Specific Prayer List

*The Hungarian Village: Salvation and a church to built
*Jon and Maria: Health, their daughter-in-law: salvation
*Froleika: safety and her son's salvation
*The Maria's family, for her son to pass his exam, for all of her 13 children
*The land for the Bruski family
* For a good attitude for the gypsy people we are visiting today, so that we can do things with them.
*For all the parents who have left their children at the orphanage.
*The orphans
*For church tonight.

*That God receives all the Glory!

Thanks for praying.

To the top of the MoUnTaIn

What a wonderful God we serve. Today we had the opportunity to deliver some more food baskets to several Romanian families. Each day, before we leave we have a time of prayer. Isn't it amazing that we have a God who answers our prayer, listens to our cries and praises. So, when we got to the village we had the opportunity to give one of the Romanian families food, do crafts with the children, sing praises to our King, and Charlie taught about Zaccheus with the help of Paige translating. The main point he left each family with is as happy as Zaccheus was to see Jesus, Jesus was more happy to see Zaccheus, and the same is true for all of us, he wants us to come to Him. Next we began our journey up the "mountain" to see Froleika (sorry about my Romanian spelling) and her son. This mountain was quite steep and took a good bit of effort, but I am happy to inform that the entire Woodlake team made it to top. Once we arrived, Froleika invited us all into her home to indulge ourselves into amazing hot doughnuts. Her generousity and hospitality was very humbling. I have to ask myself the question, would I be this kind to foreign strangers, would I welcome them into my home, and get up early in the morning to prepare for them? I pray that God can place that type of compassion into my heart. Once we finished visiting with Froleika, we got to go look at the view from the back of her home. Lets just say, words are not enough to describe the beauty of God's creation. Once we got to the bottom of the mountain we visited Maria and John a precious ederly couple. John repeatedly said he was a sinful man, and we got to remind him of the blood of Jesus that washes away all our sins. Maria and John really like singing, so we sang a lot. It was a wonderful time of fellowship. The next family we visited had 13 children and one on the way, followed by a family that had many children too. At each home we did a craft with the children, songs of praise, a bible study and prayer. The most amazing part of our day is knowing that none of the things we are doing has meaning without the saving grace of Jesus. Our prayer is that Jesus recieves all the glory and praise, because He is the vine and we are the branches, and apart from Him we can do nothing. Continue to pray for the people of Romania. Well we are about to have our night reflection time. Oh, also pray that the water comes on, we are a bunch of smelly folk right now. Good night to all our friends and families.

Days Two and Three Update

The pics we uploaded cover days two and three. Sunday we had "Church in the Basement" with some of the Gypsy kids. It was amazing to hear praise songs in Romanian and English. We also visited the two pieces of property the Bruski's are looking at buying. While we were looking, everyone in the village who ever thought about selling their land came out offering it. Aaron said this was amazing since just a little while back they could not find ANY land for sale.

Monday was spent at the Minor Center and Maternity Center in the first half. We held a VBS - crafts, puppets, songs, and games. It was great to see kids with so little to hope for light up with just a little love and time spent from Americans. The second half was at government housing - similar to a highrise housing project in America. We delivered some groceries to a few families the Bruski's work with and held a VBS there as well. Kids came out of every direction. Some of us played soccer with the kids only to watch them bring 'ringers' in to kill us with their skills. We stood our own and made new friends. Then we gave out a book containing Mark and Acts. Kids came collecting these books of the Bible in Romanian and taking them back home.

Our eyes and hearts were humbled and we have seen the vision God has given the Bruski's and much of the work they have already done to impact this corner of Romania. Enjoy the pics and see what God is doing here.

Also, please pray for Paige Bruski. They have received some medical test results that have the family concerned. Due to family medical history, they are praying for a clean bill of health for her. God is the Great Physician. He has healed us from the greatest illness of all - sin. Nothing else in our lives can come close to being beyond His control. Just keep the whole family in your prayers during this time.

God bless -
Craig

when you run out of words

there are some times in life when the words we are given in our language are far from sufficient to express what our eyes have seen. much like how the gospels tell the story of Jesus, how could they possibly put into words the true nature of what their eyes had seen? yesterday we held a worship service in the bruski's basement, first a bible study for the boys and the girls, then songs led by the bruski children band, followed by a message from brother dan. when you see the honest nature of the worship here, as well as feel the Holy Spirit move with such strength, i truly have no adequate words to describe what we felt and saw. i apologize for not being more eloquent, but truly the Lord was here and making Himself known. after the service we observed an amazing romanian tradition, the sunday afternoon nap. it was quite wonderful. we then went to observe the land the bruski's hope to buy and use to further their mission and God's plan. it was amazingly beautiful. to hear them speak of their plans and hopes and dreams will truly inspire any heart, and make you praise God for putting people like them on this earth. today we were able to go to the emergency home for children and women, to play with them and try to show them a glimpse of God through us, now if you never have done this i can truly say it is a humbling experience. these children may never read a bible, but hopefully they can remember the crazy americans brought by the bruski's and remember a glimpse of God. what is truly so wonderful is that God can take average people like us, and use us to fill His purpose. this entire experience has made me feel a little bit like the grinch, just hold on a second while i explain. each time you see these children smile, each time you see them so gracious to accept a gift, it makes your heart a little bigger, and bigger, and each time you see something you truly say that you cannot possibly feel your heart grow another inch, but it grows two. i want to thank everyone for their prayers, trust me we can feel them, but more importantly we can see them working in romania. we are having some trouble putting pictures up on the blog, hopefully we can soon. my camera is not compatible, mainly because craigs laptop has much better and higher uses, like letting ms pat email home, craig talk to his family, and stephanie talk to her ansley. we are about to go off and eat a wonderful supper and discuss our day, once again i doubt i will have the words to describe what i have seen and felt. perhaps the best way i can put what we have experienced thus far is to quote my favorite hymn: o what a foretaste of glory divine! God bless you America talk to you soon

craig

here is a link to craigs blog http://thehelffamily.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-one.html okay, bye now

so, this is really day one

Now it is almost 11:00 pm and we are getting ready for bed, so here is a recap. we woke up a little late, except for ms pat and the ladies, they were up bright and early. we met and prayed, then headed off to a gypsy village to deliver 15 bags of food to 15 families. each family got a large bag of goodies, and we were blessed enough to deliver them. the families were amazing, although they had very little, they graciously accpeted what we brought. it was wonderful to be able have this time to go and serve these people. this is truly an amazing experience. this is definitely not america, but these are definitely God's children. once we got back to the bruski's house, we had a great evening, woodlake won the soccer game, but only because we played each other. tomorrow is church, and the orphans are going to be brought here in the morning. brother dan is going to be leading in worship and selena and charlie are going to be teaching some small groups. we are trying to get craig to sing us some songs, but i think this could be a fruitless mission. we are all truly blessed to be able to be here. thanks for all the praying, and please keep it up. The links for the pictures will be updated in the top right corner of this page. Hopefully we will be able to post again tomorrow, sleep well america.

we are here

we are all in romania, safe and happy. we made it about an hour ago, and now we are trying to scrub the smell of two days of traveling off of us. we had some fun getting here, but it is all cool now. thanks for the prayers and support, keep it up! once our heads stop swimming from the time changes, we'll make more sense with our blog and put some pictures up. but for now, goodnight america.

Getting Ready

so, here we go. we met tonight at church to pack the supplies that you all so generously donated to take to the bruski's. it is truly amazing how we had six suitcases to fill, and each was filled to exactly 50 lbs(the limit for traveling). we were somehow able to put the entire contents of three cafeteria tables into our bags. also thanks to the unfailing love and generosity of our church, we were able to almost completely pay for our room and boarding for all 6 members of our team. we can truly say we are blessed to be at a church who, for lack of a better term, puts their money where their mouth is. we are not exactly sure what we will be doing when we get to romania, but we are thrilled for the opportunity. we hope to post pictures and our thoughts as often as we can while in romania. please continue to pray for us, and we will talk to you soon.