This month we opened our house up for 58 village children to have a fun week at Casa Shalom. They had wonderful food, lots of fun, sang songs, had a Bible Study and met a lot of new friends. We had handcrafts for the girls to make their own neckalace and bracelets which they really enjoyed.

 Most of the children came from villages where they had no inside plumbing at home so they really enjoyed getting a shower.  Each child had their own bed which was real unusual for them. Most of them slept four or five in a bed at home. We were so glad that we could bring these kids to Casa Shalom. 

 Casa Shalom is helping 250 children so that they can stay at home and not be left to grow up in some orphanage. Through our experiences of having a children's home we realize that it's much better when children can stay in their own family with their birth mother. Casa Shalom is helping to make that possible for 50 families.

It was the first time these children ever got a Christmas gift and hardly knew how to react. They were kind of in a daze that we would give them something. We thank our friends at Blythswood Care in Scotland for the Christmas shoeboxes for the kids.

The Irish bring mobil homes for girls

A group of 25 men and women from northern and southern Ireland spent one week setting up the mobil homes they sent to Romania.

The homes are for ten girls from a girls home in Bolintin. Many of these girls were kicked out of the state orphanages but found refuge at an American run home rum by Ron and Sue Bates. The Bates have passed away but the work continues and we are grateful for the foundations helping the Bolintin girls and also all the effort that was put into turning these metal containers into a real home for ten of the girls. 

God Bless our Irish friends and all those helping children with physical and mental handicaps. 

Becky 

Our Van breaks down again

Once again we had van problems.  We have had this van for almost 9 yrs. It's now 12 yrs. old and giving us so.... many problems.  Right now it is still sitting in Germany. Thank God it's now fixed, but for how long.....? I don't know. 

I have to go to pick it up and hope to get it back to Bucharest without any more incidents.

So pray for us on Nov. 2nd when we drive it back to Bucharest. It was a gift from a wonderful family and we just want to keep it running as long as possible.

Becky

  

These children get to visit the Bucharest Zoo.

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Becky and her team bring 30 village children and some of their mothers to a short Summer Camp at Casa Shalom. The camp is free for the children and sponsored by friends in the U.S. and Germany.

Many of the children got their first shower with hot water. Others got to sleep in a real bed with clean sheets for the first time.  Some got their first ride on a bike or roller skates.

They all enjoyed the healthy food, fresh vegetables and ice cream. The camp ended with a visit to the zoo, a boat ride and a short visit to an amusement park.

The most beautiful thing is they loved singing all the new songs about Jesus and his love for them. Most of the children wanted to have the Lord Jesus in their life and all of them want to come back to Casa Shalom next summer for another Summer Camp. This time they want to stay longer.

Casa Shalom wants to buy some Christmas gifts for these poor children and make a Christmas food box for each family. We are looking for some friends that would like to help or sponsor this project.  Christmas will be here soon.   For more information contact Becky at casashalom@gmail.com

Thank you, we never have a boring moment here at Casa Shalom. 

Our Christmas Program with our After School children and Marius and Catalin

There were songs, poems, and Romanian folk dancing at their Chrsitmas celebration.

Then of course there was gifts for all the children and lots of sweets to eat. Parents and friends came out to see the program.  They all enjoyed it so much.

It was a busy summer at Casa Shalom with Kids coming and going as we had our Summer Camps. After the first camp one night the phone rang and it was one of the campers who had just told his friends about the camp and how much fun they had.  His friends all wanted to come to the next camp so they called at nearly 12 mid-night to get their name on the list.
There was a lot of action, games, skits and singing. Try to tell me christians can't have fun!

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   CASA SHALOM KIDS AND CAMPERS, some staff and guests

This year has been slipping by so quickly. Some of you may wonder what is happening at Casa Shalom. We are getting ready for some changes. There are always new laws relating to working with children here in Romania. The government wants to close down orphanages and children's homes and have the children stay in foster families. We have been working many months trying to find the parents of some of the abandoned children we have in our home. This has been so time consuming but we are so thrilled that we have found the parents of several of our children. The gov't said they couldn't find them but we didn't take no for an answer.

Now we have been extra busy with our garden and working outside. I love flowers and have planted them everywhere. It will be beautiful this summer. The end of  June we start our first Kids Camp.  So many want to come but we will try to keep the limit at 50 kids for the first camp. We have Paul Gallina coming back from Tennesse with a team to help teach the kids and of course to have lots of fun and fellowship with some real energic Romanian kids. David and Kathy Walker will be bringing a team by for a few days and also minister at the Kids Camp. We want to speak into the lives of these precious young people.

It's going to be down to the wire before we get our house ready for all our campers.  We have spent hundreds of hours
working in the attic to make this a super nice dorm for the girls or the guys. We just painted the room and now need the carpet and light fixtures.  Yes, this will be a little costly but by faith we will have the carpet in and the lights on by the end of June.

I have some exciting stories to write about our kids. I just found the father of one of our little abandoned boys. You talk about being happy. This little boy, Marius is like a light bulb glowing from ear to ear. He is nine yrs. old has been here for  seven yrs.  The father heard he had died in the hospital and never  looked for him.  This was  such a beautiful reunion. Marius will finish his school year and then we make preparations for him to be re-united with his family. We will continue to make monthly visits and see what he has need of and that he is doing well in school. This is what we do for all the children that leave us. It's a new part of the ministry.

I will share more in our new Casa Shalom newsletter.
If you would like to be on our mailing list just send us your name and address.

Have a great day, be thankful for all your blessings.
God is still in control even when  it seems like all is going wrong.  You will see light at the end of the tunnel.  We have been there so we can tell you this from experience.

Shalom,
Becky
Casa Shalom, Romania

Bob Christian is a Navy Chaplain for a military ship with 350 people on board.  I think that is having your hands full. No Bob, he is always looking for places to help people and glorify God in practical ways along the way. Bob heard about us through a friend in Arkansas. The contact was made and immediately when Bob's, ship came into the dock at he port at Constanta he along with four sailors came on a six  hr. train ride to Bucharest.  We picked them up and they  spend  two days with us. They helped us accomplished so much work in such a short time. We were so surprised and greatly encouraged. We had just enough time to meet them, learn their names , have a little fellowship and then it was time to leave.  Their ship would be going to another country and they would have another project. We thank God for these fine dedicated men that are a part of the U.S. navy and wish them smooth sailing on the rest of their tour. 

This past month I took a little time to go on a missions retreat in Switzerland. I really needed the break and it was wonderful to meet other missionaries working all over Europe. Sometimes you feel that you are the only one going through problems and then you find out that there are a lot of people having the same challenges. It was a real time of encouragement and fellowship for American missionaries. The only down side was my van broke down driving up the mountain. Now let me tell you that was a scary experience when you are driving up a 9,000 ft. mountain. I finally got my van up the mountain and then had it repaired enough to get back down. A few hours later it broke down again on the highway. I had to just leave it set there and wait to have it taken back to Germany. Then I went for a short two week vacation with my husband, Joseph to visit beautiful Hawaii. This was our anniversary gift. It was absolutely beautiful. We even got to visit several churches while we were there. The coasts were beautiful. We saw a lot in eight days. Then we went back to Phoenix,Az. and drove up to the Grand Canyon. This was a place I always wanted to visit. It was mind bottling to see this canyon. Just wish we had a little more time to enjoy a sunset there. We picked up tapes and books for our Casa Shalom kids and headed by to Phoenix, Az. to catch a flight after visiting another friendly church. Now I am back in Bucharest and what a surprise to see all my kids. They seem to have grown so much while I was away. I am so glad to be back. The only negative thing was the service station called and told us that it's going to cost quite a bit of money to fix my van. Now we have to decide if we are going to keep it or just sell it. This makes us so sad as we just invested several thousand dollars in repairs last yr. Now we have to make a decision to tell the Ford Company tomorrow. Pray for us to know what to do.

 

 

 

Volunteers  have come from the U.S., England, Scotland and Ireland to  help at Casa Shalom this summer.  We have met so many wonderful compassionate and hard working people. First there were 14 Americans here to lay the block for our bakery in July. Some of our children helped them working side by side. It was a sight to see.

 Then we had a group of young people from London here helping us to organize things here at Casa Shalom, to visit some poor families and to have a great time playing socer with our kids. 

In August 65  volunteers poured in from Ireland and Scotland to help renovate our present house, painting inside and outside  and paint our out buildings. They helped to pour a nice cement entrance  and sidewalks for the new house. Then they helped to repair our house and put cement down to keep us out of the mud when we hang up our laundry. We are absolutely amazed at all the work that has been accomplished.  It is tremendous to see how much can be accomplished when people have a common goal and work together. The team leaders were excellent. We were all busy just keeping up getting all the needed materials and food. The weather was very hot and the Irish were not used to the over 100 degree temperatures.   

The last week of August we had another team from the U.S. and they came to just share with the children and see how they can be of help. Sometimes it's just nice to have someone to talk to. This was a great week for the kids and the staff.

Now we are getting ready for our yearly visit from Bible Missions and only God knows where we will be going. The schedule is to visit some prisons, a nursing home, to have a ladies tea, to reach out and visit the poor and visit some churches.  Yes, once again a very busy schedule. Keep us in your prayers.

So that is the lastest from the Casa Shalom family.

 Be back next month,

Becky