More snow? Ohh No!

Sunday it started snowing again and has snowed everyday since then! But even though the weather has turned cold and nasty, last week was a great week! The sun was out for most of the week and the temperatures rose a little. At our English and Homework help we had about 20 kids everyday, so that means our attendance has been a little down from the 30-35 we were getting. Since our attendance has been down a little these past two weekends we have been going and hanging out fliers. over the past two weeks we put out about 100 and I hope to go put out another 50 this Saturday if our attendance doesn't get any better. We hope that we can bring in more kids and meet more parents so that we can really get to know more people in the community where we are working.

This past Saturday night Cristi and Irina invited the whole youth group over to their place for pizza and a movie. I made pizza dough for 8 pizzas and Irina cooked them. We had a great time and hope to do it again soon!

This Sunday went well, even though we didn't have Cristi there. Cristi was invited to some of his friends baptisms, They had a large Baptism for 8 of the young people in one of the Baptist churches at once. Dad filled in for Cristi this Sunday and Irina translated. Sunday night's youth meeting went well too. We had 8, not counting me, Cristi, and Irina. I really feel like our youth are growing in the Lord and that they are trying to serve Him and do what is right. I hope they will continue to serve Him throughout their lives.

Well, keep us all in your prayers, pray that God will continue to grow the work He has started here!

New Years Resolutions!

Hi everybody! Well This past week I took pictures of the kids and the project we did with them, but Yesterday my external hard drive ,that I keep all of my photos on, magically got erased! So everything I didn't already have uploaded to Picasa or Facebook got deleted! Sorry! Anyway, This year we've decided to do a theme once a month in our room where we work with the kids. We want to let the kids draw some pictures and put up some different decorations each month. This months theme is "Happy New Year 2010!" We let the kids color some fireworks and we but up a big "Happy New Year!" sign. We also told each one of them to draw their New Years Resolutions and plans for 2010. Some of them drew and colored themselves getting better grades, some acting better and doing what their parents tell them, and one drew that he wanted to be like one of the famous soccer players this year! After that we hung all of their resolutions up on the wall so that they would think about them and remember them. I'll take some more pictures this next week so that everyone can see them.

This past Saturday Irina, Chase, Mada, Ioana, and Myself, gave our facility (the place we work with the kids, have youth meetings, Church, ect.) a good scrubbing! We got out the bleach and scrubbed down all of the walls until all of the black marks from shoes and chairs came off. We spent 3 and a half hours cleaning and I want to thank Irina, Mada, Chase, and Ioana for their hard work! Now it is really nice and clean! Here are some pictures of us.....


This past Sunday went great and we had a great Youth meeting afterwards! We also Celebrated Ioana's Birthday by have cake and pizza. We sang some praise and worship music and Then I had a short devotion for them. The text I used was Matthew 7:7-12, it was about the golden rule and treating others the way that you want to be treated. I told them that even though kids at school may say "your crazy and stupid for believing in all of that Jesus stuff" we still should treat them the way that we want to be treated. I also told them that when we are out and joking around with our friends we should be careful about what we call someone or what we say to them because we don't always know what that person has been through. We should talk to each other in positive and encouraging ways, not in discouraging and hurtful ways. I really wanted to emphasize the excessive joking and name calling in our group because it has been a real problem for some of them recently. I want them to lift each other up, not tear down, especially since some of them are new Christians. Here are some pictures....



Well, keep us in your prayers and especially ask God to help Cristi and Irina with the ministry here. Ask Him to keep them strong and not Discouraged.

Back to school kids!!!

Hey everyone! Well the Holidays were just super! We had a great Christmas and a great New Year. For New years our youth group had a small get together at Anca's house and at midnight we all went downtown to watch the fireworks! After that we came back to Anca's and had a short time of sharing our New Year resolutions. I was really enthusiastic when some of our youth said that they wanted to take this year and draw closer to God because he is the most important thing. I'm really excited the way that God is moving in the lives of these teens! Here are some videos and pics!






We also had a great youth meeting on Sunday night. Cristi had a short message on how there is a time for everything. He encouraged the group to take this next year and grow spiritually and make good choices. After that one of the girls from our group invited us to her house and her mom cooked for us, we had some ice cream, and had a time of sharing our new years resolutions. Here are some pictures!


Today was the first day of school so tomorrow we start back our after school tutoring. The same hours from 2-4 and 4-6 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday with English lessons from 2-3:30 and 3:30-5 on Thursdays. This next week we will be hanging out fliers and posters all over the neighborhood to remind everyone of us and what we are doing.

We hope this new year goes well and are praying for a new facility either sometime this year or next year depending on our attendances and if it is God's will for us. Keep us in your prayers as we kick off 2010, and once again HAPPY NEW YEAR!