Fanel and Andreeas Wedding

This weekend we celebrated yet another special occasion. One of the graduates from the first year of our boys transition programme got married to a girl he met at the wedding of a relative of one of our Romanian staff. They are a lovely young couple and we wish them well in their future life together

Graduation

At the beginning of July, we celebrated the graduation of the 5 boys who went through our transition programme this year. We also had a team from California here at the time, some of whom knew some of these boys when they were in the orphanage. Together, the team, many past graduates and staff helped to make this day special for them. Four of the five are now living in an apartment together and working for a company to insulate houses. The fifth boy, Cesar, started out in the same apartment and job, but decided to go and live with some extended family down south of Bucharest. Unfortunately this didn’t work out and know he is looking for another job down there.

Summer and Music Camps

We started our summer ministry programme with 10 days of music camps. Most were day camps and a couple, the band and older kids had 2 days. With help from music teacher Todd Nolan, our interns Amberly Piotrowski and Michelle Parker and some of the team who were here at the time, the kids had a lot of fun learning more about music through playing instruments, singing, listening and other related activities. Some of them were lucky enough to finish their day with a swim in the pool. After last years successful backpacking trip in the mountains with some of our older teenage boys, we decided to do the same again this year. Again this was a great success with many fun mountain excursions as well as bible studies and in depth discussions. Not to be outdone, we had girl camps for the older girls. They enjoyed a spa day (run by the staff), pool party, as well as bible studies and discussions. For both the boys and girls camps this year, the topic was purity. For the younger kids, this summer we did summer camp in a different way. Instead of having overnight camps where we could see only a percentage of the kids we work with, we decided to try day camps in 2 different locations simultaneously. This allowed us to work with around 300 kids. Each day was filled with crafts, stories and fun activities based on the 5 senses and Gods creation.

The five senses

learning to swim

A nature walk - what can you hear?

Music days in the sun.