Highlight... Geza Musta

Geza and his brother Bella entered "state care" at a young age. Geza has always been a special boy. He is not extremely social with children his own age, but has always had a gift for interacting with adults and is very open and verbal with them. He especially loves trying out his talent with English with anyone! Geza loves to know how things work and if often found taking things apart and making new things from the parts.


Geza lives in his own world a lot of the time and doesn't like change very much, but one change that he speaks of often as being very good was when he left the orphanage at Ludus and came into the care of Livada. He suffered a lot in the orphanage at the hands of other children and tells the story that he prayed that God would take him from there and of how we came to get him and brought he and his brother to Casa Rebeca which is now his home where they are safe and loved.


Geza is a very talented young man. Through his gifted drawings he is able to express what is inside in an amazing way. Whether he is drawing life experiences, incredibly detailed trucks and cars or other things his talent shines through.

Geza also loves music... listening to music, singing and most recently he has started taking guitar lessons and loves it!


Last, but not least, Geza loves to laugh! He really enjoys funny movies and will re-enact scenes that he loves with amazing attention to details, voices and even actions. He is open hearted, cheerful and full of hope for the future now.

Geza is turning fifteen this fall and is the oldest boy at Casa Rebeca. Pray that he will be a good leader for the other boys and that God will continue to mold him and work in his tender heart. Pray that he will continue to develop his talents in music and drawing and be able to attend the art high school in a few years. Pray that he will continue to overcome his fears and hurts from the past and live the new life God has given him to the fullest.

We Like to Party!

The time has quickly come for us to wrap up our follow up programs for the year and to begin planning for our 7 weeks of summer camp! Last week and this week are our last two weeks of follow up, and we have been and will continue to have lots of fun parties!




With some of the kids we went bowling, with some we went to the zoo, with others we walked into to town for an ice cream party and with others we went to a pizza restaurant for a pizza party.





Whatever it was that we did with the kids, they have had a great time and have been so thankful! And now, they are anxiously awaiting the arrival of camp!





Please pray for God to continue preparing the hearts of the 400+ kids and teenagers who will be attending our camps this summer as well as the many American and Irish teams, American interns, Romanian volunteers and American and Romanian staff who will be helping to run camp this summer! Also, please pray that the follow up/camp staff will make a smooth transition from daily follow up clubs to camp preparation and that everything will be done before our camps start on June 22!

Friends & Fun Days...

May first is Labor Day in Romania and all the schools are closed. Each year we take this opportunity to have fun outdoors with a big picnic! We fire up the grill, break out the balls, games and cards and enjoy the day together.









To add to the fun this year, we have had two of our former interns and friends visiting who were able to spend the day with us as well. Sarah & Meggie have both been to Romania several times, but neither have been here since Casa Ana & Nadia opened... it has been an added bonus for them to get to know all of those children better and to participate in the final weeks of Follow Up before the summer!

A Weekend Away...

The young adults from the mentor apartments along with their mentors went on a little outing this weekend! They have been working together to save money from their budgets so that they could do something fun all together! We left on Friday morning and headed towards the mountains... Upon arrival in Brasov, we found a little festival for "Brasov Days" going on... we took part in the celebration and enjoyed the beautiful day!



Later we arrived at our little cabin in the mountains and the men grilled out as the ladies prepared the other food inside. We had a great meal and time of games and fun together. On Saturday it was off on a big hike through the mountains and we even got snowed on a little! Later in the day we toured Bran Castle, which is always associated with Dracula, but apparently "Vlad Tepes" didn't actually live there.






On Sunday we went to The Castle Peles, where the King of Romania used to live and took a walk through Sibiu before heading back to Targu Mures. It was a great weekend of fun and fellowship... playing games and enjoying time away.


Thank you for your ongoing prayers for these young adults as they learn from their mentors and some work towards completing school while others are getting closer to independence and are working and starting to provide for themselves. It is a blessing to see our two oldest Kati & Ani working hard and making plans for their graduation from the program this summer... looking for apartments, saving money and getting ready to take that next step.

Easter Gets Messy...

Because the kids who attend the Underground really aren’t kids anymore as they range in age from 15 to 20, we decided to vamp our Easter games up for them. We did messy games once this year, and these teenagers absolutely loved and got so in to these games. So, we decided to add a bit of a messy twist to their Easter party this year.




As is always the case, we have them sign up for games without knowing exactly what game they might end up playing. The signed up to prove they were the hungriest, had the best aim, the biggest mouth, the most precise, the most attentive, the strongest, and the most courageous. In order to be the hungriest, they had to be the first to eat a large chocolate bunny. To have the best aim, they had to throw jellybeans while another member of their team tried to catch them. To prove they had the biggest mouth they participated in a game of “chubby bunny” but filled their mouths with dry crackers instead of marshmallows. To be the most precise they participated in a game of bowling where they had to knock as many soda bottles down as possible using a hardboiled egg. The most attentive teen was the first to remove 10 chocolate candies from a bowl of milk. The strongest had to smash a hardboiled egg against an opponent’s hardboiled without cracking his egg. And finally, the most courageous participated in an old fashioned egg toss.





They also participated in some team games. In one, they had to pass a hardboiled egg from one spoon to another and to be the first team to pass it from one end of their line and back, and in another, they had to race each other while carrying their team’s hardboiled egg by spoon. They also competed in a Bible Easter quiz in which all of the teams answered the majority of the questions correctly! At the end of the party, they searched for different colored hardboiled eggs and for each color of egg they found, they received a different prize. The kids really enjoyed their party and games, and they all went home with smiles on their faces!

Celebrating Easter...

This year, Easter is coming to Romania one week after you celebrated it in the States. So, we have spent the last week celebrating Easter with parties, games, prizes, snacks, Bible quizzes, and Easter egg hunts. The kids always enjoy having the opportunity to have a week full of fun and special gifts and activities, and this week was no exception. They balanced eggs on spoons, jumped like rabbits, quacked like ducks, and participated in many more Easter themed games in hopes of winning enough points for their team to be the winners. But, they were all winners this week as they searched for eggs full of candy to be able to take home with pride!




It never ceases to amaze me how thankful they are and how much they enjoy playing the simple games we grew up playing and often took for granted. They absolutely LOVE to have fun!!




We will be wrapping up follow up in the next 3 weeks as we begin to start planning full time for Super Summer 09. Please pray that God will continue to prepare their hearts for the summer ahead in our last few meetings together this year! Thank you for your support and prayers which make it possible to continue to do fun programs with all of these special children!

Get Ready for... Super Summer 09!!!

Each summer Livada Orphan Care has the amazing opportunity to minister to over 400 children and teens through evangelistic summer camps. This is the highlight of the year for most of these children and is the continuation and a building block for the ongoing outreach programs that go on throughout the year in the orphanages and state group homes called "follow up."

During the past two summers at Camp Vetca... Livada's camp ground... we have trained special agents for the amazing life that God has in store for them during "Mission Possible 07"... then we were athletes in training and striving towards the prize of life with Jesus during the "Vetca Olympics 08." Here is a look back at the Olympic summer from last year...



We would like for everyone to start praying now for... SUPER SUMMER 09!

You guessed it... this summer we will all be Super Heros in training! We will learn where our strength comes from... how to be a super hero and not a villian, how to be a Superman or Wonder Woman and more! Many super hero competitions, games, skits and more are on the way... along with small group times designed to allow a little deeper look with team leaders into what God's word says and how God has worked in their lives, as well as time for the campers to share and ask questions.

Please begin praying now for the children and teens who will come to camp this summer. Pray for the college students and young adults who are coming for the whole summer to serve as summer interns with us. Pray for the nine teams we have coming from Northern Ireland and America to serve with us in our Super Summer Camp and in town day camps. Pray for Michael Hale, our camp pastor and leader of the intern team. Pray for Sarah Meszaros, who is joining our Livada staff in Romania for a year and a half and will be camp administrator and work with these kids throughout the year in follow up. Pray for Rebecca Rasmussen, who leads our follow up program and will be working with all of the above to make the summer fun and focused on Christ!

Thank you so much for your prayers... get ready for June, when you will begin receiving updates from our Super Hero Training Facility in Vetca, Romania during SUPER SUMMER 09!