December 2015 – adventuresinromania

We are thankful for the great response in sending over some gift boxes through MBK for the children in our town! We received the packages last week, and have set dates for some Christmas celebrations with the children we serve:

16 Dec 3pm celebration in village of Garcina w/ carols, play (village our church assigned to us in Feb to start a Kids Club)
23 Dec 2pm celebration at Orphanage Elena Doamna w/ carols, poems
23 Dec 3pm celebration at Orphanage Ion Creanga w/ carols, poems
28 Dec bowling w/ Orphanage Casa Ray (private)

We will take a break with the English lessons, craft night, and Saturday program mid-Dec to mid-Jan for the kids to participate in other activities during this time.

We have been working over a month with the kids in Garcina to prepare for the play. For many of them, this is the first experience of doing a traditional Christmas play, but they are warming up well to the idea of learning their lines, and so far the songs are becoming second nature. The event will be open to the public as a way to spread Christmas cheer, and we are looking forward to meeting their parents and some other siblings who we don’t know.

Please pray for the event, for the brothers and sisters helping us coordinate it, and for it to be an encouragement spiritually for the town.

We plan on working continually with these children who receive the gift-boxes with a curriculum from Samaritian’s Purse.

In the month of Nov and start of Dec, we spent a number of weeks on teaching the Simple Past tense. The students also had fun with a mid-term test, where we tested their retention of possessive pronouns, prepositions, and family members that we have been studying thoroughly. As most of them are in the 7th and 8th grade, we are working on getting down the basics before moving on to more difficult stuff. Through the use of formulas and reading from a storybook written in the past tense, we were able to understand how to form past tense sentences. Through all of our repetition, let’s hope they hold onto past tense sentences as they enter Christmas break! Next topic: Adverbs ! 🙂

Here’s a cute tool 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euQWu0tQW14

Statistics

In Romania in the year 2000, there were: 87,753 orphans/abandoned children.

In the year 2010, there were: 62,000 orphans/abandoned children.
(To read more about why there are orphans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_orphans)

While numbers are going down, there is still a large group, with a high concentration in institutional orphanages in the Eastern part of the country. To effectively serve this marginalized group, there is a need for compassionate individuals to be willing to do life with them: support during the school year, providing extracurricular activities, and offering possibilities for them to grow.

Romania Pop. 20,121,641 people (2011 Census).
Piatra Neamt, Romania Pop. (our town) 58,000 people.

Num. of children at Casa Ray Orphanage (private) : 20

Num. of children at Elena Doamna Orphanage (state) : 116

Num. of children at Ion Creanga Orphange (state): 74

Country's Induction in the EU: 1 Jan, 2007.
Conditions of orphanages have greatly improved with the country’s induction in the European Union, and grants have been given to certain orphanages and infrastructure to make renovations.

Psalm 68: 5-6

" El este Tatăl orfanilor, Apărătorul văduvelor, El, Dumnezeu, care locuieşte în locaşul Lui cel sfânt. Dumnezeu dă o familie celor părăsiţi, El izbăveşte pe prinşii de război şi-i face fericiţi; numai cei răzvrătiţi locuiesc în locuri uscate. "

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

" A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. "

Month: December 2015

Christmas shoe-boxes have arrived :-) !!

Nov. English Club at Elena Doamna