REACH Romania
Summer Camps Update (24 August 2006)
Dear friends - Brothers and Sisters,
After several days with extremely high temperatures (up to 50 Celsius in Bucharest), followed by severe storms that did a lot of damage, we have “normal” weather now. But the cool mornings and evenings tell us that autumn is closer now – and the summer of 2006 with its activities is past tense now! Praise the Lord for His Goodness! He wrote history again for many young people this summer!
I want to tell you a few things about the “children camp” we had – we asked you to pray for it, and it was good! Actually some of our leaders said it was one of the best camps! Well, that’s what they tell me after each camp! Here are some facts.
We had children/teens from 3 different locations: Falticeni – 21 of the young people who were moved from the former children home into apartments, a program implemented by EU, with one of their instructors;
Bucharest – 15 young people plus 2 ladies/instructors – former street children, now in the program of “Back to School” foundation – meaning they are brought back to school to continue their education – some are in the 5th or 6th grade, even if they are in their 20s;
Dumbrava, about 50 km. out of Oradea – 16 gypsy children and teens (between 12 -16) with their instructors – a foundation run by a family working in this gypsy village.
Our team –extremely small this summer (due to lack of room) – Mona – camp director, and 7 others, including Dan, our administration man and myself, was completed with 27 people from Glenwood Church, Cardiff, Wales. They came prepared with everything in order to do the camp – teaching materials, games, gifts, clothes (150 boxes sent ahead of time!), juggling materials (the expert Pete Cole!), and the necessary finances to pay for the camp! And they did it with excellence!!!
Now – you have an idea of the mixture of people there (some of the Welsh people told us they were discouraged at the beginning, seeing this diversity!), and I have to confess I wasn’t sure of the outcome myself, taking some of them from the train station to the camp!
But as it usually happens, where the love of God is expressed in a practical way, things went very well and the last day, we took to the train station crying children/teens, expressing the desire to stay there for the rest of their lives – and left behind, at the camp, crying Welsh people, sorry to see their new made friends leave!
During the week, they had good food, good fellowship, games, and trips in the nice neighborhood, mixed very well with testimonies and Bible teaching – everything delivered with Christian love and an excellent attitude from those who served! The young people had wonderful testimonies – they were impressed by the quality of everything!
Finally – I am amazed looking at how the Lord does things – has people from Wales coming and bringing money and materials, people from all over the world praying, people from Suceava planning and putting things together – so that children and teenagers from Northern Romania (Falticeni), Western Romania (Oradea) and the capital city (Bucharest) could come and experience the love of God! ONLY OUR AWESOME GOD CAN DO IT!!! Praise HIM!!!
Continue to pray with us for them – we ploughed, planted, watered – but only the Lord can make it grow! LORD – make it grow and receive ALL THE GLORY for everything!
You can see some pictures at www.cccprsv.xhost.ro - a web site we are developing these days.
Thank you for partnering with us in Kingdom work in Romania,
Nicu & Suceava Team
P.S. As I write, I’m listening to the freshly released “Fa o Diferenta” (Make a Difference) album – our boys did it well! The name of the band/album comes from one of the camps done by our friends from Christian Life Fellowship, a few summers ago....