Dear Friends,

We want to thank you for your generosity in praying for us and supporting us, especially in the past few

months.

Our camp went great. Many of you sponsored

a child for camp, which helped us bring 36

kids. The theme for the camp was Friendship

with God and with Others. Although we had a

lot of rain during the week, it didn’t stop us.

The kids rode horseback, played soccer,

jumped on the trampoline and hiked to the

waterfall. As usual, I had boys in my room

that talked and walked in their sleep – but no

injuries. We are thankful for the week and

witnessed marked change in their thoughts

and behavior through this intense time

together. We were grateful to have my mom

and John with us for the week…and then for a

week of vacation on the Black Sea.

This year we had our community retreat in

the autumn. It was the first time that we

invited someone from outside the community

to lead the retreat. We had two sisters from

the Jesuit order lead us through reflections

and prayer on our vocation. It was a rich and

energizing time. We also celebrated the 10

year anniversaries of both Fani and Lenutsa’s

involvement with Word Made Flesh Romania.

I think that they both felt honored and

celebrated. I know that they are thankful to

those that sent written notes, pictures and

gifts for them. Thank you for participating in

this.

In August, we also entered into a 5-month

project with a partner organization in Galati.

The goal of the project is to prevent dropping out of school

through a 4 hour Saturday School and to reintegrate drop-outs

through a Second Chance program. We have Eugen involved as the

Saturday school educator, Oana involved as social worker, and

Lenutsa involved as psychologist. Along with the regular meetings

with the youth, there are also weekly meetings and counseling

sessions with the parents. The project is financed by the European

Union, which means that there is a lot of paper work. Please pray

for energy and wisdom for the staff involved and that the project would truly help the kids and their

parents in their long-term development.

With the launching of the new school year, we integrated 10 new children into our Community Center.

Please pray for their healthy integration in the Center, for stability in their participation, and that

these first steps would help them move toward a better future.

In September, we also re-launched our weekly

meetings with young mothers. Cristina is leading

this meeting. We have 7 mothers that are

coming consistently. You can pray that these

discussions help the mothers to make decisions

that positively affect their relationships and

actions with their children.

Over the last few years, we have invested a lot

of time and energy into applying for grants and

awards. Up to now, we were unsuccessful. This

summer our project Schimbare prin Implicare

(Change through Involvement) placed in the top 10 vote-getters for the Metro Stars award. That was the

first stage. Thank you to all the voted for the project through facebook – even if you couldn’t understand

Romanian. Because of you we passed this first phase. The top 10 projects were invited to Bucharest for

the award ceremony. To our surprise, we won first prize! That means 30 000 RON! With this money, we

plan to build a kitchen extension onto the Day Center in the village, which will help us to certify our

services there. This is a big project, and we are happy to get started

on it.

In September, I participated in a training for facilitators of Best

Year Yet, which hopefully will help our organization in its

evaluation and tactical planning, as well as open some different

doors to ways that we can offer services to the local business

community.

After the training, I traveled to the UK where I did 4 presentations,

participated in a golf fundraiser, and preached in 2 churches. If you

are interested in listening to one of these messages, you can do

that by clicking here: Kingsway Christian Fellowship. I also visited

some similar projects to WMF that are doing community

development in the UK and looked into the possibility of doing

some more study with a university in England. Now, I just have to

decide if I want to dive into a few more years of study. Please pray for wisdom.

Speaking of studies, Lenutsa enrolled in an MA program for counseling at a university in Bucharest. She

is excited about the program. Pray that she will be able to organize her time so as to balance all her

responsibilities and her studies.

There are a few additional things that I would ask you to pray for:

- We need to raise at least another $5000 to go along with the Metro award in order to construct the

kitchen extension (installing a more powerful electric cable, kitchen counters, fireproofing,

appliances, etc.)

- We need to raise $1000 for the year for the young mothers’ program. Along with snacks and

materials, we are helping them to buy diapers and other necessities for their children that they just

cannot afford. Would you consider making a donation to help with these developments and pray

that the necessary funds come in?

- We are organizing an event to both celebrate and build our partnerships with local businesses and

institutions. Please pray that the business leaders in our city would be attracted to our activities

and want to get further involved.

- Finally, please pray for our administrative team. We are filling out the long and complex application

for accreditation. We are preparing for a government financial audit. We are preparing our facilities

for the winter. And we are managing the EU project and the prize money from Metro. Please pray

for clarity of thought, for the ability to stick to our priorities, and for efficient work.

Grateful for your participation in the work in Romania,

david and lenutsa