Tales from Transylvania

Merry Christmas!

The celebration of Christmas should bring joy in our hearts. Our desire is that we all acknowledge the meaning of Christmas and live our lives accordingly.

The Groza family wishes you a Merry Christmas.

Petry, Kyle, Lydia (5yrs), Miriam (3rs) and Sophia (7 mo.)

Fagaras, Romania

Location: Toarcla, Romania

Toarcla is a small village about 35 minutes drive from our town Fagaras. Our church Bethany Baptist has a few mission points in the villages around the town. Toarcla is one of them. I have the privilege to go in Toarcla every Sunday afternoon where I am always received by a bunch of children and a few adults. One of the requests that they had in the last two years was to try to fix the walls of the room where the meetings take place. The building  where we meet belongs to the German Evangelical Reformed Church. For many years now they have been letting us use the small room you see in the pictures without paying anything. This is possible only because about 10 years ago our church fixed up the roof of the building.

So this week from Wednesday-Friday, I had the opportunity to go with my friend Liviu and patch up some of the walls. The building is probably over 300 years old so it definitely is in need of repairs. The children promised that they will help and so they did. Even though they live in such poor conditions they were willing to help without any payment. I was able to give them some money and they went and bought some cookies and drinks for everybody.  While one of the little boys Sergiu (11) was cleaning the bricks, he told me,  ” Petry, I don’t want any money. I came here to help for free. I don’t know about the other kids, but I don’t want any money”.  He was so honest and funny at the same time as I never really offered to pay them anything but he was so eager to tell me that he doesn’t want any money just in case I would want to pay them.

I will let you now enjoy the pictures I took while there. Please try to remember Toarcla and our Kids Club we have there. We are trying to do as much as possible for the children and youth of this village but there is so much more left to do. At least we are glad we can offer to all that come something that can enrich their souls. This resource is free and has no limits.

The outside wall after one day of work

More progress

Codrut, one of our main attendees at the Toarcla mission point

The inside wall

Getting sand the cheapest way - Free transportation

Children and adults working side by side

Little+many= power

Liviu finishing the inside

The outside finished

The main church building

Hopefully next year we will be able to remodel the whole room which would include painting over the repair work we just did.  At least this is a start, and the children can see that they and the place where they meet is important to us.

Today all the children of Romania started back to school.  This includes pre-schools too, so today Miriam started her first day of pre-school.  She was prepared and ready because she has watched Lydia go to pre-school and now she was so excited that it would finally be her turn.  Miriam will turn three next week, and although she seems so young for us to be sending her off to the “big world” of pre-school, it has been the best thing for the girls in learning Romanian.  Both Lydia and Miriam attend the same pre-school and their classrooms are just across the hall from each other.  It is nice to know that Lydia is close by if Miriam needs her.  Today Miriam just walked right in.  Her face just seemed to scream “I am a big girl now.”  It was amazing to see the transition, but hard to accept that they are getting so big so fast!

Miriam with her backpack

Lydia and Miriam with their friend Matei (Matthew)

Checking out all the toys.

Lydia with her cousin David and her friend Daniel

We pray that Lydia and Miriam would have a great year in pre-school this year!

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.