Finished deputation, back in Romania 🇷🇴

Glad to be back in Gârcina weekly. 🥰✨ We arrived in Ro July 10 and glad to be getting back to projects. We will start a theme eventually, but just to get back in the groove in the village we played games & talked about what we can learn from the Apostle Paul and the quality of generosity. 🙏🙌🥰

First time back at the Ion Creanga Orphanage on 16 July Lucian had a pizza party for them! The kids were glad he was back and ready for the weekly program! 🤓📚🥰

A joint VBS for these groups is set for Aug 24-26. 🥳🙏🦩

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Kids clubs in 2022! 🥳🤗🙏

This year in 2022 we are basing our lessons on the Gospel of Matthew. So far at the Ion Creanga Orphanage and in the village of Garcina, we’ve had messages on God’s protection during Herod’s acts of jealousy, on Jesus’ baptism, Jesus’ temptation, and the Beatitudes (Mt 2-5). The kids are really good & listening and answering all the questions really well😊👍 -that’s a bonus!😅🙏 they really like the games we play too; we’ve been having some creative ones!🥳

Christmas boxes at the Ion Creanga Orphanage! 🎁🎄

On Saturday Dec 18 Lucian went to Ion Creanga Orphanage in our town to share the Christmas story and to hand out gifts. They were all excited. There were 30 kids who listened to the story. They had some fun games with balloons, too 😁😁 Wednesday will be at Gârcina village & Thursday our kids will be in a play at church. Thank you for your prayers!
🙏🙏🎁🎄🌟

First week back in the State Orphanage! 🥳🙌

20. 11. 2021

🥳🙏⚽️

Opportunity has opened for us to go back to the Ion Creanga Orphanage in our city with a weekly children’s program. 🤗 This orphanage was closed to visitors for the past year so we hadn’t been to see them since Oct 2020. We have had programs with them previously for three consecutive years.
There were close to 20 kids on Saturday, we played games with them, told a story and shared some updates for planning for Christmas. (We will be going with Christmas shoeboxes from our sponsors) The room was filled with enthusiasm to see us again; three had been to camp in the summer & are doing good. Keep praying for their salvation 🤗 🙌 👍⚽️

Children’s Day 2021! 🎉

There was a Children’s Day program at our church in the city; on Saturday May 29 we brought 11 kids from the village of Gârcina for the fun! The theme was the life of Jonah, and listening to God; we had songs, games, bible memory, & pizza! 32 kids total. 🤗🌿🌿🎈
Pray for them! 😘😘

At Biserica Baptista Sfânta Treime in Piatra Neamț https://biserica-sfantatreime.ro/

Christmas shoeboxes at Ion Creanga Orphanage & two new villages 🎁

On Dec 19, we were able to share 25 shoeboxes at the Ion Creanga Orphanage with the children & youth who were involved in our program. They were so joyful to see us & for the present! We continue to pray for their growth & development even though we can’t go physically to see them on account of restrictions for volunteers.

On Christmas Day, Luci and our pastor from the city church visited a village church an hour away for their Christmas service. They were able to share 40 boxes with the children who were there from that village and the neighboring village. These villages both have established church plants, but no children’s ministries. We are praying about what we can do for the children of that area in the future. Thank you for making a box and sharing the Love and Light of Christmas!! 🎁🎁

Starting at Ion Creanga Orphanage again!

Good news! The week of Oct 1 we received a much awaited call. The director of the state orphanage Ion Creanga called us, where we had a program before the pandemic for three years. He wanted us to come back! The kids (mostly ages 8-15) have been bored with minimal interaction these past few months as all the volunteer groups had to cancel. They were restricted in their outings as well.

We were able to go just in the month of October, then they had some cases of Covid and they had to close again. But we are grateful to have been able to do a review of things we learned last times we were there, and we started a study of “Who is God?” -his character, his purpose for humanity, and his love, and they were very receptive. Pray for them to not lose what they have stored up in their hearts. ♥️✨🙏

Summer update 2020

“This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying,
“Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,
for the Lord is good;
his love endures forever.”
For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord.“
Jeremiah 33: 10-11

🙏🙏We pray you are making this unprecedented time useful & trusting in the Lord to reveal his promises that there will be good to come. He is always faithful and never changing from beginning to the end.

With cancellation of all our children’s meetings this Spring, have taken this time to teach our children the Easter story in a meaningful way, we’ve played more, done more crafts, and have been more intentional with correction. It’s been a fruitful time! If you are a parent, we pray YOU can also parent with the help of the Holy Spirit so God’s love fills our/ your house. We pray in this new normal we can find ways to reach out to those in our corner of the world and encourage them in their belief in God. How can we pray for your family in this time?🙏🙏🙏

Our camps are cancelled for the summer, because of meeting restrictions at the campgrounds and distancing. We are hoping to do some outreaches over the summer in some villages.

Outreach at the Ion Creanga State Orphanage in our city has been cancelled since March, waiting to hear when we can start visiting again. Looking forward to teaching them stories from the flannel graph again. 🤗🤗🤗😁😁

Praise God, we had an online meeting with a church in Lancaster in early May and it was encouraging and fruitful.💖

Praise God, our home church in Piatra-Neamt has had open-air sermons for three weeks. In two more weeks they will hold indoors. May our church and the church members shine God’s light 💖

Please pray for Cristina, a teenaged helper of ours, as she decides what to do after high school. She helps us at the IC Orphanage. 💖

Please pray for Anita a worker from Casa Ray Orphanage, who was diagnosed with Covid two weeks ago. She is feeling better. 💖

Response to the COVID-19

Please pray for Romania , schools closed until after Easter, the 19th April to help with the spreading. Meetings in closed spaces are cancelled, including church.  There are 277 confirmed cases in the whole country as of 3/20/2020. The Orphanage in our town has declined all outside visitors at this time. We’ve postponed all our other activities with the kids for the time being to prevent the spread of the disease. We are okay so far, just spending more time together 🙂 Pray for the elderly and weaker immune systems & beef up the Vit C!🙏🙏

Avadanei Family update January 2020

Dear Friends, family, and sponsors,

The year 2019 passed by quickly especially with the fact that our children are growing so quickly. Emily is 3 1/2 and Ruben is 1 yr 3 months. Here is a list of 2019 activities that we coordinated together with the city church (Sfanta Treime Baptist Piatra Neamt, where Luci helps lead youth group), the village church (Vestea Buna Garcina) and the surrounding Piatra Neamt area.

May 12, 2019– Tenth Anniversary of the inauguration of the Baptist church in the village of Garcina. The church hosted a meal afterwards with between 40-50 villagers attending. We saw 12 children from our children’s program & saw a few older ones from years past. In the Sunday morning program, we had as special guests the MBK gypsy choir, with Eduard Teodorescu directing. They sang also at our home church in the city on Sunday evening. Pray for the village church to continue to spread the gospel in the village. (Photo 1,2)

June 1 2019– Children’s Day event at our church, organised together with the Children’s ministry worker Gary, with city, orphanage, and village kids from Garcina and other villages. We had four hours of games, worship, a skit by the leaders, pizza, cake & confetti. The skit & theme of the day was based on Max Lucado’s book “You Are Special.” (Photo 3,4)

July 2019 ‘VBS for a day’- together with a medical team from SC, USA we had kids activities & crafts in 5 villages  (Garcina, Bodesti, Bargauani, Borca, Bicaz Ardelean) & kids in the orphanage & our city each place one day for a week’s time.

August 26-31, 2019 At Youth Camp we had 62 teens from our county & neighboring counties. We took 18 leaders from our church. Twenty youth were from our church, some were from other churches in the area, and some participants were unchurched. The week’s theme was “180 degrees: A Radical Change” about the life & ministry of Paul. This year’s camp has been scheduled for Aug 2-8, 2020. (Photo 5,6,7)

Nov. 30, 2019 Church Families Banquet. A chance for the married couples in our church (Piatra-Neamt) to get together for  dinner and fellowship. The youth served meal. We initiated this event last year & had a good response so we continued again. (Photo 8)

Dec. 13, 2019– Christmas Dinner for Widows. Following in the same spirit as the meal for families, this year we had a special time for widows/ elderly members of our church. We had asked the families attending the other banquet to serve the meal/ donate some items. It was a good turnout (about 30), a family sang Christmas carols, and other church members served the meal.

Dec. 14, 19, & 20– Christmas programs at three places this year. In the village of Garcina, the Together Again Center in Piatra-Neamt for homeless families, and at the Ion Creanga Orphanage in Piatra Neamt. We had carols and handed out shoebox gifts. Wonderful to share God’s love. At the orphanage, again we invited our friends the Quo Vadis choir to come and sing some carols & help hand out boxes. (Photo 9,10,11)

Dec. 19, 2019- The Quo Vadis choir gave a concert at our church in the city (Sfanta Treime Baptist in Piatra Neamt.) spent the night, and the next day served at the I.C. Orphanage handing out Christmas boxes, and continued on to Suceava where they had another concert. Praise the Lord for their enthusiastic service!

Regular meetings of Garcina kids program Fridays, 3-6 kids. In village of Garcina.

Regular meetings of Ion Creanga Orphanage kids Saturdays, 15-20 kids. In city of Piatra Neamt.

Regular meetings of adolescents (12-14 years) Saturdays 10-15 kids. Baptist Church in Piatra Neamt.

Regular meetings of youth group(15-19 years) Saturdays 15-20 teens. Baptist Church in Piatra Neamt.

Regular visits to Casa Ray Orphanage for english lessons (ages 7-15) Tuesdays. (Rebecca & the kids going)

Regular work (once monthly) in Preschool Sunday school (Rebecca) at the city Baptist church.

Prayer requests: There were three baptisms in our church this year in August of the teens who have been coming to camp & church programs: Petru G, Cristina B, and Denisa B. All three continue to come to church & functions. Pray for them to remain firm in their faith. Pray for Cristina C, who has been devoted to helping us especially in our orphan ministry for two years, that she can deepen her spiritual walk. Our next furlough we are planning for the spring of 2021. If you and your family would like to meet with us then, shoot us a message!

Praises: We were able to move into our house. This gets us out of renting, which we have been doing for 5 1/2 years. The kids are already enjoying more play space it offers. The year 2020 promises more interaction in our city, as we have Youth camp planned for Aug 2-8 and are planning to do a VBS in July with children, besides ongoing orphanage, village group, and youth group meetings.

Thank you for praying for our family and sending your financial gifts through My Brother’s Keeper as we seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus, together with the local church in Piatra Neamt, Romania! Blessings to you in this new year,

-Lucian & Rebecca Avadanei

Emily & Ruben

My Brother’s Keeper missionaries

Children & Youth Outreach

Piatra Neamt, Romania

My Brother’s Keeper International

PO Box 11

Roxbury, PA 17251

Any donations please write “Avadanei family” on the memo line and it will get to us. There are 7 other families working through the mission agency, so please don’t forget to specify. Thanks 🙂

If you’d like to get in on our camp fundraiser, we are accepting sponsorships of $130 to the same address write “Avadanei camp” on the memo line.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

 

http://www.adventuresinromania.wordpress.com -Our Personal blog

My Brother’s Keeper International Ministries|Pennsylvania|Missions -MBK staff blog