Outreach in Iasi

Next week (April 6-12) in the North-East city of Iasi (pronounced ‘yaw-sh’), the OSCER student group along with 8 other organizations and churches will be joining together to reach out to students in the Tudor student complex. We will have a team of 5 UCCF (IFES in the UK) staff and students who will join us for this time.

We are looking for folks to pray for this outreach to 20,000 students. There is an overall population of evangelical Christians in the city of about 1.5%!! It has been encouraging how God has drawn together this group of over 100 students to reach out to these students.
We would appreciate your prayers as we join together with a team of staff and students from the UK to reach out to the students of Tudor in 6-12 April.

Here are a few Prayer Requests:

1) Unity among the different groups that will be working together in this week of outreach
2) Openness of the Romanian students in the dorm complex
3) Tues. - Thurs. nights we will have some apologetic talks. Please pray for students to come and be open to discussions.
4) The Christian students to have wisdom and guidance in their discussions with the students in the dorm area.

Keeping Focused in the midst of the Crises

We ran across this article from a Colin Smith a pastor in IL. It gives a great perspective for the way we should focus during these difficult times! Click on the link below to go to the letter.

http://www.unlockingthebible.org/archives/read/101008OpenLetter.asp

Another resource we just saw on another blog is a free audio book download. Click on the link below to check it out! This month the free download is, Disciplines For The Christian Life by Donald Whitney (Nav Press).

http://christianaudio.com/free_download.php

Ski Camp Feb. 2009

Feb. 20-25 The student group in Bucharest, OSCEB, had their annual ski camp in the Parang mountains in western Romania. It was a great week with snow, ski lessons and lots of good discussions about faith and Christianity.

Preparing to leave in the morning to "hit the slopes!"

Two of our Great Ski instructors Ebbe and Joseph

The Ski lessons begin!

Taking a break for lunch on the slopes!!

Returning back at the end of the day (tired and sore!)

At the end of the day we had small group discussion where we looked at God's standard for us and the judgment we will face, Jesus as the Good Shepherd and what it means to follow Jesus.

Overall, it was a great week and we are truly grateful for God's protection (no one was seriously hurt) and for all the good discussions that took place during the camp!!

Cold Weather Camping

Andrew got in his second camp out (Feb. 6-9) with the Boy Scouts! The weather was quite warm in the day for a hike, but cold at night in the tent!!

Learning to start a fire

Hiking in the warm winter weather!

Making bread around the campfire

Then the next weekend we had a Cub Scout camp out with the boys at BCA. We had a blast sledding at Predeal and helping the boys cook!!
Andrew & Zach going downhill!!

Middle & High School Banquets Feb. 2009

Andrew and Hannah attended their first middle school banquet on Feb. 6. They had a great time and got to eat Mexican food. Needless to say Mom and Dad were quite jealous of the food!

Middle School Banquet

Hannah and her friend Emma

The High School Banquet was the next weekend and they ate Lebanese food!


Rebekah, Erika & Daniela

OSCER in Iasi and Suceava

Last week Mike traveled up to the north-east corner of Romania to visit the student groups in Iasi and Suceava. He was with Alex Ilie the OSCER national director. Overall it was an encouraging trip. The groups in both cities are growing. One of our goals in going was to help the group in Iasi to prepare for an outreach event we will have in April with a team from the UK led by Luke, a former teammate who now works with UCCF, IFES in the UK. While talking with the students they said that this fall they had felt God calling them to get out and do more in evangelism. They see this event as an answer to their prayer!! We were very encouraged to be with them and a prayer meeting with 25 students. The leaders apologized that there were so few students! They said they usually have 35 students!

Meeting with Students in Suceava!

Please pray for this event in April that God would give wisdom to Ionel, volunteer staff, and the students as they begin to plan and talk with a few churches about working together on this event. Thank You!!

Christmas Sights and Sounds

Just before Christmas break the elementary students at BCA made gingerbread houses. Kris organized this event for 25 students. All the children had a Great time!!






During December all the student groups across Romania had a special meeting to celebrate Christmas. Students invited their friends to the meetings and they sang carols and had a short presentation of the meaning of Christmas and how it is relevant to us today! Here are a few pictures from these meetings.

Students in Pitesti


Students from Bucharest

Students from Brasov

As we have lived in Romania we have become familiar with the Christmas customs here. One is going Christmas caroling on Christmas eve! Another one is that children come around singing Christmas carols at your door the weeks before Christmas and expect money or candy. Also there are folks who go around with a small band and someone dressed as a bear or a goat and play some kind of unique melody and wait for people to toss money to them out of their apartment blocks. Since we live on the ground floor we got these videos from a friend here in Bucharest! Enjoy!