So we arrived in Romania, via Italy, yesterday. We had an orientation with the base leaders here and we're really excited about what all they have going on. There are many ministry opportunities here that we get to help with. They have a girl's home that minister's to girls on the street; a children's youth center that assists poor and homeless children by giving them meals, showers, a fun place to play off the streets, and homework help; a cafe that does twice a week bible studies for the university students; and an outreach team that does evangelism, bible studies, and feeds the older street kids (between 18-30). So we are very excited about what all will happen here and will send you updates and pictures. Thank you for your continued prayers, its needed. Especially pray for Autumn as she has no vaccinations and there is concern about the fruit and water here making her, and thereby the baby, dangerously ill.
BABY UPDATE:
So before we left Switzerland we had 2 different sonograms by two different doctors that confirmed the baby appears to be a little girl. :)
Hello Everyone,
So today we leave Constanta and head to Iasi (Yawsh), in the North of Romania. So I figured before we boarded our train I would send a last update from Constanta with our overall experience. It's sectioned for those with little time who just want to scan through.
Baby:
My pregnancy is great. I'm at 21 weeks with no problems or illness, praise God. Baby kicks and grows rapidly, as does my belly, each day. I'm doing good avoiding fruit and veggie peals and have been making sure to drink my bottled water.
Isaac:
He is such a trooper for a 4 year old and travels absolutely wonderfully. But the first week we were here he had a very difficult time adjusting. I made him a count down calendar with all the days left of our outreach until we fly back home to Texas. On it there are all the major events, including team member birthdays and travel days when we change cities. He loves his calendar and has fun every night marking off and counting the days. So this next leg well prove whether or not it has helped him prepare mentally for the changes.
The Street Children:
So the YWAM base here has a day center for extremely impoverished and destitute children. These children are primarily Turkish and Gypsy decent and have an abundance of siblings but rarely a father. They spend there nights wandering the streets of the city alone without supervision under their parents orders to beg and sometimes just to be out. These little ones are as young as 5 and 6 and we have seen them walking around town alone. They are always quick to run up to one of the team members when they see them and give a big hug. They are sweet bright children. Their prospects in this country, coming form their origins and race, are slim to none. But these full time missionaries here running their center make such a different. The kids can finish school and are given something very rare and precious here, hope for their future.
The Street Youth:
This is typically what happens to the day center children when they grow up, they move out and live on the streets. The team here does weekly outreaches and Bible studies with them, feeding and building relationships. Ryan and I have gone several times and it is a tough ministry to be sure. Last night I shared at their Bible study my story of finding Jesus when I was a street teen in San Francisco. For the ones who stayed to listen, it definitely made an impression. Impressive to me is that the ones who are the most open and respectful, the ones who always stay to listen to the message after the food, are all x-day center kids. That fruit is priceless for me to see.
Human Trafficking:
Romania is top 5 in the world for human trafficking. Primarily woman and small girls are taken into prostitution houses in the west. They are highly prized because they are white European decent. Most other trafficking victims are Asian and African. But we have also heard stories here of men taken with promises of high paying jobs in factories that get stuck in foreign countries with no wage and no way back home. Sadly, in the short time we've been here we've heard many stories about this happening. The conditions here can be so bleak that even though the Romanians have heard the stories before and know the risks of taking one of these Western "jobs." The risk sometimes seems worth it and more stories are made of human slavery through deception. The people on the base are committed to raise awareness of this issue and have been proactive in trying to prevent it from happen to those they have in their care.
The Cafe:
Is a student m
ini
stry that, of co
urse serves coffee, and brin
gs Bible
studies and cool speakers to speak to the college students who come. This ministry is extremely encouraging as it is very refreshing to see the young Christian Romanians who come full of excitement for the Lord and a hunger to learn His ways.
The Base:
Finally the base! The YWAM base here and the staff are truly an amazing sight to behold. They have such a spirit of peace and unity and an amazing heart and calling to be here doing what they are doing. They need prayer for more workers, finances, and a bigger facility. They have really outgrown the resources they have and need more to continue to grow and expand to meet the demand of need that is here to tackle.
If you made it all this way to the end, thank you so much for caring enough to read this all.
Love,
The Springer Family
Autumn, Ryan, Isaac, and Baby
Kyoung Soon and Martin
Hello Again Everyone,
So this is our last day here in Romania. Tomorrow morning at 8:00am we board a chartered bus for Bulgaria and the last leg of our outreach before returning to Switzerland and then home. So much has happened here and I'm very grateful for the chance to have served here in this country. So let me catch you up on what things have been like here in Iasi.
The Base
With Fall in the air we've done a lot around the base, gathering the fallen walnuts, cleaning, raking leaves, and we harvested all the apples from the trees and off of the ground out back on the base's property.
The Farm
We went for a couple of days to help out on a farm in the North just 7 miles from the Moldovian border. It's a boy's home called Children's Hope (http://www.childrenshope.ro/?language=en). They take in boys from off the street or from out of orphanages when they turn 18 and have no where to go. they teach the boys work ethic and the gospel. It's a GREAT ministry and Romania could use a 100 more of them.
The Festivals
Several festivals occurred while we were here. Iasi turned 600 and they had their feast day for the city's patron Saint, Saint Paraschiva. She mummified after burial and they keep her remains on display but once a year, October 14, she is uncovered and pilgrims can come into the cathedral and kiss her remains. So all this was going on at the same time and we were here for it. So we walked around the city interceding for it and even getting to talk to a few people. (This doesn't happen often has none of us speak fluently in Romanian.)
Student Ministry
We met an amazing couple here, David and Erin Freich, who are running a student Bible study for all of the international students who come here to study at the Medical University from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. I say Bible study but with the amount of students they have attending it, it's more of a church than a Bible Study. Their ministry is amazing and they themselves are a great encouragement to Ryan and I. They are our same age with a 4 year old little boy, Zeek, whom Isaac ADORES, and a 2 year old little girl, Mari. They have only been here for 3 months and God has given them a great house and a great congregation. Talk about being blessed by God for your obedience. It gives Ryan and I hope to see God do the same for us. So while we were here we've been able to serve them by helping to do outreach on campus, attend their services, and help them to paint and settle into their new home.
Chinese Workers
One of the members on our team, Kyoung Soon, is from South Korea and has been ministering to Chinese refugees in South Korea for years. While we've been here in Iasi we have met some guys out of a group of 100 or so workers who are Chinese. Kyoung Soon has been able to minister the gospel to them and has been bringing them tea, sandwiches, and soup for their 15 minute work break everyday. We also have been able to get Chinese Bibles and other materials for them and they had us over for lunch Sunday afternoon. What an opportunity to witness to a people from a closed communist country. There are several Romanian Christians here that have prayed for this chance to get to know the Chinese workers for months. Kyoung Soon was their answered prayer. We leave them here to continue the ministry that she started. They will be helping the Chinese to learn Romanian and also aide them in getting money home to their families and other practical things that were otherwise unknown to them. Interestingly enough some of the students from the student ministry may be able to help with the translation.
So we have high hopes for Bulgaria and I look forward to telling you all what God does there with us.
Love,
The Springer Family
So Isaac has been a big snoopy cartoon fan these days and has been watching the Charlie Brown holiday episodes a lot. So he really wanted a Halloween. Sadly the Bulgarians have no such thing. We left Romania just a few days ago where they actually celebrate a Halloween. So Isaac knew it was coming from seeing all the stuff that was out in the stores in Romania. Luckily, and thanks to our wonderful YWAM team members, we were able to have a sort of Halloween here for Isaac.
First thing we did was shopped the vegetable stands and found him a pumpkin! He got to pick it out and everything. Not a traditional orange one but still. It's one of those funky colored, what we'd call heirloom, ones. We got it for 3 lev (basically $2 USD) and the thing is huge.
Isaac with his prize!
Then we made food, had popcorn and roasted pumpkin seeds, from our funky white pumpkin, and watched Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin with the Norwegian/Bulgarian kids from down stairs who know nothing about Halloween but really enjoyed the popcorn.
Lastly Isaac started off as a pilgrim, another Charlie Brown throwback, and finally ended up as a Roman Legionaire, which was really just a batman costume that we'd brought with us. Then he trick-or-treated all of our team members on the YWAM base. He went from bedroom to bedroom saying, "trick or treat" and receiving candy from them that we had preemptively given to them, to give to him, when he came knocking.
The night was topped off by enjoying a few select pieces of his assorted Halloween candy before going to bed as one of the happiest little Americans in Bulgaria.
Hello Everyone,
So today is our last day in Bulgaria. From here we head to Milan, Italy to catch a train back to Switzerland. We'll be there for about a week and will then return to TEXAS! We are all very excited to be coming home for the holidays and baby's "birth" day. So let me tell you what all we've been up to for the 10 days that we were here.
Gypsies, Gypsies, Gypsies
We did almost all of our ministry here in various different gypsy villages. It was a very encouraging outreach. These gypsies have such a heart for God and it was amazing to share and worship with them. We would be doing one of two things usually, running a kids club or speaking at their church services.
Gypsy Kid Club
For kid's club we would have a lot of fun. We'd always do some sort of lesson from the Bible and then follow it up with songs, crafts, and games. The kids were all amazing! If we didn't tell one of the stories just right they'd correct us and fill in any missing details we may have forgotten. The older ones would pray for us and play the surrogate parent/teacher with the younger children, and also any adults that would step out of line in "their" service. If this next generation of gypsy kids is any indication of the future, prepare for gypsy revival in that town.
Gypsy Church Service
At night we'd go out into the villages for the adult services that they would have at different villages during the week. The worship was amazing!!! If they put what they did on CD and toured the states with it they could make a good living for themselves. They are so earnest in their worship and their hunger for the things of God. They share whatever modest things they had with us and were very generous loving people. In one village the men are hard at work building a church building. This may sound simple at first glance but let me just explain it.
These guys work HARD all day long like field hands. After dinner they go out in the dark, cold and work on this church for hours, lit by whatever car headlights they can shine in their direction, using whatever materials they've bought themselves or scrounged up from somewhere. The village is SO proud of their church, which is currently only a foundation with some bare bones, but every time you pass the sight some one is very quick to point it out with a proud gleaming smile. The current church is someone's living room, equivalent to half of their entire home, sacrificed for those who want to come in to worship Jesus. These people were so amazing!
The Town
We also did some ministry in the town of Hissar itself. The town has tons of ancient mineral springs, renowned for their healing abilities, that date back to Roman times, with seasonal spas and hotels. While we were here we did some regular church ministry with a church, children, a women's group, and a couple of conferences. Also very touching, was all the people we saw everyday, at the internet cafes, shops, and restaurants we frequented. People were always very curious about this group of mix-matched foreigners and what we were doing here in their small little Bulgarian town. Those conversations were always small seeds.
So we leave this place with a lot of wonderful experiences and look forward to the future.
Homeward Bound,
The Springer Family
I've always loved military holidays. I grew up a Navy Brat and I have an extreme sense of nostalgia whenever I hear Anchor's Away or see the Red, White, and Blue flying proudly.
Firstly, no school, and everything else is closed in honor of the day as well. This morning our village gathered together in the center of town. We all stood outside the Mayor's office. An offering was taken for an organization that looked after Veteran's affairs. A man in uniform stood in front of a plaque in the center of our village and told the tale of how they refused to flee when German troops marched in during the Great War.
Flowers were placed by the names, the story was told, a trumpet was played, an older woman read each name followed by the voice of a child saying "He died for France!" Then the young innocent voices of our village's children sang the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise."
