Dear Friends
NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2018.
As I am starting this letter, 28 children and 6 adults are enjoying a wonderful time on camp at Lacul Rosu in the beautiful mountains of Romania. They are in a stunningly beautiful setting as you will see from the photos page. All the children are thoroughly enjoying just being children, having lots of fun, exercise, outings, times of teaching and singing, laughter and good food. Thanks to people like YOU, they can be children. We were able to send 7 large boxes of new clothing, vitamins, toothbrushes etc for the children to be given on camp so everyone will be extremely happy. We were also able to send a new 8 berth inflatable tent, and last year we sent a new inflatable 6 berth tent so hopefully now, the tents are all in good condition for a few years to come. Camp. It’s been very up and down sorting camp numbers this year, there were the usual children that had their names down from last year, and some new children too. Biencuta and Alex who now live in Austria went on camp too so that was great news. They seem to be doing ok. As usual, some children couldn’t go as their parents decided at last minute that they wanted them to stay home to work, we can only imagine their disappointment! Claudiu said this: ‘camp was a real challenge, very hard, it was a test on us on all levels – work, watch, counselling, care, feeding, but everyone had an amazing time and we thank everyone who made this week possible, God bless you all! Claudiu & Ada now have the task of cleaning all the tents, washing all the sleeping bags etc, they are a real blessing. Oana Rosca wasn’t there this year which is the first time since camp began, she is now living with her boyfriend who appears to be looking after her, we do hope so as life has been hard for her. She occasionally contacts Kath online which is good and seems very happy. She shows concern for her brothers Tiberiu & Sebastian, who are on camp this week and visits them regularly. Sadly, her parents continue to drink. One new family, the Micu/Galben/Codreanu/Drutu family (some of the children have different fathers), from Pogana, consists of grandma, around 75 years old and grandpa, around 80 who take care of their 10 grandchildren. The children are from around 3-15 years old and life is very hard. Their mothers are working in Italy and send no money home for the children. The help they received from GNfR brought huge smiles from the children and grateful hugs and relief from the grandparents. They were grateful not only for the help with food etc, but were most grateful for the love and encouragement too. 7 of these children are on camp! Sadly more and more children have at least one parent who is working abroad, mostly in Italy as Romanian & Italian are very similar languages. These children whose parents do send money home have said that they don’t want the toys etc, they want Mummy or Daddy back home, it’s so distressing and we can only wait to see what emotional effect this will have on the children. Mirela Munteanu I mentioned in the last newsletter, a single Mum with 5 children, has continued to receive help too, making a huge difference to their lives. The small gifts, food etc bring more joy than we can imagine. Milena, Marian & Daniel. Milena continues to do well at college and has been working in the south of the country for money to help with her living costs, she’s done so well and we are proud of her. Her nephews still live with Grandma and continue to go to school and are always happy to spend time with Milena when she is home. They are lovely boys and we look forward to see them again soon. Stela Petcu continues to be a good Mum to Andrei, they don’t have much but she is committed to ensuring that he is a happy boy and knows he is loved. Her Aunt & Uncle continue to help and support them. Ruben, Alex, Cristian and a new boy Alex Ungureanu. These boys are such a good support for Claudiu & Ada. When a visit is made to support the families, the boys go along, helping to carry food etc. They are totally committed to helping the poor families in their neighbourhood. They have a great example in Claudiu and Ada! Oana & Maria Zanet continue to live in their tiny apartment which at times, must be quite depressing. Oana is doing well with her teeth braces and although up and down emotionally, on the whole she is doing ok. She chats to Kath regularly online and GNfR was able to send them both some new clothes and gifts to bring a smile to their faces. Oana’s brother Bogdan continues to be devoted to being a monk in a monastery not far out of Barlad. Oana & Maria go there occasionally to stay and we know that the peace and beauty there helps them a lot. Andrei Dinca who is in Bucharest studying to be a doctor is doing well. He has completed another year of his course successfully and continues to do his voluntary work. He’s a lovely Christian young man who is a wonderful example to Barlad many other young people. He also chats to Kath regularly and expresses how he will always be grateful for the help from GNfR. He is so determined to do well and be a good doctor, we can only wish him well. The Church at Dealu Mare Unfortunately, the decision to rent a building for everyone to meet for Church services wasn’t the right one. We were sending money for this every month and soon realised that we weren’t able to meet all the needs of the poor families we support. After much discussion with Claudiu, we felt it was right to let the building go so everyone is back to meeting in either Claudiu & Ada’s home or Madalina’s home. Everything is going ok at the minute and we know if this needs to change, then the Lord will tell us what to do. The children all love meeting together and we thank God that Claudiu, Ada & Madalina & Vlad are willing to keep encouraging these young people and help them to grow in their faith. Nicoleta Postolache who GNfR has supported through university got married in June, what wonderful news! She has one more year to do on her course but we are sure she will be successful. We wish her and Vlad every happiness. Her brother Daniel continues to do well on his epilepsy treatment and is now living a normal life, thank God. David Luca son of Roxana Munteanu was born with a heart problem but sadly he passed away at the end of July aged around 5 months. Roxana told Claudiu & Ada that she remembered being taught in Sunday School of God’s love and that He’s with her in every situation and that those memories were bringing her comfort. What an encouragement for Claudiu & Ada that their teaching has made such an impact on Roxana. She thanks everyone for their prayers. Northern Ireland support. In June, David and I set off with our caravan (& car of course) to visit Northern Ireland. The main reason for this trip was to meet the 5 young men who have committed to raising funds to buy a minibus to drive over to Barlad and donate to GNfR. We were able to spend a wonderful time with them, chatting through their plans, encouraging them and finding out how they are raising money. On the Saturday, we saw almost 60 people set off to climb Slieve Donard, the highest mountain in NI to raise funds. It was so encouraging and lots of people wanted to know more about the work of GNfR and all about the families we support. Geoff and team have done lots of fundraising events and the next one is an abseil down a tall building in Belfast…we are very glad we aren’t involved in that! We still don’t have a definite date of when they will arrive in Barlad but all being well, it should be early October. David, Mandy and myself will, God willing, be there to meet them. We will introduce them to some of the families and we will also buy whatever is needed for school, the families etc while we are there, finances permitting. We have to make a decision about what to do with the minibus that is already in Barlad. It is getting old but still runs ok. For camp, 2 minibuses would be ideal (this time we had to borrow 3 more cars from friends making costs higher for fuel etc) but running 2 minibuses would be costly for insurance etc…please pray with us on that one! Romania corruption. Sadly the corruption in Romania is still not good, the only good thing is that there are many groups now being set up to fight it. There is a lot of political unrest in Bucharest and other big cities across Romania, there was a big demonstration in Bucharest only yesterday, August 10th, where over 60,000 people demonstrated with some being injured in their fight to overcome corruption, we pray that there will be visible improvements soon! Chatting to Claudiu revealed that food, fuel and all prices in Romania are rising rapidly. Claudiu spent lots of time costing out everything for camp and for us, seeing the changes in costs from last year was quite shocking. We did notice last year that prices were definitely rising and it’s hard to understand how everyone copes to be honest. We don’t like to have to increase costs but its seems that next year we may need to increase the price for each child to go on camp, however, we do know that God’s in charge and we know whatever is needed will be provided, as it always is! Claudiu & Ada We always enjoy our time in Barlad because we can spend time chatting with Claudiu & Ada and find out in more detail all that is going on there. There is one thing for sure, we are always touched by their strength, stamina and commitment in helping all the families in need. We ask you to keep praying for them both as they face many struggles in supporting these poor families. We thank you all so much for your love, support & encouragement, it is YOU that makes these good things happen for the families we support.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! God bless.
David, Kath & Mandy.
A date for your diary: Our coffee morning/bring & buy will be held at our home on November 24th , 09.45-12 noon, it will be great to see you!
For anyone living in the Newport Pagnell area, your contact is Mandy Pateman. [email protected] Tel: 01908218679.