Vali has been in an orphanage since he was a baby.  He is now 28 years old.  In 1997 Heart of Hope Ministries started to work with his orphanage.  The dental ministry started to work on his teeth, the ministry provided special gifts at Christmas and Easter.  By the way, these gifts were the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas and Easter shoe boxes!  Heart of Hope Ministry also began to do some renovation work the orphanage.

Vali came to Camp of the Good Shepherd in 2000.  This was the opening year of Camp of the Good Shepherd.  He came to camp for four years.  Vali also has a brother with mental disabilities and is visual blind who has been able to come to Camp of the Good Shepherd.  In 1998 he found out who his mother was but was not allowed to meet them because he was not 18 years old yet.  In 2004 he was sent out of the placement center at the age of 18.  He found a job in a sock factory.  In 2007 he found a job in an airbag factory.  Vali has taken his brother to live with him in his apartment to care for him.  Vali is an extremely caring and loving young man.  He receives a small pension of about $75 dollars a month for his brother.

When he found his family in 2004 he discovered that he has two other young sisters, ages 9 and 12, name Mihaela and Ana Maria.  His mother is living with a man who is an alcoholic and abusive.  They have no jobs and no electricity.  Vali takes care of his two sisters as much as possible.  He hopes to one day save up enough to provide for them.  He brought them to Camp of the Good Shepherd this year.  He bought them sandals for camp which is quite an amazing thing for him to do.  They were so proud that their brother got them shoes.  When they were here they experienced safety, fun and laughter like never before in their life.

It was extremely humbling to see their joy when they received absolutely anything.  We found them play shoes for them because we didn’t want them to get their sandals dirty since they were so special to them.  The gratitude they expressed when they received a bar of soap and a toothbrush is almost divine when you understand their background.  They were shocked when they were able to have their own bed.  And they asked to sleep with a sheet because they weren’t used to blankets.  In fact, they got car sick on the way to camp because they just never drive in cars.

Although Vali is 28 years old he seems so much younger emotionally and socially because of the lack of nurturing in the orphanages.  This makes it very difficult to find jobs.  We grow in emotional and social health naturally, almost by osmosis.  In the orphanages, the workers don’t provide any nurturing.  It is only a job to them.  In fact, they often steal from the children.

Vali has a beautiful voice.  He has great potential and is extremely caring in a fatherly way.  He sees caring for his brother and sisters as his mission.

One last note on his experience at Camp of the Good Shepherd.  In 2004, it was his last year he would be here.  One week after that experience here he was going to be sent out of the orphanage.  On the last day of camp he stole food from the camp.  However, a week later he had someone drive him back out to camp to apologize.  Debbie Marshall, the president of Heart of Hope Ministries, of course, forgave him.  But them gave him a bag of food.  He was one of only two children who ever apologized for stealing from the camp.

I’m hoping to post a video interview with Vali and his two sisters so you can hear his story.  This represents the lives of the kids we’re ministering to here at Camp of the Good Shepherd.

As I became aware of his story, I reflected on my time last week.  Although I hugged a lot of kids, listened to them and played games with them, I wished I hugged them more, listened to more of their stories and played more games with them.

Thanks to my church and to many, many people for helping to send these kids to Camp of the Good Shepherd.  You are literally raising up a new generation of Christ-followers that have the potential to change Romania and even change the world.

The first day of camp.

Devotions started early this morning.  I read Luke 18:15-17 which is the story of children running up to Jesus and the disciples rebuking them.  I reflected on the question – Am I filled with Jesus enough so that kids would see Him in me?

As I thought of my time here at Camp of the Good Shepherd I sensed the Holy Spirit leading my thoughts to several answers.  Kids can see Jesus in me when I laugh and smile.  The Scriptures tell us that the Lord laughs.  Jesus was a person who was contagious and attracted people.  Kids can see Jesus in me when I serve them.  At Camp of the Good Shepherd I have the opportunity to serve the kids throughout the day and night.  Kids can see Jesus in me when I meet their needs.  Debbie Marshall introduced our team to the kids by having us each tell the kids our name, favorite sport and favorite ice cream.  But then we give each kid a hygiene kit with a wash clothe, toothbrush, bar of soap and toothpaste.  Smart lady – what a great way to let the kids know that we’re here to serve and meet needs.

I also read Psalm 69.  I had my time with God right next to the river in the gazebo.  Verse 2-3 says, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.”  There’s no doubt that the enemy is at work in Romania and these kids are impacted greatly by the spiritual warfare that goes in their families and country.  As we talked as a team, it’s also true that the enemy will attack right here in this camp.  And, yet, as I looked across the river to the mountainside it was basically just a huge rock in front of me.  This place is like God’s refuge, a strong tower.  That was just a great visual reminder of God being our rock to stand on in the face of the enemy’s attack.

The rest of the day we finished up getting the camp ready for the kids.  We cleaned the outhouses, finished getting the cabins ready, picked up trash wherever we saw and also burned a lot of trash.  We actually could smell burning plastic all day – but that’s how they do it here.

When the kids started to arrive the team when into immediate action – ping pong, soccer, crafts and just hanging out to talk.  We have a great team!  I played a lot of ping pong, Nate was the soccer guy, Candace had kids talking to her all the time, Vicky and Josh played volleyball, Aura and Daniel were having tons of fun.  Then they’d switch and interact in other ways.  They did just a great job!  Kids loved it.

When the Romania team arrived Debbie Marshall brought us together for a meeting to get us all on the same page for the program.  We were set!

Dinner was next.  I love the food.  It was a plate of some sort of potato salad and grilled hot dog – not the kind we have but the European kind – very good.  Then the drink was warm tea.  That’s it – and it was great!  This is definitely not how meals are in the states where there is tons and tons of food.

We ended the night with evening fellowship.  We started with the crowd breaker, oogla boogla.  The kids loved it!  At the end, Marcel, the camp director, got Josh with the wet sponge!  It was great to see the kids laugh so much.  Daniel and Nate led the team in worship with several songs.  Daniel had Nate prepare his testimony to share and he did an excellent job sharing it with the kids.  Marcel was Nate’s interpreter.

I wrapped up the night with the story of the paralyzed man and Jesus.  The paralyzed man was defined by his circumstances and Jesus set him free from it.  I challenged the kids to find a new identity in Jesus.  We gave each kid a friendship bracelet made of five colors – yellow, black, red, white and green.  I let them know that yellow – like the yellow sponge we used in the crowd breaker – means that God loves them and wants to be their friend.  Then we closed in prayer.  It was a great night!

Every night the crowd breaker will introduce the next color in the bracelet.  Tomorrow is black and we’ll have black jelly beans in black cherry jello!  Kids will have to stick their face in the jello, find and eat the jelly beans!  Black represents sin – haha!

Finished up a late night talk with Marcel.  It was good to share about life and our stories with each other.  He’s a good guy to be directing this camp.

Today we had our team meeting with Debbie Marshal who is the president of Heart of Hope Ministries.  I was amazed and saddened to hear about the village kids that would be at camp the next day.  A village kid can come from a village of 25 families to a village of about a 1000 people.  Most of these kids come with hardly anything at all.  We will provide a hygiene baggie for them which will include a toothbrush, toothpaste, a bar of soap and a wash clothe. Some families may not even send their kids because they might not have shoes for them.

The camp is pretty rustic and reflects what you would see in the village homes – plumbing that is being repaired, buildings in a process of being fixed, outside play areas consisting mostly of dirt or weeds but because people who love the Lord are working here you can see many signs of transformation. The kids from the village are in bible clubs that are run by Heart of Hope Ministries, and this camp, in the condition it is in, is literally the highlight of their year.  you can’t help but feel like God is using us as a special gift to these kids that have so little.  What they need most, of course, is the love of Christ and we show that in many ways as we provide safety, compassion and consistency to these kids.  The culture of village kids or orphanage children is tough and sad.  We almost liken it to prison culture.  We have to be very careful not to show any special favor to any kids because we would literary make things worse for them.  Other kids may shun them or fight with them later becasue of it.

The weather has been in the 90′s and a bit humid.  We may have rain today tonight.  Food is actually pretty good.  We had chees, bread, salami and tomato for breakfast.  For dinner we had meatball soup (meat tasted a bit different), cabbage salad, frend fries, chicken and crapes (yum).  Late night snack – more crapes, fried eggs, chicken and friend meat.

Tonight, we’re cleaning cabins and putting together the kid’s hygiene bags. Please pray for our rest as we continue to get ready for camp tomorrow.  It’s such a privelege to serve here alongside my son and the whole team.  Thanks for believing in the mission and how God can do the extraordinary through ordinary people.

That encouraged me to look for God in every moment of every day as we, as a team, venture off to follow God in Romania.

We enjoyed great fellowship as we drove to the airport.  Our flight was scheduled to depart at 2:50 pm so we had plenty of time for lunch at Taco Bell before arriving at the airport.

My wife, Maria, Darryl and Ginny drove us to the airport.  The five of us had 9 piece of luggage which cost us $200 in extra baggage fees.  Tip:  With Lufthansa, contact their New York Office via phone and official letter to attempt to waive this fee.  Customer service couldn’t help us and all my sweet talking (and begging) didn’t help either!

After hugs and goodbye’s we were off to check in for our flight.  All in all it was an extremely smooth and easy flight.

Los Angeles (2:50 pm, July 16) to Frankfurt Germany (10:35 am, July 17).  We had a 4 hour stay in Frankfurt.  Then Frankfurt (2:20 pm, July 17) to Bucharest (5:35 pm, July 17).  The food was great.  Two movies were a bomb – Valentine’s Day and some Jennifer Aniston movie.

But a big God moment was having two open seats next to me open on an otherwise very crowed plane.  A man by the name of Jaeson Ma took one of the seats.  We talked for hours and I learned amazing things from this church planter of a church planter movement of home churches.  He lives in L.A. Is mentored by Neil Cole and friends with many pastors I respect like Francis Chan.  I took 7 pages of notes during our conversation.  So much applied to my life, my church circumstances, God’s leading and His direction.  This was one of those moments of just listening and trying to find God in every day moments of just meeting people on a plane.

The director, Lulian and the transition home director, Zoltan met us at the airport with two vans for a 5 hour drive to Camp of the Good Shepherd.  Lulian reminded me of the driving that goes on in a James Bond movie – fast, wild, in and out of traffic, tail gating but safe as all get out!  At least I suppose, I was really exhausted.  We enjoyed a stop at McDonald’s.  All the same food, taste, look, etc.  Except there are three things you won’t find in American McD’s that you’ll find in Romanian McD’s – Beer, buffalo wings and shrimp.

I really enjoyed seeing everyone of the team have fun and good attitudes.  It was great to see Nate experience so many ‘firsts’ as we flew across the Atlantic Ocean, landed in Germany and arrived in Romania.  I know there are many more to come for him and all of us.

We arrived to Camp of the Good Shepherd around 11:30 pm, unpacked, showered and got to bed at about 1:00 am.

Tomorrow, Sunday morning, we’ll have breakfast at 10:00 am.  Then we’ll have a ‘church service’ at 11:00 am.  As the team leader, I’m learning everything that goes on during this trip as it goes.  So, I’ll let you know how that all turns out.  For now, it’s almost 2:00 am and there are a bunch of bugs flying all over my computer screen and it’s time to get to sleep.

Prayer requests:

Pray our sleep routines get in order quickly.

Pray that we will use our time well as we have a team orientation meeting tomorrow afternoon with Debbie Marshall and the Romanian team.

Pray that all falls into place with our planning.

And most of all, pray that God is glorified and hearts are drawn to Him.

Well, that put us way behind schedule and we only had about an hour of daylight to unpack, set up tents and get ready for bed!  Maria and I were so tired and we were so thankful we packed our full size futon bed with a 3 inch padding on top!  This bed felt like a luxory hotel bed to us.  Absolutely amazing!

Today, we transform the landscape dramatically by building the kitchen area into the most incredible outdoor camping eating world ever.  I’ll post pictures of what it looks but trust me – the eats will be wonderful!

The scenary around us at Lake Tulloch is georgeous and a reminder of God’s beauty and love for his creation.  Maria and I read 1 Peter this morning and prayed for God to do amazing things in the lives of all the kids coming this year.

Prayer requests:

1.  Pray against the spiritual forces that would want to destroy what God wants to do.

2.  Pray for great unity among the staff and volunteers.

3.  Pray for God moments to happen in conversations, devotions, evening messages and worship.

4.  Pray for safety!  No accidents, no injuries!

That’s it for now.  Wish I could blog everyday but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get to McDonald’s for free Internet each day.  But we’ll see.  God bless!

Today I’m taking a quick moment to blog from McDonald’s in Oakdale, California, which is near this year’s Fryathon location – Lake Tulloch.  I’ll be here for two weeks – high schoolers week one, junior higher’s week two!  And at the same time preparing and praying for Team Romania!

It reminds of the fact that ministry doesn’t really slow down.  There is always an opportunity to minister to someone, anyone, anytime.  However, in the midst of it I’m finding how important it is to simply slow down life and enjoy God and family in every moment.  So, even though ministry doesn’t slow down, life can and should.  Then in the midst of enjoying God and family, ministry just happens.

Prayer requests:

1.  We have two team members that will be leaving early for Romania on June 28.  Pray that God will use their time well to prepare them for our mission at Camp at the Good Shepherd.  Pray also that they will be able to simply take the opportunity to enjoy God and family.

2.  We’re hitting a few roadblocks on getting a free second suitcase to carry all our camp supplies with us.  So, pray that God would grant us favor with the airlines.

3.  Continue to pray God would provide all the necessary financial funds needed.

Thanks for your prayers!  If you want to offer any help toward our financial needs please let me know.  Otherwise, your greatest contribution is heartfelt prayer for us!

Here’s a cool pic from last year’s Team Romania!  It’s from Bucharest and it’s a church building.

This morning I have just a few moments to ask for your prayers for safety.  Maria and I are traveling up early to Lake Tulloch to set up camp, help get all the food ready and hopefully have some time to relax before over 120 high school students arrive on Sunday afternoon!

I’m still working on my message for Tuesday night but the focus is on Revelation 2-3 where Jesus writes the sever letters to the sever churches.  For some reason, more than ever, I’m really sensing the need to pray for God’s Spirit to prepare these kid’s hearts and to protect us from spiritual battles that will exists behind the scenes.

All right…go to go…get my coffee…pack and we’re out of here!This is a picture of a synagogue in Sardis.  This is one of the churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3.  Jesus was talking to a church with real people just like you and me.

I thought it would be good to see if it is possible to blog Fryathon 2010.  As I think about Fryathon and 120 kids that will be there all I know is that we will need prayer and plenty of it!!

The theme for Fryathon 2010 is Revelation.  Each night a different speaker will be teaching out of the New Testament book of Revelation.  Pastor Bryan Smith from Camarillo Community Church is extremely bold and gutsy to choose this as a theme and I’m excited to see how God will work in the kid’s hearts thorugh it.

At this point, here are a few prayer requests:

1.  Please pray for safety as we travel up to Lake Tulloch.  A team of people, including my wife, Maria, and I are going up two days early to set up camp – specifically, the kitchen and food prep.

2.  Pray for God to work through the teaching of His word and the times the kids will be challenged to spend time with God.

3.  Pray for God to build significant relationships that honor Him and transform lives – especially that kids would surrender their lives to Christ.  But we know that God want to work through all the relationships that will be forming at Fryathon.

Keep updated and follow this blog – BUT if I’m unable to get Internet access up at Lake Tulloch – well, you’ll just have to pray and hear about when we get back.  Hey, pray we’ll have Internet access!  God bless!

Oh, and here’s a cool picture of the cross in Ventura just to remind us to keep our eyes on Jesus!

We just had our Thursday morning prayer time for Team Romania from 6 – 7 am.  We had a guest with us who is a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators.  As we sharing our prayer needs she gave us the reminder that God generally has a mission or a purpose behind the mission that is much greater than what we may be doing.

That was a great reminder to trust God for what He is doing in our personal lives through our obedience to serve orphans in Romania so that He fulfills His mission of transforming us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

So, as you pray for Team Romania and all we will do, please make sure you pray that each of us will be open and willing to let God do His work in us for a greater mission ahead of us.

Tonight, the team will be meeting to finalize some baggage and travel issues.  What a great sacrifice we will make – to meet while game 7 of the Lakers and Celtics is going on!!  Lord bless our sacrifice!

By the way, here’s some artwork from Camp of the Good Shepherd in Romania.