Winter Made It To Romania!
Winter Made it to Romania!
Hello Friends and Family, During the winter months in Romania, things slow down in the villages as everyone has a break from farming. However, because there is not as much outside work, the church takes this opportunity to host a lot of community focused services called “Evangelistic Meetings”. These services range from weekend services to all-week of services. We had the joy of being a part of these meetings this past month. In our village, we had a week- long Evangelistic meeting which had services every night as well as morning sessions during the week days on the topics of “Families”, “Marriage”, and “Men of God”. A Baptist pastor from Hungary travelled here to be the main speaker and Paul also was able to preach alongside of him. Our church was packed with community people from our village and the villages around us! It was exciting to see so many new faces hearing the Gospel! These meetings continued each week in different villages around us, and will continue throughout February and March as well. We look forward to more opportunities to share the Gospel in the month ahead!
Since serving in Romania, we’ve worked hard to make connections with various ministries already existing in Romania. We see this as a huge value as we want to be supporting and enriching the ministries already taking place here. We also want the camp to be an extension of this work and we would love to see local partnerships form, in order to grow the reach and impact of the camp ministry. One organization we’ve connected with a lot is Youth For Christ in both Hungary and Romania. This past month we started a new ministry with YFC Romania’s staff. After working with them in a number of different ways this past year we were approached by their director to help their team grow in various practical ministry skills as well as in spiritual formation. We led a number of training sessions during their retreats through the year but this month we started hosting a bi-monthly, prayer meetings with their entire through a skype meeting (love technology!). We are also available as a spiritual mentors to the staff. It has been such a great way for us to connect with the staff outside of the training sessions we’ve led and ministry weeks we’ve been a part of.
As for the camp work, Tamas, Tunde, Paul and I have been working on A LOT of reports this month! The fun stuff! We had a lot of wrap up with the end of the year. What made it much easier to work through was the fact that we took the time to develop systems and put them into action this past year for the camp organization. We are SO grateful to have Tunde a part of the camp team as she is incredibly gifted with organizing and communicating the details involved in developing the camp. Through all of our reports and meetings, it was very encouraging to see God’s faithfulness this past year! We spent some time reflecting and praying about 2015 and into 2016. We were all so grateful for:
Safety during all of the construction and camp programs
The fruit that came from all of the missionary teams that came over, YFC Vancouver, Central Baptist (Edmonton), YWAM York, Brentview Baptist (Calgary), Lakeview Heights Baptist (Kelowna), Pilgrim Baptist (Vancouver), and YFC Hungary.
The giant community that has come around all of us and the camp. We truly feel as just one of God’s tools in this ministry as He has brought a number of hands to lift up this project!
The lives that were changed through seeing over 1000+ young people through camps and youth programs throughout the year
We also prayed into this next year for:
Submission to God’s will, and vision for the camp this next year and into the future.
Patience and acceptance of God’s timing
Provision of the construction development this next year and the Capital campaign
Provision for the Vern and Gloria Wagner’s fundraising and a smooth transition for them as they begin to serve in Romania hopefully this next year
Thank you everyone for making this past year so incredible for us and the camp! Thank you for being such huge supports to the ministry here, for truly being partners with us. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement, it is heard and it is felt! Tanya and Paul
