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Happy Easter, everyone!
We hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend celebrating Jesus’ resurrection with your friends and family. As always, things have been full and meaningful over here with church services and gatherings.
On Good Friday, after our usual service, we gathered with the youth and young adults from Szentkiraly for our annual Passover meal celebration. As we reflected on the significance of this tradition and how it reminds us of God’s faithfulness, we were deeply moved to realize how faithful He has been to us as a group over the past 11 years. It’s wild to think back to our first Easter in Romania in 2015 and see how far we’ve all come. As we looked back together, we were filled with gratitude for the good work Jesus has done in each of our lives—both individually and as a community. Check out some pictures from that very first Passover meal in Romania in 2015!
Farm to Field Mission Team
Just before Easter, we welcomed our first construction team of the year—our annual Farm to Field team, led by Chad and Joanne Merrifield. They’ve faithfully come every year to help us get ready for summer camps. This time, they brought a group of students from Edson Christian School, a partnership we’ve been building over the past three years. This year’s team included six students (grades 10–12) and a teacher. Their time was a mix of construction work at the main lodge and youth programs in our partnering villages. They accomplished so much—finishing the lodge patio and decking— and also took part in hands-on ministry, including a Teens Day at the camp!
Ladies Conference
While the team was here, I (Tanya) had the honor of speaking at our district’s annual Ladies Conference. It was a blessing to serve alongside the Hungarian Baptist Conference women’s ministry team. We were amazed to see over 250 women attend! The theme was “Doubts and Triumphs,” and two members of the Farm to Field team shared powerful testimonies about how they’ve seen God move through both seasons in their lives.
Art Workshop at Camp Falcon Rock
After the team left, we were joined by Ron and Donna—friends of Vern and Gloria Wagner. Donna, an accomplished artist, offered her gifts to run our camp’s first-ever art workshop. It was an incredible day that brought out young and old, women and men for an afternoon of painting inspired by the campgrounds. By the end, we had a collection of beautiful landscape pieces—especially of our iconic campfire scene!
Construction Progress
Work on the main lodge continues, with the goal of completing the second-floor dining hall and bathrooms before camps begin this summer. This past month, the crew has plastered the walls, leveled the cement floor, roughed in the bathrooms, and installed wood beams. The space continues to amaze us with how spacious and beautiful it is—we can’t wait to fill it with campers again! Seeing the Farm to Field team’s help finishing the exterior makes us excited to see the interior coming together, too.
Summer Camps on the Horizon
In the middle of everything else, summer camp planning is in full swing. Our amazing local team, Miriam and Robi, are taking the lead this year, and we’re thrilled to share that all our camps are fully booked! Some of our long-time campers are now aging into our youth camps, and it’s such a joy to see how they’ve grown over the years.
We’re also grateful to have a fantastic team of volunteers joining us this summer both locally from Romania and internationally from Canada and the US. It’s shaping up to be an incredible season of ministry!