rothwellsmission: November 2013

You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgement seat.
Romans 14 : 10

Hi all

It's been an interesting and very busy week. The conference delegates arrived on Wednesday evening and the conference ran through Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning, with meals together at lunchtime and in the evenings, so pretty intense and very long days. Saturday night's meal coincided with Daniel's birthday so he had a cake and a large bouquet of roses from the ERSTE foundation which he duly handed to all of the ladies - as you will see from the photos.
The delegates came from Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Germany, and whilst the conference was in English there were translators working in little soundproof booths at the back of the room translating into Romanian, Hungarian and Slovak. So talented and interesting to watch, particularly as we spent most of the days standing at the back next to them. (Had to be poised to dash out to man the coffee machine!).
On that subject, will never complain about doing coffee for church again - we had to ensure coffee and snacks were pretty much continuous every day from 8am to about 10pm, such pressure!
We learnt such a lot from the conference, and from talking to the delegates during the evenings, about the plight of the Roma around Europe. Their treatment is pretty much the same as here in Romanian but it was encouraging to hear about not only the support they are receiving from non-Roma but also what they are doing themselves. There were a number of Roma speakers at the conference who have launched businesses in Roma artefacts, fashion design and jewellery which have become successful despite opposition.
FAST did themselves proud in the organization and planning of this conference, led by Daniel and Ruxy, with the result that this Friday we are being visited by the Romanian Minister for the Interior with the German Consular General , to look at the work FAST are doing - all positive stuff so change is happening, slowly, but change nevertheless.

Oh, and we were asked (with very little notice) to give a short presentation about volunteering, and talk about the English course. As our slot was the last of the morning and the coffee break was already 20 minutes late we could tell from the yawns how much the delegates welcomed this, so after a very brief (2 minutes) on volunteering we woke them up a bit by asking them to take part in one of the exercises we use with the children to help them remember the months of the year - it's called 'annual aerobics' and involves a lot of jumping about! They all took part and a number of them said afterwards it was the best presentation of the day, (we suspect because it was the shortest!).

It was good to have some time off on Saturday afternoon so Liz took us to Poisana Brasov, the ski resort above Brasov. No snow there yet but a beautiful place even without it. It was good to just chill out and eat lunch together.

Good to get back to normal at the mission house on Monday. This is the last week of our English classes (next week will be prize giving and certificates), the last session with the teenagers and the launch of Tarlungeni's Got Talent! Many of the children are now busily rehearsing songs, dances and poems in both Romanian and English and will be performing next week to a panel of judges consisting of the two of us plus Rachel - more pressure!
In this afternoon's feeding session we were pleased to welcome back Codrutz, who has been absent following a dog attack. There are lots of packs of dogs around the mission house and we urge the children to stay in groups as they will surround and attack a person on their own. Poor Codrutz has had stitches almost completely around his leg, and he proudly unwrapped the bandage (a bit of rag) to show us, urging Stan to take a photo of it, which he duly did. Thank the Lord that his leg seems to be healing well.

Prayers this week please -

That Codrutz' leg continues to heal
That our last session with the teenagers is the first step in them making changes in their lives
That all of our English students enjoy the prize giving and are encouraged to continue
That Tarlungeni's Got Talent is a great success
That Rachel may continue with the English lessons after we leave - we are working on her
For positive results from the ministers visit on Friday
For healing for Alina and Avram's son Raoul - suffering from toothache

Photos below.

Sue and Stan

conference - from the front

the translators - and the coffee servers

Daniel giving the FAST presentation

entertainment from the FAST choir

Daniel's birthday and the last night of the conference

The FAST team

the Romanian translator

the shortest presentation!

temporary Romanian translator!

The Slovak and Hungarian translators

conference entertainment - Daniel and Ema

the FAST choir

Daniel's birthday flowers

giving flowers to the ladies

the girls with their flowers

slightly over the top!

view over Brasov

Poisana Brasov

seen outside the sports centre

sunset over Brasov

learning young

feeding time at the mission house

Codrutz' dog bite

pasta!

Bible story time

time to sing

some of the English class

preparing the Tarlungeni's Got Talent sign

the launch!

THE END!

How beautiful are the feet of those bringing good news Romans 10 : 15

Hi all

Belated and very brief blog. Belated due to illness and conference planning (see below) and brief because Stan is writing it, so no 'fluffy bunny' stuff :)

Before I go on, can I make it clear that I didn't read the last blog until after it was published, didn't want anyone getting the idea that Stan was on a big ego trip. In fact Sue worked as hard as I did, probably more, but I did seem to get the fun stuff!

Most of the team have had a bad dose of Norovirus, apart from me and Joyce, and spent most of the week in bed, or en route to the bathroom. Meeting any of them in the corridor was like being in a scene from 'The Walking Dead'. All recovered now though and centre has been deep cleaned, boiled and sterilized.

The talk at church on Sunday was about people 'going and doing' based on this passage from Romans, and it occurred to us just how many people we have met here that are doing just that and have 'beautiful feet'.

Daniel and Ema, who daily make sacrifices to help others
Liz, who came to FAST as a volunteer and has now been here for four and a half years making a difference in the lives of so many children
The guys from Glasgow who give up holiday every year to come here and work to exhaustion
Joyce Patterson, who has just made her 23rd visit to FAST and spends the rest of her time fundraising
Hazel and David who come from Minorca to spend months at FAST supporting the teaching staff
Kathy and Rodney who came from Texas to spend a week here, most of it spent in bed, but still managed to complete the eye examinations and get spectacles for those who needed them, and put on a 'Texas evening' for all of us
Rachel and Dan, just arrived, a young couple in their 20's from England who felt God wanted them here, and plan to stay as long as they are needed

What they all have in common is that they acknowledge they do none of it in their own strength, but only with the strength of the Lord to equip them. Bless them all.

The rest of this week will be interesting. FAST has been given the honour of hosting a conference funded by the ERSTE Foundation Roma Partnership, an alliance of NGOs with a shared vision - the integration of Roma within the fabric of European society.

Daniel has asked that we attend, and also to coordinate and serve during the coffee breaks - no change there then! We are expecting 60+ some of whom are staying here at FAST and others in local guest houses. More on the results next week.

Our thanks for those of you sending encouraging messages, it means a lot to know we are on your hearts.

Finally, some photos.......