Behind the Scenes...

There are several people who serve with Livada who you don't often see posted here in the blog or possibly even when you come to visit. Their roles are critical to what we do and much of it is not the "fun" part. Two of these ladies we want to share with you today...


Cristina is our Executive Director in Romania. She is dedicated to the care and growth of our children and spends much of her time problem solving, keeping all of our licensing and accreditation up to date, counseling kids, training and working alongside our staff and so much more! She is a blessing to this ministry with her strength of character, motivation to continue to improve all that we do and love for the children and staff of Livada. Please pray for Cristina as she makes decisions daily that effect the lives of the children in our care, as she balances a non-stop job and her family and as she leads the team in Romania forward as God leads this ministry through her!

Another person that you may not see often, but whose work is very important to this ministry is Maria. She is our social worker and spends many hours out in the "field" seeing the conditions that our children would be living in with their "natural families." She often helps to search out family connections. Takes the children to visit their families when the arrangements can be made and they can be found. She also keeps up with the cases of all our children as they relate to the courts and CPS. It is a job that not many could handle and we are so thankful for Maria and her heart to fight for these kids.



Maria and others on our staff are also the face and loving hands of Livada as we reach out to those in need with humanitarian aide and other assistance. Maria is called to the office gate many times a day to talk with state orphan graduates who are now struggling to make it. She helps them with material assistance but also with help to get paperwork done so that they can get jobs or in finding them a place to stay.

Elena, the director of Casa Ana & Nadia, and her husband continue to reach out to Sorin and his family to give him the support he needs so that he will not abandon his children and so that they will be able to attend school.


Again, it is often in what happens behind the scenes as so many of our staff reach out to those in need in our community as well as those we "officially" serve through our residential and follow up ministries that hope begins to take root in the lives of so many. Please pray that God will continue to work through Livada to impact the lives of those around us in Mures County, Romania.

We Couldn’t Do It Without Them!

It seems extremely important to take some time to express our gratitude to our exceptional volunteers. We were so blessed this summer at camp and have continued to be blessed in the start of Follow Up to have a group of fun-loving and committed volunteers. We are so thankful for their willingness to help because without them so much of what we do would not be possible. Not only is their commitment a huge blessing to Livada Orphan Care, but also they have made a huge impact in the lives of the kids! The kids know them all by name, and are overjoyed to see all of their faces every time we meet.


This year we have started a gathering for the volunteers every other Monday night as an opportunity for the Follow Up staff to continue to get to know them better. Also we wanted to have an opportunity to thank them, encourage them, and invest in them as they pour so much of themselves into the lives of the kids that we all work with. Please pray that this time would be a blessing in their lives, and praise God with us for His faithfulness in bringing such a quality group of young adults to help us this year!


Thank you volunteers!! We are so thankful for ALL of you!

The Livada Calendar 2009!!!

Something new this year... A Kids of Livada Calendar! This 2009 Calendar with pictures of LOC kids and teens, the baby ministry, camp from 2008 and more is a great gift idea and a great way to share Livada with your friends as you go through the year.

If you are interested in purchasing one or many of these calendars to give as Christmas gifts... please contact giving@livada.org by email to place your order. We are asking for a minimum donation of $25 per calendar.




Thank you for considering a Livada Calendar for 2009 as a great prayer reminder each month and a wonderful way to share the ministry of Livada with your friends and co-workers.

New Programs this Fall...

This fall, we started a few new programs with Follow Up that we hadn’t been doing in the past. One of the things we started doing is separating the Fundatia LOC kids based on age and doing follow up programs for them. We saw a huge need for the kids of Livada to have a fun and exciting opportunity to hear about God outside of their typical home environment. The “older” kids will have a youth group type program modeled after what we do at the Underground, and the “little” kids will have a Vacation Bible School type program modeled after what we do at Club Fuel. This will take place every Monday night, but the groups will rotate so that they have a program every other week. It is a great opportunity for the Livada kids to be taught about God by the Follow Up staff and volunteers because they so rarely have the opportunity to be surrounded by Christian teenagers and young adults outside of the staff that works with them on a daily basis.


Alina, a member of the Follow Up staff, decided that she wanted to start a new program with the girls from one of the group homes in Sincrai. The girls are from House 11, and Alina had a really strong relationship with these girls from when she was a volunteer and from camp this summer. The girls are entering their teenage years, and Alina, as well as many volunteers, saw a huge need and opportunity to minister to them. They take the girls out of their home to the office, and spend Saturday afternoons playing games, talking, doing a lesson, and spending time building deeper relationships with them.


This fall we also have decided to resume going to the orphanage in Reghin on a biweekly basis. We will also continue going to the orphanage in Zau and the group homes in Tarnaveni and Sarmas, and we will continue busing kids into town for Club FUEL from Sincrai, Patelea, Compenita, and Santana. We will also have kids to town for the Underground from Sincrai, Miercurea Nirajului, Şincai, Zau, and the night shelter in Targu Mures.


We have a busy schedule this fall, but we, as a follow up staff and volunteers, feel we have a huge opportunity to reach a large number of kids every week. God has given us all a passion and love for these kids, and we would appreciate your prayers as we would love to see change in the lives of many this fall!

The Underground is Back...

The Underground is a program that was started and run by Paul and Fiona Coles for the last two years. The program has been a huge success, and it was something we really wanted to be able to continue doing this year. God has been so good in providing the funds needed, and in giving the remaining Follow Up staff the desire and time to keep it going this year. The first two weeks have been a huge hit, and we have had approximately 70 kids from all over Mures County both weeks. There has been another small change in the Underground as well. One of the other group homes that Paul was visiting with all boys from Şincai is also now being included. We have buses, vans, and cars going all over the county to get all 70 kids to where they need to be.


This week we played a lot of different team games where the kids had to think, work, and play as a group. The kids really enjoy challenges, and they love the excitement of being together as a group to try to win any competition you give them! They had different challenges this week where they had to smell, feel, taste, remember, answer general knowledge questions, and do a magazine scavenger hunt. It was a full night…full of fun and craziness as the kids attempted to be the best team.




Please pray for Rebecca, Alina, and Ovidu, plus our wonderful volunteers to have great, new ideas to help make the Underground fun as well as a time of learning and growth for the many teenagers and young adults who attend.

A Leadership Retreat...

A few days after the house staff retreat the Leadership of LOC went away for two days of encouragement, rest, a little training and fun. It was just what the staff needed. We are so thankful for the directors, mentors, and follow up staff that work so hard to build into the lives of the children in our care and in the care of the state.


Managing staff, dealing with the many needs of the children, the bureaucracy of Child Protective Services, budgets and more can often be stressful and as you can see, the usually professional and busy leadership staff enjoyed a little time to "play!"



Please pray for the Leadership of Livada. It is the untiring dedication and love of the staff that has made such an impact and change in the lives of the children and teens that we work with daily. Thank you!

Our House Staff...

The many ladies and precious few gentleman who work in our group homes each day are have a non-stop job! Our house directors, counselors, house moms, cooks, tutors and drivers all work hard to care for the children who live at Casa Ana, Nadia and Rebeca.

You hear often about the children, but we wanted to share with you about these precious men and women who invest in the lives of the children, prepare their meals, counsel them, tutor them, get them where they need to be, take care of the house, make sure everyone has what they need, guide the children, discipline the children, pray with the children and so much more!

We have been working on staff encouragement this year and decided that even though it may be difficult to care for the children for a whole day if you took all of their "care givers" away... it was something that we wanted to do as an encouragement time, training time and a time when those from different houses could come together and have some fun!


We had a team here this past weekend from Georgia and they, along with our follow up staff and some volunteers looked after the children for the day as we took the house staff away for a little retreat!

We learned about the Five Love Languages and how knowing each person's love language could help us to better encourage one another. We also talked about how this applied to the children that we work with. We also learned about good communication and had a wonderful lunch together.





The day wasn't all sitting and talking... there was also plenty of time for fun and games... some of which were used to encourage one another, some of which were to build unity. The game pictured here was one where the teams had to try to fit their whole group on pieces of paper that got smaller and smaller with success. As you can see it was fun for all... but the educators from the houses pulled out the win with their "pile on" strategy!




We were so thankful to be able to take the house staff out for what we hope to be our "First Annual House Staff Retreat." Please continue to pray for all those who work in the houses each day... they are truly in the trenches of ministry as they reach out to the kids each day in all areas of their lives!