Pictures from the flood outreach!!!

Okay, how many people get to eat lunch with the Romanian Army???? Yeah, we are cool!
Unload 4 TONS of sauces donated by Samaritan's Purse. Thank you Samaritan's Purse!!!
Sorting through food donations!!! So exciting! L-R Maria from Romania, Peter from Reno, Sarah from Minnesota, Corina from Romania, Elena-Project director, David- Elena's son.

Flood Relief

Two weeks ago I had the most amazing opportunity to join four other YWAM staff members from my base in a four day outreach to flood victims in a village about 3 hours from Constanta. As many of you have probably heard, all over Romania villages have been flooded, destroying people's homes and farms. Hunderds of people have been displaced, living in temporary camps set up by the government as they await new homes and a chance to rebuild their lives.

For the four days that we were there, we came along side a couple who has been working with the mayor of this particular village, Chiselet, and the military. They have created their own organization called Fundatia Betania (Bethany Foundation). This amazing couple had helped flood victims last year and had been in Chiselet for two weeks before we got there, working mostly by themselves to coordinate food and clothing donations for the flood victims and visiting the families to bring them hope and encouragement in the Lord.

Our team got to help with sorting clothes, unloading food donations, washing dishes, digging trenches in the rain and doing activities with the kids in the camp. It was amazing for me to experience this kind of thing that I usually only see on television. These people had lost everything and were so in need of hope. Knowing that I could do something practical to help them and then to also be able to love on their kids was so great. And man were those kids cute! I hope that I will be able to go back again soon.

These camps of displaced people are such needy places for the hope and love of Jesus. The couple that is leading Fundatia Betania are praying for a special tent from the government and for a team of missionaries to live in the camps of displaced people and be able to reach each group-- men, women, and children. Please pray for the flood victims and for God's work in their lives. My hope is that though this hardship, God will rebuild their lives with him as the foundation. I think we all need to come to the realization that nothing in our lives is secure. We can't trust in our homes, our jobs or our situations, because in one moment they can all be taken away. What we can trust in though is our Creator! God is our only sure thing and we can trust him when all else fails. I hope that these people will be able to see this and place their hope in Him who never fails.

"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

(Isaiah 54:10)

PRAISE GOD

Yeah! Another praise report! Every Thursday we visit poor families and lately we have been struggling as most of us are here with our main focus on reaching street kids and don't feel so equipped for working with families. But working with families is such a need here and we believe that God put these families in our lives so we have not given up! In fact we felt to pray this week specifically for the families and that God would lead us in how we should continue.

God answered our prayers by telling us that we just needed to use what he had given us and to not give up. And today God showed us that he is SO in our family ministry and he is working! Peter, a guy from Reno, has joined our team and today we switched places from our usual ministry schedule. I went to the Girls Home to work on the restoration and he went to the families to share his testimony of healing. And God used his testimony in such a powerful way!

With the family of Nadia, a girl that has been coming to our Bible study and has really been growing in her understanding of the Lord, Peter shared his testimony and also what it meant to accept Jesus into your life. The WHOLE family (everyone that was there) ended up praying the sinner's prayer with the team!!! So awesome! Praise God! They all want to come to church on Sunday. Please pray that God will provide some Romanians to help start a Bible study in this family's house so that they can be discipled and grow in their understanding of their new life in Jesus! Yeah!!! God is so good!

God is sooo good!

Hey guys! Great news! The young man that I asked you to pray for last time called the family and apologized! If you remember, this 23 year old guy from the street was living with a family from Wales and the other day he ran away with over $2000 worth of media equipment. It came as such a shock because he was doing so great with the family up until then. So we prayed and prayed that this young man would be convicted and come back to the family to make things right. And God heard our prayers! He called the other night to apologize to the family and of course they forgave him right away! He was so amazed to hear this and now the family is praying about what to do next. They are not sure if they will take him into their home again or not. But they care about him a lot and still want to help him. Please pray for this family to have wisdom in this situation and pray for this young man as he is facing some serious issues that he needs to deal with. Thank you for your prayers! They are powerful!