Pastor Pat's Ordination

Yesterday was a special day which I was so glad to share.  For several years I have had the pleasure of knowing a beautiful lady called Pat Collins from Neath.  Pat is death and has for many years been running a deaf club in the town.   Pat and members have become loyal supporters of RR through filling shoe boxes, collecting fillers and knitting items.

Pat is a devoted woman of God and has been spreading the gospel for many years around people with the same disability as herself.  Yesterday she was ordained at the NMCC Church in Neath

to Pastor and oversee an exciting new ministry at the Church called "Fellowship with the King" for the Deaf Community..    May God Bless her in her ministry.

Thank You to Pastor John Williams for organising an incredible service followed by a time of fellowship whilst we enjoyed a lovely buffet.  A huge Thank You to Pat's loyal signer, Liz Peters, who has encouraged and supported Pat for many years and is also a supporter of RR.  Thanks also to  all the other signers present at the service - your dedication to serving the deaf community touches my heart.

Reflections and our last day

My last morning was spent meeting up with 2 friends whom I have had a long association with in Romania.  Christine and I also visited  our good friend Nina the night before we left.  Nina, was for 10 years the teacher at Pastor Jackie's school and so she and I worked closely together for many years.   We are are pleased that with most of her 10 children now grown up she is able to rest up a little.  

 It was also good to attend a missionary prayer meeting on Maundy Thursday and to catch up with our good friend Mark and  also Ramona formerly of the Tabitha Children's Home.  .   We also attended a Sunday morning service at Metanoie Harvest Church in the city.  Thank you also to the Luca family and Bogdan's family for their hospitality meals.

We achieved all we set out to do at Christine's house and she is feeling blessed that such a lovely Christian family are moving in.  They had already started decorating and moving items in as we left. We would appreciate your ongoing prayers for Christine's son, Phillip following his recent operation.

Thank you Lord for the many blessings of the trip.  

Widows Mite Update

Christine and Cati outside Vinga Church

During my visit I experienced some problems with my one camera so I used Christine's for my complete day out with Vlad visiting the widows in the village of Comlosul Mare in the Judet of Timisoara.   Unfortunately I forgot to copy the pictures onto a nemory stick before I left so I have limited photos to attach to this blog - hopefully more later..  Vlad & I   were accompanied for the day by Grant from Bicester in Oxfordshire who sponsors a child in Maranatha and also the Widows Mite project.    It was a blessing to finally meet up with him and we are so grateful for his financial help for the projects.   He spent a week in Romania visiting the various ministries and plans to come back.
We were able to give donations to the widows who have no pension and also to financially assist another 2 with prescriptions.  Dear Ana's ceiling in her only room had fallen down and we were able to supply funds for replacement plaster boards.

Roza's health has deteriorated and at the time of our visit she had not been able to eat for several days.  Our prime concern is to keep her pain free, warm and with sufficient food.  Pastor Jackie is doing her laundry.  The rest is in God's hands.  I chose not to take any photographs.  Her sister Cati has also had a stroke and her medication needs are being supplied .  Funds are available to help with both  their electricity bills.

We were overjoyed to make a short visit to widow Rozalia with Adina.  Her sanitary needs are kindly met by our good friend Alan Penrose of Support for Romania in Cardiff.    He also donated a chair commode and wheelchair for a valued disabled  Romanian friend who lives in Merthyr but who needs this equipment on a planned visit to his family in Timisoara.

On my return I will be looking at raising funds for winter wood for our dear widows and widowers - also for slippers for Christmas.

Some of Adina's Ministry Work

Our good friend Adina, who is a trained social worker does an incredible amount of volunteer work for fellow Romanians in need.  Her mum, dad, brother and his family also support her in a variety of ways.

Whilst we were in Arad Adina had volunteered to help with a Project at her nephew's school  Each child was invited to bring in donations to help purchase suitable items for  10 families or individuals in need over Easter. With her experience of working with the vulnerable Adina was asked to supply the names of suitable candidates and to arrange delivery with some of the children.    Here are some the people that were helped.

Adina also volunteers with a Youth Group at Golgotha Baptist Church in the city

R is a double amputee and was thrilled
with her supply of food, sanitary items and a visit
from some of the children

I who has spina bifida loved her new doll and teddy
bear.  She and her mum also received a supply of food

N who is partially blind received some
much needed new clothes

Adina distributing food to 4 poor families living in 1 house

The Youth Group at Golgotha Church

Children's Home

Adina helps out at the Tabitha Children's Home in Arad where her good friend Lavi works as a social worker.  Between them they organise a multitude of activities - some of which can be seen below.  Wayne & I have a long association with this Home from our days of living and serving in Arad.   Some of the children we worked with have now moved on and have jobs,

Thanks to Pastor Jackie we were also able to spend several hours at the Osana Children's Home during our stay.  All the girls are doing well at school and have adjusted well to having new house parents who are a real blessing.   Rebecca who was baptised at Christmas is a talented guitarist and had cooked us a nice cake for tea.  Her sister Guila has developed a real enthusiasm for reading and getting all her homework done.

Hand made  Easter cards with Bible verses

2 of the children being taught life skills 

and here is the finished product!

Its amazing what you can do with pasta shells and a tray of paints!

Adina with some of the children on a day out

Pipe cleaner activities

Aid distribution

Christine and Peter kindly allowed us to have a bedroom at their Romanian home to house aid and shoe box fillers.  Some fillers are still being stored at the premises but many woollens and other aid were distributed during the trip courtesy of our good friend Adina.  Also a consignment of sorted aid, medication, toiletries etc from our Wales base arrived during our stay.    Here are a few pictures of happy families receiving some much needed items.

Excited to receive their quilts

A much needed new jumper on a cold day

These brothers loved their new hats

Thankful for some new clean clothes

Visit to Mocrea Psychiatric Hospital

It is always a joy to be back at Mocrea and to be welcomed by many of the patients.  Today we are a team of 7 and everyone has a task as we provide refreshments, supervise crafts and do ministry.  Today they are colouring pictures of the Easter Story and Pastor Jackie is telling them the Easter Story and then doing a quiz  before prayer time.  It really touches my heart to see the patients coming alive when we arrive and I have nothing but praise for the team who do the hour long journey weekly to bring spiritual joy and hope to these people who receive few visitors.    We respect the privacy of the patients by not posting recognisable photos.

"Seed Time & Harvest" Church and the Saturday Kid's Programme

It was a joy to be back at Pastor Jackie's Church for 2 services before Easter.  In Romania Easter is celebrated a week later than in UK and so due to the flying schedules we did not manage to celebrate Easter Sunday in either country but were in Romania for the Good Friday Service at Vinga which was very poignant.

We so enjoyed visiting the Saturday Children's programme led by Lynsey and Spencer with Jonathan on the guitar (another pupil of Marius).  As well as doing ministry with these children and feeding them, Spencer & Lynsey also work closely with their families in assessing needs and giving practical help when required.

"Jesus Generation" Club and Music School at San Nicolau Mic

Andrada plays guitar, keyboard and drums

We continue to financially support the running of these projects.  Several new instruments and equipment has been purchased in the last year and Marius and Elena are doing a brilliant job.  Many music students are being transported from outlying villages by Marius and a minibus for their Tuesday night and Saturday morning lessons.    They all stay for the Kids Club on Saturday afternoon and enjoy themselves so much  that no-one is ready to leave at 5.30pm.  The programme is very well prepared and split into Praise and Worship and  various teaching ministries including life topics and how the Bible addresses such issues.    Elena prepares nourishing food for all the children including cartons of milk.

More dedicated musicians

On Psalm Sunday we had the pleasure of visiting Marius and Elena's "Resurrection" Church and meeting the Pastor and his wife whom I had met around 10 years ago.  13 musicians from the Club came along and participated in the service.  It was awesome - and I was moved to tears when they played and sang.  Afterwards we were all treated to Pizza by the Church.  What a blessed day.

The Pastor of "Resurrection" Church with musicians and
singers from the "Jesus Generation" Club and Music School

Easter Mission Trip

Following a busy period of packing and dispatching a consignment of medication, toiletries, aid etc to Romania and writing and dispatching our Easter Newsletter I joined Christine at Luton airport on 27th March for our 15 day trip to Romania.  A big thank you to our printers, Rainbow for blessing us with free printing and also for again supporting our Christmas Appeal.

One of the purposes of the trip was to sort and clean Christine's home in preparation for the moving in of our good friends, Spencer, Lynsey and their 2 children, Jonathan and Trinity.  The family have served the Lord in Romania for 2 years and we have had the joy of working closely with them and supporting their ministries.   Christine and I are both excited at the house being filled with the love & light of Jesus.   There was much to do and  immediately we arrived our sleeves were rolled up ready for action! God is good and  amidst the hard graft we managed to find some value time with Pastor Jackie and also visited some of the projects to assess needs.     Every time we put out refuse a poor lady arrived on a bike and dissected everything in the bags to salvage anything she could make a little money.

I will write more with pictures of individual ministries later.  I did not have internet access on this trip and so I apologise for the late reporting.