Thank You Paul & Fiona!

You have seen them leading "Follow Up" clubs for the kids in state care...



at "The Underground" weekly outreach for teens...



making Camp Vetca a "Mission Possible" and even hosting the "2008 Olympic Games" this summer...



and now, here with so many of the kids they have invested in and our staff at their going away party...




We have been so thankful and blessed to have Paul & Fiona Coles serve alongside us in Romania in these and so many other roles for the past two years! They have poured out their hearts and lives into the kids & teens that they work with and took on way more than leading camp... they headed up "Project Vetca" and changed the way camp looks in Romania!

Paul & Fiona will be returning to Northern Ireland this week. Please pray for them as Fiona goes back to teaching school and Paul takes a youth pastor position at their church. Pray for the kids who will be missing their consistent presence in their lives and for the interns, follow up staff and volunteers as they take on the last three weeks of camp!

Thank you Paul & Fiona... we will miss you!

Blessings for the Babies...

The Team from Grace Church in Little Rock will be in camp with our LOC kids this week. This sweet team of mostly ladies also came to be a blessing to the babies in the hospital in Ludus. They brought blankets and diapers for these little ones and will visit more than once while they are here in Romania.





It is a blessing each time these little ones are held, talked to, played with and prayed for. We are so thankful for the ongoing ministry to these babies with Rodica and her volunteers and for all the summer teams who have spent time loving the babies!

Club Time & Camp Fire...

With all the fun of camp, you may wonder when the gospel is shared... It is shared over and over through the week during club time. This is the time of the morning or evening where the kids, team, volunteers... everyone... comes together to sing and to hear from Paul.


Club time is always fun and creative and amazingly with over 100 people sometimes packed into our big meeting tent, the kids are usually quite attentive. As you know the theme this year is the Olypmics... being athletes... competing and going for the prize. One of the talks this week centered around how if athletes want to win they must compete by the rules.

Paul started with a game, using the leaders to help make his point. He told everyone the rules of "Pass the Potato" and the fact that you can't use your hands to pass it. He then had the girl leaders and boy leaders play the game. He had the boys cheat and the girls follow the rules... the boys thought that they won, but then learned that you can't win if you don't follow the rules.




Making it very simple Paul explained that there are really two rules that all others come from... Love the Lord with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. He went on to explain how we have all broken those rules and so we shouldn't have the opportunity to win the prize of a relationship with God or Heaven, BUT Christ came and died so that we could be forgiven and have the chance to join that winning team!


After Club Time on the first night out at Vetca... a favorite is the camp fire and smores! Yes, the smores basically have to have all the ingredients brought in as they are not readily available in Romania, but they are always a hit! The camp fire songs are always a little more silly... things like Boom-Chika-Boom, Roosta-sha, and more!



Please pray that God will continue to use the creative messages to convey His truth and love to the children and teens each week at camp.

Building Relationships...

Camp is very much about fun... for the kids it is very much about competing against all the other teams at camp... it is about getting the kids out of their everyday environment... it is about sharing truth with them about their Heavenly Father... and it is very much about building relationships!




These children have very few people who care about them, listen to them, want to play with them and love them. The relationships built at camp help to give them these things. They are also building blocks for the ongoing follow up ministry with these kids throughout the year. Whether it is a member of a visiting team who is here for a week, an intern who is here for the summer or our staff & volunteers who will invest in these kids all throughout the year... Relationships are key!




Pray that these children would learn from their interactions at camp with those who love them in a right way... what love that is right and good looks like. Pray that they would look for this kind of love in relationships and that they would learn to trust those who are here for them all year and learn to be trustworthy as well in their relationships.



Thank you to all of you who pray faithfully for these kids and our staff and visiting summer teams. It makes a huge difference. Begin praying even now for the follow up and relationship building that will continue this fall. Pray for volunteers to be willing and available to help, pray for the remaining LOC follow up staff... Rebecca, Ovidiu & Alina, and pray for the funding and transportation that will allow us to continue to reach these kids on a regular basis. Thanks!

Singin' in the Rain...

Yes, it was raining outside, but that couldn't stop the singing inside! The kids from young to old joined in on these very simple songs with truth from God's word. There is more to the songs, but the basics are under each one. It is always powerful to see God praised by these kids and see the light in their eyes and freedom to join in, no matter how tough they can be at other times!


Life & movement & each breath come from you God... you are the only source of my life!



Romans 16:19 says (with some paraphrasing and translating)... Be excellent in what is good, be innocent of doing wrong.

Pray that the truth of all the songs and all the lessons learned at camp will continue to echo through the hearts of all the children and teens who join us at Camp Vetca this summer!

Sincrai & The Edge Team Up for the Games!

Welcome back... It is now Week 4 of the Vetca Olympic Games! Our athletes are representing their countries with team flags and we have a birds eye view of the site of this year's games! Get ready for the fun of week 4 as the kids and teens from the state group homes in Sincrai team up with The Edge Team from Northern Ireland to compete, build relationships, learn about the Ultimate Prize and have FUN!


Please pray for the kids, the team, the volunteers, and interns as they work together this week. Pray for them to stay encouraged and full of energy even in the midst of a rainy week. Pray that they will get some good sun at some point to enjoy all the big outdoor games. Pray that God will use this week in the lives of these kids in a huge way. Thanks!









More to come from week four...

More from the Lake...

We would tell you the name of the lake, but I don't think it has a name... when the directions are to head towards a certain village and turn on the dirt road after the forest to get there... it's not a major land mark. However, it has the makings of a fun Friday outing for all three of our LOC group homes!

Casa Rebeca had so much fun a few weeks back that everyone wanted to come and spend the day at the lake. We found a bigger spot and spent the day in the sun playing cards or checkers or in the water swimming and jumping from a small tower into the middle of the lake.






We are so thankful for all the camp activities going on this summer and are also thankful to find days like this to just be with our kids and enjoy a slow summer day!