CHILDRENS EVANGELISM CHRISTMAS PROGRAM & CHRISTMAS AT CASA SANCTUARY

Two Saturdays prior to Christmas, we spent the day with children's outreaches.
The first was an evangelical program of the Christmas Story (Christ's Birth) - attended by over 400 children.
At the end of the program, each child received a gift bag - many of the bags contained hats/scarves provided by the Stitches of Love ministry at CCEA.  Others received small stuffed animals, also donated by friends.

The late afternoon/evening was spent with our friends at the Casa Sanctuary orphanage.
Once again, the Lord was faithful to provide each child with a Christmas present (from Romanian families), and each one received a special blanket, handmade by the ladies of Stitches of Love.
We played games and had pizza, it was a very blessed time.

Our family spent Christmas Eve with the children and staff of Casa Sanctuary, and Coleen & Elli returned on December 26 to decorate Christmas cookies with the younger children (Christmas lasts for several days here - its awesome).

We are so blessed in what God is doing, and the many doors He opens for us to share Jesus.

CHRISTMAS/FOOD OUTREACHES TO ROMA GYPSY COMMUNITY

There are different "clans" of gypsies.
The "Roma" gypsies; they are famous all over Europe; known mostly as thieves and beggars, and most live in extreme poverty.

The "Gabor" gypsies are usually very clean, tight knit, and work by selling second hand clothing and metal products (rain gutters, funnels, and more).  Many "Gabor" gypsies go to church; most in their own churches (they are very discriminated against in mainstream churches), and many others are "Seventh Day Adventist".

Sadly, the Roma gypsies often live the way the do by choice.  The government offers their children a meal at school if they will attend, and yet they chose to not enroll the children; most are forced to work or beg at very young ages.

By the age of 11-13, the girls are either sold off in marriage or connected with young man in their community (most are never legally married), and are mothers by the very same age.

Even more sad is that gypsies are treated so very poorly here.  Like they dont even matter.
They matter to Jesus.
As a matter of fact, they are the very "types" of people He came to save.

The Lord has opened several doors for us to reach the ROMA gypsies; one is thru our friends feeding/Bible study programs to the children in these villages.  He has also provided hats and scarves from the CCEA Stitches of Love ministry, that provide a "bridge of connection" into several ROMA gypsy communities.

The Sunday prior to Christmas, we were able to return to the village of Silivas to distribute food boxes, fruit and candies.  As soon as word spread we were there, they came flooding...took under 2 minutes - they see the cars coming and follow us to the distribution center.

We arent always able to take photos in these communities.  Some of the gypsies dont want to be photographed, and in other situations its just not wise to take a phone or camera there.

We were able to get some photos of the outreaches to the Silivas community.