More from Day Camp...

As they say... a picture is worth a thousand words. These tell the story... kids being loved on and told the truth about their worth, kids smiling who spend much of their childhood with nothing to smile about, adults being crazy silly to entertain and get the point of God's love across to these children, and relationships being renewed with kids (who are now teens) from years past!






Pray for the last few days of this week as the biggest Hero of the Bible and in all History is presented to these kids... Jesus Christ! Pray that hearts and lives would be touched by the words spoken, by the love shown and by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Meanwhile back in town...

While camp continues this week at Vetca, we also have a team from Curtis Baptist in town working with all the children & teens from the Sincrai Group Homes. There are 11 homes with over 85 kids that live in this circle of homes near town.


The morning time has been for the little kids here. They have enjoyed the funny skits, singing, learning Bible verses, playing games, and making a photo album featuring themselves. The stories have been about Heros of the Faith in the Bible and the kids were divided into teams with Super Hero names... These little guys are on the "Superman" team!



Sweet Maria is holding up the Bible verse of the day that taught them of God's faithfulness to his people. Maria is one of two "little girls" who live in these homes. She and Ramona have loved getting some special attention this week!

There was even time for the favorite game of kids here... soccer! It was so fun for these little boys to have adults who allowed them and even encouraged them to play, as usually they are kept out of the game by the older boys. They have played every day!

The most treasured time...

Camp is a fun week, filled with activities, crafts, stories, Bible verses, singing and more... but the most treasured time at camp for the kids and the leaders comes on the last night. This is the time set aside for every leader to pray over each child from their team that week. These children are prayed for in Romanian, Hungarian, English... whatever that leader's mother tongue is. They may not understand it all, but they know it is a sacred and special time. They know that they are being lifted up before God in prayer. For most this is the most inimate and special time that they share with anyone all year. It is such a blessing to pray over each of them and lift their hurts, their hearts and their lives before the Father of the fatherless and The One who will never leave them or forsake them... God our Father who has a special mission planned for each of their lives and has made a way for them to join Him in it!



After prayer time, there is a final campfire for the week... What a good time to rejoice in what God has done, sing and praise Him and enjoy the last evening together!

Special Agent Graduation & Party!

Everyone entered the party and graduation on the final night of camp in full "secret agent" mode to the theme of Mission Impossible. It was great to see these children and early teens enjoying the theme and fun of this celebration!


Here is our group shot of week one of all the graduates and the competetion to see who could turn one of their team mates into a super special agent using only wrapping paper, tape and streamers! They did a great job and worked together well after just a few days together in a team!


The final part of the evening was when each child was called up by name, in an actual graduation ceremony, and given a diploma from mission possible training school and handed their secret agent sunglasses! As you can see, this was a very special thing for these kids. Many of them are special needs and rarely are acknowledged at school ceremonies or other events. Most have never had someone cheer just for them! What a joy to put a smile on their faces and make them feel so special!

More pictures from the course...

Special Agent Training Course...

The "Agents in Training" had special assault training today as they had to work together as a team to get through a course that included, walking your whole team across planks, getting everyone over a hurdle, filing water bottles from little cups of water, tossing tennis balls through rolling tires, making it under a rope crawl, walking on stilts, running through tires and finishing with a giant mission possible puzzle... Here are a few fun shots from the course!

The kids arrive at camp!!!

Mission Possible is officially underway at Camp Vetca! The kids from state group homes in Campenita, Santana, Baleuseri, Zau & Tarnaveni arrived for their first day of camp at a brand new LOC camp this year and were thrilled! They were greeted by all the summer interns, Romanian summer staff and their Special Training Instructors, Paul & Fiona...


The kids found their tents and were entertained and trained on the camp rules with fun skits and then learned that God had made each of them uniquely for the "mission" that He has for them. They learned that we are not all the same, do not all have the same gifts or abilities, but that God made us just how we are, loves us and has a plan for us! What a great introduction to God's great love and hope for each one of us...

Next, the kids were broken up into teams! Since the theme at camp is Mission Possible and the kids are in "special agent training" all week, they were given teams names like CIA, FBI, CTU, etc. As you can see, they were also given a very warm welcome onto their team and all were made to feel special and important to their team right away!


The kids quickly learned to be a team as they played games where they had to work together...


made a team flag together...


and got to know each other and their leaders as they walked into the village nearby for an afternoon ice cream treat! As you can see by the smiles on their faces... all the hard work and prayer of the past several months is beginning to see fruit already and we are only on week one! Thank you! Please continue to pray for God to work in the hearts and lives of these kids this summer and for Him to draw them to Himself!

Welcome to Tabara Vetca!

If you are at all like us... you can't wait for the Camp update photos to switch from construction to the faces of children... and for the progress reports to become praise reports for what God is doing, not just in building a camp, but building His kingdom in the hearts of these kids as they spend time here!

We want to thank all of you who have been praying with us, given towards this project, helped build, are coming this summer on a team, helping to send someone and who are our ongoing partners in ministry with us for helping to making Camp Vetca become a reality... With God all things are possible!

Coming in the next update... KIDS at camp! Yeah!

What GOD can do... just for starters...

If you have been keeping up with the progress on Camp Vetca, you may have seen these two pictures already. It was just a reminder of what GOD can do to realize that these two pictures were taken exactly one month apart. The first was taken on our Livada picnic day on May 12...


This photo, which shows a much different Camp Vetca was taken on June 12...


GOD has already done amazing things to get us to this point and camp will begin tomorrow... Pray with us that HE will continue to work in ways that only HE can this summer in the hearts and lives of the hundreds of children & teens who will be with us this summer! What a faith building experience building this camp has been for all of us. We are looking expectantly toward what GOD will do next!

Camping with the Coles...

They came to Romania to work with the teenagers in an outreach they began called "The Underground" and Lead Camp... But Paul & Fiona Coles have since added, leading the follow up ministry, land development, construction, outfitting, and staff training to their list! They have been such a blessing... super busy and are amazingly still smiling and getting geared up to start the summer!


Pray for the Coles to have their rest multiplied this summer as the actual hours will be few. Pray for them to have a renewed peace and energy that will come from the Holy Spirit. Pray that they will be blown away by the ways that God will work in and through them in camp this summer. Pray for them to have encouragement and love abound towards them this summer as they lead our MISSION POSSIBLE! Pray that the kids will be changed and see the love of God this summer as never before and that God will get the glory!

Graduations...

We have had a few exciting celebrations in the past week! Daniela, Fanel & Sergiu all had their kindergarten (gradinita) graduation and had a great time getting all dressed up for the day! These three are the youngest in our full time care and live at Casa Nadia. They will all be off to first grade next year and are quite excited to be joining all the "big kids" in school!




Elis also had a big day last week as she graduated from 8th grade! Elena, the director of Casa Ana & Nadia attended as did her tutor, Paula; Angela, the director of Education at Casa Ana and Rebecca who works with our kids on socialization. It was an exciting day! Please pray for Elis as she prepares to take her big 8th grade tests which will determine her educational path from here on out. Pray that she will continue to prepare, try her hardest and trust God with the results.

The Army... The Israelites...

Looking down from the hill near camp today it did look like a small army or the Israelites of old had come to Romania... but it is Camp Vetca! The interns and camp staff have been working almost non stop this week to get the final details (like showers, plumbing, etc.) finished before camp starts. They have also put up the tents, which really gives it the camp look!


For those of you who are about to join us for camp on a wonderful summer team... Here is your first glimpse of your luxury accomadations! Sleeping in tents has never been so nice... Beds, wood floors and even windows! The kids are going to love this!



Yes, from afar, it looks like camp is ready... but there is still much to be done. If you saw someone hanging drywall in America you would think it was at least 4-5 weeks before the project would be done... Well friends, keep praying! We have 5 days!


God knows all that needs to be done and knows that Paul, Fiona, Marian, the teams, the interns and others have worked as hard and as quickly as possible to get this camp up and running from the field that it was only two months ago. Pray that God will multiply our time and efforts and bring glory to Himself through the camp that He has made POSSIBLE for this summer!

Making Friends...

In our orientation time with our interns and teams each year we share with them that the best way to show Christ's love to the kids and teens we work with is to show them that you care, that you love them, that you are willing to invest in them... that you want to be their friend! This is always a good suggestion when you want to share Christ and the hope of salvation with anyone, but with these kids it is most times a critical aspect of gaining an open door and open heart.

As you can see... our new interns have jumped right in! They spent the day visiting the kids at Ludus orphanage and baby hospital, at our group homes and finished the night having pizza with our mentor apartment teens. It was a full day of loving on folks and they did it with a smile and with genuine love overflowing! What a blessing it will be to have them working with us and alongside the teams this summer!