2021
FEEDING THE HUNGRY
Crăciunel has 100 children that do not always have the food they need to eat. We are partnering with a local team to cook meals for the children there on a regular basis. This new feeding program is ready, it just needs to be funded. We are starting a fundraising campaign to encourage more people to provide monthly contributions (like you do) so we can permanently fund this program. We continue to help feed people in the poorest communities that cannot help themselves. Our last food drive in Sacele fed 14 widows and 2 young families whose fathers recently died. As our feeding program funding grows, we want to expand our services.
FAITH OUTREACH
It’s not enough to just provide people with basic needs, our mission is to also provide hope. Our Romania Program Director Pief not only oversees our construction and feeding projects, he is also a pastor at a church Vio built 20 years ago. Pief has partnered with other pastors to help preach the good news of Jesus Christ as we help people there. We are so blessed to have Pief and his wife Rebecca heading our efforts in Romania!
PRAISE GOD, WE HAVE CLEAN WATER FOR CRĂCIUNEL!
Our housing/shelter program has been focused on a small community of 22 families in Crăciunel. Their living conditions are the worst we have ever seen. Generous donations enabled us to dig two wells on either side of the village providing fresh water for everyone. Families no longer have to carry their drinking water from a polluted river! The completion of this project was a huge victory for us. The area is too remote for large well drilling rigs so more primitive methods had to be deployed. During the drilling operations, we discovered the ground under the village was not suited for the equipment we were forced to use. The wells collapsed before the casing could be installed. After the third attempt, the drilling operator gave up, we were devastated. He said there was nothing he could do. We all prayed that God would provide us with the knowledge and resources to complete our project. A week later, our contractor returned with new equipment and a successful plan to dig our wells. We are currently putting the finishing touches on the well heads so they will be completely operational. Our God is good!
Our work is far from finished there, we are helping to repair the mud and stick shacks many families live in so they can be better protected from the elements. (Some homes do not even have roofs and families are cooking on empty 55 gallon drums). As funds become available, we are providing metal roofs, plywood siding for interior walls and new wood cooking stoves where needed.
