Casa Shalom Newsletter May 2010
The Cadre Academy March - April volunteer team from Arkansas.
They came with a heart to serve. In three weeks they touched so many Romanian people. They went to the prison, to the hospital, to the parks and even into the villages where they helped to repair and paint a poor families house. They helped us fix fences and pour cement and gave our fence a new coat of red paint. They were so organized and weren't stuck on junk food. I recommend the Cadre Academy for young people wanting two years of hands on mission training and leadership.It's a wonderful program and we hope to get it started here in Romania.
Casa Shalom is supporting around 65 families now and nearly 400 children. We pray that God will provide food for the families and also for the Summer Camp program.
We just thank the Lord so much for those that partner with us and support this ministry. You would be surprised how far your finaces go to help the people over here.
Our Casa Shalom Newsletter June. 2009.
The World Race Team travels to 11 nations in 11 months.
It has been an awesome month at Casa Shalom as we have partnered with the World Race and received 14 energetic young adults who are on their 11 month jouney ministering the love of God around the world. They got to spend their 8th month with us.
Some of The team helped us in a lot of practical areas. They did whatever was needed from painting, to cleaning, to planting flowers, to doing small construction projects, to baking,to sorting clothes, and even to mowing the lawn. Even more, they helped to unpack a 13 meter long truck from Germany. Look at the picture above and notice they were still smiling even when it was finished setting a record of only 1 and half hours to unpack. Then they even helped us to have a big Festival for fund raising for our Casa Shalom projects. They did a lot of different things but also had time to worship the Lord each evening. We know the joy of the Lord is our strength and it was their's also. They were simply a blessing everywhere they went.
One day we took them out to the village where we renovated a widow's house in one day. It was almost like on TV when a person's house is renovated. The only difference was the family didn't leave. The children stayed and helped us put some color in their house and in their lives. Some of the team just played with some of the younger kids and brought smiles to sad little faces. They also helped us in other village outreaches and the little kids just loved their skits. We were honored to have them with us and wish them God speed in their next three months of ministry on their Spiritual Journey. It is so amazing to see what can be accomplished when a team works together.
Another highlight was helping a young teenager with cancer. We heard about his situation and decided to go to the village and bring him to Bucharest for medical care. His mother came to care for him as he couldn't walk very well. He needed to go to the hospital to have his leg amputated. The doctors said he only had 2 yrs. to live even with the amputation. We began to pray every evening for Pavel that God would heal him. There was such unity as we prayed. God gave us all such compassion for this young man. Then we took him to our church for prayer. The next day he had to go to the hospital and they wanted to amputate his leg. He didn't want them to. I decided to take him to another hospital and we contined to pray. They took new tests to see how severe the cancer was and if it had spread to other areas in his body. It was so amazing as the test results came back. It was wonderful, it was awesome! They found NO CANCER in his body. Praise the Lord! We are so thankful, whose faith was it, that touched God for this young man. We don't know, we just give him all the honor and glory.
Nothing is impossible with GOD!
Jan. 2009 Newsletter excerpt:
A special Christmas reunion as Marius is reunited with his mom after being separated nearly 17 years.
Christmas was really awesome this year for one of our Casa Shalom
teenagers and his mom. After being separated for nearly 17 yrs. the two found each other again on Dec. 19th. What a Christmas present!
Marius came to Casa Shalom when he was only 11 yrs. old. We were told that no one knew what happened to his mother and we knew tht his father had died. We thought he was an orphan. His parents were divorced when he was three. He was living with his father and when he was seven his father died and no one put him in contact with his mother. He went from orphanage to orphanage and when he was 11 he came to live at Casa Shalom.
Marius enjoyed music and had a special talent picking up playing instruments. He could play the mandolin and guitar. It just seemed like he was lacking direction and motivation in his life.
This all changed when a stranger called Marius in Dec. The voice on the other end of the phoneline was a lady and she said, Marius, I'm your mother and have been looking for you for a long time. It's a long story how she found Marius but the most beautiful thing is that she didn't give up and now Marius is back with his mother and family and catching up on the last 17 yrs. of her life.
We are happy for Marius and pray that God will continue to lead and guide him and that there will be a close relationship and that they will never loose contact with each other again.
God does still perform miracles.