The Director’s Cut
Steve writes : Sitting in the little village church in Cuptoare one Sunday morning I became conscious that I was witnessing something extraordinary. The team before me was not the same team that we had been working with last summer. They may have been the same people, but the level of skill, professionalism, enthusiasm and love was entirely different. If anything symbolises the past year, it is this impression.
A great deal of time and effort has been invested in training, equipping and encouraging team members in all our projects this year, and on this page you can read about some of the team’s experiences. “Investment” is an appropriate word to use in this context, because all that has been spent has yielded dividends beyond our expectations.
The Children’s Team spent a weekend in a lakeside retreat learning how to set up a children’s club, what games to use and when, types of craft activities, and how to tell stories. Almost immediately afterwards we started work in Cuptoare village, and week after week the team has proven that they are not only committed to this small community, but that they have the ability needed to help Church members to bring the Gospel into the homes of local people. The utlimate test of this has been the “Shipwrecked” holiday club, and a solid ten days of training, preparation and the clubs themselves, during which the team were truly stretched.
Similarly, the supervisors of the Clothing Bank (Claudia) and Befriending Team (Otilia) have been able to attend training conferences. Each benefited from residential courses with themes directly linked to their projects and needs, and it has been encouraging to hear just how much they have learned.
The Board has also completed the most challenging part of their preparation to date. Their Strategy document for 2009-10 has been drafted, not without some blood, sweat and tears, and we have a very good idea as to the potential development of the Casa Timotei project. This development process will benefit the Board in future decision-making.
The number of organisations with whom No.1 Baptist Church has had contact through the Casa Timotei project is over-whelming. We have strong reciprocal inks with the Church’s other major missions, including the Baptist High School, the Humanitas Pro Deo foundation, and the Gosen Youth Camp. We have been able to help the Primavara Centre for handicapped children, and a strong, friendly relationship exists with the social services department of the City Council.
But ultimately our vision is to win souls for Jesus by building authentic relationships, and it is our relationships with individual people that are of the highest importance : the family on the outskirts of the town who Bogdan and Lavinia have been visiting; the single mum in the run-down area of Mocior who has a tidy house but no money for food; the disabled school-girl invited to the holiday clubs and whose family is assisted through the Clothing Bank; the two boys living near the Church and who ask every week when the next club will take place. We have tried to show some of those intimate moments between our team members and our visitors in the photos.
This year has also been one of difficult decisions, the most difficult of which was Amanda and my decision to bring our time here in No.1 Baptist Church, and Casa Timotei in particular, to an end. Whilst it may have come as a surprise to many we believe it is the right decision for Casa Timotei and for us. We have greatly enjoyed our time working among the people of Reşiţa, and of course with the team. So sitting at the back of that little village church watching a competent, disciplined and enthusiastic team working with eager and loving children is a memory I will be holding on to for a long time to come.
The Befriending Team
Steve writes : The Casa Timotei vision statement is to win souls for Jesus by building authentic relationships, and it is these last two words that are the key for our Befrienders.
Otilia, working with her Befriending team, places a strong emphasis on personal witness, and most of the families we visit currently include at least one believer. Supporting believers who are part of a non-Church family is an important part of the team’s current ministry. Words are not enough however, and each pair of Befrienders looks for opportunities to demonstrate their genuine love for their new family by offering to meet material and social needs, as well as spiritual ones.
Each of the four families we currently visit has been introduced to us through one of our projects, or through a Church connection. The initial visit is always acompanied by a small gift, and whilst chatting the team attempt to learn something of their spiritual, material and social situation. This information helps us plan our response.
The two Befrienders making the initial visit discuss and pray about what they have seen and heard, and formulate a plan. Their response might include regular food gifts, credits for our Clothing Bank, recommendations for a visit from the Pastor, toys and games for the children, or simply social visits. Their plan is then discussed with the Otilia and the rest of the team at their monthly meeting. is way we can ensure a balanced response, using the experience and wisdom of other team members. The two Befrienders then visit their new family regularly, about twice a month.
The loving and warm way in which the Befriending team is welcomed in each home is clear evidence that Otilia’s project has come a long way in the past year, and they look forward eagerly to see these new relationships growing in a genuine and loving manner.
Training – in our own words
Otilia (Befrienders) writes : In February I participated in a training course led by the Biblical Counseling Center, where we discussed the basic elements of counseling : how to say “I care”; gathering information needed for counseling; how to understand that information; how to discover Bible-based solutions; and the Biblical model for change.
For me this course was very important, in that it clarified for me many Biblical truths. I understand better that the Bible, as the Word of God, is the resourse He has given us to rezolve any problem. In order to apply Biblical truths my mind needs to be transformed, to be constantly fed by the Word, because my actions should be as He expects.
Claudia (Clothing Bank) writes : In November I took part in a seminar organized by Ansit, an informal educational programme which compliments a more formal version offered through schools and universities. This seminar was held in Predeal, the highest mountain station in Romania (4,400 feet above sea level).
During this time I learned how to put together a project professionally : investment, budgets, partnership agreements, asset registers, statements of impartiality, CVs, financial reporting, etc. The theory parts were followed by a practical, where we were encouraged to use our imagination. Divided into groups we each worked on a project which we presented at the end of the seminar. Our project was encourage 30 high school students to use professional photography equipment to create a visual appreciation of local mountain countryside.
These were special days, in which I got to know some special young people, made some important contacts, and I arrived home with new ideas and understanding. I was pleased to be able to spend time on the mountainside, and in the fresh air.
Iosif writes : On the 4th and 5th September I went with other members of our Church to “The Rock on which I Stand” Conference for Creative Children's Workers, a national conference in Alba Iulia.
The theme of this conference was to train or to broaden the horizons of Sunday School teachers and leaders of Holiday Bible Clubs. Over these two days I was able to participate in many of the seminars which took place.
The seminar which had the greatest impact on me was “Creative Prayer.” I learned ways in which we can pray with children in a more captivating way. For example, the children can hunt for small pieces of paper on which are written prayer needs. When the child finds the paper they pray, and this continues until all the papers are found.
But what made the greatest mark was the fact that God spoke to me too. I learned that if we want to motivate children to pray we too should have a healthy prayer life.
I was thrilled to have had the chance to participate in this conference.
The Befriending Team
Claudia writes : Another year has passed for the Clothing Bank, a year which has been characterised by successes, and problems, through which I am pleased think to that we have grown in experience.
For seven of the past twelve months we continued to open the Clothing Bank for two hours in each week, welcoming four families during each hour. In May we began to open for eight hours a week, but with a reduction to three families an hour. We have more families to help, but besides our material resources, we have more time to spend with each family to talk and to listen, and to play with the children ...
Alongside the organisations with whom we work, i.e. the Primavara Centre, Humanitas Pro Deo foundation and the needs of our own No.1 Baptist Church, we have added the City Council. From their social services department we have received a list of poor families who now also receive credits. The greatest challenge is to work with families who come to us through the social services department, as the majority are from the gypsy community and therefore extremely poor, sometimes ungrateful and impolite. Our responsibility as a team is to make sure that those who arrive are those on our list, that is that they have a genuine need, and that they observe our request to be honest and polite with our team members. Those who are not can be removed from our list of needy families.
We have a number of visitors who are very open with us, sometimes sharing with us about their problems and at others their joys. Some of the children between the ages 7 and 10 years took part in the Holiday Bible Club held at the Church. The children from Humanitas Pro Deo are always happy when someone shows them some attention as they don’t always get it at home. Those from the Primăvara Centre, who are all handicapped in some way, feel loved and accepted by by those around them. The relationships we have started are being consolidated, and it happens that I occasionally meet some of our visitors in the street or in the market, and they always stop and want to talk, even if it’s just a for a few minutes. One of our families has begun to attend No.1 Baptist Church, and this September their girls have started in the Reception Class at the Baptist High School.
And the team has grown as well. We began the year with Vlasta, Oana, Răzvan and myself. During the year we have added Lenuţa, Marta and Rebeca. We want to serve, aware that we are doing it for the Lord, and even if we do not preach the Gospel we try to show Jesus to our visitors through our example and love.
Children’s Work
Steve writes : As the autumn began in earnest, so did our children’s work. For two years we have been building a team of children’s workers, equipped with the resources, experience and abilities needed to design, run and evaluate one-off or on-going children’s activities.
One of the successes of the “Champions” holiday club was a request from the Humanitas Pro Deo foundation to help them run a weekly children’s event. Each Wednesday four of our team and four young people from the Foundation organised a programme of games, teaching and craft activities for up to twenty children. The club ran from the Autumn through to the Spring, at which point Humanitas Pro Deo took overall responsibility for the club up to the Summer. Whereas we had run one group once a week, the HPD team increased this to three clubs every afternoon, culminating in an afternoon of activities in June to celebrate European Children’s Day.
Having demonstrated just how well they could work, No,1 Baptist Church asked the team to take on the Sunday School activities in the village of Cuptoare, where a small church had been planted. They have been working there ever since. The team must be flexible in their approach, as between five and fifteen children attend each week, aged from 4 years up to 12. One week we may be teaching the quietest of the children, and the following week the most lively all arrive. The team always rise to the challenge, and their success can be seen in the personal relationships with have been built. Each child has their favourite leader, and the reverse is probably true too. With a ratio that can often be 1-to-1, we have an excellent opportunity to put across the Bible message by giving each child the attention they need.
By investing in puppets, and thanks to a wonderful gift of a flannelgraph teaching set from Support for Romania, the team have learned new ways of teaching. Bob and Lucy appear from time to time, and the four fish (Goldie, Droopy, Ralphie and Bobby) have held the children enthralled during “Shipwrecked.” Dr Einstein makes an occasional appearance with her scientific experiments, and we have an excellent supply of children’s illustrated Bibles, with questions about each story. The team have the freedom to put across the teaching in an appropriate manner, and the children’s comprehension is tested by means of quiz questions and work sheets.
Highlights have included an interview with one of the lions from Daniel in the lions’ den (Razvan dressed in his best Sunday suit, with a tail and a painted face) and Joseph, the butler and the baker on a tv chat show (Iosif, Steve and Ion). Craft activities have included making a model of the cave where David hid from Saul, treasure chests, and a rainbow made from coloured hand prints.
Over the last six months the number of children attending has increased, and we have been reaching out to their families. Each programme begins with a Saturday afternoon club to which all the children of the village are invited, and through this we have won some new friends. Two children are brought each week by their mum, and some of the children have invited their friends. One Sunday we were pleasantly challenged by the arrival of a family of six, who were staying in their village with one of our regular families.
One church leader described our work in Cuptoare as “Great”, and this has become the first part of an exciting, organised plan for working and witnessing in the village. Church, team and children are being blessed by God.
Children’s Work – in my own words
Vlasta writes : I love to work with children and every Holiday Bible Club, including this year’s, has offered me the chance to work together with a super team. We had over twenty children, and even though some were hard to work with I know that God has worked in their lives in one way or another. We did craft work with them, played games and had a puppet theatre, learned some memory verses and heard stories from the Bible.
I was astonished when, an hour and a half before the start of the Club, children were already waiting impatiently outside the Church. This showed me that we are not working in vain and that God will bless this fully. I thank God for the honour which He has given me to work in the Casa Timotei team, in His team.
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