Dear Friends,

Can you believe it?  I'm actually updating my blog!  Is this a day for celebration or what?  :)

I have had a lot of opportunities in the last month to catch up with some people in person, and many of you mentioned that my blog was out of date.  Thank you for your encouragement to keep up with it.  I've decided...at least for now...to just fill you in on the most recent things happening here and then I will hopefully be back on track with trying to blog once a week.  I'd also like to start taking at least two pictures a week to post.  I'm thinking that if I write it here, I'll have the accountability to make it happen. :)

Since Christmas, I've been busy with school, road trips (some of my choosing, others to help out our community), and working with the people here in general.  We've received many guests during this time, as well.  God has really been faithful to help us in our ministry here.  There have been times when I didn't know where or how I would receive what I needed, but God always provided.  One of the biggest lessons I'm learning now is about trusting Him for all of my needs.  It's amazing how doing this can bring so much peace to your life.  In the times when I didn't know how I would be able to pay a bill or make another trip in the car without more gas, God was faithful and I never worried.  Thanks be to the One who is always faithful!

This past weekend, I had the privilege of being in Hungary for the installation of a new director at Word of Life Hungary (Elet Szava).   Although I would have loved to have had more time with my friends, it was such a great time of celebration of what God has done through faithful servants over the years there in Hungary.  For me, it was a bittersweet day because I saw my friend become the new director, but I also saw a very Godly and wise leader moving on.  I'm very thankful for all that Alex Konya has done in his time at WOL Hungary.  I had the privilege of being a student and an intern there while he was the leader, and I'm very thankful for his example of leadership.  I'm especially thankful for all that he showed me about trusting in God even when it seems the answers aren't coming as we expect, and when it would be easy to try and look to the world for help.  I'm also thankful to have worked with Csikos Gabor during my time there.  He was the Dean of Students while I was a student, and he had stepped into other roles while I was an intern.  During that time we got to work closely together and I learned to really appreciate his service and his friendship.  Thank you to these two gentlemen who have led so faithfully and have provided good examples for me.

I was also able to bring two good friends from Romania with me to Hungary.  Zozo and Jeno are both great friends and they are both an important part of my life here in Romania.  It was great to have them see the place and the people and places that were such a big part of my life.  Besides, one of them may even be a prospective Bible School student in the future.  Here are a few pictures of us in Budapest.

As I write this, I'm sitting in the church in Apalina, with the children in the other room studying.  At the same time, some of the kids that I taught and have worked with in America are taking state tests this week.  I'm reminded how much I love what I get to do with these kids, and I'm thankful that God has given me so many different experiences that have guided and shaped who I am.

Zozo and Dezso: two of my greatest friends together!

Ok, I think that's enough for now.  It's good to be back "in touch".  And I'd love to hear from you, too!  For missionaries, notes of even the smallest length mean a lot.  Here's how you can get in touch with me: jpcrook@yahoo.com

Giving out food packages in Gornesti

More deliveries with Zozo

Kids from the after school program

Skit practice: John baptizes Jesus

Skit practice: Mary Magdalene

Skit practice: Woman with blood issue

 

Skit practice: feeding the five thousand

Our skit group in Apalina

Christmas Fellowship with youth from Reghin...thanks to Nicole we had Tastefully Simple dips. Too bad we won't be able to have more for a while! :)

Christmas games...wrapping presents in teams

Another Christmas game: Who can make the best Santa Claus with shaving cream? I thought this was really close!

Christmas Service in Apalina

Christmas Caroling in Apalina

Christmas Eve concert in Gornesti: with Zozo and Isti

Christmas Eve concert in Gornesti: with Zozo and Attila

The new candlelight tradition in Gornesti! :)

Shoebox delivery in Peris

Christmas in Romania 2012

It has been several weeks since Christmas, and I regret that I haven’t already written about all that has happened here in Romania.  However, I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to reflect and think on the holiday season. 

First of all, I must say how happy I was to return to Romania in December.  I enjoyed my time in Hungary…it was a great time to catch up with friends at Word of Life Hungary.  It was also a great time of rest (which looking back on the busy holiday season was a bigger blessing that I thought).  I arrived back in Romania on December 17^th.  Almost immediately, I was back on a full day busy schedule!  Christmas here is full with programs and activities, much the same as in the States.  However, here most of the activities happen all around the five days around Christmas.  I told many of my friends here that we also have a lot going on during the holiday, but our holiday starts almost at Thanksgiving and things are spread out a bit more.  I will try my best to get everything into this update…with more to follow about New Years and the last week.

In Apalina: I arrived back to see the kids from the school program for a few days before their holiday began.  It was good to be back with them, even though the numbers were smaller than on a normal school week.  Most of the kids weren’t even going to school that week.  I also worked with the youth/teenagers from the church on a skit for the Christmas service here.  The youth were going to do a skit about the life of Christ and his ministry while the kids were going to act out the birth of Christ.  I played Jesus in this skit.  Attila gave me the task of creating a video and music to serve as a background for our skit (which we acted without words).  I had never done anything like that before, but it was a fun learning experience, and I love a good challenge.  We acted out the skit on the Sunday before Christmas Eve.  Many people were touched by the skit, and Attila was able to follow it with a great message.  Also in Apalina, we gave out shoeboxes to the children.  We gave out over 300 boxes (and could have given out more if we had more boxes to give).  The kids were so thankful, and for most of them, this is the only Christmas gift that they receive.  This year we also received some bags of food from a Dutch ministry.  These bags were packed with many non-perishable food items that for many served as their only food for the holiday.  As we passed out the bags, we also visited with the families and had a time to share with them, hear about their life, and pray with them. 

In Gornesti: Zozo and Attila made something of a competition out of seeing who I would go Christmas caroling with.  Here in Romania, the tradition is to go caroling on Christmas Eve.  It is also the tradition that after caroling at a house, the family will offer snacks, drinks, and money to those who came to carol.  I had told Zozo in November that I would go with him this year because I went with Attila last year.  Zozo also asked me to come and join a group for a mini-concert on Christmas Eve in Gornesti.  That team consisted of Zozo, Isti (Zozo’s brother), their friend Attila (a different Attila), and me.  We spent several days practicing songs and praying together for the concert.  One of the songs we planned to sing was Silent Night.  I shared with the group our tradition of a candle-light service, and they loved the idea.  I bought tea lights (the only thing I could find in bulk at the last minute) and we ended the concert with Silent Night and candle-light.  I think it’s a new tradition here! J  After the concert, we prepared for caroling…and I mean marathon caroling!  We started around 10:00 and I arrived back home at close to 5:00 in the morning.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that here, the tradition is to have church services on Christmas day and the day after Christmas.  With Sunday being the day before Christmas Eve this year, that means that over four days from December 23-26 we had 13 church services.  I forgot to mention that I was a little bit tired after those four days! J  But all in all, it was a very blessed week. 

On a personal note, I enjoyed spending Christmas with my Romanian/Hungarian family.  Attila and Adel are so good to me, and they didn’t fail this during the holiday.  We ate together on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we exchanged gifts, and we just enjoyed being together…that is when we weren’t serving somewhere.  I’m also thankful for Zozo and his family for inviting me to eat with them on Christmas Eve after the concert.  I also got to spend some good time with Jeno over the holiday.  I’m so excited to see how he is growing and taking on new responsibilities in the church. 

I will follow this with some pictures of the holidays. Thank you to everyone who is praying for me and for the work here in Romania!  May God bless you in this New Year!

Snowing and Sharing

It started snowing here on Tuesday, and it has been beautiful ever since!  It is supposed to snow more tonight and maybe this weekend. 

I also wanted to share a little bit about the meeting we had in the school yesterday.  We shared about Christmas traditions in America with two groups of fifth and sixth grade English students at a village school in Tápiószőlős.  These students were so well behaved and respectful.  They were also doing a very nice job of learning English!  They were not afraid to speak to us in English...instead most of them being eager for the chance to practice.  It was great to meet and encourage their teacher, as well.  We started off the time with singing Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and playing a Christmas game.  Then one of the members of our team shared about Christmas traditions in America: from decorating the tree, Christmas caroling, cooking and eating good food, opening presents, and going to candle light services on Christmas Eve.  After this we sang Silent Night, and then I shared about the true meaning of Christmas.  I talked about the people who were there on the night Jesus was born.  I also shared with them about our need for a Savior.  One interesting fact about the way Hungarians celebrate Christmas is that Santa comes to visit on December 6, and the little baby Jesus comes to visit on Christmas Eve.  This was a great opportunity to share with them about our Savior!  Laci (the leader of our team) took over at this point, and he issued an invitation to the kids.  Many of them responded!  This is a school that has recently been taken over by the Reformed/Presbyterian church in that village.  The pastor and his wife were there, and they will be following up with these kids.  They also invited a team from Word of Life to come back in January!  It was a great day of ministry and service, and I was blessed to be a part of it!

Thank you for continuing to be a part of my ministry here through your prayer and support!  God's blessings to you all!

Welcome back to Romania...ok, not really!

Dear friends, it has been a long time since I posted anything here, and I’m sorry for that.  But I’m back in Europe now, so I’m setting a goal again to post a least something each week.  Please hold me to that friends!

I should be saying that I’m back in Romania.  But that wouldn't be true as of this moment.  I actually typed up a big long update the week of Thanksgiving, but I left it on another computer in Romania.  Now, I am in Hungary, spending time with some friends at Word of Life/Elet Szava.  I really had wanted to come here for a visit in December, but the Lord had other plans. 

I arrived back in Romania on November 10^th, after many long delays trying to get out of New York and a snow storm there.  When I checked in at the passport control, the officer reminded me that I only had 16 days left out of my 90 free days in Romania.  I knew that I only had a short amount of time left, but I hadn't realized that it was this short.  I also hadn't taken into account that it would take 2-3 months to apply for residency in Romania.  Now this was a big oversight on my part because part of my job when I worked in Hungary before was completing residency paperwork for students.  I should have though about this timetable, but I guess I was just so excited about being back that I didn't plan carefully.  SOOOOO, on November 24^th, I left Romania for Hungary.  I will be here until December 17^th.  At that point, my new 90 days will start (Americans have 90 free days in every six months).  I have already applied for the residency in Romania, and hopefully I will be able to get that in the next two months.  Then, I will not have to worry about having to leave again for a while.  (This is a big prayer request…thanks for praying! :) )

Now that those details are out of the way, let me fill you in on a little more of what’s been going on since I left the States in November.  I did get to spend two weeks in Romania.  That time was full of many new things (many of which I will share when I get back and post the before mentioned long update).  I got to start working in the after-school program in Apalina.  This was a great blessing and answer to prayer.  I've been waiting for two years to be a part of that, and many times it seemed like it was impossible that I would get there.  The sad thing was having to leave two weeks after starting, but God knew this and I will be able to start again with the new year in January.  It was great to meet two of the teachers that I didn't know: Claudiu and Cristina.  They are both Roma/Gypsy, and are also teachers in the school in Apalina.  They are a great example to the kids that we are working with, and I look forward to getting to know them better in the future. 

I also had the opportunity to share in one of the youth meetings about what it means to be a true Christ follower.  We had a great discussion about this.  I’m always surprised at how open the youth are here.  No one tries to hide behind anything…instead just openly sharing their heart and what’s on their mind. 

Another big event was Thanksgiving dinner.  Adel (she is the wife of the pastor, Attila, who I am working with here) was very excited to help me pull off this special event.  Usually, I am all for trying to blend into the culture of Romania.  I don’t like to try and impose my culture on them…especially since I am living in their country.  But this time it was a little different.  So on Thanksgiving day, I had several friends over for a special dinner.  We made turkey (and in a way that none of them had ever seen or eaten before), dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, and crock-pot macaroni and cheese.  Adel even made banana pudding to enjoy after.  This was a year when I personally had a lot to be thankful for, and it was great to celebrate with new friends and family in Romania. 

When I found out that I had to come to Hungary for three weeks, one of my first prayers was, “Lord, please let me have some ministry opportunities in Hungary.”  God has really answered this prayer!  On my first Sunday here, I was able to share my testimony in one of the churches.  That afternoon, I went with a group of gypsies from one village close by to have a fellowship with another group in another town.  Although I didn't share, it was exciting to be a part of that ministry as well.  Tomorrow, I will go with a group of Americans and Hungarians to a school.  This school asked for some Americans to come and share about American Christmas traditions, and to share the gospel.  The leader of the group from Word of Life asked me if I would come along and do the evangelism part of the meeting.  Again, God has answered my prayer!

It has been a big journey to get to this point, but I’m so thankful for all of the things along the way that have helped me to get here.  I’m thankful for what I've learned and for the people who have helped to shape who I am today.  Thank you for being a part of this ministry with me.  I look forward to sharing more each week as this adventure continues!

Apalina: Children's Camp

Last week we had a camp for children in Apalina. This camp was led by a group from Leesburg Community Church. It has been great having so much support from this church this summer. They have really been a blessing to me, Attila, and the whole ministry here. This most recent group is no exception. They have jumped in and worked very hard from the beginning. 

For this camp, the kids came only for the afternoon each day. We started at 2:00, but kids were already there when we arrived each day. The first day we had well over 150 kids. As an aside, I should tell you that part of my job in this week was to purchase snacks for the kids each day. On Monday morning I went with two other team members and we bought 200 apples and 200 bananas. In the stores here, you have to bag up the fruit, but you also have to weigh it and get a price sticker for it. I'm sure it was a funny sight to see three Americans trying to count out so much fruit. 

With this group of kids, management of the time and crowd was a key factor. The team decided that we would have a large group time at the beginning, and this would be followed by rotations where the kids were divided into smaller groups. During the rotation time, there we crafts, games, re-tellings of the story, coloring, and many other activities throughout the week. After the rotations, we would sing some more and then give out whatever snack we had for the day. Giving out the snacks also had to be carefully managed to make sure everyone received only what they were supposed to. We put the snacks beside the door and then had the kids exit one or two at a time as they got their snack. In the church yard, we played many other sorts of games...volleyball, soccer, hula hoops, jump ropes, etc. This was just a great time to talk with the kids informally.  Then, every evening we had evangelism meetings in the church. 

As we had already figured, this group grew every day. By Friday, we had over 300 kids and with parents, we gave away 360 ice creams. That was another adventure...going to the grocery store to buy 360 individual ice creams. I took two gypsy guys with me, and they were a big help.  I also must say again how pleased I am to be working with this team.  Even when it could have been very overwhelming (having so many kids and not necessarily enough "stuff" for them), this team has stepped up and worked hard, changed plans, and never complained.  What a blessing!

One of my big responsibilities in this week was to stay with the group of older kids and teenagers from Apalina during the rotation time.  This is the third year that I have worked with many of these kids.  It was a challenge with so many, but I love being with them...and I think some of them even listen to me now! :)

My other responsibility for the week was to drive some of the team each morning to Gornesti for a music group.  The pastor's wife, Elaine, went with me each day.  On some of the days I stayed to help out, but mostly I just watched.  She did a great job of teaching them basic chords on the piano, some singing techniques, and some basic general music theory.  The best part of all was just singing together.  

This team is staying for another week, so I'll get to work with them again in Gornesti and Glodeni.  God has already blessed us so much, I'm so excited to see what's in store for the next week.

We stopped to buy some more supplies from a shop on the side of the road.

This was the group on the last day of camp...over 300 children!

Last day of camp in Apalina

Part of my daily routine...buying the snacks for the kids.

Music group in Gornesti...Elaine is teaching them chords

Jeno...playing the organ in Gornesti

Sibiu Camp Week 1 (part 2) and Week 2

So I finally have a few minutes to sit down and get my thoughts down about camp.  I should start by saying that these two weeks were so great!

 In the last update, I was writing about the daily program.  After the morning meeting and discussion time, we had a game time each day.  We had the kids divided into three teams that they were a part of all week.  During the game time, they would compete for points, and at the end of the week, the team with the most points got a prize.  This worked really well.  We also started to teach them some expectations: you must stand in line with your team, you must not say bad things to members of another team, and you must cheer for your teammates.  All of this helped us in our desire to build up the idea of working together and teamwork. 

After lunch each day, the kids had time to swim at the river, go to the store in the village, or just hang out and talk.  After this, we had a rotation time where they learned English, made some sort of craft related to the story for the day, and prepared a drama about the memory verse or learned some new songs.  This time also worked really well.  After the rotations, we had soccer and some free time before dinner.  Each evening, we had a meeting where there were testimonies and some of the kids also shared things they were learning.  That really just gives you the basic overview of the days there at camp.

I want to thank everyone who has been praying for the work here.  It has been an incredible summer of service, and I am very blessed to be a part of it.  Those two weeks at camp were busy and long, but God really is working among these children.  I pray now that their decisions will be strengthened in the coming days. 

I’ll just share one more story for now about camp.  I came home one day early to prepare for another group arriving.  There was a girl who was not feeling well, and she came along with me.  I was happy to come home for a little rest, but I was also sad to be missing out on the final day of camp.  However, on the ride home, this young lady asked me many questions about faith and salvation.  She asked me if there were rules to being saved and I was able to share with her about my life and my salvation.  

I'm attaching two videos that we made of pictures taken at camp.  I hope you'll enjoy watching.  I'm going to add another post later of just some pictures.