Thursday 25 August 2016

Our Week at Purtatorii de Faclie

Hi friends!

Wow, what a crazy time we've been having since we arrived in Romania! We arrived at PDF last Tuesday and it was an overwhelming week full of fun, new friends, and a ton of new information, learning, and lots of decision-making. Truthfully, we spent the week still feeling a little bit jet lagged so that made the week a little more challenging, although it affected us more than it affected the kids (go figure!).

We started the week re-orienting ourselves to PDF. There were a few things that have changed since we were here in 2013 but it was very much the same. We enjoyed eating meals with the other staff and program participants (the teen camp ended the day after we arrived and the survival wilderness camp ended on Sunday) and since we stayed in a room on the ground floor of the main house we were right in the middle of the action. Our room this time was the room beside the one we stayed in last time, so the bathroom and shower situation was the same (shared), although because the survival camp was taking place in the back-country there were actually a few very quiet days at the centre where we shared the space mainly with the family of Silas, one of the staff members here (from Germany) who works on the construction team. His family has been visiting him here the whole time we've been here and Silas and his father picked us up in Bucharest at our hotel at the beginning of the week, so since they were our first point of contact and because we've been sleeping down the hall from each other, we've spent lots of time together.

Ebbe (PDF's director) was leading the survival wilderness camp so he wasn't actually around for most of the week we were there. His wife Elke spent lots of time with us and we were also invited for meals by a few of the staff here. We had breakfast one day with Cipri and Irina and their kids, which was a very nice time. They speak German at home (they are a Russian/German/Romanian family) and despite the language barrier our kids get along great! We also had lunch with Michaela and Stefan and their 2 children, which was wonderful. Michi and Stefan will be our neighbours when we move into our house here; they live in the other half of the duplex we'll be living in and we hit it off with them right away. They're also from Germany, so we had fun speaking Germlish together (what Jerry affectionately calls a combination of German and English).

We've put together another video update for you, and there's lots of footage this time! We'll walk you through a mini-tour of what will be our home at PDF, and we'll show you the PDF property and a little bit of the land around the centre. We hope you enjoy it - it's a little long, but we wanted to include everything that would be relevant for you to see what our life will be like at PDF.





We actually arrived in Bucharest a few days ago and we're staying with the Ionescu family (our host family) for 2-3 months for a time of cultural and language immersion. They are an awesome family and we are SO blessed to be living in their home. That said, any cultural immersion time is bound to be challenging and these last few days have definitely stretched us in both ways we expected and ways that surprised us. We'll share more in a few days about our first week in Bucharest, but for now please pray for us (prayer requests are below). We look forward to sharing more with you soon!

Prayer Requests: 


-  Please continue to pray for Jerry's back.  His back pain is still bothering him daily and it's adding to the challenges of our immersion time. 

- Please pray for our search for a vehicle! We're pretty much stranded without one, except for the days Manu (our host) has allowed us to use his, which we are SO thankful for! Please pray that we would choose wisely and find a vehicle that fits the needs of our family, in our limited budget, and as soon as possible!

- Please pray for our truck to sell! It still hasn't sold and it's not only an added stress for us from far away but it's also an added financial burden.

- Please pray for our financial support situation! We are praising God for several one-time gifts that have made a HUGE difference for us! We are still in need of monthly supporters to help us meet our financial support goal and we're still about $600/month short of our monthly support requirement.

- Please pray for our visa situation. Applying for a visa in Romania is a complicated process with many steps, including obtaining a criminal record check from Canada while we're here.

- Please pray for students to sign up for the bible school at PDF this spring! There are already 3 students who are very interested in attending, and we can't run the bible school with fewer than 10 students so we're trusting God to bring the students He wants to participate in the program.

- Please pray for continued protection and provision for our children as we travel and adjust to a new place, and for how they're coping emotionally with all the change in their lives. We're noticing they're struggling with the change to another language and all the changes that come with living in another culture (daily schedule and food are very different, etc.).





Thanks friends! We love you, and we appreciate your support and prayers so much!
We'll share another update soon!

If you're interested in making a donation to our ministry, all information on how to donate is HERE.


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Wednesday 17 August 2016

Travelling to Romania

Hi friends,

In case you missed it, we posted a video update on our YouTube channel featuring a farewell message from us, as well as some of the highlights from our last week in Canada. If you haven't already, check it out below and subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss any of our video updates!




In other news...

We made it!! Last night was our first night at PDF and our second in Romania. We arrived Monday night in Bucharest and we stayed at a hotel by the airport before making the 3-hour journey to PDF the next morning. It's a little funny to us that we left Canada only a couple of days ago - we feel like so much has happened since then!

Our flights were good; the kids enjoyed flying for the most part and they only had one small meltdown each (not at the same time, thankfully), which we thought was pretty good. And of course any meltdown while flying overseas can certainly be attributed almost completely to fatigue, so I'd say we did pretty well!! Our itinerary was excellent. We had only enough time in Frankfurt to eat a quick meal and our other layover was short too. We met some very nice fellow passengers along the way and we even got a few hours of sleep on the plane, which was unexpected.




The kids got to visit the pilots in the cockpit before our flight out of Winnipeg, which was very fun...well, for one of them.




In advance of our trip to the airport in Winnipeg we felt somewhat stressed about our luggage - we were only allowed 1 checked bag each, and each bag had to be 50 pounds or less. This seemed like an impossibility, and in an effort to be prepared with clothes for all seasons we ended up with 9 big suitcases, 2 of Jerry's guitars, and several carry-on bags including Jerry's djembe drum. We figured that based on Air Canada's policies we'd have to pay somewhere in the neighbourhood of $750 for all these extra bags and the extra weight. Somehow, and we're still not quite sure how, our final bill for 12 checked bags (including the djembe, which we were dreading the idea of carrying on the plane with us) was only $100!!! We walked away from the luggage counter shaking our heads in disbelief and praising God for His provision, yet again.

Of course, any trip overseas isn't without its challenges and there were a few minor mishaps along the way: our stroller was damaged on our transatlantic flight and 2 of our checked bags were lost for a few days. Thankfully our lost bags were one of Jerry's guitars and one of our car seats, so at least we had clothes to wear for our first few days here. And both of these items arrived safely at PDF this morning. Because the drive to PDF from Bucharest is about 3 hours, we weren't comfortable with Miriam riding the whole way without a car seat so we purchased a good toddler/preschooler booster seat at Carrefour in Bucharest (a discount department store here) for 240 lei (about 80 Canadian dollars) which she used for the trip. It was a minor expense that the airline may even reimburse for us, so instead of grumbling about what was lost we decided to take the opportunity to be thankful for all our bags that DID make it to Bucharest with us and, more importantly, that God brought the 4 of us here safely.

And not only that, He provided wonderful friends to meet us at the airport! It was a total surprise that Manu and Felicia Ionescu showed up to greet us at the airport in Bucharest, just to make sure everything was okay and that we had all the help we needed. We are so thankful for the Ionescu family and how kind they have already been to us, and we're very much looking forward to moving in with them next week for our cultural immersion time (more on that later!).

We stayed at the Hotel Angelo near the airport in Bucharest after we landed and we had a great experience there once again. We stayed there in 2013 when we were here visiting PDF and so it was an obvious choice. It's such a great hotel - it's very clean with updated rooms and a nice restaurant with a delicious breakfast buffet. And the staff speak English, which is very helpful when you're sleep deprived and barely speak Romanian on a good day. We'd definitely recommend staying there if you're ever in Bucharest.

Here's a short video update of our travel journey to Romania. Feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss any other video updates we post!





Well folks, that's all we have for today. Our first days at PDF have been great, and full of great moments that we can't wait to share with you, including a tour of what will be our home here. We are excited to share it all with you, so please stay tuned to the blog, to our Facebook group, and to our YouTube channel for more updates soon!

In the meantime, please pray for us and our time here. We've shared some prayer requests below.


Prayer Requests:

-  Please continue to pray for Jerry's back. He struggled with back issues for several years but he hasn't had any back pain in over 5 years. His back pain returned a few weeks ago and he continues to struggle with pain off and on.

- Please pray for our truck to sell. We had to leave Canada without the truck being sold and we need to sell the truck before buying a vehicle here. We're already feeling a bit trapped without a vehicle of our own since PDF is so remote, so please pray the truck sells soon!

- Please pray for our financial support situation! We are still in need of monthly supporters to help us meet our financial support goal and we're still about $600-$1000/month short.

- Please pray for our financial situation, specifically with regards to paying taxes and preparing for the financial changes and added costs that come with living in another country, that God would prepare us for these changes and help us making sound decisions.

- Please pray for students to sign up for the bible school at PDF this spring! There are already 3 students who are very interested in attending, and we can't run the bible school with fewer than 10 students so we're trusting God to bring the students He wants to participate in the program.

- Please pray for continued protection for our children as we travel and adjust to a new place, and for how they're coping emotionally with all the change in their lives.


- Please pray for the visa process to go smoothly. Romania requires far more paperwork than other countries in the EU and navigating this as a foreigner can be quite challenging.



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Of course, we are still in need of monthly financial support and one-time donations. All information on how to donate is HERE.

 

 

Tuesday 9 August 2016

Ministry Video

Hi Friends!

We were featured in a video at our church this past weekend where we got to share all about our move to Romania. Feel free to watch if you haven't already!





We shared our most recent list of prayer requests with you a few days ago, and we really appreciate all your prayers! We're embracing these last days of preparation and packing with open and thankful hearts.

We hope to share one more update before we leave on Sunday!


As always, you can make a donation to our ministry HERE.  We're still several hundred dollars per month short of our monthly support goal.


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Thursday 4 August 2016

Preparation Prayer Requests

Hi Friends,

We just have a short update for you today, including some items for prayer. We leave for Romania in just over one week and there is so much that's happening before we go.

Jerry travels to Vancouver this Friday to speak about the bible school at PDF at the Torchbearer's Conference in Abbotsford, and to visit two churches on Vancouver Island to speak about our upcoming ministry in Romania and hopefully do some support-raising. He'll be away for 4 days, which will be full of last-minute visits with friends for the girls and I, and lots of packing (and laundry...).

After he returns we'll be wrapping up last minute details and spending quality time with our family and friends.


Prayer Requests:

-  Please pray for Jerry's back. He struggled with back issues for several years but he hasn't had any back pain in over 5 years. His back pain returned a few weeks ago and he's finding no relief, which is making our preparations even more of a struggle.

- Please pray for our 2 vehicles to sell.  We really need to sell both our van and Jerry's truck before we go so we can buy a vehicle as soon as possible after our arrival in Romania.

- Please pray for a fruitful time for Jerry in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, that God would provide many more supporters for us and people who will commit to praying for us regularly.

- Please pray for our financial support situation! We are still in need of monthly supporters to help us meet our financial support goal and at 1 week away from our departure we're still about $600-$1000/month short.

- Please pray for our financial situation, specifically with regards to paying taxes and preparing for the financial changes and added costs that come with living in another country, that God would prepare us for these changes and help us making sound decisions.

- Please pray for students to sign up for the bible school at PDF this spring! There are already 3 students who are very interested in attending, and we can't run the bible school with fewer than 10 students so we're trusting God to bring the students He wants to participate in the program.

- Please pray for protection for our children as we travel and adjust to a new place, and for how they're coping emotionally with all the change in their lives.


Of course, we are still in need of monthly financial support and one-time donations. All information on how to donate is HERE.




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