Jen's Journey: March 2023

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Other Spring News!

In addition to the Spring Team, we've have some other things we've been up to! The H2H family continues to grow! I mentioned that during the Spring Team we had a baby shower for Mariana Patrascu. We also celebrated, with our Alpha Omega Church family, a baby shower for Marius and Adriana. They were married here at the Team House a year ago, and it is so fun and exciting to continue to walk alongside of their family!

You’ve probably heard me talking about the fact that in the past few years there have been quite large changes in the orphanage system here. The goal of the government is to shut down all of the large institutional facilities and move kids into smaller, more family style homes. Many of our kids have been moved around and we are doing our best to continue to visit them no matter where they land. We were able to visit a new facility to see 5 of our kids. It was so amazing to see them and how much they've grown. Plus, make connections and hopefully open the door to future collaboration.

Our Snagov house continues to house Ukrainian refugees. The number has reduced and right now we have 2 families there. This means three women and 10 children! We do a variety of activities there, but are very excited to have found a woman, who speaks Russian, that will be going 1-2 times a week to teach Romanian and Bible lessons.

We are preparing for summer ministry! We are very excited that we have 2 teams that will be coming this summer with about 30 volunteers! One of my big jobs is to figure out the logistics of this time and establish a schedule. The staff is also working on the curriculum for summer camps. We are using the theme that We are Lights in the World, with the idea that our faith can bring light into dark places. We are going to use the setting of caves and the last team helped us finish painting our club to look like a cave!

Spring Team 2023

It has become a tradition to have a team from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area each year at the beginning of March. This year they returned with energy and enthusiasm to help usher in Spring in Romania.

We were able to visit many different ministry locations and do story time, crafts, games and just love on the kids. March first is Martisori day in Romania, which is the celebration of the end of winter, beginning of Spring. It is usually celebrated by giving flowers and small broach type pins with the intertwining of the colors red and white. The Michigan team usually brings a flower craft that we can do with the kids and they can give them away. Makenna, from the team, has experience in face painting and we were able to put that skill to use as well. It is always fun to see what skills a team has that can be put to good use!

We also had several special events with the team. One school we work with brought 15 students for a special field trip to the Team House. We had story and craft time, but we also had a lot of fun cooking with them. Most of these students have special needs and don't have many life skills developed, so it was fun to watch them thrive in the kitchen! Some of their classroom teachers, that we partner with, come as well. It was hard to tell who was more excited, the kids or the teachers!

We also had a baby shower for one of our privious girls transtion program students. Mariana will be having a baby girl in May.

Between Feb. 26 and March 9th we have five birthdays in the H2H family, including mine. We combine all of the birthdays into one big party. It was a fun day had by all!

Thanks Spring Team for all of your hard work and service! Thanks to all who continue to support our lives and ministry in so many ways!!