It has been a long time since I last
wrote news about us. A lot of things have happened since then. Since we
consider that all we do, including the seeds we sow through even the least of
our activities and acts of service, is important and has value, for the sake of
being brief I want to update you on the relevant events.
We appreciate and are thankful for
all the different kinds of support we received for our summer camp. We took the
highest number of kids (44) we have ever had in this one-week camp. The
children in the camp were from three of our programs – the Community Center La
Vale, the Daily Center in the village of Tudor Vladimirescu and from the Hidden
Treasures Club which happens every Saturday.
In spite of the high number of children and our fears of how to cope
with such a high number, we consider that our camp was a fruitful one and full
of joy for the children and for the staff. Both the children and the staff
learned with a lot of fun and joy things which most of us middle class people take
for granted – from simple life skills like how to sit and have a meal, how to
use the toilet and how to brush your teeth to the deep discussion about what it
means to be Christians on the narrow road that leads to life (Matthew 7.13).
Our summer program was full of fun
activities. We aimed to spend time with the kids, to have fun educational
activities and to develop our relationships. The most fun were the clubs we
held – photography, creating a photo album, origami construction, modelling
clay, volleyball, ping pong, basketball, knowing our city, music, creating
stories.
I wrote about Cati in the last
update. She had finished high school and was preparing for taking her final
exams. Unfortunately she didn’t pass them. She worked for a few months at a
fast food shop and is preparing to retake the exams next summer. Please pray
for her to be consistent in her preparations.
After much reflection, analysis
and discussion in our community, we decided to change our approach to how we
organize our parent meetings. We want participation in these meetings to be a pleasure.
We usually organize a meeting once a month. We consider that our first three
meetings (starting with the new school year) were successful – the parents were
treated with dignity, empowered and listened to. They are now more motivated to
collaborate with us for a better future for their children. We invite you to
continually pray for consistency in considering and making good and thoughtful
choices, which is against their cultural environment (being surrounded by a
fatalistic culture).
Also, the beginning of the school
year, which is the start of a new year in the rhythm of our community, was
fruitful. We started receiving new kids, having taken in 15 up until now. Most
of them are in preschool, first and second grade. Pray with us for these
children to have a holistic development which God intended for all human
beings. Also pray for our staff (especially our educators) to continually have
their energy renewed, creativity in relationships and in developing activities.
We need to practice the discipline of sowing, cultivating and caring with love,
hoping for a better future and having faith that God is growing the planted
seeds every day.
We are preparing for Christmas
events these days. We are planning to go caroling to the children’s families,
as well as other families and companies who are involved in supporting us in various
ways. We will also organize a celebration of Christmas for the families of the
kids who come to the Community Center as well as a party for the children on
Christmas night.
Please pray with us for wisdom,
presence and creativity. Our desire is to truly celebrate our Hope. The following
are some of our regular struggles we face and we invite you to pray through
these with us.
We struggle every day to have
hope in the face of powerlessness, fatalism, abuse, neglect, addiction,
indifference and immorality.
We struggle every day to look for
the Kingdom of God in our midst.
We struggle every day to have
integrity, to be transparent and to follow our vocation of serving Jesus among
the most vulnerable.
We pray and hope that in the coming
year every step, every decision we make and every activity we do will bring us,
the children, their families and you closer to God, closer to one another and
closer to living out our vocation – to glorify God.
