March Update

Dear Friends,

Thank you for sustaining us with prayer and encouragement over the past weeks. They have been full and fruitful.

In the beginning of February, we received visitors from our US office – Chris and Phileena Heuertz, the directors of WMF, and Liz Ivkovich, the director of administration. We had a good time sharing and catching up with one another. Chris and I were able to finish up a chapter on “marginal” that we co-wrote for a book on the New Friars movement.

We were also able to visit the community in Moldova for a few days. The community has quickly found host families, begun language study and started the documentation for their visas. They have also identified a few areas where they can volunteer and begin to learn about the situation in Moldova. Sadly, one of the Romanians who had gone through our application process to join the community in Moldova has been held up by his Brethren church, who, it seems, have some disagreements with us. As a number of our staff and children participate in this church, please pray that we can work through these issues. And please be in prayer for this young community in Moldova as they make decisions about where to invest themselves.

At the end of February, I traveled to the UK and spent a weekend with a community of Christians that are great friends and consistent supporters of our community in Galati. I was able to share at the church service and to connect with many people.

Then I traveled to Sierra Leone to visit the Word Made Flesh community. The community has made amazing strides in the past year. I stayed in their new Center, which is located right next to a slum community where they have developed many relationships. I was privileged to be able to sit in on two days of board meetings and learn how they build support structures in that context. I was also able to participate in a community retreat. During my visit, the community had a sending off party for Faye, one of our staff that has served there for the last five years. All in all it was a gift to be able to see the community and the kids that they are investing in.

In Romania, we have been waiting for spring to come, but it keeps snowing. The forecast says that the weather is warming, so we are looking forward to that. We continue to pray for constancy for our kids. Two sisters who have been coming to the Center since the beginning of the school year are trying to stay consistent in school and at the Center but have suffered the instability of their mother, who has left them with their grandmother. Another set of brothers has struggled through the winter, gathering wood to stay warm, filling up water containers at nearby faucets to bring home, and carrying home a daily allocation of food given by the local government. Their parents are separated and seldom present in their lives. So, the kids are trying to stay in school and to come to the Center in the midst of their struggle to care for themselves. These are two examples of the struggle that most of our kids face on a daily basis. Please pray for them that they would continue to make good choices for themselves, that they would be able to experience childhood, and that we would have wisdom in helping them to be healed and to become the persons God has created them to be.

Since we have seen lots of our staff leave over the past year, we are also feeling the need for new staff. Currently, we have our first intern from South Korea who is with us for the next three months. We are praying that God would rise up others to come and serve with us.

Lenutsa and I are also starting to take steps towards our sabbatical, which begins in August. We are trying to make plans and to delegate, so that everything will function well in our absence. And we are trying to prepare our souls for a season of ceasing. As this is the first time we have received sabbatical, we don’t really know what to expect. But we ask that you pray for us as we prepare for this time.

We are grateful for your walking with us.

Yours in Christ,

david and lenutsa