Summer 2009 USA

For 9 weeks this summer we spent time in the U.S. visiting friends, family and churches. We kept a very full schedule meeting people and making contacts with new churches. There were many high points visiting old friends, meeting our new nephew (Lukas), going swimming and teaching the children how to canoe and use a kayak. A ministry highlight was visiting an international student Cafe held by a church in DE. for international students working in Rehoboth Beach, DE for the summer. Each summer thousands of students, many from Central & Eastern Europe get a special visa to come and work in the US. Most of them get jobs in tourist areas and work 2 jobs, usually about 70 hours a week. Some of the churches in Rehoboth Beach have been working on ways to reach out to these students. We were invited to come and visit one event that a Presbyterian Church has been holding for a few years. Each Thursday night from 11:00 pm-1:00 am they hold an International Cafe. They invite students to come and enjoy some desserts and as they eat they engage the students in discussions about the Bible and religion.

On the Thursday night we were there we met 4 Romanian students. Two of the Romanians where from a city in the north and we found out they are believers and that we have a mutual friend. The second two we met were students in Bucharest and we found out that they live right around the corner from us during the school year! Please pray that we can make contact with them this fall and talk some more to them!!

On Monday, 31 August Kris and the children will start up the school year at BCA. Rebekah will be in 10th grade and Hannah & Andrew in 7th grade. Kris will be teaching 3rd grade this year. Pray for them as they "get into the swing" of school again, and for Kris as she adjusts to teaching 3rd grade after teaching 2nd grade last year.

Also, from 31 August - 5 September Mike will be at an OSCER leadership conference. Pray for us as we focus on defining more clearly the vision of OSCER and how to reach out to the students of today.

Spring Ministry Update

Here are a few highlights of our Spring ministry activities!

National Leaders Meeting

Each year we meet twice with one or two leaders from each local student group. This spring our meeting took place in Paltinis, near Sibiu. We had times of worship and devotional thoughts from Luke 15, some teaching on how to lead and organize a project and a time for each group to share and be prayed for.
Partners in Ministry

In May over 30 mission organizations met outside Brasov to talk about ways to motivate and support Romanians in cross-cultural mission work. There were representatives from over 30 organizations and we determined to partner together to help Romanians send out missionaries to countries that may be harder for western missionaries to enter. It was especially exciting to learn about how OM, Wycliffe and the three major denominations are focusing their efforts at sending out Romanians.

Graduation

The end of the school year always brings a time of good bye's to those that are graduating and moving on. This year there were 12 graduates and it is always encouraging to look back and remember these students from their first year and see how much they have grown and changed over the past 3 years in Bucharest.

Cristi has been serving as a part-time staff in Bucharest for the past year. He will be staying in town and continuing to help with the student group and hopefully working on a Masters in engineering.
Alin has grown so much in his 3 years at university. He has been invovled in the student group as well as a study in the dorm where he lives. He has reached out to friends in the dorm and has been a strong witness for Christ. He will be staying as well in Bucharest next school year!

Spring Girls' Club and Cub Scout Camp Out

We enjoyed a beautiful weekend with the Cub Scouts and Girls' Club at the Spring Camp Out! We had 25 parents and children together for a fun time together of cooking, hiking and relaxing!!

Spring Family Update!!

After a few busy months we are now gearing up for the last month of school and planning for a 2 month trip to the US. During June and July we will be in the US meeting with family, friends and churches. We will be sending out our schedule in the next few weeks and look forward to catching up with many of you when we are back in the US!!

Spring Break (Late March) In Brasov!!




We enjoyed snow, sun and good food with friends for a few days in Brasov for Spring break. We also celebrated Hannah and Andrew's birthday there!



In English class Rebekah worked hard on writing an essay "This I believe...". One evening all the students presented their essays. Rebekah wrote about the gift of childhood, using her experiences helping in a home for unwed mothers with babies.


Easter Vacation!!
During our Easter vacation Kris' father and his wife, Vicky, came to visit us. We took time to travel up to the Bran area north of Brasov. We visited the old fortress of Rasnov, Brasov and Poiana Brasov.

Visting a cave (called the bat cave!!!)

May 1st weekend (a holiday here)
We attended a family conference with our church at Baile Olanesti! We had great teaching and we were able to take a hike and enjoy the beautiful surroundings!


BCA Talent show
Andrew played the guitar with a senior, Matews who has been giving him lessons. Marco, a first grade student, sang Jehovah Jireh.



Hannah and Lexi, her friend, sing at the Talent show!

Iasi Outreach

Thank you for your prayers for the outreach in Iasi. It was a very encouraging week for everyone involved in the outreach. We saw God work in many wonderful ways!! There were over 100 Christian students involved, and after a week of knocking on doors we talked to a total of about 5,000 students in the Tudor dorm complex. We gave out many New Testaments and had great discussions with them. Often when we shared with students about grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ, they told us that they had not heard this before. During the week I only talked to two really post-modern students. The rest were fairly open and interested in discussing their ideas related to faith and God.

There were many stories of how God worked during the week. One night around 1 am. a student involved in the outreach that lives in the dorm complex heard two students discussing outside the dorm the fact that one of them had heard that salvation came through faith by grace not by works. This is what we had prayed for, that the dorm complex would be filled with the scent of grace and forgiveness.
Saturday we were able to present a seminar to the students on how to use Scripture with their friends and lead investigative studies. Becca, from the UCCF team, led the seminar and the students felt it was helpful. Pray for them now as the students go back to those they met during the outreach and try and set up some Bible discussion groups!

Mike, Ionel (OSCER Staff) and Luke (UCCF Staff) leave a meeting

It was great to see how open the students where to talking to us in Iasi and how many came at night to the apologetic presentations and then stayed for over an hour asking questions. One young lady came from an invitation she received from a Christian student that lived across the hall from her. She had lots of questions and even went out for pizza with a group of us after the meeting. It was amazing to see how open she was. Then she came to a church service on Sunday morning where I spoke on grace.

Please pray as the follow-up continues in Iasi. We have already heard of a few students that have accepted Christ due to the outreach. Pray for the Spirit to continue to work in students' hearts!

Mid Week Report Iasi Outreach

The UCCF Team at the largest Orthodox church in Romania

The outreach in Iasi is going very well this week. Thank you for your prayers, we really appreciate it. We have seen God working in many ways. There are around 100 students who have joined together from 9 different organizations and groups to reach out to the 20,000 students in the Tudor dorm complex. The Christian students have been very encouraged at how open the students in the dorm have been to discussing. We have had 2 apologetic nights and there have been a 70-80 students coming to these short presentations and then they have an opportunity to ask questions. The topics have been:
Tues. night "If God is good, why do suffering and evil exist?"
Wed. night "Do all religions lead to God?"
Thurs. night "Is the Bible reliable?"

Luke and Whitney Cawley

Luke worked with us for 3 years in Bucuresti and now is on staff with UCCF in the UK. He is a very talented evangelist and has been giving the apologetic talks at night. He has done a great job at answering difficult questions in a way that is easy for the students to understand and constantly leads them to focus on Jesus.

Radu Onu

Radu was a leader in OSCER at the beginning and now is the pastor of the Eclesia Church in Iasi. They have a house right in the dorm area that we have been using for the apologetic talks. Radu has a huge heart for evangelism and has helped gather together a team of people to lead and pray for this week of outreach.

On Sat we will have a seminar to help teach students how to use Scripture with nonbelievers. Pray that this will be a good tool for Christian students to use as follow-up to the conversations they have had this week and pray that students would be open to studying God's word.
Thank you!

Aidan & Abi pose by the signpost pointing toward London!

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.