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Praise be to God that we have arrived safely in Romania! God’s sovereignty still came through as we herded 13 suitcases through airports with no hitches. When we got to the border crossing, we were asked to park and wait for 40 minutes. Luckily, after the wait the border guard simply handed us our passports and told us we were good to go! Even with the impatience of waiting – God is still going ahead of us and clearing the trail.
The first few weeks we were busy setting up our home here in Szentkiraly; we are living in the old pastor’s house attached to the old Baptist Church.
We have been welcomed with open arms into the Baptist church here in Szentkiraly as they prayed for us – it doesn’t matter that we could not understand the prayers, we felt very loved, blessed, and part of the church family.
We have taken part in village life as we have butchered a pig, made homemade noodles and donuts, Vern got to go to the forest to collect wood and helped Paul chop for the winter fires, had a “fresh” turkey for a Canadian Christmas Dinner, and barbecued ribs (from our pig) for New Year’s Eve Dinner.
Vern has been able to spend some days at Camp Falcon Rock and is excited to be part of the development of this camp. He has been plugging away at the plumbing in the girls bathroom. The camp team and board also made the decision to renovate an existing house on the property that originally was going to be demolished. In the months ahead, there will be a lot of work for Vern on this project! The nice thing about having this house is it will serve as a good space for workers to stay and live on property at camp. Gloria was able to spend a day at camp helping Tunde (the camp administrator) clean to get ready for a rental. It feels good to be in camp ministry again. It was also neat for Gloria to get to help out with Christmas events for the kids and teens like the English class Christmas party, the Christmas pageant costumes, and the kids Christmas event day in the village.
Christmas is a very important part of church life here. The youth and young adults spend time singing carols in this village and neighbouring villages as a way to reach out to those who do not know Christ. We were invited into many homes to share meals over the holidays and added a few more words to our Hungarian vocabulary. We are truly blessed to be part of this warm, caring village.
Vern & Gloria spent the night at Camp Falcon Rock on January 27 to keep the fires burning so the youth could come spend the day at the camp for sledding! We had the idea to buy some old tire tubes to give the teens another option for sledding. The teens had never seen nor been tubing before! Quickly they all ditched their sleds and the tubing turned into quite the hit! After everyone was “tubed-out,” Gloria had prepared a warm pot of chili (something which they had never tried before) and then the Gerickes and Pastor Iain led a youth program. A fun time was had by all.
The coming months look busy as construction at the camp ramps up. We will also help prepare for mission teams arriving from North America who will be helping with construction at the camp and the summer programs. There will be a mission team here every month from February through July!
Thank you for your prayers and support as we serve God with the Camp Falcon Rock team.
In Him
Vern & Gloria Wagner