Nehemiah 8:10 - Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Dear Family and Friends,
I am a bit melancholy as I write because I know this will be the last update I write you from Romania for the next six months. Although we are excited to return home, we have so many wonderful relationships here that is makes our departure bittersweet.
Daniel and I have packed all of our belongings (again) and we leave tomorrow for France for a one week visit with a family who adopted one of our babies. We will travel to the USA the following week and go directly to my new nephew’s house and promptly kiss him a hundred thousand times to make up for missing his first two months of life. :) We are so excited to see him! We will also be traveling to Charleston and then onto Florida at the end of October to see Daniel’s Grandpa who has been hospitalized for an infection in his leg. We are anxious to see all of our family!
The last few weeks of ministry have been some of the most exciting in my six years of ministry. Since I last wrote, many wonderful things have happened.
First, we have ALL the approvals necessary to start accepting pregnant women into Agape Home. Thank you, Lord!! Pictured below is Nicu proudly holding the certificate granting us the authority to operate.
Our social worker has already put the word out that our doors are open and I expect we will have a resident in the next week or so. Please pray for our social worker, Diana, to have the wisdom to carefully select our first two residents. We will only house two for six months and then gradually increase the number. Our supervising family and our social worker need time to make the transition into this program and I want to make sure it is done with quality Christian care rather than just quantity. They have all asked for you to pray for them to have wisdom and discernment.
As Nehemiah learned while he was building a gate around his homeland, I, too, have learned through the trials with opening Agape Home that circumstances cannot take away the joy I have that comes from knowing the Lord is my strength. My strength is not from my flesh (my own abilities), not from circumstances, not from others around me….only from The Lord being Master of my life. Nehemiah faced the same challenges that we have had (and it took him much longer!) which has made the story of his construction project an invaluable source of encouragement for me during the last two years.
Second, we had an awesome team of three men from NC (and a teenage girl) who blessed us richly by building a large chicken house/barn for Agape Home.
You will see from the photo that the exterior of the barn is constructed and with just a little more work, the interior will be ready for chickens in a few weeks. We will hold off on the mammals until next spring and just concentrate on egg laying chickens for now. We had so much fun during their time here and we are looking forward to seeing all of them again soon. Here is another photo of Daniel putting on the roof of the barn with Johnny, one of the NC team members.
Third, we were able to find a company to build a gate for Agape Home at a very reasonable price…less than half of what three other companies bid and with much superior quality. I am extremely pleased with their work and here is a photo for you to see what the property looks like with the gate. You can’t see it very clearly but there is a heart in the middle of each panel and the doors to represent the “love” aspect of the word “agape” which means “God’s love.” We still need to finish the pillars of the gate and put up barbed wire on top of the fence around the property but we needing the funding committed to do both of these things. We have already had several problems with stealing and we need to purchase a military trained German Shepard in the very near future to help discourage others from jumping our fence!
We were finally able (after three months of searching) to find new office space for our social worker and administrator. This has been such a difficult task because all of the prices for rent have increased dramatically over the past year. The other major problem was the one room space we were in had walls so full of mold and mildew that is was almost unbearable to enter in the morning until the windows had been opened and the place aired out. We prayed incessantly and the Lord answered our prayer with a wonderful apartment THREE TIMES BIGGER FOR THE SAME RENT!!! And, as an added blessing, it is directly across the street making it much easier for our workers because of the central location. Because it is bigger, we need to buy some items we don’t have like commercial rugs, more chairs for foster mother meetings, and some light fixtures. We have never had a professional type office and I would like to change that because my employees have requested it. If there is anyone who would like to contribute towards helping us with these needs, please write and let me know so I can let them know what is available for spending. Thanks so much!
Finally, we were able to install the computer for Gabi, the social worker at the hospital, and here she is proudly showing off her computer and printer. She has thanked me more times than I can count and many other people have made the comment how much it encouraged her to have others help her to do her job. As you can see from the photo, Gabi is ready to process some paperwork! 
We are leaving here with much peace knowing the Lord will continue to work out His plan by using our Romanian employees. Many people ask me who will run things and I tell them, “The same people who run it when we are here!” Of course we give a lot of supervision and support but we feel very confident in the abilities of our employees to properly run things in our absence. We had a staff meeting last week and the unity among us was strong. Everyone knows what their role is and how to make sure the name of Jesus is at the forefront of all we do.
Also, we ask you to pray for Daniel’s knee and elbow specifically. He twisted his knee five weeks ago and this week all the moving exacerbated his condition and he is in a lot of pain now. His elbow is on the mend but he asks for you to pray that the healing be made complete soon.
Now, we are off to France and the USA for the choice foods that Nehemiah mentions!
Thank you for your prayers and support!
Basking in the Son,
Michelle
P.S. - Please pray for us as we fly back. I never enjoy the transatlantic flight (I don’t sleep like everyone else) and I would like to be able to have a good travel experience this time. Thank you!
Basking in the Son,
Michelle
Posted on September 26th, 2004 by Michelle
Filed under: Michelle's Journal