I'm back in Romania

So I safely arrived in Romania yesterday and am a little jet lagged but doing well, I have gotten to see most people, and although it is 48 degrees there have been many warm welcomes =)

This is a video of some of my pictures that I took while in Romania.

Here is a copy of my support letter, and summery of what I did over the last nine months and also a letter from Two of the people that I was working with.

Dear Friends and Family,

“I thank God every time I remember you.”                                        Philippians 1:3

I wrote this letter is to serve 3 different purposes.  The first purpose is this, I wish to tell you is how important it is/was for your prayer and financial support. The second is to inform everyone that I’m planning on returning to Romania, and making the switch from short term to long term missions in Romania.  When I go to Romania I plan to stay for a year at a time, and go from there I don’t know how long I will be doing this for.  The third purpose of my letter is to sum up what I have done for the last nine months in Romania and what I plan to continue to do.

Okay, to cover my first point, You! I can’t mention all the times that I was doing something like washing dishes, playing with kids, helping kids with homework, preparing a Sunday School lesson, or laughing with new friends, when the simple thought of how dependent I was on all of you overwhelmed me. How dependent I was, first of all on your prayers and secondly on the money, without both of these elements I would be completely ineffective and unproductive in every way.   The fact is, I would not be able to be in Romania because I could not afforded the plane ticket or monthly rent to be there; secondly once I was there I would not be able to do anything because I would not have the passion and strength to do anything without all of the prayers that were being prayed. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 “Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.”  It is faithful partners in giving and praying like yourself that make it possible for people like me that feel called to be in the ministry of foreign missions.

The reality is we are all called to missions, and in this call there are three parts:   1) Goers, the ones that go long or short term to other countries or states  2) Senders, the ones that provide the spiritual and financial support  3) Ignorers, the ones that hear the call to go and to send, but say “Leave that for someone else to do.”

My second point, over the course of the last nine months I realized God is calling me to be involved in Missions in Romania working alongside the ministry of Outstretched Hands of Romania for possibly the next 5 or more years.  For this to be possible I need Senders to stand behind me and help me go. I need people to pray, that I will be in God’s purpose for my life and when he wants me to go somewhere else or do something else that I would do it with a willing and faithful heart.  I also need financial support.  If I have 45 people that are willing to support me for $12.00 a month, $144.00 a year, I will have enough money to continue to doing the things that I have been.  This leads me to my third point of this letter

What have I been doing in Romania?  I’m involved in fulltime ministry, mainly in two villages.  The first village is Caramidari where I spend Tuesday through Thursday, and sometimes Mondays and Fridays depending on what is going on…  There I wash dishes, make breakfast (jam sandwiches and tea for the kindergarten kids) and cereal and some other foods for the school kids, various cleaning such as moping and sweeping, washing walls and tables, helping kids with homework when the language barrier is not too hard, and during the summer I help with a kids program every day for about 3 to 4 hours.  The second village I work in is Chiselet where I spend almost every weekend.  I help with the girls program; we talk with the girls, play volley ball or soccer, or we watch a movie with them. I also go to the church service on Saturday nights, and Sunday afternoons,  I do a Sunday school program with kids ages 4 to about 10.  I’m there the whole day and spend time with the people in the village.  I also help some with the Jr. High and High School programs that are also on Sundays.  Spending the night in Chiselet has really helped me work on learning how to speak Romanian, I also have plans on getting more serious with learning Romanian and also learn the grammar. Every Saturday I help with a girls craft program in Calarasi, the city that I live. Every Friday there are team meetings that I must attend.  I take pictures in almost every location, even the ones that I’m not regularly involved in, and I also take them for teams that come and visit Outstreched Hands, in doing this it helps document the different events with photos. 

With some of the support money I had that I did not need for rent or my plane ticket I was able to help out with buying candy for the Sunday School  kids in Chiselet.                        I also gave to buy food for the school kids lunch and breakfast in Caramidari.   I was able to print and give the people of the villages some pictures I took of their kids and families. This was a huge blessing! I also had a fund raisor in April of this last year and with all of that money we were able to take 23 girls to the black sea Thank you!

For more information on the ministry that I’m working with go to www.handsofromania.org

To follow what I’m doing and what is happening in Romania while I’m there go to my blog at www.amberinromania.blogspot.com

To contact me in the states call

(717) 644-2627 or (717) 933-5598

You can also e-mail me at radicalforone@hotmail.com or use Facebook.  

“But whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will not waste your life.”
― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

Dear family, friends and all it may concern

For the past 9 months, we were privileged to have Amber serve with us as part of the team of Outstretched Hands of Romania.  Amber became part of the team straight away, and right from the beginning the feeling was: "What would we have done without Amber!?" 

She is such a wonderful person who loves Jesus Christ dearly, and demonstrates that love to the people around her. 

Amber never hesitated to take initiative in meeting needs and helping out wherever or whatever the need might have been.  She never stood back when it came to working long, hard hours.  She is a very self-motivated and diligent person, doing everything as if unto the Lord.

At the Hope Center in Caramidari/Obor (where we are mainly involved) Amber worked in the following areas:

- Teaching and assisting with the kindergarten program

- Helping 1st graders with their homework in the afternoons

- Helping and presenting children's clubs during the summer

- Cooking breakfasts and lunches for the children at the Hope Center

- General cleaning (which included A LOT of dishes!!) in and around the Hope Center

- Photography of daily happenings and other events

We will really miss having Amber with us, as part of the OH team, and we are sincerely hoping that she would be able to make a speedy return!!

Yours in Christ

Terence and Nelia van Niekerk

One Month...

First of all I'm so bad at blogging... secondly I'm sad to write I only have one month left here in Romania and then I will return to PA for an unknown amount of time... Umm I was just in Vienna with Carmen good friend and the girl that I have been living with, we visited her family and Cami, a girl that was here in Romania for about two month, and we visited her and her family as well. Tomorrow will be the start of getting the kids ready for school and getting ready to start kindergarten, the hope center, the place that the we do the kindergarten and help the kids with home work, got a fresh coat of paint on the inside with washable paint!! The fact that it is washable is a big deal because the walls get pretty bad in a day so it is quite a big deal that we can wash the wall without all the pain coming off. And because I take pictures and they are easier than typing things. 

Cammi

Laura, on the left, Me, in the middle, Carmen, on the right.

Me and Carmen, and a real clown. 

Me and Cammi. 

Well the team has come and gone, my mother surprised me and came with them that was nice.
Umm I'm still doing well summer is going well it is hot here, and right now what we are doing is Mondays are off days, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays we do a kids program with the kids in Carmidar Tuesdays we sing some songs and pray with the kids, and Wednesdays we watch a movie and make popcorn or have watermelon for them, and on Thursdays we do a craft with them. Umm Fridays are still team meetings and Saturdays I still have the girls craft thing and Saturdays and Sundays I'm in Chiselet and Saturday night is church and Sunday is kids and youth. We had a trip with the Girls from Chiselet with the money you gave and we went to the beach I will put together the pictures so you can see how much they enjoyed it, it was a really great time and they really enjoyed themselves, and the boys had a soccer camp which you also helped make happen, Thank you so much for being apart of what I'm doing here by prayer and also financially I wish you could be able to experience it first hand and not just hear it from me.

The team is coming!!!

I'm leaving in a few minuets to go pick up the team, I'm much looking forward to seeing them and just keep all of us in your prayers that we may do the work that God has for us. umm also a quick update on me I'm doing really well, and my ticket to return to Pennsylvania is set for October 10th and my ticket was only able to be changed once so this is my final date. I don't really have much more to say so the end.

Eghhh just some pictures...

Dandelions 

Gorgicia 

Julia

Danny 

Oh yeah and we now have cabinets in the hope center! 

oops...

Hey so this is a video that I made for my birthday. 

And a quick update on how I'm doing, ummm Sunday afternoon I was playing some soccer and I sprained my foot right behind the big toe, so keep me in your prayers with that. :) umm other than that I'm doing well :)

 The only nice part about my foot being injured was I got to have Rosa on my lap and take some pictures with her :) 

also a quick update my foot feels a ton better I'm now walking without the crutches and I just have a limp because I'm limiting the weight I put on it. Thanks for your prayers :) 

Birfday!

 These are some of the girls in Chiselet.

Okay, so friends of mine, ha-ha, Since I’m going to be in Romania for my birthday and I don’t know if you were/are planning on doing something for it or not, but I do have a birthday wish.

This summer in Chiselet (Romania), a village where I spend a some of my time; they are trying to plan a camping trip for five days for 80 youth.  The cost is going to be about $4,000 which sounds like a lot, but when you think about it, it really isn’t that much for 80 people for food, transportation, lodging, and stuff.  It comes out to $50.00 per person.

So now I will get to my birthday wish. You may be aware of the fact that I am a really hard person to buy gifts for; and when you ask me what I want, I never know… so here is your opportunity. I finally know what I want! This year for my birthday instead of sending me a card (as much as I would love getting a card from you) I would like for the youth of Chiselet to be able to go camping so much more! So here is what I’m asking you to do, whatever money you would have put into buying and mailing a card or present if I were home and I had a birthday party or something; instead give that amount to my mom and tell her what it is for, even though she would probably already know because you don’t normally just give her money.  You don’t just give my mom money do you? Well if you do you are for sure going to have to specify what it is for… ha-ha, so yeah give it to her and she will take good care of keeping track of it and getting it to me (you know she used to work in a bank?) And if you are not going to see my mom you can mail it to my house my address is: 331 Rosebud Road Myerstown PA 17067

Guys this would be the best gift ever! I mean cards are cool and gifts are neat and all; but, I really think this would be one of those things that goes beyond “Cool” and “Neat”.   I think that it will have an effect on the lives of the teens in this village.  These are teens that would not normally come to the church service, youth group, or the boys and girls program, but will come to this.  Seeds will be planted and souls will be won. I’m going to use a preacher line here and say “What gift is better than the gift of salvation?”  Thanks for being apart of my time here and praying for me and being supportive of me, may God bless you 

Oops it has been a while again... Sorry about that.

Well, let's see there has not really been all that much new stuff that has happened since I last updated I'm still doing the same things with the same people :) Oh we got a sink like a real sink at the Hope Center it has made doing the dishes a ton better before this we has a small kitchen sink but now the dishes can be done in a breeze! ha-ha

Umm funny story today I called the sun a sword... it was rainy out and me and another girl were walking and the sun started to come out and I said "Look the sword!" but I wanted to say "Look the sun!"... haha

in Romanian Sword is= Sabie. and sun is= Soare.

So she had a really confused look on her face and I was like "What did I just say??" And then I was like "Sabie? sabie? what does that mean??" And then I remembered and I corrected myself Ha-ha it made for a rather funny few minuets...

 In time I shall concur this language! ha-ha 

                                      

Umm I went to the Black Sea for a day with some cool kids

Here are some pictures of my time in Chiselet. 

As you can tell I'm working really hard. : ) 

Some Caramidari kids

Continue to keep me and the Out stretched hands team in your prayers.

I have also made the decision to stay longer than June 27th I'm not sure at this point how much longer I will be staying but it will be longer than June so pray that God will lead me in how much longer I should stay. 

May God bless and keep you and make his face shine upon you.