Family Photo 2015

First things first, we work with Anchor of Hope in Bucharest, Romania. This is our ministry’s site. Second things second – – what do we do? Good question. It might help to explain first what does AOH does and then what part we play.

AOH works in sector 4 in Bucharest (this is a map, but don’t worry, this isn’t important). In sector 4, we work with our one mayor, our one director of abandoned children, etc. Each sector has their own mayor, director…you get the picture. Within sector 4, we work with some (not all!) of the children’s homes. This is just to explain how many children are wards of the state. We work with an emergency entry orphanage for young children (we can call it H.A.), an all age facility for kids (we can call it R.H.), an abandoned babies hospital (B.H.) and a group of group homes (we can call S.S.).

An average week would look like this…

  • S.S. – preschool for the 4/5 year olds, after school programs with the school-aged kids, bible study with the teens
  • R.H. – after school program (English, homework help, etc.) 3 afternoons a week
  • B.H. – holding/feeding/giving attention to the babies 2-3 afternoons a week
  • H.A. – preschool type program 2 mornings a week

Or course it changes on a regular basis. The month before Christmas and Easter, add a bunch of play practices because celebrations/performances are big here! And in the summer almost everything rotates around camp and teams coming from the USA. August is a quiet month when the entire country of Romania goes on vacation.

We, Christian and Marie, don’t do all of that all the time. Our week looks a little different – – our mornings include school drop offs and school pickups (one more year and they will be at the same time finally!), language lessons (still…grrrr), helping with S.S. preschool, maintenance/yard work for the team home, etc. Our afternoons include R.H. (our MAIN ministry focus, we plan it, we run it), our own ministry communications/newsletters, Christian programming (aka “tent-making”), helping the girls with homework (Romanian language practice), partially homeschooling in English, parenting and more. Every day life takes more time here – – grocery shopping has to be done more often when you are getting everything from the outdoor market (spoils faster) and carrying it home on the subway. Laundry isn’t an easy job when you wash everything in a mini washing machine and then hang it to dry on racks. Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t describing life to make you think “oh poor them” but actually to point out that this is life for all Romanians. And we live in the capital! We have running water and (fairly) consistent power and internet.

If your still curious what life is like and what we do after reading that – – it can only mean ONE thing.

It is time for you to come for a visit!

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