Women's Retreat. End of January our church had the annual Women's Retreat representing eight countries. We were hosted by a Christian lodge called, Casa Elim. It's nestled smack in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains. The theme for the weekend away was focused on The Word of God. Alongside two other ladies from the church, Naty had the opportunity to teach one seminar called, Quiet Time, A Refreshing Adventure; she also lead worship. On top of enjoying great teaching, singing and adding a few pounds from the delicious meals, the ladies had a blast sledding and having a holy and acceptable snow fight.
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| During a teaching session |
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| Naty in her comfort zone |
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| Freezing smiles before take-off |
Connecting Meal. About every 6 weeks, the church organizes a meal to connect people we know in the community with the church. It's also, a wonderful opportunity for new-comers to get to know our church. Each time we meet at a different type of restaurant. This time it was a Thai food and everyone had a great time.
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| Enjoying Thai spicy food with our neighbor and her daughter |
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| Always excited to eat and share
Birthdays. We enjoyed three birthdays in February and the beginning of March. Then we had to go on a diet.
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| Yeap. Naty's 5 again! |
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| Most birthday cards reassured Bill he's still young. |
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| Mina's choice of homemade raspberry cake at school |
IBC Women's Conference, Germany. Naty had the privilege to be invited to the annual women's conference in Rehe, Germany to hold a seminar. The theme for the conference was Unshakeable. The main speaker was Kim Blackaby. Naty's seminar was on How To Stay Sane When Problems Snowball. She also had the chance to sell about 40 of the children's books she wrote on adoption for our girls. We praise God for the opportunity to reach out even more internationally in this way.
Naty sharing in one of her seminars
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| Over 220 ladies attended from over 20 cultures |
Family Church Retreat. Each year we take a two-hour-and-a-half ride for a Family Church Retreat in the Romanian Mountains. Even though, this year we were blessed with a very wet weekend, everyone had a wonderful time connecting, playing games, hiking, laughing and worshipping together.
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| Most of our group |
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| A glimpse of the weather and the mountains |
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| Lots of team building |
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| We even made the kids chase colorful eggs in the rain
Easter When Easter came, the church had lots of visitors. The children put a smile on everyone's face with their special Easter program. After the service we had a pot-luck lunch, including some of the best Romanian cuisine, sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls with rice and meat). Immediately after the service we drove five hours to Moldova to catch the evening Easter service. God must have slowed down time, because we got there right on time. Our girls joined grandma's (Naty's mom) children's choir.
Bill preaching Easter Sunday.
The kiddos singing I Am A Promise
First the savory, then the sweets. And then we diet some more.
With Naty's parents (and Lidia's sister in the back)
Light Into Europe is a charity run by one of our elders, a former British pilot. His family is trying to reach blind and deaf people in Romania. We have been invited to participate in their fund-raising events to connect and build bridges for the Gospel within the community in which they serve (ambassadors, business people, CEO's, school principles etc.). In 2019 we've already participated in two of these events, more coming up soon. We praise God to have seen some fruit from attending these events.
At times we clean up good.
The traditional grace given by Pastor Bill to start off the event.
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