Tales from Transylvania

Last Sunday, August 29th, our church here in Fagaras celebrated their 10th anniversary.  The entire day was filled with thankfulness to God for the many blessings He has given to the church over the years.  Bethany Baptist Church was actually formed once the present building was built ten in 2000.

A choir from Timisoara came to celebreate the day with us and a few of the choir members were also present ten years ago when Bethany Baptist had its dedication ceremony.  The choir sang beautifully.

Petry’s dad is the pastor of Bethany Baptist and he shared about the history of the church.  The church building was built on faith and God provided the building that stands today.

Pastor Doug Gamble from Crossroads Fellowship in Raleigh, North Carolina came for the celebration.  Here you can see Petry translating Pastor Doug’s sermon.

Lydia taking notes for sure!

The entire day was a special one.  We thank God for His faithfulness to our church and for the honor that we have to be able to serve here in Fagaras.

Today my parents, Rick and Jan, are celebrating 40 years of marriage. FORTY YEARS! What an accomplishment, right?  I am so thankful to God that He has given them the strength to keep the commitment that they made to each other and to God on a hot August day in 1970.

Mom and Dad:  We are celebrating with you today, even though we are an ocean away.  We love you and we are SO proud of you!!

Mom and Dad

On July 17, 2010 we had the priviledge to attend the wedding of Petry’s cousin Ema here in Fagaras, Romania.  Ema married the ever beautiful Anca.  Lydia and Miriam were both in the wedding and that was such a special treat for them.  Lydia was a mini bridesmaid and Miriam was a flower girl.  Sophia enjoyed the day as well, although she napped for most of it.

The Civil Ceremony

Getting ready!

I think this was the only petal she dropped, her basket was full at the end.

The wedding party.

Petry leading in worship

We love you Ema and Anca!

On the week of July 5-10 Petry had the priveledge once again to take 60 children from villages surrounding Fagaras to Camp of the Good Shepherd.  The camp is about 1 1/2 hours away from Fagaras and it is supported by the Heart of Hope foundation.  The kids wait all year long to attend camp.  They have a great time and this year was no exception.

Most of the children that get to go to camp live very simple lives in surrounding villages or in poor areas.  Most of their families are families who basically live off the land so their summers are usually spent working long hours in the fields.  The week that they are able to attend camp is such a special week just for them.  They are able to play games, make crafts, eat good food, and most importantly, hear teaching from God’s word.

Craft time

Water balloon volleyball

Parachute fun

This cracks me up...guess she didn't make it in?!?

Lesson Time

Petry's group

Lesson time in the rain

What a cutie!

Evening worship

In the past we have all gone to camp together as a family.  Since Sophia was only 6 weeks old at the time, we thought it was best that I would stay home with the girls.  My dear friend Jenni came from Severin for the week with her three kiddos.  We might have been crazy to have six kids in a three room apartment, but we had a great time together and as usual we enjoyed the fellowship. We were just a little bit too busy to snap pictures, but I will be sure to get some during our next visit.

Although the Horizon of Hope building is not yet finished, Petry and I are thankful for the opportunity to invest in the young people of Romania.  This investment is done regularly through the involement we have with our youth at Bethany Baptist Church in Fagaras.

We are excited to share that right now one of our “investments” (Maria) is experiencing the trip of a lifetime and this would not have been possible without the help from others.

Maria Ciurchea is an english/philosophy education major at the University Babes-Bolyai in Cluj, Romania.  She has attended our church since she was a young child and she grew to be a godly young lady.  On August the 23rd Maria started an internship at Riverbend Academy which is a ministry of Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida.  Riverbend Academy is a classical Christian school and this internship will be a major influence for Maria and her desire to learn more about education.

This would not have been possible at all without the love and support from Riverbend.  We are so grateful for their willingness to listen to our vision and make it happen.  Maria arrived August 19th and she will be there until October 2nd.  She has already been to the ocean and her first meal in the states was Cracker Barrel, so you can see she is well taken care of.

Last summer our dear friend Alice was able to complete an internship at Riverbend and this fall she will begin her first year teaching pre-school in Brasov, Romania.  She will continue her education by starting her master’s degree this fall.

Maria and Alice

Both Alice and Maria have been so thankful for this opportunity.  We shared with them that many people have invested in our lives (and still do) and our scriptural principle is that “to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Luke 12:48).  We know that at the right moment they both will  be able to invest in other young people for the glory of Christ.

We are blessed to be able to serve in many different ways in Romania, but our main focus is investing in youth through Horizon of Hope.  You can read even more about our involvement here.  We are in the process of constructing a building that will house 12-18 young people.  This building will serve as a transition center where the young people will be encouraged in their faith while they are learning various skills.

Our main desire is to be able to raise the funds and complete the building as soon as possible.  Half  of the building’s structure is complete.

Last week a team from England was here in Romania building a wall in the front of our property and they also installed a fence along the left side border. We hope that this will help securing the land against the many unwanted “visitors”.  The weather was very hot reaching temps in the 90s.  The team pressed on and worked even in the heat.  We thank them for their hard work, time, love, and support of the HOH project.

Please go here to read Petry’s latest post on the Horizon of Hope blog.

Time flies when you are having fun and that is definitely the case for us!  Within the next few days I plan on updating our blog to tell all about the latest happenings.  To start off I will share with you our newest addition.  Little miss Sophia Ann Groza was born May 18, 2010 and she is a true delight.  She is such a good baby and she has done so well with the busyness of our summer schedule.

To see what has been happening at the Horizon of Hope property lately go HERE.  Please come back for more updates!

This past fall we started something new at our church.  A bible study for Mommies with children between 0-7 years of age.  This is something we have wanted to start for a long time, and this fall was the time.  Petry’s aunt Emilia is the leader of the woman’s ministry in our church and she proposed to start groups for Mommies with children in each age group, and thus our group was born.

I believe I can say that each of the mommies in our group have benefited from the study.  Since this is something so new for our church, there is such a great spirit that fills the room as we all gather to meet.

We usually meet every other Tuesday, but this past week we met on Monday at our house.  Here is our precious group.

A dear friend gave me this book and it seemed the perfect fit for our first study.  Several of the woman in the group take turns leading the lessons each week.

Our desire is to learn to be the best women, wives, and mothers that we can be to glorify God.

Christmas 2009

The days have flown by and here we find ourselves in 2010.  Since our blog has been a little neglected the past few months, we want to give you an update sharing where we are, what we are doing , and our future plans.

Our main vision and focus in Romania has not changed.  Horizon of Hope continues to remain at the the top of our list and on our hearts.  God’s timing is perfect and we are continually reminding ourselves of that as we wait on Him to provide further funding to complete the transition center that will house youth and orphans of Romania.

Right now the building sits unfinished and covered with a little layer of snow.  We do believe that one day the center will be filled with young people who desire to learn more, yet they seek help.  We are praying that those days will be very soon.  If you are interested in partnering with us to complete this project, please let us know.

We do have some fun furry friends who have made Horizon of Hope their home.  Let us introduce you to our brave guard dogs.

This past fall Petry added another “project” to his ever growing list.  We are happy to share that Petry is in his first year of receiving his master’s from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.  He has started an “in-ministry” online degree to attain his Master’s in Transformational Leadership.

This has been a great challenge for him, but one that is proving to be hugely beneficial.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of Petry after he had taken his first big exam in English, but you can imagine the relief after completing such a task.  We are so thankful that God continues to provide even for this new journey.

This master’s program for people “in-ministry” requires Petry to be on campus in St. Paul to complete two weeks of “intensives” each fall/spring semester.  This past fall we all had the opportunity to be in the States while Petry completed his first two weeks.  The girls and I were able to spend that time in Wisconsin while Petry was in St. Paul.

During our trip this fall we were also able to visit our dear friends at Riverbend Community Church.  Our hearts are knit together with the folks at Riverbend and we thank them for giving us such a wonderful week in the beautiful sunshine of Florida.

Lydia and Miriam are growing up so fast.  We are so excited to share that we anticipate the arrival of yet another little GIRL sometime during the middle of May.   Since my due date and the dates of Petry’s school are only five days apart, we will be traveling back to the States toward the end of March to await the arrival of our new little one and for Petry to complete his intensives at Bethel.

Although the weather this winter in Romania has been exceptionally cold these past weeks, Petry and I both sense a deep warmth in the hearts of the people of our church.  Several new Bible study groups have started up in the past month, but I will wait and share more in future posts.

Please continue to pray for us and the people of Romania.

www.thegrozas.com

Check out www.thegrozas.com for current pics of our family.

Since Petry grew up in Romania and I was raised in the United States, I remember being very excited to introduce Petry to several of America’s classic foods.  One of them being SWEET CORN!!

I think Petry first tasted sweet corn when we were in the US during late summer of 2005 waiting for the arrival of Lydia.  I can still picture us sitting at my parent’s table devouring the delicious corn.  While we were enjoying it so much I remember my dad randomly suggesting that we plant sweet corn here in Romania.

The fields of Romania are filled with corn, but not sweet corn.  Most Romanians have only tasted canned sweet corn, they have not been able to experience sweet corn straight off the cob.

What began as just a suggestion became a reality last year when we planted $100 worth of  sweet corn seed.  The seeds grew into beautiful sweet corn and IT WAS A HIT for many Romanians that we know.  Petry’s cousin was our main manager in the agricultural department and with the help of some other family members we were able to sell the corn in the market.

Since last year was such a success, this year we had bigger and better visions for our little sweet corn business and we bought $400 pounds of sweet corn and planted it in even more fields than last year.

As the weeks of spring went by, we began to realize that our corn wasn’t doing so well.  We planted seed in four big fields and it looks like we will only be able to pick corn from one field.

We aren’t exactly sure what went wrong, but we have some ideas that we might not have received good seed, the ground was dry when we planted, or the corn was run over with weeds.  We aren’t necessarily agricultural experts, but we are learning as we go and in the end we are thankful for the lessons learned.

Tonight we went back out to the fields to check the status of the field that is producing something.  We picked about 10 ears of corn, boiled it, and had in gone in less than ten minutes.  As I smelled the corn boiling I felt in a way that I was home.  There are certain smells that remind me of my childhood and of my country and sweet corn is definitely one of them.