Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Fall Leadership Retreat - Part 2

The staff retreat was a great time of bonding on the ropes and adventure course. It was also a time of encouraging each other as we worked to discover what unique abilities God had given each of us. We had some training times on leadership and on setting goals and action items that will help us to move towards those goals.


It wasn't all serious... Messy games were led by our fun coordinators Becky & Fiona. It was hilarious to see our many of our very mild mannered Romanian leadership with peanut butter and cheerios on their nose or digging with their feet in "yuck" to fish out coins...


Our evening ended with a time to sing and share around the campfire... it was great to play, learn and worship together.

A Fall Leadership Retreat...

This summer, Outward Bound was the final mission for all the kids who came to camp with us. This fall, it was the location of a retreat for all the directors & leaders of our ministry and a great way to bring the staff together, for many to try things they never thought they could do and for everyone to be encouraged and cheered on by others!






From the highest and most difficult elements where you must work with someone else to complete it, to the climbing wall where you are working on your own, but will only keep trying with the encouragement of those around you... our afternoon on this team building course was fun and encouraging to all. Please pray that just as we stood with one another, cheered each other on, and worked together on this course... that we would do the same as we return to work with one another on an adventure of much greater risk, importance and challenge... the work that God has placed us here to do with the kids He has entrusted to us for a season. Pray that we would seek out ways to encourage and cheer each other on daily.

Monday, September 17, 2007

The First Day of School!

It is the first day of school in Romania! Around the world, this is a big day... a day to start something new, to meet new friends and catch up with the old and of course to learn new things! It is no different here. Our kids have been looking forward to this day for weeks. Some with the dread of summer actually ending, but most with an excitement to get started. Here they are on the first day of the 2007-2008 school year... Casa Rebeca, Casa Nadia & Casa Ana!





While the first of our "kids" is entering high school today (Elis Simon... pray for her, as she is a little nervous), there are also three who are moving up in the world another way... These three little ones... Daniela, Sergiu & Fanel (pictured here with their tutor, Mira) are starting first grade! What a big day and big year for them!

Pray as well for our "Little School House." These four kids have their very own little school in a building on the property of Casa Ana & Nadia. Their teacher is Doamna Sava, who is very patient, creative and works well with each of them one on one to help them overcome their learning challenges and be successful in school. These kids have all grown by leaps and bounds in this little school.


Please pray for all our kids this year as some start new things and others need help as they struggle to overcome learning differences and just being behind due to past circumstances. Pray that they will know in a real way that God is with them. Pray for the teachers, tutors and counselors who work with them to have wisdom and patience as they guide them along. Pray with us that this will be the best school year ever for each of them. Thanks!

Backpacks for Everyone!



In addition to our friends who participated in "Change for Change" this year to help with school supplies... we have, for the second year received backpacks for each of our 30 kids from a group of families in Texas. This group has joined together each year and had a "Back to School Party" for us. The kids each bring backpacks that their family has bought to send to our kids. They make cards and send little treats for each of our children to receive along with their backpack, so that they know someone was thinking of them!

It is such a blessing to see churches, families & most of all, children across the country reaching out in love to kids across the ocean! The love of Jesus shines bright as we love each other! A big thank you to The Smith family for organizing the "backpack parties" and sending them to us! There are more pictures of these backpacks from the first day of school.



If you would like to know how your church, school or neighborhood can take part in "Change for Change" to help the orphans in our care and in our county, please visit www.livada.org or contact kelly@livada.org. Thanks!

Change for Change in Action!



Yes, although school is well underway in America... Here in Romania it is just about to start! It is always an exciting time of year with all the preparations that need to be made, getting ready for a new challenge and making sure everyone has the things they need!

This year this process began a little early... This past summer there were two churches who made "Change for Change" and Livada their summer Vacation Bible School mission projects! Each of these churches introduced Livada and our kids to their churches and the kids who attended their VBS programs. These groups both raised over $1000 which has recently been used to provide the school supplies and back to school shoes that our kids needed for this year!



What a blessing to have Dauphin Way United Methodist Church of Alabama and Neighborhood Alliance Church of Florida join with us in such a tangible way to make a difference in the lives of our kids! We want to send out a BIG thank you to the leadership and all the kids who brought their change this summer to bring change in the lives of our kids this fall!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A Casa Daniel Update

This smiling little ten year old is Daniel Simon. He is living at Casa Daniel... our new therapy home where the plan is for him to stay for one year. The transition has gone well thus far. He gave me a tour of his new home including his room and how clean he was keeping his closet...



Daniel is under supervision at all times right now and is always in the sight of one of the adults working with him. When I arrived for my visit, Daniel was working on special cards for the two adults who would be there later that evening. There have been a lot of projects, behavior role plays, learning to help with household chores and more in the past two weeks...



As Daniel learns to identify positive and negative emotions and learn how to respond to them as well as to follow simple social rules, we will begin to go deeper and pray that God will heal the deeper hurts and fears in his heart.

Pray for Daniel and for each of the adults who are working with him daily. He has had a smooth transition so far, but we know that the storm is brewing under the surface. Pray that if that storm breaks that the staff will be ready to respond in the right ways and reassure him that he is loved and safe. Thank you for your ongoing prayers for this young man.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Can you help?


These four children attend a small Christian school in town. Eniko, Stefan & Geza have been there for the past two years and Daniela will begin this fall in first grade. There are many reasons why these specific kids are in this school. Obviously we appreciate that it has a Christian value system and Christian teachers for the kids. It also has very small classes and teachers who are willing to work with our children's special needs.

Eniko is in a class with only 5 other girls for her 6th grade year this year. Her teacher takes time to explain things to her and help her to understand. With Eniko having been so behind in school when she came to us, this has been a huge blessing. She would not be making nearly the progress she is if not for this special attention.

Geza has special needs in the area of attention and focus. He is very bright and loves to figure things out, but has a very hard time keeping focused on something and with some of his other social needs, the small class size and an understanding teacher are the only thing that keep him from getting lost in the crowd of the classroom and being left behind.

Stefan began at Alpha Omega (this small school) in first grade. When he came to us he was just about to start kindergarten and did not talk much and had language and developmental delays. He grew with leaps and bounds due to much one on one instruction outside of his kindergarten class and as he began first grade we saw much potential for him to continue to grow and excel if he was in the right environment.

Daniela shows the same potential to excel in this school where if the student is ready the teachers will challenge them to the next level.

We seek to put each child in the best educational environment for their needs. For these four we feel that this is the right place. Alpha Omega is the only "private" school in our area, so while our other kids go to school for "free"... we must pay a tuition of $1100 per child per year for them to attend this school. If you are interested in helping us with this tuition cost for this school year, you can send a check to our business office or contact kelly@livada.org.

As all our kids prepare to return to school this fall, the youngest entering first grade and our first entering high school. Please pray that each will reach their academic potential, that each will have a good friend in their class, that our educators will be able to build a good relationship with each child's teacher and work together with them well, that we will be aware of the children's needs related to school; whether they be academic, behavioral, social or emotional and have the wisdom and patience to work through them correctly. Thank you!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Going deeper...

With the kids in our care, there is always homework to be done, a haircut, dentist appointment, room to clean, food to prepare and the list goes on. Imagine if you had 30 kids! We do not want to simply rush to care for their physical and educational needs that are the easiest to see and that cry out for our attention. We want to go deeper.

One of the ways we are doing this is by having a special Bible Study group each week that is offered to all our kids. The younger kids in one group with more hands on lessons and the older kids/young teens in a more youth group setting in a home with pizza and a study. This week, as we gear back up for fall, we have kicked off these groups again.

Here are a few pictures of the younger kids group, which meets downstairs at the LOC office in our big meeting room. This fall this group is going to focus on Jesus. We started with the kids in groups drawing or writing things that Jesus did, said or what the Bible tells us about who He is. It was interesting to see that most knew he was born, He died and He rose again (which is great), but few knew much more. There were a few stories they remembered, but we hope to learn more this fall about Jesus' time on earth... what He did, what He said and who He is... and what that means to us!




The older kids/young teens group is going to be studying the book of Philippians this fall and is being encouraged to begin a daily time in the Word, by reading a Proverb a day and looking for a verse that stands out to them and journaling about it. This group is also challenged to memorize Psalm 139... We want to remind these who are in or entering the teenage years how special and important they are to God and how close He is to them at all times!

Please pray for these times this fall to be meaningful, to be an opportunity for open doors to go deeper into these kids lives even in one on one conversations, and to be a life changing time in the lives of these kids. Pray that God will speak clearly through His Word as the kids read it on their own. Pray for all of them to be drawn to the Lord through this time and for the younger kids especially to come to a deeper understanding of Jesus this fall and desire a relationship with Him.

Thank you!

The Beach...


As you know, we didn't take our kids on big vacations to the beach this year, but another group did go. The young people in our Mentor Program went to the Black Sea for the first time two weeks ago.

Several of the mentors and others who work with the program were able to take those who have been working and following the program this summer on a long weekend trip to the beach. It was a great time of fun and laughter as these young people took a few days off work and just enjoyed being together. There were a few who have been working, but couldn't actually get the time off to come on the trip. We were proud of them for sticking to their schedules even when it wasn't fun.

Please continue to pray for those in the Mentor Program to make wise choices, to recognize the wisdom in the counsel of their mentors, counselors, and leaders in the program. Pray for Becky Kyle, the director of this program. Pray that she will have wisdom, patience and insight into the best ways to encourage, challenge and guide these teens and young adults into independent life. Thank you to those who pray for and invest in these kids lives!

Monday, September 3, 2007

Casa Daniel Begins...

If you have been around the ministry of Livada for a while, you know that most times when one of our houses open, it is a grand event with ceremony, celebration, guests from Romania and America, lots of pictures and smiling faces. This is very appropriate as the opening of these houses represents rescue, safety, family and home to those children who leave the orphanage and enter our care and our family.

Sometimes though, God choses to rescue us when we don't understand the need or the reason. Sometimes we are blind to our own circumstances and deeper needs. God moves in and removes us from one situation or area of comfort for us and moves us into the unknown. It may be scary, it may even seem mean and unfair, but that is one of the amazing things about God... He loves us too much to leave us where we are when He knows there is something better.

So, right now at 11:00 AM in Targu Mures, with few looking on, no pictures being taken, while some cry and others celebrate in the hope of what is to come... We will get a glimpse of this process that God uses in all our lives in a very tangible way. Daniel Simon will leave Casa Nadia today. This has been his home for two years now and although he struggles, it is his comfort zone. He knows what to expect, how to work the system, how to get attention and how to "escape" when he is overwhelmed.

Daniel will enter into "Casa Daniel." This is a house set up specifically for him and prepared for him as a therapy home through months of prayer, preparation, research and training of staff... Our prayer is that God will use this place and this year in Daniel's life to do what He often does to us at critical times in life... That he would remove him from his false sense of what life is about and his need to live protecting himself from fears that he doesn't understand and to learn how to come under the umbrella of God's love, protection, authority and comfort.

We pray that in the years to come he will look back, thankful that God took him through this time where everything he thought was real was taken from him, so that God could rebuild his heart and his mind with truth and could heal him from past hurts and allow him to live in freedom.

There will be pictures and updates as things settle down, but for now, please pray for the staff that will work with Daniel daily, for the counselors who will supervise this project and meet with him regularly, and for Daniel, that when he stops fighting and crying, that he will receive what God has for him. Thank you!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Do not be anxious...

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

As we begin a new year of ministry in Romania, we ask that you join us in praying for a few of the coming needs. Pray that the peace of God will guard us as we face these and other challenges & opportunities to watch Him work. Thank you!

1. Pray for Casa Daniel that will open on Monday. Pray for the staff that has been trained and will continue to be trained throughout this year. Casa Daniel is a special therapy house for one little boy in our care who has some severe behavioral and emotional problems. Pray that he will be healed and will be able to return to Casa Nadia next year as a different boy through the power of God's grace and through the wisdom of trained therapists and caregivers seeking God's best for him. Pray for Daniel not to be anxious about his new surroundings or to feel abandoned by Casa Nadia, but rather wrapped in the love, special attention and structure that he needs.

2. Pray for us as we begin a "new year"... After summer ministry is done we take a moment to breathe and then kick off the new year of ministry. Pray for changes that need to be made, pray for relationships that need to be healed, pray for kids who are on the verge of turning a corner, pray for wisdom and direction for those in leadership from the board to the moms in the houses that we would each do what God has for us where ever God has placed us. Pray that we will look clearly with God's eyes and heart at as we walk through each day in interactions with the kids, with co-workers, with ourselves... pray that He will show us where we need to change, where we need to go deeper, where we need to speak and where we need to be silent and let Him work without getting in His way.

3. Pray for the 6 young adults in our mentor program who are scheduled to graduate in October... Pray that they will take advantage of every opportunity over these next two months to gain more understanding and insight from their mentors. Pray that they will make wise choices about their jobs and futures, pray that they will seek the Lord most of all and trust in Him with all their hearts and lean not on their own understanding.

4. Pray that God will provide the needed resources for us to do what God has called us to in a way that honors Him.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to Livada and the children that we are able to touch through this ministry.