I wish I had more information to give you concerning Barza Mica.  Unfortunately, I have no new news from the director.  Will the State take the orphanage away from these young people (my kids) whom I have loved for 16 years?  Will God change the government’s ‘hearts of stone into hearts of flesh’ to have compassion on ‘the fatherless’, ‘the least of these’?  I’ll have to wait until I return to Romania this month to find out.  Please just keep this horrific treatment of ‘our kids’ in prayer!

Finishing touches keep being applied to Canaan, our new church for the Gypsies in Halchiu.  Romania has had such a brutally cold and snowy winter that work can only progress as the weather ‘cooperates’.  I can hardly wait to get back and see with my own eyes ‘what the Lord has done’!

I was blessed once again to visit the First Romanian Baptist Church of Atlanta (in Lawrenceville, GA) on January 29.  I got to share a few words about the ministry in the morning service – and got to meet more, and really beautiful Romanian emigrants.  I love sitting among them – worshipping the Lord along-side these very special people.

Several of you have asked me about the young people who have worked with me in Romania.  Formerly, they were the Love From Above Volunteers.   Most have gone on to graduate University and have obtained employment.  Some have married, and some have moved.  A few still work with me, though, and are always there for me when I need help.  My opinion of them, and my answer when asked has always been, “These young people are the cream of the crop”.  I never could have found such sterling young people.  Only God could have done that.  Not only are they ambitious, and capable of being leaders, but they knew/know how to follow.  All of them love the Lord with all their hearts, and have no desire but to serve Him.

So, I thought I would include something wonderful and extraordinary they just did at Christmastime, 2016.  Enjoy the video!    The fellow who starts everything off in the scarf is Dani.  The young woman in the red coat is my ‘angel’, my ‘Romanian daughter’, Ioana, a pre-med student and my translator for the past 6 years.   The young man to the left of the fellow in the gold-colored shirt is her husband, Radu.   Two young women to the left of Ioana, is her twin sister, Miruna.   They are singing Christmas carols.  The harmony in the second selection is particularly beautiful.  These young people are all from Ioana’s church or their friends from another church.  Who knew?!   A Flash Mob!   And, all people whom I know and love!

Please pray over my trip back to Romania on February 15.  It has two lay-overs which makes a trip really strenuous.  I fly from Grand Rapids, MI to Detroit – from Detroit to Amsterdam, and then on to Bucharest.  From there, it is nearly a three-hour drive up to Brasov, my home in Romania.  I don’t look forward to the trip, but I am eager, so eager to get back to ‘my’ precious babies and ‘kids’.  Pray that I will be able to minister to them like never before.  Sometimes I feel as though the Holy Spirit is not just pouring, but aching right through me with such love and compassion for those ‘crying for help’ . . .

‘because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them’.        –  Job 29.12