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

Back To School!

Just like everyone around the world, this fall brought up the question "how is this school year going to look?" We typically deal with this question during September as we wait for each orphanage to figure out their schedules, which then has a domino effect on our schedules. Septmeber is actually one of my least favorite months of the year because there tends to be a whole list of questions that people need answered, but I can't answer them until other people make decisions! Because of that we plan what we can and have a general stucture in place and then have to adapt based on what curve balls the orphanages or schools throw our way. This year, with the added chaos that is everywhere our flexibility has had to be particularly adept! The good news is that the majority of our ministry locations have reopened enough to let us back in with our programming. There are a few special needs locations that are still closed to us. But over all we are up and running! The new director of one of our orphanages invited us to a back to school party with the kids. It was unique to be invited to an event like this that we didn't plan. It was a really nice evening. We were able to spend some good quality time with the kids there. I had a small group of the teen age boys that wanted to hang out. All of these are boys that I've known since they were small. It is a special honor to still be picked to hang out as they get older. The director had asked us to bring pictures of the kids from various stages of their lives. It was fun to look at these pictures and reminince. He also challenged them to write down a dream or wish for this school year. We lit up laterns and let them go as a symbol of those dreams and wishes. I really enjoyed the whole experience!

Our grandkids continue to grow up as well. Ruthie began 4th grade, Karla her last year of pre-school and Daria another year of pre-school.

Another fall activity for us is canning zacusca. This is a kind of spread made from eggplant, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Corni and I got about 20 jars canned for this next year, plus put roasted eggplant in the freezer that we can pull out to make salata de vinete. If you don't know what that is, you'll have to come for a visit and try it out!

August Life

August was quite a month. It felt very strange to be in August without having just finished summer camps, without have our pool filled with kids on a regular basis. We were allowed to return to visiting most of our kids in most of the facilities. There were new regulations and hoops to jump through. Masks at all locations, having a negative covid test at another, at a couple of locations they established a sanatying tunnel that you walked through and got sprayed down with disinfetant. Our staff was willing to go through whateve hoops necessary to be able to be physically present. We were able to start up different programmng and meet weekly or bi-weekly with most of the kids! For me, August was a balance between caring for Ruthie and Karla, helping get ministries back up to full functioning levels and event planning! We had two weddings in August, both of which I coordinated. The first was Bella and Marian. They got married in the Team House back yard. It turned out to be a lovely event and everyone was very pleased with how it turned out.

The second was actually a reception for Melissa and Nicu. They were officially married in June after having to postpone from their orginial April date. They had it a event hall close by. There was a unity ceremony and reception. It was a very nice day and extra special because a handful of the kids from the orphanages were given permission to come and be part of the day.

After two weddings in two weeks I was able to take a quick breath. I was able to take a small group to the seaside for the day.

We finished the month by celebrating Daria's 5th birthday.