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!

URGENT PRAYER NEED!

Please pray right now for one of the young men from the street. We'll call him "Oli". He has been living with a family here from Wales, who have come here to open a home for boys over 18 from the street. He just ran away today with a lot of the family's belongings. This is so sad! He was doing so well and really enjoying being a part of the family. Please pray for him to come back to the family and to return the stolen things. God has SUCH great plans for this young man and we love him so much, but the lifestyle of the street has such a hold on him. Please pray pray pray!!! Thank you!

So much to say!

Last Sunday was Easter for us here in Romania. Because Romania is Orthodox Christian we celebrate Easter according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar. It was amazing to see how much a part of the culture the celebration of Easter is. Because most of the population is Orthodox, everyone celebrates this Holy day and not just with Easter bunnies and candies like in the States but by going to church and proclaiming that Jesus is risen indeed! The week before and after Easter Sunday, people greet each other saying “Hristos a inviat!" (Christ has risen!) and then the expected response is, "Adeverat a inviat!" (He is truly risen!) I pray that these words will really come to life in the people's hearts. I was able to experience other beautiful traditions for Easter but I just don't have the time to write about it now! So sorry!

The week before Easter, I went to the west of Romania in Timisoara to attend a week of language school with 5 others from my base. We had a great time exploring this GORGEOUS city and learning more of the Romanian language. The focus of my classes was mainly on learning grammar rules and this has proved to help me the most in my reading of Romanian and has increased my vocabulary! Praise God! So things are moving along! :) Thank you to those who have given money to make that trip possible! It was such a blessing and help for my langauge learning.

So much has been happened these past few weeks but I will have to write more about it later. Today I am going to Brasov with Sarah from my base to recruit students for our upcoming Discipleship Training School in January. We will be doing this at a huge Christian Youth Conference where there will be over 3,000 people! Pray that we are able to share with the right students and be an encouragement in their lives to go farther in their walk with Jesus.

Well, this is all for now! Blessings to you all!

Elisa and this COMING SUNDAY!!!

I had a GREAT time with Elisa Rosenlund. She came to join our ministry from my home church in Ashland, Oregon. Thank you Elisa for coming all this way to join us! I hope God uses this experience in your life! :) She arrived here on April 21st and just left yesterday. During her time here I was really reminded of the support I have from my hope. It means sooo much to me to have them praying for me and believing in the ministry I am a part of. Thank you guys so much for being who you are.

One more thing... if you have not recieved my latest newletter and would like to do so, please email me and let me know! tortillaleah@hotmail.com or daughtershalom@yahoo.com

My BIGGEST prayer request is for this coming Sunday! We are having a special day for the Street Kids bible study and we need as many people praying as possible. We will be taking the kids to the country, having a BBQ and teaching them about the Holy Spirit. We are really asking God to move and to change these kids lives. Pray they they come and pray that they get touched by God in a big way! Thanks guys!!!!

Hard things...

Such hard things were witnessed today. We went to the house of Simona, Ramona and Superman (that’s really his name). Outside of the house was their father, raving mad or raving drunk, I am not sure what. He was upset because he couldn’t walk and none of his kids had come home with any money. He was throwing food at them and swinging this stick at them violently. They laughed at him for the most part but Ramona started crying after being there for a while. It was too much for her and I guess from what Therese said, she has been abused the most. We went inside their house—I mean, their room where the family lives and it was so dirty. Mud on the floor, two beds up against dirt-stained, corroded and molding walls. No insulation, water or electricity. The mom was screaming at her youngest son, a five year old, who was outside, walking by himself, completely soaked from the rain when we arrived. I can imagine the nightmare that it must have been and still is to grow up there.

The parents themselves seem to have endured an extremely hard life. They are desperate and therefore have become almost like animals in their fight for survival, taking out their frustrations on their children. It was so hard to see. It is so hard to know that this is happening in so many families and there is so little that I can physically do to change the situations. I am so thankful to have met the parents of the girls and to understand more where they are coming from. I was SO happy to see them all in church today. Even Felicia who stole my money was there. We had some talks about it and she apologized. I just hope she really learned something out of the situation.

Oti, from the Alpha group was also in church and that was great to see. He is connecting today with some guys from the Christian group home where he stayed for a few years. They are mostly guys from our church and just the kind of people he needs to be around right now. Praise God for that. And he is also meeting with someone about a possible job today. God is good and answering our prayers. Please continue to fight in prayer for these dear ones-- for Simona, Ramona, Felicia and Oti. May evil no longer rule in their life, but may they find new life in knowing Jesus.

You can also pray for Ionut, the five year old brother of Ramona and Simona. I’m not sure why the child protection services have not taken him away from his parents. Pray that we will have wisdom in looking into the situation further and that this little boy will be protected and cared for as long as he is at home. Thank you for joining with me, in praying for the healing of Constanta.

Our First Street Kids Bible Study!!!

YEAH! Man God is so cool! And so GOOD! We had about nine boys from the street come to our first meeting for the Alpha Bible Course that we are going to be holding for the next 11 weeks. It is mostly for the older street kids (in their 20's ) and those that have been coming to church or have expressed interest in wanting to know God better. The night was just an introduction night, but from some of the things that were said by the guys there, it really meant a lot that we were having something like this for them.

There were two guys there that I really want to ask you to pray for: Oti and Gelu. I think they are the most serious about knowing God and wanting to get out of the street as well. I was thinking last night that kids from the street are sort of on a "ladder" on their way out of the street. Some are at the bottom and have a long way to go and others are farther up the ladder and are almost out, but need help to get the rest of the way. I think these guys are near the top and now that they want to know God, I know that Satan is going to try REALLY hard to knock them down again.

So PLEASE pray for Oti and Gelu. They are great boys and I know that God can really do miracles in their lives, but it won't happen without a fight. Pray for their protection, for them to find jobs, for the different people who could possibly take them into a half-way house, and for them to know Jesus as never before. That they would know him as their very best friend, as the LOVING father they never had, as their Savior, as their HEALER from the hurts in their lives, and their DELIVERER from the darkness of street life. Thanks so much for all your prayers. You guys are the best!!!

The Girls

Felicia (13 years) Alexandria, Marcela (14), Simona
Sisters: Simona (14 years), Ramona (15 years)


If you remember me telling you before, I came to Romania with a specific heart for some of the young girls here who had been coming to our Day Center. I think I also mentioned that three of them are no longer coming to the Day Center and our attempts to have a home for them to keep them off the street have been coming along very slowly. Simona, Ramona and Felicia are the names of these girls and I am writing this update to ask you to begin interceeding for these girls if you have not already. The longer I am here the more I learn about these girls and how hard they are becoming the more time they spend living in the street.

The other day I met Ramona on the street with a young man wearing a whole lot of make-up. I had heard that her and Simona were living with a transvestite, so I suspect that this is the guy. It was good to actually have met him but it was upsetting for me to see more of the reality of where these girls are at. They are experiencing SOOO much in the street. They have been abused by their families and have run to the streets for "protection" but we know that there is no protection there.

Yesterday I heard that Simona and Ramona came to the Day Center, but weren't allowed to stay. I am not sure what the situation is exactly with them and the Day Center but I do know that it is a difficult one as the girls have had many chances to be in the Day Center, but for some reason have done something to lose their place there. I can't say that I agree with the decisions that the Day Center has made concerning them, but since I don't know the situation fully I can't really judge things. I just want to ask for prayer for these girls because we are losing them to the darkness of street life more and more every day.

I had another wake up call Sunday in church, when I had all of my money stolen from Felicia while she was putting her head in my lap while she was tired and "not feeling well." I had prayed that morning specifically for her and hoped that she would be at church, and she was! I sat with her most of the service, loving on her, hugging her and praying that God would let her know his love for her. But everything she said to me was a lie and all she could do in response to my care for her was to steal from me, feeling no remorse for it at all. I wasn't mad at her, but rather so sad because I was so naive to think that some hugs and kind words are enough to change Felicia's life. Its not enough. These girls are hard. They have been hurt and have learned how to survive no matter the cost, even if it means hurting the people who show them love. Its tough to realize for me.

Maybe you are thinking I am pretty foolish and I think you are correct. I have a lot to learn about reaching these girls. Pray for me please and for all of these things. I know that God can reach the hardest heart and he LOVES these girls. He won't give up on them and I don't want to either, but sometimes I am discouraged and start thinking that there is nothing I can do. Pray for wisdom, pray for staff to come, pray for the girls. Mostly pray for the girls. They need it sooo much.

Thank you friends for joining me in this...blessings to you.

Making History

Daniel Mercado- Project Romania Rescue, Cristi- PRR,
Heather & Alec Chalmers-Faru Chruch, Chris Klop-
YWAM, Therese Wiik- YWAM, Me- YWAM, "Vinci"-
Catholic Org., Irina- YWAM, Mirjam- YWAM (missing-
Tica & Adrian- Casa Sami)

Friday night was a night in history. In our apartment we joined with all of the Christian Street Children Workers in Constanta for a night of fellowship, food and just a chance to get to know eachother better and share about our desire to work together to see the lives of the street kids in Constanta changed. Up until now we have been helping eachother here and there and have had good relationships. My team leader Chris has been meeting with the leader of two of the organizations for prayer, but we felt that God wanted to see more in our city and we needed to be united with others who are all reaching for the same goal.

Everyone was into the meeting and they suggested meeting regularly which was our hope. Man, God is so cool. One of the directors said something that I think sums up the whole idea of meeting together: "Maybe if we keep meeting like this, about 2 years from now we will look back on Februrary 24th, 2006 and say, that was the day when all of our separate teams became one team." We all have our separate organizations and projects but being able to see ourselves as one team or all, fighting for the street kids of Constanta, is going to make a huge difference.

Something NEW!!!

Street Kid Alpha Group
Yeah! We are finally getting a Bible Study for the people from the street that are either coming to church or seem to want to know more about God. And it just so happened that our pastor's wife is in charge of Alpha, a program for people to get to know God, for all of Romania. So it was natural for us to decide to do an Alpha program with the Street people. If you aren't familiar with Alpha, it is an 11 week series of basic teaching from the Bible about Jesus and having faith in him for salvation and how to grow in knowing him. The people who come eat together, hear the teaching together and then discuss the teaching afterwards.

We hope that the kids will really be into it and really have a hunger to know God more. The greatest thing about this group is that our street ministry team is actually not leading it, but a young couple from our church is and the husband used to be a street kid himself. They are perfect for this and are really excited. Their names are Ion and Cocoa. And another young man, Cristi, who was also on the street for a while is also helping. We are so excited to be working with Romanians and especially Romanians with such a special heart for these people.

We will begin the group next Friday. This Friday night however we will be getting together with all of the Christians here in Constanta who are working with street kids. Our desire is to be more connected with one another, being more of a support to one another and being in unity as we all share God's heart for these people. We will have our team, the director of a boys home and the director of a girls home here in Constanta, a couple who just moved here recently from Wales to open a half-way house for guys over 18 on the street, the director from a day time drop in center for street kids, and the director of a large Catholic organization that has a Day Center, a boys and girls home, and other services to help street people. There are so many wonderful people serving in this city and it will be great to be together and get to know eachother better. I hope all is well with all of you. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog and for praying. Blessings to you all!

He hears our prayers...

Today I was SOOO encouraged. I came into our staff prayer meeting this morning to find them all praying prayers of faith and hope for our girls home. And after we prayed one of the leaders of the base told us that they are sending out requests to businesses for support and sponsorships for the girls home. So things are moving again! After the prayer meeting we had our first base staff work day, where we worked on cleaning up the base and the girls home. I was in the girls home sweeping and getting completely covered in cement dust. It was so great! I was just so happy to be able to be a part of doing something to get this girls home to happen!

The staff at our base is really working to see the renovation of this house completed and we are seeking out the staff that we need to run it. Again if anyone out there has a heart to serve through construction and those sort of things, or if you are interested in sponsoring the girls home OR STAFFING it, please don't wait any longer! Let us know! :)

Please pray for all of this and for the girls. The girls that are in mind for it are really in need. Three of them are basically on the street and experiencing all kinds of things no 13 years olds should ever have to experience. They are hurting and in desperate need of a safe place and of unconditional love. Please keep the girls in your prayers. And please pray for me as I continue to seek out the best ways that I can help them in this girls home project.

Oh yes...I had a WONDERFUL time with Leisl! Being with her for the week was an incredible blessing and I am so thankful for her friendship to me! She also brought with her tons of clothes for the street kids from her mom's classroom of elementary school kids (thank you Sue and kids!) and from a lady at her church. AMAZING! They gave such nice clothes too, they are really a blessing. Thank you to all you who gave and thank you Leisl for blessing my life so much!!

...the other thing Leisl brought to me was the laptop I am now typing on! What a crazy blessing! Thank you Grandad Lewis, Aunt Libbey, Mom and Dad and Grandad Billings and anybody else who contributed that I don't know about! This beautiful little machine is such a huge help to me!

Okie dokie, this is all for now...man there is always so much to say! :) Until next time- let Jesus love you :)

Jesus was a drunk man dying in the street today...

We were on our way to the base today when we saw a man lying flat on his back in the middle of the sidewalk. Nobody was going over to him. We stopped to look and see if he was okay and another man was coming to see what was wrong. Then more people came and people got on their cell phones, trying to get help for this cold and miserable man. It seemed like he was a homeless man, probably living somewhere on the street in that area. He had no desire to leave his place on the ground, but his side was hurting and his head was burning up. I felt so helpless, but so encouraged to see so many people stop and help. But what this man really needed was hope. He fought as the medics finally came and put him in the ambulance. I suspect he wanted to stay there and die. He said his name was Vacile and he was 49 years old though he looked much older. Our church here in Constanta has a special ministry for the homeless elderly and hopefully they will be able to find this man once he is out of the hospital. Please pray for this and for Vacile to find hope again...

And if that wasn't enough excitement for the day, just about 30 minutes after we (Leisl and I- my best buddy visiting from the States) had gone into the Day Center, another old man was found dead, flat on his back right on the sidewalk there. Just a few meters from our front gate. What happened I don't know,and who he was I haven't a clue- just a nicely dressed old man going for a walk I guess. Its times like these that my heart hurts and I remember that my God's heart hurts so much more. Suffering was not what he intended. May he use it though to continually teach my heart compassion and mercy for those in need, and move me to love, not only in words but in ACTION and in truth. Good night friends...may your hearts be stired.

Thanks for Praying...

I have been at this internet cafe for hours now so this will be quick! :) Thank you for praying for our needs here! Unfortunately Nadia got the money for her abortion and had it Friday, the same day we went to see her to talk about seeing a doctor with her. Its tough for me because I was really hoping to see God work a miracle for this baby's life, but I know God knows better and also, it was Nadia's choice. But we will still be seeing Nadia and hopefully our relationship will grow. She also has a serious arm injury that is not healing properly so maybe we can help her with that and be a blessing to her large family of 12!

Tomorrow we get to see Vacile at church and I hope to give him a New Testament and talk to him more about knowing Jesus. I'm waiting to see what God will do with this guy and with the other kids who have been coming to church. Its so cool that they come and I am so glad that our church allows them to come there. Pray for God's Spirit to continually show up in our services!

Well, I am super excited because my best friend Leisl is coming all the way from Visalia, California to visit me on the first of February! She is coming at the perfect time as I am having to say good bye to my two closest friends here in Constanta. She is also bringing me a laptop that my family is giving me! Thank you Jesus! So hopefully my updates will be more frequent and I can get more pictures out to let you guys see what all is going on here. Please pray for her safe trip and for our time together to be blessed! I can't wait!

Well friends...you are amazing and I have to tell you that my time here has been blessed because of your love and support, packages, emails, and prayers. I miss you and hope to hear from you when you have the chance.
La revedere! (Good bye) :)

A New Beginning...

Last week we began our new year of ministry. It was awesome to be back on the street with the kids again. I was SOOO happy to see them and to see that they had done alright while our team was away. Some of the kids, including my little princesses, Elena and Angelica, have gone to another city, but most of the kids are still hanging in there as always.

The Day Center is doing well. It was also great to be with the kids there and they seem to be doing well. The outreach team from Ireland has two team members there a day so they are taking care of the special activities and for now it seems like one of the teachers is taking care of the Bible lessons which I had been doing when it was my day. I'm relieved about this because for some reason I get so freaked out about doing Bible lessons. It is so difficult keeping the kids attention in the first place and then when you have to take time for translation you really loose them. So I guess I will tackle this Bible lesson challange another time in the future. For now I am hanging out and helping with the kids and get this- TRANSLATING!

No joke! The other day the teacher who speaks no English asked ME to translate what the kids were saying to the outreach team! I totally laughed at her because I am SOO not that good at Romanian. But I guess that kind of kicked off my year...as far as language goes, its sink or swim! In the day center they lost their aid that did the translating for outreach teams and in our street team we also lost our translator and only Romanian! So, Therese, who speaks a good deal of Romanian and I are the only ones to translate now. Its crazy. Please pray for me to get better and quickly!

Now for some serious prayer requests:

*NADIA* We know this girl, about 23 years old, and she has come to us asking for help with an abortion. She some time last year she was in a horrible accident where a wall fell on her and her baby girl, killing the baby girl and injuring Nadia. I am not sure if this accident had anything to do with this, but she is telling us that due to some surgeries she had in the past and her physical condition now, if she tries to give birth she could die. She has no money for the abortion and that is why she is asking us for help. We are really praying about how to respond to this situation as there seems to be no easy answer. Please pray for God to give us wisdom and to do a miracle in this girl's life and in the life of her baby.

*Eugenia* This woman, has had a very hard life. I won't go into her story for time-sake but she needs to pay a very high water bill as soon as possible and our team is trying to go about drawing papers for an agreement to give her a loan. We need prayer for this to go well and to take care of this is the appropriate way. We also need prayer for the money that we will need in order to give her the loan. This is going to be a huge blessing for this woman and a gigantic burden lifted off her shoulders.

*Vasile* Sunday at church a bunch of street kids came and stayed, listening to the whole message which was a simple, straight-forward, passionate message of salvation and God's love! It was the PERFECT message for street kids and as a result one of the guys from the street, Vasile, prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior! Awesome! Please pray for this young man to grow in the Lord and that we would be able to take the right steps to disciple him. We are seeing more and more that we need to start a Bible study for these guys on the street. Pray for this as well!

*More Workers* And as always we are praying for God to call more and more people with different gifts to Constanta for this ministry. We now REALLY need a Romanian or at least someone who speaks fluent Romanian. And we are also praying for a nurse/medical assistant to join our team too, but we can use anyone with a heart for this ministry! We will be losing Cressida at the end of this month (And I will be saying good-bye to a very dear friend!) and sometime in Februrary we will be having a man from Sweden joining us. He has a big heart for intercession and that will be a huge blessing for us. So God provides in his timing, but I am reminded that we need to continually seek God's face for these needs. He is our good Daddy who provides for us. Amin!

Thank you so much for your prayers and LOVE! I hope you are all doing well and I will give you more updates soon!

Brasov...The most beautiful city yet!

Here is a picture over looking the beautiful city of Brasov. Here I stayed with a friend who had been on outreach in Constanta and this is where we sent our New Years. It was amazing!

La Mult An!...Happy New Year!!!

Its hard to see all the fireworks in the background but just try to imagine it! I've never seen so many fireworks going off at once and in so many different directions! It was amazing! This is us and our friend Alin and his girlfriend Micci.

The Grand Transylvanian Tour...

So...I forgot to mention that Cressida and I set out for our Christmas vacation about a week after our break had officially begun. We first went to Sighisoara where we stayed with Aghi's parents who had just arrived from Hungary for the night. The next day we drove to the village where Aghi's oldest sister lives with her family of four and another of Aghi's sisters. we stayed there for about four days and had a great time. I love her family and especially hanging out with her sisters and little neice and nephews. Check out my pictures to see them!

After being in the village we went back to Sighi to meet the outreach team from Ireland and to show them around the city. Then we went back to the village where they are ministring for a couple of days, Teius, and here I got to meet some wonderful people and enjoy getting to know the Irish team (which is all Americans!:) ). There we went with the team to an orphanage and Cressida told the kids about Africa (she is from South Africa), and we sand more Christmas carols and read a Max Lucado story to them. Then the openned presents from Operation Christmas child! The kids were so cute openning the packages to discover what was inside. NOw I know first hand the impact of those gifts that our church has been sending out every year.

After leaving Teius, we took the train to Brasov, and there I fell in love! No, not with a person but with the city! It is a beautiful city full of all kinds of beautiful artitecture and history. You must see the pictures. We stayed here with a Romanian friend and ate all kinds of good food that his father made. We joined our friend and his girlfriend and friend on New Years watching hundrends of fireworks go off all over the city from our look-out spot on a hill. This was one of the most beautiful sights! After praying together for the new year and I committing 2006 to the Lord, sensed a real exictement for what this new year is going to hold. I can say that this was one of the best New year's I have ever had!

I learned two new things about Romanian New Year's celebrations: the first is that as soon as Christmas comes, boys, young and old and even some girls start lighting firecrackers in the streets wherever you go. New Year's eve I thought I was walking through a war-zone, trying not to get in the way of one small explosion after another!; the second thing I learned was that Romanians don't just wait until twelve, say happy new year and go home, they stay up all night! Call me boring but I fell asleep at almost three in the morning while my friend stayed up all night and even his dad was out at a friend's party until 8:30 in the morning. I tell you again, Romanian's know how to celebrate!

Christmas Day...

Christmas Day I woke up and took a shower only to come out and find that everyone had opened there presents without me! But I quickly learned that presents are such a big deal here. Everyone wakes up whenever and goes and gets their own presents and opens them as they like. This was different for me because my family makes a big deal of openning presents together, but I decided that I like this way because there is not so much focus on the gifts.

That morning we went to church for a very special service of people sharing songs, skits and poems. The youth group did a skit of the Christmas story which was very entertaining :) and other people, even me!, sang Christmas songs.

(At the top you can see Aghi and I singing a beautiful Christmas Carol in Romania! And I am wearing really cool, trendy Romanian style boots :) )

Caroling in Romania...

On Christmas eve we followed Romanian tradition and went out singing "colinde" (Christmas carols) from house to house with the youth group of Aghi's brother-in-law's church ( he is the pastor). There must have been about 15 of us by the end of the night as kids would join up with us along the way. At each house we would sing until they opened the door and invited us in for cakes and soda. I was sooo full by the end of the night, which was really the end of the night- midnight!!! Romanians know how to celebrate!

(The girl "directing" is one of Aghi's sisters Asia)

Merry Christmas...Craciun Fericit!!!
I had a great Christmas with my roommate Aghi's family (her parents, six sisters, and her sister's husband and three kids!) and Cressida from my street ministry team. We stayed for a few days in their little village way out in the country. We sent lots of time dancing with the kids, eatting great food and relaxing!

(Aghi is in the middle wearing blue, Cressida is in the back with the black shirt on and I am the blazing white girl next to her :) )