October 2010

The Importance of being KNOWN

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” PSALM 139:1-2,13.

Oh what peace it brings me to be known by God! Even when everything on this earth abandons me, my Creator knows me, loves me, and cares for me. This simple truth is not understood by the majority of abandoned and vulnerable children of Romania and around the world.

We all have a desire to know that there is another person out there who “knows” us. Not that they simply know our name, but that they KNOW us! What brings us joy, what makes us sad, what we hope for in our future, who we desire to be, what we fear. A huge part of our daily ministry is to share the loving message of the gospel and the incredible truth that they have a FATHER in heaven that knows them. They are not the forgotten and abandoned; they are known and loved by Jesus Christ!

It is our heart to make these children known to YOU, our family, our friends. We appreciate your continued prayers and support as we reach out to these children, not with “stuff”, but with relationship. We pray for strength to break through the walls of hurt, pain, and lack of trust and reveal to them the freedom of being known by the loving Father who knew them in their mother’s womb. This takes time and patience so we appreciate your loyalty and encouragement.

Family Center: Casa Betania UPDATE

In my last newsletter I mentioned the fire that destroyed one of the buildings at the local Family Center. None of the children were hurt, however they lost many supplies and season specific clothing. With winter approaching, we are praying to our Great Provider to guide the administration in replacing the lost items. At this time their needs are: diapers, wipes, toys, clothes, shoes, socks, and jackets.

Casa Betania has also added 11 more to their numbers! Ages of the new arrivals range from 3-20 years old. I am so excited to return to Uricani and meet them!! Please pray for them as they integrate into the Betania Family unit.

Prayer Requests:

• A few of the kids at Betania “aged out” of the system and had to move out. Please pray for them as they take these forced and scary steps into their future. We are praying how our ministry can help their transition.
• For wisdom on when to return to the mission field. Elena’s visa expires in February.
• For strength to pack and meet all prior obligations before returning home to Romania.
• For wisdom and direction in ministry. Consistent monetary support to support our family and cover ministry related costs.

PRAISE REPORTS!

• Our son, Troy Daniel, was born October 11th! A healthy 8 lb. 12oz, 20 in. boy! We are so blessed!
• God is continuing to work and mold our hearts to be more like His. Praise you Lord for renewing our passion and love for your people.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14

Going home…where our heart is

There is so much truth in the saying “home is where your heart is.” As a missionary family we call many places home; we have a home with our extended family, our church, our temporary housing in the states. I guess it is a blessing to always be going home…no matter where I am going.

So we are returning home once again. We are returning to our heart: Romania. This time in the states has been challenging, but mostly healing. Our strength and vision has been renewed. Thank you to all of you who have loved us during this time of healing and encouraged us in our calling.

Please pray for us as we pray about the following needs in our community:

• Reconnecting with the local church fellowship, to encourage, learn, and pray with them.
• Research how we can help the children who have aged out of the system and were forced to move out of the family center Betania.
• Organize an outreach to the Child Protection workers and their families.

…learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression… ISAIAH 1:17

A Note from Andrei:

I would like to share a small part of my life and how God worked in it from a very young age. There are very few people who know much about my life, but I think that it is time to reveal the work that Jesus Christ did and how I was saved through the grace of our Father in Heaven.

My name is Andrei. I was born in Brasov, Romania. I have two brothers, one older and another younger. All three of us were abandoned by our parents when I was only four years old. We were all sent to a “leagan,” an orphanage for preschoolers. Once each of us turned seven years old, we were transferred to an orphanage that offered schooling on its campus. My older brother was sent first, and then two years later I followed. Two years after my transfer to the State Orphanage my younger brother was supposed to come join us, but he never came. I have not seen my younger brother for 22 years. I don’t know where he is, but I heard that he was maybe adopted. There are no records of what happened to him. I pray that I will be able to see him again one day. I wonder often if he even remembers that he has two older brothers. I pray that God will bless me with the chance to find him and share with him my heart and testimony. What a blessed day that will be.

My life in its entirety is very important to me because I accept and understand it as God’s perfect plan for my life. As a child I asked God, “Why do I exist?”, “Why did my parents not want to raise me?”, “Why am I no one’s child?”, “Why does the whole world hate me?”, “Why is life so unfair and cruel?”, “Am I just a kid no one wants?”, “Why should I live?”, “Can I have hope?”, “Can I integrate into this world?” As a child I had joy, sadness, needs, but most importantly I had the need of parental love.

In the early 90’s, I remember people began to visit our orphanage from America. I did not know what they were looking for. Why were they coming to give the children all sorts of candy, chocolate, toys, and clothes? They would normally give these things to us after they sang songs, prayed and talked about their lives. I did not understand why they would come from another country and tell us about a man named Jesus Christ. I did not know who this Jesus was. I remember them talking about the birth of the Savior, that Jesus was sent to die for us, for our sins. What sins? Why would someone die for me? Why did he have to die? I remember thinking, “Something is not right.” I saw that these people visiting the orphanage were smiling all the time. I saw that they were happy and I did not realize why. But at the same time it affected me seriously. I was jealous, and I wanted to feel the way they did. I wanted to be happy. But how could I have all these things without parents?

I was a bad person, cruel. I hated jokes, but I loved making fun of others. I think I was very serious for my age. I was a person that everyone was afraid to socialize with because I was very aggressive. I did not let anyone get away with anything. I was a leader where ever I went. All of the children, older and younger, at the orphanage looked up to me in fear and in respect. I had all of this before the age of thirteen.

One day a missionary invited me into his house one weekend. He lived in a nearby city as a pastor of a church. I went to church with him with a few friends from the orphanage which I invited. It was great, I liked what they sang, there was good food, they gave us new clothes, and they showed us love that I have not previously experienced. But I asked myself why these strangers were doing these things for us. Why not my fellow countrymen? Why not our parents?

I began to go to this missionary’s house every weekend. With his permission, I would bring friends of mine from the orphanage. Soon he had a house full of youth who needed help. After I finished the 8th grade, in the summer of 1997, I practically moved in with this pastor. There were 24 kids in all, boys and girls. He took care of us, gave us food, clothing and everything we needed. Teams would come from America to visit the local church and stay with us. After a while I learned what it meant to be a Christian and learned more about the Bible and this Jesus Christ.

When I turned 18, the orphanage system would not hold us anymore. I had to leave the orphanage. But where would I go and with what? What would I do in this world? No one wanted to give an orphan a job, and no one wanted to help. When we left through the gates of the orphanage we had about 10 dollars, and a set of new clothing, and your file that told a few things about yourself. We did not have someone to ask for help. We looked up to the sky and wondered what to do. Many of the kids that left the orphanage committed suicide. The majority ended up in prison for different reasons. The girls became prostitutes or immediately married an older man just to have a place to sleep, eat, and feel a small amount of security, even if the men beat them or treated them like slaves. The strong ones and maybe smarter ones found a way to survive, but these were very few.

Do I have the tools to make something of myself? Do I have rights in this world? Do I have the right to become what I dreamed of? The right to build a family? Do I have the courage to move forward without any help and without any parental guidance? These are the overwhelming questions every child pondered as they stepped outside the boundaries of the orphanage into the unknown world.

Something was still not clear to me; I still had questions about those missionaries that visited us when I was young. I still had memories of their smiling faces, the joy and love they showed us children. I remember I was so dirty. Our noses were running, some kids were covered in sores and other sickness but these people were not afraid to touch us, or most amazingly hug us. I realized that this Jesus Christ had something to do with the kindness and courage I saw in their hearts. These people had something I wanted.

I went to high school in Deva and stayed on campus. It was a large and beautiful town. It was about 100km from Petrosani where I lived on the weekends with the missionary I mentioned before. I commuted by train back and forth from school.

On the weekly train ride there were a lot of us “orphan” children and many children with parents. Because I was popular and feisty, many of my colleagues came to me for protection. I was a friend to any weaker child. Because of this, the kids had trust in me and we became a gang of about 40-50 kids. I became the leader of this group. If someone had problems in school, or if someone was beaten up at school, whoever had a problem, they would come to me to resolve the situation. The situation was always resolved because we became a brotherhood and fought for each other no matter what. I still have the nickname “The Judge.”

At the beginning I liked that I had power. I liked being above everyone. I liked that I had the ability to take care of the people around me. Then I matured and I became tired of all the fighting, all the “fun.” There were nights that I hated to fall asleep. I would avoid sleep. I wanted to be with friends, I wanted to feel good, and I believed that this was the only way for me to feel happy. On March 25th, ten years ago, I was in my dorm at school. It was the weekend, and I did not return to Petrosani as I normally did. It was night, and I had come home from the Club and I was sad, upset, and angry. I got ready to go to bed to see if I could sleep it off. And it was like I could hear in my head and heart, “Stop, you don’t want to live your life like this, this is not real happiness, real happiness can only be found in Me.” At that moment I became scared but I began to hear things clearer.

I fell on my knees and began to pray. I saw all of my sins before me. All the faces of people I had hurt went through my mind, every face that I had beaten, and I was frozen in fear. Until that moment I was not afraid of anything or anyone, this was a feeling I never believed I would experience. I then realized what I had seen in those missionaries that came to visit me as a child. I felt a spirit come over me and I heard a voice saying, “You are forgiven of all your sins if you believe in me and follow me.” I felt the strength to pray and I began to pray in tears and almost yelling to the heavens because I felt so guilty for the sins I had committed. Suddenly I opened my eyes and it was morning. I felt like I was alive, I felt a happiness I could not describe and I wanted to tell everyone what happened, but I still did not know for sure what happened myself. In my room I had a Bible and I began to go through it page by page, I read some verses and did not fully understand it. I turned to John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This I finally understood.

Jesus Christ calls all of us to be a light, to show His brilliance and holiness to the world, and that we can have a relationship with the Father through His beloved Son who sacrificed himself to show us sinners how immense His grace and love is toward us. I hope to show the people around me the true happiness found only in Jesus Christ. I especially desire to show this to the youth around me so that they will know the truth from a young age that this peace and happiness comes only through belief and faith in Jesus Christ.