Hello Everyone! We hope you are all enjoying the New Year and are continuing to experience God’s love, hope, peace and joy! We have had an incredible last few months settling into Romania and beginning ministry. Though we will admit…our schedule has been less focused on settling in and more on ministry! December proved to be busier and more powerful than we could have ever imagined! We had church every night leading up to Christmas, then twice a day Dec 25-28, then twice a day for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s, and another week of church every night the first week of January. Paul preached over 15 times during this season and we helped lead 2 youth events. We had many opportunities to be a part of different church communities in the villages nearby as well as in people’s homes for lunches and dinners. It was a very busy season, which was very different from our Canadian Christmas experiences but we felt fortunate by how welcoming, caring and loving the people were to us.
As we’ve finally had time to think 
about December, there was no other way to describe our experiences other than to call it a month of inspiration! We had the opportunity to meet with different organizations and people in Romania who are doing amazing Kingdom advancing work. The stories we heard inspired us to not only see the incredible ways in which God is already working here but also to dream and think about how God will use Camp Falcon Rock with many of these existing ministries. From our experiences, we have learned more about the Christian movement among young people and the types of ministries needed to see lives changed. Here are a couple of the stories that inspired us:
Radic-te A free concert that saw over 10,000 young people packed into an arena. Over 300 singers and musicians led this event, accompanied by a powerful message of God’s love and grace. This event was envisioned by a Romanian pastor who had a dream 6 years ago to start a church that reached out, inspired and discipled young people. A part of this dream was to organize annual Evangelistic concerts. He currently pastors a church of 100 people that has found a way to run this incredible event.
Gypsy Ministries in the East of Romania. We met with a Pastor who 
pastors 8 churches all in Gypsy villages. One of the first churches he planted started out with him playing in the streets, his sound equipment getting stolen, people shouting at him as he preached, and threats from a local gang. A man in the village who spent time in jail for murder ended up standing up for the pastor and spoke against the threats he was receiving. Since that point, he has had respect in the village and even now has a building to use to run church services and programs!
The last half of January turned out to be an eventful time. We had a bit of scare one night when our boiler system (a wood stove that heats our home), exploded! Paul had been in the boiler room 3 seconds before it exploded but luckily had left to get some tools. Yet, from the explosion the power cut out, the basement doors were blown off and the basement windows shattered. Paul was thrown to the ground, knocked out of his shoes and soaked with the water from the boiler system (luckily it was the warm water not the boiling water). Paul is fine and came out of the situation with only a couple of cuts from the glass. We have since received incredible amounts of support from the village. We were welcomed into the home of our close friends Pastor Miki and his wife Jolan. It took about a week and half to get sorted out but we are now back in our house, safe and warm!
On another note, the last half of January was exciting because we received our Visas! We were nearing the end of our allowed time for visitation in Romania when our Visas arrived from the capital city, Bucharest. We look forward to the years ahead of ministry in Romania!
As for the ongoing work and development of the camp, we spent most of the last few months gathering information, applying for permits and educating ourselves on the Romanian building system. Our local partners Tamas and Tunde were incredible in handling and managing a lot of the necessary meetings with authorization institutions. They are a huge asset to this team and a vital piece to the development of the camp. The four of us have been growing well together as a team. This information has given us a clearer vision for what is ahead as we strategize and prepare to take the next steps. We feel more assured than ever in God’s provision in bringing us in contact with the right people at the right time. This next season will require a lot of research, paperwork and patience in navigating the Government regulations.
Thank you for the continued encouragement to us! We feel incredibly fortunate to have such a huge community joining us in this journey!
Tanya and Paul Gericke