Summer Greetings

April 30th, I left for Romania, ten days after returning from Puerto Rico. I had a shorter time frame to work in this year and needed to get to work right after I moved into my Airbnb apartment that afternoon. Andrea, our Romanian Outreach Coordinator, met me and found to our disappointment that our Cash and Carry store had practically nothing to purchase. This store has been a huge blessing to us over the years with great discounts and speedy delivery of the supplies. If you follow our social media pages, you will have seen a prayer request for finding a different option quickly!

Within a few days, we found a store that agreed to transport the products we purchased and though the sales weren't quite as good, we now have a back up in case of emergencies and new connections!

Monday morning, I was able to go to the medical store that has been open a bit longer than I have been in Romania for (23 years) and shopped our entire list of medical supplies for the pediatric hospital in Sibiu. A couple hours later, we were on the road for the 4 hour trip to Sibiu, where we worked in the hospital for 2 days. The amount of abandoned children has dropped over the years, but the very poor children and their mother's that are choosing to keep their babies has risen! We support the hospital and these children with diapers, bed pads, shampoo, lotions, books and toys, etc. We spent some hours putting up fresh wall stickers and all the Roma mothers asked to help and clapped their hands with excitement as the blank walls transformed into something warm and inviting! I spent time holding the children that were there or praying over the ones that couldn't be moved.

We visited with Smile and Hope for the Future Afterschool Program and saw how they are using the supplies we have given them to expand into the community with a small store.

The proceeds from the store have provided people with salaries and covered all the utility bills for the afterschool program, helping it become more self-sustainable! It has been a joy over the years to see the success of this program in that children are being educated and trained and sent out to be productive members of society. We praying that a local pastor will take an interest in children and guide them spiritually, but prejudice runs strong still in the village.

Andrea and I visited Forget Me Not Ministries and the Joy Beadz women one day! What a lovely day working alongside the ladies as they rolled the beadz and learned how to sew. We also restocked their co-op store so the mothers can shop there for essentials for their families. It was such a blessing to see how the percentage of abandonment in this village has dropped to almost 0% in the last 20 years due to this ministry!

We also had the privilege to shop for two orphanages again~ the Castle Orphanage and St Angela's Orphanage. My heart melted just a bit as the boys from the Castle Orphanage greeted me with hugs and smiles this year. Building relationships takes time, consistency, and focus and we are starting to see the fruits of that here! In between rain bursts, we set up the swimming pool (our sponsors help purchase last year) for the summer and played some indoor games during the rain. We were able to buy pillows, duvet sets, and food for both orphanages. Later, we visited St Angela's where many teenagers live. Most of these kids have only attended Hungarian School and their Romanian is limited so we came up with idea to have a pizza party and game night next time to further the relationship building!

I am so grateful for this time with our projects and the people we help serve! You have made this possible and we appreciate you so much!