Feeding Their Souls

I hope you’ve already read the article about the children’s Easter program at the Bread of Life Orphanage. It is our constant desire and determination to meet not only the physical needs of the children but also their spiritual needs. The experience we have gained with 300+ children passing through the orphanage in the last 15 years has taught us many important lessons. As the children grow and their bodies change they eat different foods, in a similar way their minds and souls are growing and need a different kind of spiritual food as they grow. When they are young the Bible programs we have at the orphanage are sufficient to introduce them to God’s creation and as they grow our team is able to discuss with them different personal questions and topics to guide and solidify their growing faith. It is interesting how children and teens relate to each other and influence and encourage one another, and we feel fellowship with peers from Christian families is an important need in their life.

Since Brosteni is rather remote, far from normal size churches with vibrant youth groups, our children are only exposed to the children and teens in the local public school. To put it politely, this is “not a good influence” and we long for Christian fellowship for our children and teens. In the past interaction with Godly children and youth was possible only when churches visited us during holidays or summer breaks. This is a problem we have discussed a number of times with our team searching for a solution and now we think we have one. Gabi proposed in addition to our regular Bible programs here, we began traveling with the children to other towns on Sunday to give them opportunities to worship in churches with their peers. The excitement of the children helped confirm our plans. I have made this loooong introduction to make sure you understand our reasoning behind the following request. In the past we have managed to do most of our routine transportation for the 70+ children with two vans, one in Brosteni and one in Bucharest. In each place the number of children we have exceeds a few times more than the van capacity. Plus, the van in Brosteni is older than most of the children there, needs a lot of work and requires extra skills for our staff to drive it. As Romanians we are accustomed to getting the job done under any circumstances, we probably hold the Guinness book record for the number of children transported in a nine seater van :)) …but we also believe the Bible in Matthew 7:7-8 we read, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” We believe even though this is not a physical food crisis, we are facing a spiritual food crisis which is just as important, if not greater. We want to plead with you for this cause. We need to purchase two vans, one for the Bread of Life Orphanage and one for the Youth Transition Project. The price for a decent second hand van which would run good for a few years is around $15,000. Any donation toward the Van Project is a significant help toward making this possible. Thank you for considering this need.