Summer Camps 2021!

In my last blog I told you about the first day camp of the summer. In July and August we were able to have two more weeks of day camps and two groups of a shorten version of overnight camps. So in all we had 5 different camp experiences, with about 110 kids involved. It was different summer for us in many ways. We were not allowed to have teams from the US come and help out because of Covid travel restrictions and each orphanage had different rules and regulations that we had to follow. Despite this we were thrilled by the amount we were able to do, the volunteers from our graduates and some fellow Romaian friends, and the smiles, fun and love that was able to be shared. I was reminded again of the resilency of our kids and the power of Faith, Hope, and Love. The second camp was a week of day camps with kids 6-13 from Rosiori. The theme was the miracles of Jesus and we brought the kids each day to the Boys Transition House in Nenciulesti. I was in charge of lunches and snacks and leading craft time. Two of my favorite memories of the week were the singing time. The kids loved to sing and everytime that we sang the song "Stiu Cine Sunt" (I know who I am), which is a song that talks about who we are in Christ, and I saw the kids singing the words with passion and energy, I would get tears in my eyes and would pray "Lord let these words be true in their lives!" That is our deepest desire, that each child would know who they are in Christ. It is such a contrast to go from being an orphan with "no worth," to being a child of THE KING, with infinite worth. The other favorite moment was after lunch each day each team would tell me thank you for the meal. It started out with an impromptu shout out instigated by one of the team leaders with a traditional romanian thank you "Sarat mana pentru masa." (I kiss your hand for the meal) and it turned into a competition between the teams to come up with a different poem or chant each day to say thank you. It made me laugh every day!

The Boy in the third picture, Alex, attached himself to my side and said he was going to be glued to me all day. I told him he'd have to help cook, he said "no problem," then I told him he'd have to help clean up "No problem." Then I told him he'd have to help clean bathrooms, he thought a second and decided to go play! The next camp was a day camp with kids of all ages from Peris and Voluntari. We did lesson and game time out at Snagov in the big yard and then they came to Pipera for lunch and swim time in the afternoon. I was a leader of the red team, which was the girls' team. We had a slight disadvantage to the highly athletic boys' teams, but we were able to come from behind and win first place for the week! It was very exciting!

Camps 4 and 5 were teen camps from Rosiori. We were able to bring them up to Bucuresti and they were able to stay overnight. It was only one night and two days for each group so we packed in those days. We had lessons, worship, games, scavengerhunt, pool time, camp fire, more games, meals, more games, and a bit of hang out time. We are continuing to see the trend in Rosiori that teens are being placed in the orphanage often, so we have quite a few "new" kids that haven't been in the system and then as teens find themselves in the orphanage. It is a very hard transition and I'm so glad that we can provide a place for them to feel safe and loved.

It was a terrific summer and I'm so thankful to God for his provision, my staff and volunteers for all of their work, and all or you who support us in many different ways. Thank you!

Summer 2021 Begins!

We were able to start summer minstry on June 28th. This year we are doing day camps, or a VBS type program, at most of our ministry locations. Our first group was at a boys center that has boys with diverse special needs about 2.5 hours from Bucuresti. We had a great time with them! They enjoyed the activities and games, but the number one question that we heard was "what are we going to eat?!" I led the craft time and did the snack and meal prep with a few helpers. Since we are unuable to have teams of volunteers come in this year from countries outside of Romania we enlisted the help of some of the more active youth in one of our youth groups in the area (youth from a different orphanage). It was one of the highlights of my week watching them step up and help lead. It was very hot, so the water games were also a big hit!

One of the boys, Marius, deciding that my name, Jen, was too close to the Romania word "gem" that means jam. He affectionately called me Gem all week!

Kansas Trip

I was able to use some airline credit to make a quick trip back to Kansas for my niece Shelby's wedding. I had a quick stopover in Texas to visit my good friend Amy Kay. While there we found out that Kyle, the groom, had been exposed to covid and was in quarantine. Fortunately the venue had an opening so the wedding was pushed back and week and was able to still happen while I was in Kansas.

To return to Romania I had to have a negative PCR test and when I got the results back they came back possitive. I didn't have symptoms and felt great, but I was put in quarantine and my 3 week trip was extended a bit. I used the time to help my parents with projects. The farm girl in me came out and I mowed, gardened, cut trees down with a chain saw, tore down part of a chicken house, etc. It was good, hard work, but I felt good about what was accomplished! I returned to Romania on June 8th and hit the ground running!

Busy Spring!

Hello everyone! My last post was in April and now its July! Another busy spring. The beginning of May was Romanian Easter and we were able to have a small Heart To Heart Gathering at the team house. Covid restrictions kept it a small group, but we enjoyed being together and some of the H2H traditions like the egg hunt and the Golden Egg continued! We were also allowed to go into the last orphanage that hadn't given us permission to enter since the start of Covid restrictions and celebrate Easter with them!

Another fun part of Spring was getting to know Oliver better and seeing him grow and change so quickly.

God Shows Up

Ministry in Romania continues to morph and change, but one thing still remains, We all need Christ! I’ve spoken, in many of my updates, about the fact the Romanian government continues to change the face of the orphanage system here. They are trying to move kids out of the historical large institutions into smaller “family” style locations. Any time change happens there are bumps along the way and one of the bumps of this change is what to do with teenagers? Most of the teens in the system that have lived their entire lives at one location do not what to be transferred to a new orphanage or foundation. They are resisting this change. The “family” style locations are reluctant to take on teens with their attitudes and pre-formed issues. So the solution? One of the government solutions is to find biological family for each kid and send them “home.” We are seeing many of our teens that have never lived with biological family suddenly returned to them. As you can imagine, most of these situations are not going well. If the biological family was a healthy environment the kids more than likely wouldn’t have been put in the orphanage in the first place. Where does Heart To Heart come in? Our staff maintains contact with kids that leave the centers. In some cases we’ve been able to go into the home and provide some support. But the biggest involvement has been through the Transition Program. We are often contacted by a teen and told things at home aren’t going well and they see that if they stay they have no future. Can they come to the Transition Program? Usually our programs begin each fall and go for a school year. But we are seeing are and more emergency cases in which they need something right away. I believe this is an area that H2H will be called to expand in and grow in the near future. Once in the Transition Program our job is to help transition them from dependent to independent. One of my tasks is to meet weekly with the students. We talk about everything from anger management, forgiveness, spiritual discipleship issues, conflict resolution, time management, interviews, money management and more. This past week, I was meeting with Carmen. Carmen began our program in the fall and has started to work in the last month. She has her first pay check coming on May 10th so we are talking about budgeting and money management. This week’s lesson was defining a need verses a want. As a teacher, most of my best lessons come about when the natural discussion and flow takes it in a way that I didn’t plan it to go. I think that its a God thing! During our discussion we were talking about people that shop just to shop and that that can lead to spending money on wants not needs and that can quickly get us off budget. The conversation morphed into motivation. Suddenly we were talking about what makes us happy. Everyone wants to feel happy and fulfilled and we try all kinds of things to get there. Shopping, food, netflix, activity. Things that aren’t bad but won’t provide true fulfillment. The only thing that will is our relationship with God and if that’s right then its easier to keep a budget, or a healthy lifestyle. We ended the lesson and I felt energized. I knew it was God speaking to Carmen and to me reminding us of a simple truth: God first and the rest follows. I love when God shows up in a conversation. I love that He very much loves and cares for kids that the system would rather just go away. He still has big plans for the orphans of Romania and I’m so thankful to get to be a part of it!

Being Present I am a doer. It is in my DNA. I grew up in a family of doers. I grew up in a church of doers. I value hard work and productivity and honestly feel my best at the end of a full day where a lot was accomplished. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a doer, but in this last season God has been reminding me that doing is not as important as being. Even pre-covid, H2H and the atmosphere of the Romanian orphanage has been changing. There is a huge movement to reduce the number of children in the institutions. That is a great concept, and one that we’ve worked toward and prayed for for years. But, it has changed the feel. The days of pulling up in the van and having 50 kids running and yelling “americani!” are over. The numbers of kids in one facility have been dramatically reduced. The kids are still glad to see us, but the mob mentality and hype are not still present. I miss it! I don’t like the change. I miss the numbers and the hype and the thrill of the kids running and shouting that I had arrived. Who doesn’t like the feel of people being thrilled that you’ve arrived? I also don’t particularly like change. I like to know what the schedule is and what the program will look like and which kids I will see on what days. Then covid hit and the changes kept coming. The accessibility to the kids was reduced or even removed for a season. I was called back to the US to support my Dad and family as he fought for his life. Back to Romania then back to the US for furlough and called to support my second family as Mark Gregory lost his life. Wave after wave of change and grief on different levels. I’ve been back in Romania, since January and God has been reminding me that He is God and I am not. He doesn’t need me to do anything. He occasionally chooses to use me in a situation but He wants me to be present with Him and let Him work. One of the reminders of that came on March 9th as Heather, Nicu and I sat outside of the hospital awaiting news of what was happening inside with Melissa (one of our staff) and baby Oliver. Just a few hours earlier Melissa’s water broke, 6 weeks early. As we sat and waited Nicu said. “Jen, you really have been there through my whole life. From when I was 9 and brought to the orphanage, to when I was in high school and you visited me there and made sure I was doing my homework, to the transition program, my baptism, my wedding, my joining H2H staff, and now sitting with me while my first child is being born.” The thing that Nicu was grateful for wasn’t anything that I did, but that I was present in milestones of his life. The greatest way we can show God’s love to others is by showing them that we are present through their lives, because God is ALWAYS present in our lives. It doesn’t matter if there are 100 kids or 1. It doesn’t matter if I like the situation or I don’t. It doesn’t matter if I accomplish a task or not. What matters is being available, being present, and letting God work. Oliver and Melissa are still in the hospital, but making steps everyday to be able to come home. H2H is still here. Some days we are allowed to go in to the orphanages, some days restrictions keep us out. Some days have the feel that I like, some days don’t. But in it all God is faithful. He is God and He allows me to be an example of Him in this world, one moment at a time. Here is some of the current news of what we are up to: -Out of the 5 facilities that we work in on a regular basis we’ve been allowed into 3 of them full time. One of them we have to take a rapid covid test before we can go in. Just today we had a meeting with one of the directors of one of the centers we haven’t been allowed into, and once a few more forms are signed by some of the higher up in the state system, we will be allowed back in. Seeing the kids when we went to drop of the forms was wonderful and food for my soul! -Like in many areas we go in and out of being in lockdown. For us lockdown means a curfew and we are not allowed to leave our house without paperwork filled out about where we are from and were we are going. There are occasional check points where you may be stopped and checked. -In some of the lighter restriction times we were able to have some H2H family moments. We celebrated Karla’s 6th birthday and Eric’s 3rd birthday (2 of our “grandkids”) with small parties. We had a baby shower for Melissa. We also had a going away luncheon for Wanetta and added Nicu and my birthday’s into the mix. -We are hopeful that we’ll be able to have a Easter celebration here at Pipera (Easter for us in on May 2). -We don’t know what we will be allowed to do for summer ministry, but we are hopeful that we will get to have the kids out of the orphanages on some level. -We have one girl in the transition program and are going to be adding one more hopefully in the next couple of weeks. -Financially things continue to be a struggle for us. While, my job is to mete out finances here in Romania, it has been stressful at times. God keeps reminding me He is God and I am not in this area as well! We have several items and special projects that we don’t know where the funding will come from. If you’d like to help, please contact Jodi or myself and we can give you more details! As always, thanks for being present in my life! I always know that I’m loved and supported and that is such a blessing! Love, Jen