Sunday School Outreaches

Four years ago we did the first outreach in one of the villages called Augustin. Since this time we were able to establish nine more sites in other villages. The outreach with so many kids and families involved caught the attention of many other churches and Ministries in Romania and around the globe.  This summer before we came with our crew from Switzerland the church had already received a team from Norway and three teams from the States. Very encouraging was one of the medical teams from Texas. In most of the villages a doctor and some nurses were able to do regular check-ups and distribute medicine to the kids and families. In some cases they were able to do small surgeries on kids and adults.

This summer we had a team of 58 people from the Youth Plus denomination from Switzerland helping us with the Sunday school programs, the camps in three villages and to build a path around the church.

Sunday School Team

In seven villages we went to visit the kids and families. Many of the volunteers from Switzerland were shocked about circumstances the Gypsies have to live in. Every day before Sunday school, we spent 4 hours with children doing activities. So we had to come up with always new and exciting activities for the kids. Because of the heat wave we had to supply the kids with water and snacks. One of their favorite snacks was definitely the watermelon. One afternoon some of our female volunteers organized a manicure and hand massage event for the moms. In the beginning some of the moms were a little bit skeptical but when they saw the result at some ladies everybody got in line.

CampTeam

In the three smallest villages (Mina Capeni, Racos de Sus und Batanii Mari) we organized camps for the kids. The leaders and teacher were amazed to see what difference it makes to spend good quality time with the kids. During the small groups many of them open up and received Christ as their savior!

Jesus Movie

In Apata we had (where the church is based) an open air movie night. We invited the kids and families to join us on top of a hill where we set up the truck with the screen on the side and the projector running with the electricity from the generator. 350 kids and adults came to watch the short version of the Jesus movie. Amazing was that most of them prayed the salvation prayer with us.

Teenager Training

We also trained 32 workers from the villages who are involved to do Sunday school. Just after three years it is amazing to see that more and more teenagers want to help to reach the kids in their villages. The vision is that all 12 fulltime staff disciple and develop 12 teenagers from their sites. Hopefully in some years the team will have an army of workers who will do the same what they do today.

It is exciting to see what God is doing in this valley. Please continue to pray for the team.

By the way, former staff JP (Jean Pierre from France) is working alongside Verena in Romania for one year. He is going to be in NY in the beginning of November with the French Boot camp.

Thomas Fankhauser
Project Director