Camps and Teams

July means 2 things for us here at H2H:  Camps and Teams.  This is our busiest month of the year and this year was no exception.  We had around 30 team members and we held 8 different camps.  This year's idea was to do week long day camps in each orphanage for kids under 14 and a separate camp for the teens.  All of the camps ended with pool parties at Pipera. 

  This is part of the team members who joined us over the month of July!

 Three more Buhlerites came to help out.  It was a pleasure to have Karley, Rhonda, and Stacey here!

 Teen Camps

Graduation!

This year we had one of our biggest graduating classes from the Transition Program that we've ever had!  We graduated 14 young men and women.  It is always is a great time to stop and celebrate how far they have each come, and look forward with anticipation to what God is going to do in each of their lives.

 For each of the graduates a staff or team member who has a special bond with the graduate shared a verse or passage of scripture as a blessing over him or her along with memories and encouragement.  It was a special moment for each graduate.  I blessed Ionut, whom I've known since he was 8 years old.  With the majority of these graduates we've watched them grow up through our programs, which makes it extra special for those of us that have helped raise them through the years!

The graduates with some of the H2H staff.

JUNE

Whew!!! June was a very busy month!  We had a team from Biola University to help us start of the month celebrating Children's Day, which is June 1st.  We finished out the school year with end of the year programs.  We also got ready for summer ministry to begin, among many other things. 

We put on a children's carnival in Rosiori for the 3 orphanages that we work with in that area.  The Biola team, kicked it off by playing the Romanian national anthem.  Then we had booths the kids could go to.  There was face painting, balloon animals, obstacle course, fishing pond, and hot dogs to eat, just to name a few!

 

Our orchestra from the Peris orphanage was invited to play at the opening of a new Romanian foundation that is piloting a program to take young people from the orphanage and teach them to be chefs.  The foundation will be taking a few kids from the Peris orphanage and it will be a great opportunity for those chosen.  The launch of this foundation happened at the Marriott hotel in Bucuresti, which is a very fancy, expensive hotel here.  The kids were wowed by the building, the food served on fancy plates, and playing in front of some important and famous Romanians.  It was a night that they won't soon forget!

 

 School ended on June 20th.  Each year the schools have a promotion ceremony.  At the Peris school the orchestra performed. 

 Some of the classes also put on a play for us.  Can you guess what it was?

 The Jungle Book!

The Reno Team was here to help us celebrate the end of the year!

 Taylor and Bekah Wedel from my home church in Buhler, were also here.  It is always fun to people from home here who share my love for these kids!

 We finished out the month of June preparing for summer camps.  You never know what you are going to get to do here for ministry.  Josh and Mark's task was to paper mache helmets for the knight who will be the emcee for summer camps!

Field Trip Fun

We were able to continue field trip fun during the months of May and June.  We were able to take 2 groups of kids from Rdv to the Bucuresti zoo. 

 Some of the Canadian team came along to join in the fun!

 No trip to the zoo is complete without ice cream!  Thanks Canada Team!!

 We also were able to take Steven and Haley's reading students to a bookstore in Bucuresti.  They each were able to choose a book to purchase, thanks to Steven and Haley's home church The Wave, from San Diego.  This was a very significant thing for these kids to do, since they have no children's books in their classrooms.  They were thrilled to be able to pick out their own, and are excited to read them!

 After the bookstore we all enjoyed lunch at McDonald's.

Cuteness!

Ok, so I couldn't resist!  Here are some of the pictures of Ruthie.  She's just too cute to not share!

An Easter Proposal

Easter was late in Romania this year.  It didn't occur until May 5th.  We once again were able to celebrate the day with the Canadian Team.  Easter is a very important holiday in Romania and we have a large H2H family celebration each year.  One of the traditions is the big egg hunt. Among tons of candy filled eggs, we usually hide a golden egg.  This egg is worth 50 lei (about $15) and is the highly sought after egg. This year we also had a special silver egg that had a special surprise inside. 

Ruthie got into egg hunting this year!

Enjoying the day with some of the family.  Mirela and I.

Marius and Robi

 Alex had asked us to help him come up with a special way in which he could propose to Ioana.  He wanted to do it with the H2H family in attendance, so we decided that Easter was the perfect time.  The silver egg had Ioana's engagement ring inside.  "Somehow" Alex was the one who found the silver egg.  I called him to the front and told him he had to do what the note in the egg said to be able to receive the reward. 

The note inside the egg said that he needed to say something nice about someone that he cared about.  He called Ioana up to the front and recited a speech that he had written about her.  He told her he loved her and then asked for the silver egg.  He opened it and the ring was inside.  It wasn't until that moment that Ioana realized what was happening.  It was a great surprise!  Now we have an August wedding to plan!

Spring Break!

Because of school vacations, April gave us a lot of "free time" with the kids.  They had their spring break and a week of "scoala altfel" (a different kind of school), which gave us plenty of opportunity to do things outside of the orphanage setting.  One of our goals with the kids is to give them opportunity to socially interact like normal kids.  In some of the orphanages that we work with, the kids live, and go to school on the same campus. They have very little interaction with kids and people in the outside world.  So we are always looking for opportunities for them to get to interact and be exposed to things outside of their bubble.  This year, we used this time for classroom reward trips.  We took 2 groups to the movies- a first for most of the kids.

We also had a chance to have pizza and McDonalds in the mall and do a bit of window shopping.  For some of the kids the biggest excitement was the glass elevator and escalators.

 We also had some groups that got to a park and McDonalds.  The fun of play time!

Thanks to everyone who helped sponsor these trips and provide great memories for our kids!