike in the education field as professors have issued demands for a 50% wage increase. Currently teachers are paid 700 lei (about $250) monthly. If the government doesn't respond there could be teachers strike at the end of this month.

--Romania is preparing for Parliament elections on November 30. This is the first time people will actually vote for individual people not just vote for a party that would name the parliamentarian representatives.

The Romanian Student

2008-10-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

Working with students is always a work that keeps you young! We feel like we are constantly behind in trying to keep up with the changing student culture or the latest trends in electronics or the internet, not to mention new music or films. It is very clear that the Student culture has changed and is changing in many ways in Romania.

A few weekends ago (Oct. 24-26) 26 leaders met from across Romania for our organizations General Assembly. During this time we had many discussions related to the functioning of the organization. We also talked about ideas for fund raising, future leaders for the movement and about evangelism among students today!

Please pray for OSCER and our efforts to reach students across Romania with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Fall Beauty!

2008-10-21T05:22:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we were able to spend a few days in the mountains, enjoying perfect fall weather and the beauty of creation around us!! We were in Moeciu (60 kms. north of where we had our camps this past summer).

We enjoyed hiking together and climbing up on rocks!

Relaxing around the house we stayed in!

And exploring inside a cave!!!

Heritics??!!

2008-10-06T05:49:00.001-07:00

We stood at a table near the dorms passing out Bibles and inviting students to come to a discussion group called "Glad You Asked", which will look at many of the basic questions people have about Christianity. One young student stopped and asked what we were doing, why, and who we were. He was visibly upset that we were passing out Bibles and that we were not from the Orthodox Church. We tried to talk with him and tell him the Bible we had was not that different than the "Orthodox" Bible, just this one had easier language to understand. He called us heretics and accused us of proselytism.

For 2 days we stood outside one of the dorm areas in Bucharest, offering free Bibles and other Christian evangelistic literature to students. Very few students stopped even with a sign that all the material was free! Many asked us if we were from the Orthodox Church and when we said no many walked on. There is still a stereo-type that people have in their minds that remains from the communist days against the Evangelical church in Romania. It's amazing to see the reaction of students when they find out we are not Orthodox. One guy tired to get his friend to put back the Bible after he found out we were not Orthodox. But the guy said, "That's alright, I'm multi-religious!" Many of these students have never read the Bible. Please pray for the 25 students that took Bibles, that God would work through His Word and they would come to the discussion group that will start on 15 October! We continued this week passing out Bibles at the dorm areas!

After talking with the first guy mentioned above, one of the staff said, "it is amazing just a few years ago students where open to all kinds of different things like meditation and new age philosophy and now it's only orthodoxy." Another interesting fact was that last week there was only one student who came up to the table and said that he was a Christian. He was an international student from Nigeria!

The Business School in Bucuresti with a banner welcoming the students back!

The Romanian Student In 2008

2008-09-29T01:12:00.000-07:00

This year officials say that there are 700,000 students attending universities across Romania. When a first year student arrives a few days before classes begin, 1 October, they must try and get a place in the dorm. The authorities have announced that this year there are only 110,00 places in all dorms across Romania. We just read that in Bucuresti at the Business school there are 8000 students who have requested a place in the dorm, while there are only 4800 places in dorms for these students. Across the nation the average is 1 in 6 students get a place in the dorm!! If a student doesn't get a spot in the dorm then they must look to rent a place. This alternative is much more expensive for a student. The dorm is around $35/month, while renting cost 250-300 euros for a very small furnished apartment.

For those "lucky" enough to get a place in the dorm, they often find very poor conditions. Poor furniture, broken windows and doors as well as a dirty mattress greets the student. But the authorities say they are renovating the dorms across the country, and complete on average one dorm per city a year. New dorm construction is going very slowly. This is one thing the Romanian student faces as he/she begins their university days.

Students & Parents waiting to see if they can get a place in the dorm

Many of the dorms in Bucuresti are being renovated slowly

Students put up notices asking if they can buy someone elses place in the dorm!!

The Fall 2008 Family Retreat

2008-09-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

September 19-21 our church, Bunavestire, had a family retreat. There were 100 people in attendance, and we had great teaching on being a Godly husband with loving leadership and how to be a loving wife that respects her husband. We enjoyed the time away from Bucuresti and got to know a few more people at our church. On Sunday, just before lunch, a young lady greeted us as we walked in a door and then left. After she walked off we realized that it was a young woman who had been involved in the student group many years back, but we didn't recognize her. We asked another friend if our guess was right and it was. So after lunch we went and spoke to Felicia and found out she is married and that she and her husband are working to plant a church a few miles outside of Bucuresti. She talked about how hard it has been and all the opposition they have faced. She also spoke to us about how much she appreciated the ministry of OSCEB, when she was a student and how it had helped to strengthen her in her walk with the Lord and had been an encouragement to her!

After speaking with Felicia we began to think of all the people at the retreat. We could count 11 people at the retreat who had been involved in the student work either in Bucuresti or another city. It was encouraging to think how the student groups in Romania are producing graduates, who are going out into the market place as well as the church and are using their gifts to serve the Lord!!

Thanks for your prayers for us and for your finacial support that allow us to minister here in Romania to students and helping to prepare the next generation of students that will influence the market place and the church in Romania!!