PHILADELPHIA HOUSE CHILDREN S HOME

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1 ASOCIATIA ANDEMOS PHILADELPHIA HOUSE CHILDREN S HOME Dear friends, It is a blessing for us to be able to bring you up to date with the latest developments at Casa Philadelphia. As we near the end of 2018 we look back with gratitude to over 4 years of blessings which God has poured upon our ministry through you all! We are extremely thankful for standing by us both in happy times and in times of need. Many were the problems we faced since we opened the Casa Philadelphia in the spring of 2014 but we always found solace in the fact that we were not alone! Your dedication and thoughtfulness, your loving and constant generosity never cease to amaze us and lead us to thank God for, in His Grace, He chose to place you alongside us and our ministry! We started the year with eight children but here we are now at the end of 2018 with only 5. The three siblings from Uricani: Edi, Sonia and Bogdan were entrusted to their parents for the Christmas holidays, at their parents request, but, also, with the intention of assessing their compatibility with their parents, freshly out of prison. We were quite reluctant to let them go, as we knew that if they decided to stay their lives would be altered for ever and not for the better! To his credit, though, it must be said that their father got a job with the local council, renovated the one-bedroom flat they used to live in and did all he could to offer his kids a decent environment. As we feared, at the end of the school holidays the kids decided to stay with their parents and the Social Services considered that it was in the children s best interest to be placed back in the family! It was, also, decided that they would be monitored until the

2 beginning of June and, following a positive recommendation at the end of the respective period they were entrusted definitively to their parents. We were really sorry to see them go as we really loved them (we love all of them indiscriminately) and the separation was not an easy one at all! The most emotional moment was when Bogdan, went, by his own initiative, to each of the other kids, kissed them and in his special language, asked them if they were going to miss him! At the beginning of the summer we (Monica, Neli and myself) paid them a visit in Uricani, loaded with toys, food and clothing plus a small financial gift, just to see how they adjusted to their new life. The visit was not one we really looked forward to as we hated the idea to meet them and then leave without them but we really missed them so we had to do it! We found them decently looked after but Edi was quite sulky and withdrawn, Bogdan reasonably happy to see us while Sonia was quite sad. We were talking about their attitudes and discussing their reactions to our visit after we returned to Salas and we all concluded that Sonia would have liked to have come back to us. In Salas she was always an attention-grabber, always the main person in the room and here she was, all of a sudden, just a little girl mostly ignored by everybody else! We had planned to see them again by the end of the year but the Social Services are not too happy about that because they think that the kids should not be torn between us and their parents, so we ll see what we shall do in the future. As to the other kids we have been working hard with them, helping them to adjust to the new situation and, although at the beginning they kept talking about Edi, Sonia and Bogdan with tears in their eyes, they can now talk and reminisce about them in a more detached mood. They are enjoying right now a well deserved inter-semestrial school break and although they are really excited to be able to spend some time riding their bikes or somersaulting on the new trampoline they got recently, they are quite eager to get back to school and their friends. They are doing very well in school and, (with the exception of Iustin, who in spite of the fact that he made some visible progress still needs to learn to better function in a community) they are quite organized and meticulous.

3 Claudiu is really sharp and he can read and write like an adult. He is very good at maths, too, and is a little boy that is very easygoing. He is riding his bike every day and is always eager to fix something around the house. A very neat and meticulous young man he is always finding something to do on his own initiative and we are very pleased with his overall attitude! Denisa and Gabriel are proudly wearing their glasses (with Gabriel having new ones made) and are really happy and very well behaved (actually Gabriel is probably the best behaved of all). They are both enjoying school as well and are very playful and cute. We are amazed at how fast they are maturing and at the level of their conversation with adults. They are soaking new information and while Denisa loves to play with her baby toys, dressing and undressing them ad nausea, Gabriel loves to watch (and play) football on TV. Daniel (in the picture with Robert, his best friend on Daniel s birthday) is quite a profound young man (he turned 17 in July) very keen on history, politics and geography! He s doing very well at Romanian literature and grammar and many other classes but Mathematics! A fierce nationalist (notice his cake!), he still thinks he can become a very good president of Romania! Both he and the other kids really enjoy going to church and are now becoming quite active. Daniel is now reading Bible verses in church on a regular basis while the other four kids are singing and reciting poems! He had to have his eyes tested and we had to buy him glasses, too but we had to work really hard to make him understand he has to wear them as he thinks his school mates would laugh at him! Of course that is not the case but Daniel is very careful with the image he projects of himself! He is also a great help around the house, always mowing the grass or carrying wood for the fire, during the fall and winter. Through his rather authoritarian attitude he seems like a big brother to all the other kids. As to Iustin he is quite a smart kid, but always the dreamer and still living in his dinosaur populated, fantastic world! He could do very well at school but he has difficulties focusing on his homework. If you asked me he has all the prerequisites of a poet!!! He is

4 Neli s favourite (Denisa being Sorina s) and he knows that so we have to work hard to despoil him every now and then! Recently, during the entire month of October, we celebrated the Harvest Festival in all the five churches and the kids, being guests of honour were involved in all the church services, singing and reciting poems and Bible verses; they were treated very well and had a great time. We organized, in every church, a post-service meal with all the people in the churches and, with the help of a superb weather (even now as I write the temperature is 23 Celsius!!!) all of us sat down outdoors and enjoyed a lovely fellowship. All of the kids have got their own bikes now, play outside a lot everyday and were extremely happy (this is becoming a regular summer treat!) to be offered a day in Geoagiu at the end of August! They were in the water for about 8 hours!!! with a short break for lunch! So, thank you everyone for making this fun day possible every year! As in every newsletter I have sent, I cannot end without mentioning the fantastic job Neli, Sorina and Monica are doing, considering the constant effort of cooking, cleaning the place, playing with the kids, doing the homeworks and taking care of their education. We all treat them like they are our own kids and that takes a lot of effort and energy. Please pray for them and for more strength and health so that they can keep doing the good work! Also, please pray that we will be able to find a little girl to add to the pack as Denisa is quite desperate for a room-mate! We were contacted recently by a lady from the Social Services in Deva and were told that an 11 year old girl might need to be put into foster care as she is being abused by her father. Before they do that, however, they are going to see if any of her relatives are willing to care for her and, if not, we are the next option for them! We have been trying for a couple of years to put a fence round the property as animals keep trespassing, plus it would increase the security of the home but, though we were able to buy the wood for the fencing, due to unexpected other expenses, we couldn t finalize this

5 project. This, coupled with the need for a central heating boiler (the one we are using right now is creating lots of problems) are the two main future investments that we need you to keep praying for, as well! We are sure that, in His time, God will see to all our needs and that He is always faithful but we are, also, extremely grateful for your steadfast support and for the love you have shown these kids over all these years and we pray that God will bless you as you have blessed us! Salasu de Sus, October, 2018