Saturday, December 24, 2011

Wishing all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

      Joy to the World the LORD has come!  Immanuel (God with us) is now here!

Love,
The Yorks

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Fall: The New University Year begins!

For the past few years at the beginning of the year once a week we open up our small apartment and have students in our home to help new folks get integrated into the student group and give them all a time to interact in a relaxed atmosphere!  We usually have pigs in a blanket, snacks, games and a video relating to our relationship with God




 Razvan in the black tee shirt we have know since he was 14 years old and was a high school student in  Pitesti and involved in the group there.  Now he is in his first year at the university in Bucharest!








Beni, also from Pitesti, introduces himself at the special meeting for Freshman. 


Kris meets with a group of women throughout the year to celebrate birthdays.  Most of the women here we have known since our first year in Romania!!






Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Formacion (Training Conference)

 From Sept. 11-21 we held our first intensive Discipleship Training Conference for OSCER that we called Formacion.  We brought together 40 students from 7 cities across Romania


Each day we met in our discipleship groups of 3-4 people. Here we would study from Galatians and then have a discipleship lesson.  The lessons focused on helping someone get grounded in their faith.  Then in the afternoons we had seminars or team building games.




Working in a team with some impediments caused the students to feel frustration and rely on new or creative ways to communicate and work through different issues!


On the last day we got to do a high rope course at the camp.  It was an exercise in perseverance as well as the importance of encouraging other as they work through a difficulty.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Summer Camp with OSCPi


The setting was perfect, the weather was perfect and it was exciting to see God work during the Summer Adventure camp with students from Pitesti.  


Adventure
We had two full days of Adventure activities, which included repelling, rock climbing and zip-line.  Many of the students had some fear of heights and they were able to overcome their fears to participate in the activities.
 


 Rebekah overcame her fear to repel down the mountain!

Hannah Zips down the Zip-Line


Water Fun!
 

More Fun!


Monday, July 25, 2011

OSCEB Summer Camp

Days 4 & 5

We continued through the week with a small group Bible study on Mark 2. Unfortunately, this was the night with the lowest attendance.  We did however have good discussions with the students that came.





Day 5

The board games evening was a BIG hit!!  We had games for everyone's liking.  Fast games and slower more methodical ones.  Since it was so hot the water gun fight at the end of the night was one of the highlights.





Day 6

We met in the park on one of the hottest days of the summer yet.  We wondered how many students would brave the ultra high temperatures, and if we could stand the heat to actually grill ALL the meat!!


We arrived early to reserve a pavilion to have some shade and there was absolutely no one in the park.  But as it got closer to evening the temperature slowly began to lower and students began to show up!! 









We had the biggest crowd yet and a number of students invited friends.  There was plenty of food and fun in the park.  I think that the water balloon game was the most exciting as the balloons flew we tried to keep things under control!  Overall the week long camp in the city was a success and we reached more students than the camp in the mountains would have reached.  Please pray as we try to organize more events this summer in the city to get students together.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 3: OSCEB English/Adventrue Camp 2011

Even with very hot temperatures in Bucuresti and the lack of a beautiful mountain setting we have been encouraged with participation of students in our "city" camp so far this week!!

Tuesday
We met for a night of fun and games. Because of the fact that we live in Romania and things here don't always work out the way we plan it was no big deal when the electricity stopped exactly when we needed to use our electric frying pan to see who had made the best American style pancakes. It was par for the course, so the bakers went to our teammates house (5 minute walk), made the pancakes, and returned for the tasters to announce the winners. Other than a few strange looks by passersby the night was enjoyed by all.






In round two three teams competed to make "American Pancakes" without a recipe and just the ingredients laid out before them. 






Wednesday

We transformed our living room into a cinema with pillows and bean bags as well as snacks for a movie night.  We chose the movie Les Miserable because the themes of grace, redemption, and law are beautifully woven into it. The discussion afterwards was thought provoking as students grappled with the ideas of unmerited grace and how that can change one's life like Jean Valjean from the story. Mike concluded the evening by showing how the grace of God in Christ can change our lives when we turn to Him for forgiveness.


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Summer Camp 2011 In Bucuresti

In the spring the Bucharest leadership team began planning English/Adventure Camp 2011.  We had noticed a progressive decline in the number of students coming to camp in the past years, especially after Romania joined the European Union.  The students of today are looking to get a job or an internship in the summer and not too many have the time or financial resources to go to camp in mid-July.  This year it really showed when we had only a hand full of students and their friends registered for camp, and then just days before we were to leave most of those invited by the Christian students had to cancel for one reason or another.  So we were left to just hold a camp with a few Christian students.  Since this was not our goal, the Lord gave us some creative ideas to try here in Bucharest each evening this week.
We started out on Monday night with a Progressive Dinner.  We had the main course at our apartment and we squeezed 20 students into the living room for a Lasagna, salad and garlic bread dinner.  The students had a great time and we ate well.  Most said it was the "best camp food they ever ate!"
For the appetizer we enjoyed "mushroom pie" a true Romanian treat!  It's not a sweet pie, but so delicious!

Then it was on to our house for the main course.  It had been a hot day and then packing in over 20 students made it like a sauna in our living room!




 Lastly we arrived for dessert of Carrot cake, apple cake and ice cream!