We're Gearing Up To Head Home To America!

What an amazing week this has been and we are so blessed and thankful that we got to be part of Christmas in Romania, and thanks to all who made this possible including little preschoolers at Lafayette Academy Preschool. The blessings that have been poured out this week have been abundant, and it takes all of us as a team to make this happen.

School supplies was delivered today that was collected last spring by Grace Lutheran Preschool & Kindergarten. They do a mission project for FMN every other year, and raise money through the kids doing extra jobs and making sacrifices of themselves, just like Lafayette Academy recently did, and save money in banks. At the end of the project they brought in school supplies, which was able to be brought over this time. There is a lady who comes to the center for kindergarten for the older kids and the supplies were much needed.

How awesome.............kids helping kids! Maybe you have a group of kids, or your church, or small group that would like to learn more about FMN and raise funds to support the ministry, or form a team to come to Romania! We'd love to meet with you and partner with you to be part of the FMN team! You will bless many, and at the same time, be more blessed than you can imagine!

We were at the center early this morning. Rewiring has begun and there are a lot of projects in the works. The Isaiah Center has come a long way since it first opened in January, 2008 and the children have changed so much!

We prepared for the next party which was with Abel and Samuel's family. Before the party, we wanted to get a "family" photo of the Isaiah Center Family. WOW! It was pretty crazy trying to get everybody to look at the camera at the same time and smile. Dave was holding Alex and he kept grabbing Rachel's hair and eating on Dave's face! Bless his heart! He's blossomed through the love that he has received at the center and is a very active little boy which is a true blessing as he couldn't even sit up a year ago and is now pulling up on furniture and getting into everything!! When we look back to one year ago when the first "family" picture was taken, the kids have changed so much! They have security and love, nutrition and encouragement, and a father in Heaven who loves them very much, who has placed them at the Isaiah Center.

At the party, the kids were so excited, and they had a blast! The highlight of the party, besides Santa's visit of course, was when Abel prayed out loud again. At first he was embarrassed because his family was there but with encouragement from Rachel, he prayed and prayed, for his family, for others, for God's hand to heal and protect. When the prayer was over, Rachel said she looked up and Abel's grandfather was wiping tears from his face. It's so sad, but as we've said before, this culture is a hard culture, one of extreme poverty, illiteracy, abuse, neglect, alcoholism, and hopelessness. The Roma culture is not accepted into society and are looked down upon as being unworthy of life and unworthy of love. Abel's grandfather has been abusive to Samuel and Abel, and the boys live alone in a small hut next to the grandparents house. They were abandoned by their mother, and at one time, the grandparents believed the boys to be cursed and that's why they would not let them stayin the house with them. The hut for the boys at one time had no roof and a mud floor until FMN took care of that, covering the roof and putting in a floor. FMN will continue to work with these families, assisting to care for their children, and we can only pray that peace will come to these families, and the children will have what they deserve.........family and others who love and care for them. Abel has such a tender heart and has spurts of being aggressive sometimes, but most of the time he is helping and loving on the other kids. He prays like a little prayer warrior and is fueled by the fulfillment he gets from being loved, encouraged, and praised for his good behavior and his kind heart.

We're extremely exhausted. Some of us have developed coughing and congestion and Kim managed to go to the center today and yesterday but has been in pain with her shoulder after the surgery. She has a doctor appointment when she gets home. We ask for your prayers for travel, for little to no pain for Kim, for the coughing and congestion to clear, and save travel for us to get back home to be with our families! We miss our families and are ready to come home, but hate to leave our family here. We know that we will be back to do more with FMN!

Thank you Rachel, Dave and Iza for the amazing work that you are doing in Romania. Thank you for having us this week, and allowing us to be abundantly blessed by our time with the kids and families here in Romania. We will continue to pray for the ministry and pray for others to work alongside you, here in Romania and for short term mission teams (and long term too!)

We leave Romania at 8:30 in the morning. We drive to Budapest and fly into New York and then to Cincinnati, and then will be picked up from there and will arrive home about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. We'll update the blog once we get settled with more pictures and updates! Thanks for your love, prayers, support and for making Christmas in Romania possible!

Love,

Kim, Missy, Lois, Rachel, Dave & Iza

P.S. A little delirious so think some pictures were duplicated on the last entry, but there just so dog gone cute!