“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried.” G.K. Chesterton
Dear Family and Friends,
The last few weeks have been but wonderful and exhausting. Daniel and I have both been working long days trying to get details covered before returning to the USA. The Children In The Son board will be meeting and they wanted to have us there for the meeting. We will be flying into the USA on July 22nd, driving to NC, and then heading to SC from August 4 - 14th and then back to NC before leaving to return to Romania. This will be a quick trip to include several meetings and, hopefully, some fundraising opportunities.
We have some exciting news about one of our children, “Tina.” She is in the process of being adopted by a Romanian family in our area. She left one week ago to begin her foster placement with them before being adopted. It all happened so fast! “Tina” has an adoptive brother who is two years her senior. We are thankful this precious princess will be loved in a family! Here is a photo of her with our summer intern missionary, Abbey, the day before Cristina left.
About two weeks ago, I sent out an email about the child, Bianca, who we were sending to Germany because of the funding the Lord provided for medical treatment for an eye condition called, “retinoblastoma.” We found out today the tumor was so advanced the hospital was forced to remove the other eye as well. Now, we are waiting to find out if Bianca will need chemotherapy to prevent further problems. We ask you to please pray for this family. It is such a tremendous challenge to find facilities to help blind children learn in Romania. They live in a rural area about an hour and a half outside of Oradea. We also ask you to pray for God’s peace to be upon this family during this time.
We celebrated the 4th of July along with the rest of our friends and family in the USA. Daniel and I pray for our country, the administration, and the desire for people to seek Jesus instead of self. To celebrate here, eight of us Americans went up into the Carpathian mountains for the day and had a picnic and enjoyed the view from a beautiful mountain overlook. Of course we ate watermelon and other yummy American favorites to include chocolate chip cookies. The photo below is our group who lives here in Oradea. From left to right they are: Matt Kauffman (Jenn’s husband), Abbey (summer intern), Me (Daniel’s wife), Jenn (Matt’s wife), Lauren (intern until May 2004), Mona (intern until September), Daniel (my husband). As you can see, we are proud to be Americans!!! (We displayed two very large flags at our picnic!)
On the way back, the Romanian police helped us celebrate by stopping us and giving Daniel a speeding ticket. This was his first speeding ticket in Romania so now we are even. And, I am happy to report that once again, no one hinted at getting a bribe to get out of it. Daniel was told when and were to go to pay the fine and treated with courtesy for the most part.
We ask you to please remember our Ford Escort, Carolina, in your prayers. She is dying a slow, painful death and I don’t want to let her go!! She was the first car I was blessed with here and I am in denial she is slipping away. Last week, it was a problem with wiring. This week, the news was more dreadful. It seems the fuel pump may be bad and the alternator belt broke. Finding a replacement Ford fuel pump will not be easy or cheap. Plus, I desperately need the car to get much needed work done before we leave. Please pray for the Lord to provide for the car to be repaired AND for the funds to buy a new car for us in the near future.
The good news about NEW vehicles is related to our recent order of a new, Dacia truck. Yes, that’s right, we are buying a Romanian made truck. It is a practical vehicle for here but the quality lacks considerably. We ask you to pray with us for the Lord to multiple its years for our ministry at Agape Home. This truck will be used by the role model family who will leave at Agape Home. (Photo coming soon!) We thank the members of Middle Cross Baptist Church in West End, NC and Cameron Baptist Church in Cameron, NC for raising the funds for us to buy this truck. Y’all are a blessing!
The Agape Home construction is coming along well thanks to all the work of Daniel. We hope the role model family, Nicu and Flori, will move in this week so we will no longer need to pay a guard and so they can begin setting up the farm for when the women move in. We are much closer to obtaining all of our final permits but we will probably be in the USA when it happens. Please don’t stop praying for this!
I have a praise report for you as well. Tonight, I received a call someone tried to break into our ministry office. When I got there, the window screen had been ripped and the windows were open but nothing was touched inside. It appears the burglar was startled and left in the process. We thank the Lord for His protection on our ministry. This could have been a disaster if our computers and safe was stolen!
We are looking forward to spending some time with family and friends. Many thanks to you for your continued prayers and financial support for our ministry. The results are staggering to watch unfold!
Basking in the Son,
Michelle
Posted on July 7th, 2003 by Michelle
Filed under: Michelle's Journal