Fence in Vinga gets a face lift!

This week our fence and gate got a much needed face lift. Metal was installed along the top of the fence wall to prevent deterioration of the concrete. Then Buddy and Nelu painted the fence walls white and the gate black. Buddy and Nelu hard at work painting the fence walls.

Aug. 22, 2010 Celebration Service for Renovations of Church in Cladova

This is a picture taken of the Baptist church in Cladova as the renovations are underway. Here the new roof is on but the finish work around the eaves is not completed. The new bathroom (outhouse) is started also with a storage area. The work included putting a foundation under the church, replacing the roof and building the new storage area and bathroom. We were blessed by being able to give a financial gift to help with the work. This is the veiw of the back of the church.

August 22, 2010 Pastor Ioan Miraute welcomes the guest to the celebration service and gives thanks and praise to God for the work that was accomplished on the renovations of the church. He read a history of the church. It was started in 1903 and the building was constructed in 1909. So the church has a long standing history in the community.

Buddy shares how the church and village of Cladova have a special place in his heart and how it played a vital part in how we came to Romania to be missionaries. His first mission trip to Romania was in 1998 to work on constructing a church in the village of Cruceni. At that time the pastor of Cruceni also served as the pastor of Cladova. The previous year in 1997 one of the sisters in the church at Cladova shared a verse that God had given her with our pastor from the U.S. and told him it was going to be a long term relationship. No one understood at the time what all it meant and what all God would do in the coming years.

Bro. Tomeanu Tutu, a Romanian who lives in Arizona, U.S. shared a testimony. He contributed financialy to the renovation project. He shared it was God who was important in all that was done.

Beni and Dorina sing from their heart.

The Bodea Family shared in song and music. Dani was one of the workers who did the renovations.

The children are always a blessing to hear sing.

This family shared in song and poem.

A side veiw taken on Sunday, Aug. 22 after the dedication service.

A better veiw of the roof.

The new facilities.

Aug. 21, 2010 - A visit from the children

Diana (in striped shirt on back row), Dani (in green shirt on the right), Andreea (orange shirt on front row) and Lori (pink and white shirt on front row) are pictured here with some of the children from the neighborhood, We went to get them on Saturday, Aug. 21 for a visit. These are the children who lived here in the "family home" for 14 months from January 2006-April 2007, when they went back home to live with their mother. They love to come for a visit. This is the second time we have gone to get them this year. We took them some clothes to have for school and took them out for pizza and bought them some school supplies (notebooks, etc). School begins mid September. They will be attending school in Arad this year, even though they live in an area about 14 kilometers from Arad. They will travel each day by public transportation on a bus.

Pictured with the children are from left to right Larisa, Cristina, Dani F. and Abel.

August 17 - Day Retreat - Logos Church

This is the 2nd group from Logos church in Arad who came to Vinga for a Day Retreat. Here the group is playing Monopoly while waiting for lunch. They are from age 10-13. We enjoyed them being here for the day! Playing games.

Hide and Seek is always fun.

But eating ice cream is even better!!

Everybody loves ice cream!!

Ruth is trying to figure out how to best knock the stack of rocks off the bucket. This was a game the older children played earlier. She watched and this is her version of how the game was played!

Barbara's Birthday - Aug. 14

For my birthday, Buddy invited some of our friends from our church in Vinga to join us for cake and ice cream.

The flowers I received for my birthday from the Fericean family. Giving flowers is a big tradition here for birthdays.

Bible Club August 14, 2010 - Vinga

August 14, 2010 was a warm summer day in Romania. August is a big vacation month for the people in Romania. In Romania the people get one month a year for their vacation time or "Holiday" as they say. So many are taking their vacations before the children return to school mid-September. So our attendance was down for the Bible Club in August, but we had our regulars and we shared about how God loves everyone, no matter what country you live in, what race you are, or what your social class is. Jesus came to save the lost which includes every man, woman and child ever born into the world. One mother had faith in Jesus to heal her daughter (Mark 7:24-37; Matthew 15:21-28) even though she was not a Jew. She asked Him to have mercy on her and called Him Lord. He granted her request and healed her daughter because of her strong faith. He also showed (as an example) to his disciples that God wanted them to love everyone and help others even if they were different from themselves. We as His disciples of this day and age are to show the same love and compassion as Jesus did.

Children (in picture above) answering the question sheet for the lesson.

Barbara sharing the story.

Reciting the memory verse.

I am giving the children a Bible Bookmark that says God loves everyone.

The Bible lesson is finished and it is time to go outside for refreshments.

The ice cream is refreshing on a hot summer day. The children are enjoying it sitting on the front steps of the church after the Bible lesson.

Day Retreat August10, 2010 for Logos Church

On Tuesday, August 10, 2010 we hosted a Day Retreat for a group of children from Logos Church in Arad. There were 16 children from ages 4-10 and 4 adults, the Sunday School Teachers. We enjoyed the day and the children did also. They played games, ate hamburgers for lunch and enjoyed a birthday cake for Denisa's birthday. She was 6 years old. Below are pictures of the children enjoying the day's activities.

Donations for Moldova

A local pastor organized a transport truck to take donations to Moldova, Romania to helped the victims of the flooded areas in the country due to heavy rains. We were the first stop of 8 locations where he will collect donations to take there. The boxes they are loading are from the container sent in July from Louisiana to help the needy in Romania. We pray these boxes will be a blessing to them. It is an assortment of men's, ladies, children's clothes, shoes, purses and misc. items.