Life In Romania

Moving into 2012!!

2012-01-23T15:11:00.000+02:00

As the New Year started out Mike was invited to a retreat with a church from Ploiesti to speak to their youth on relationships with parents, professors and church leaders.

It was a wonderful weekend full of hikes in the mountains, fun in the snow and great discussions as students wrestled with applying Biblical principles to their relationships.

I, Mike, was very encouraged by the fact that in the leadership of this group there are 6 people who had been involved with the student ministry in Ploiesti and were now were integrated into a local church and are using their gifts to serve university and high school students. It gave me a sense of how the student ministry across Romania is truly helping to prepare students to enter the church and serve there. Please pray that each year students would graduate from the university and seek ways to serve in their local church!

2011-12-24T23:41:00.000+02:00

Wishing all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Joy to the World the LORD has come! Immanuel (God with us) is now here!

Love,
The Yorks

Fall: The New University Year begins!

2011-11-10T19:35:00.002+02:00

For the past few years at the beginning of the year once a week we open up our small apartment and have students in our home to help new folks get integrated into the student group and give them all a time to interact in a relaxed atmosphere! We usually have pigs in a blanket, snacks, games and a video relating to our relationship with God

Razvan in the black tee shirt we have know since he was 14 years old and was a high school student in Pitesti and involved in the group there. Now he is in his first year at the university in Bucharest!

Beni, also from Pitesti, introduces himself at the special meeting for Freshman.

Kris meets with a group of women throughout the year to celebrate birthdays. Most of the women here we have known since our first year in Romania!!

Formacion (Training Conference)

2011-10-04T15:15:00.001+03:00

From Sept. 11-21 we held our first intensive Discipleship Training Conference for OSCER that we called Formacion. We brought together 40 students from 7 cities across Romania

Each day we met in our discipleship groups of 3-4 people. Here we would study from Galatians and then have a discipleship lesson. The lessons focused on helping someone get grounded in their faith. Then in the afternoons we had seminars or team building games.

Working in a team with some impediments caused the students to feel frustration and rely on new or creative ways to communicate and work through different issues!

On the last day we got to do a high rope course at the camp. It was an exercise in perseverance as well as the importance of encouraging other as they work through a difficulty.

Summer Camp with OSCPi

2011-08-02T22:01:00.000+03:00

The setting was perfect, the weather was perfect and it was exciting to see God work during the Summer Adventure camp with students from Pitesti.

Adventure

We had two full days of Adventure activities, which included repelling, rock climbing and zip-line. Many of the students had some fear of heights and they were able to overcome their fears to participate in the activities.

Rebekah overcame her fear to repel down the mountain!

Hannah Zips down the Zip-Line

Water Fun!

More Fun!

OSCEB Summer Camp

2011-07-25T22:40:00.000+03:00

Days 4 & 5

We continued through the week with a small group Bible study on Mark 2. Unfortunately, this was the night with the lowest attendance. We did however have good discussions with the students that came.

Day 5

The board games evening was a BIG hit!! We had games for everyone's liking. Fast games and slower more methodical ones. Since it was so hot the water gun fight at the end of the night was one of the highlights.

Day 6

We met in the park on one of the hottest days of the summer yet. We wondered how many students would brave the ultra high temperatures, and if we could stand the heat to actually grill ALL the meat!!

We arrived early to reserve a pavilion to have some shade and there was absolutely no one in the park. But as it got closer to evening the temperature slowly began to lower and students began to show up!!

We had the biggest crowd yet and a number of students invited friends. There was plenty of food and fun in the park. I think that the water balloon game was the most exciting as the balloons flew we tried to keep things under control! Overall the week long camp in the city was a success and we reached more students than the camp in the mountains would have reached. Please pray as we try to organize more events this summer in the city to get students together.

Day 3: OSCEB English/Adventrue Camp 2011

2011-07-14T12:26:00.004+03:00

Even with very hot temperatures in Bucuresti and the lack of a beautiful mountain setting we have been encouraged with participation of students in our "city" camp so far this week!!

Tuesday

We met for a night of fun and games. Because of the fact that we live in Romania and things here don't always work out the way we plan it was no big deal when the electricity stopped exactly when we needed to use our electric frying pan to see who had made the best American style pancakes. It was par for the course, so the bakers went to our teammates house (5 minute walk), made the pancakes, and returned for the tasters to announce the winners. Other than a few strange looks by passersby the night was enjoyed by all.

In round two three teams competed to make "American Pancakes" without a recipe and just the ingredients laid out before them.

Wednesday

We transformed our living room into a cinema with pillows and bean bags as well as snacks for a movie night. We chose the movie Les Miserable because the themes of grace, redemption, and law are beautifully woven into it. The discussion afterwards was thought provoking as students grappled with the ideas of unmerited grace and how that can change one's life like Jean Valjean from the story. Mike concluded the evening by showing how the grace of God in Christ can change our lives when we turn to Him for forgiveness.

Summer Camp 2011 In Bucuresti

2011-07-12T15:54:00.000+03:00

In the spring the Bucharest leadership team began planning English/Adventure Camp 2011. We had noticed a progressive decline in the number of students coming to camp in the past years, especially after Romania joined the European Union. The students of today are looking to get a job or an internship in the summer and not too many have the time or financial resources to go to camp in mid-July. This year it really showed when we had only a hand full of students and their friends registered for camp, and then just days before we were to leave most of those invited by the Christian students had to cancel for one reason or another. So we were left to just hold a camp with a few Christian students. Since this was not our goal, the Lord gave us some creative ideas to try here in Bucharest each evening this week.

We started out on Monday night with a Progressive Dinner. We had the main course at our apartment and we squeezed 20 students into the living room for a Lasagna, salad and garlic bread dinner. The students had a great time and we ate well. Most said it was the "best camp food they ever ate!"

For the appetizer we enjoyed "mushroom pie" a true Romanian treat! It's not a sweet pie, but so delicious!

Then it was on to our house for the main course. It had been a hot day and then packing in over 20 students made it like a sauna in our living room!

Lastly we arrived for dessert of Carrot cake, apple cake and ice cream!

Spring in Review

2011-06-15T12:53:00.000+03:00

This spring there were many activities in our lives both at school and in OSCEB.

Alice In Wonderland

Rebekah was chosen as one of the narrators for the play this spring. All the students worked hard memorizing lines and making all the sets (Hannah helped with the painting!) They were able to perform the show for one night only and it was wonderful!

BCA Basketball

This spring there was the re-appearance of the BCA basketball team. Andrew had his first taste at really playing a team sport and the discipline of weekly practice. We had 12 guys come out to play! Mike got to help out as an assistant coach. In May we had a mini-basketball camp to see if there was enough interest for a team for next year. The interest is high so we will see how they do when the season starts!

Parks

Hannah loves to go to the parks and be in nature. She works hard in school and loves to relax in the park during the weekend with friends!! They enjoy renting bikes or boats and spending time together.

OSCEB

The Bucharest students returned to the dorms as the weather got warmer offering free Bibles and other Christian books to students. We would go and set up the table in a public area near the dorms and then engage students in a discussion when they stopped to look at what we were giving away. Each year fewer students stop to talk, but every now and then we do get into good conversation with students. But it seems fewer students want to continue discussing the Bible in some form of a study. One day we had the table by a busy road and a bus driver stopped when he saw the table, got out of his bus and asked for a Bible. As he returned to the bus an older women knocked on the window because she wanted a Bible as well!

OSCER Spring Leaders Meeting April 2011

2011-05-02T14:03:00.000+03:00

7-10 April, 25 student leaders and staff met for 3 days of meetings in Azuga up in the mountains. We had some wonderful discussions hearing from some of our board members as they shared stories from the beginnings of OSCER. Gelu, our board chairman, shared from his days as a student during communism of how students risked to meet together and reach out to others with the Gospel during those difficult days.

We also spent one evening talking about the chain of discipleship relationships and how these helped the student work to grow around the country in the "early days". It was extremely encouraging to hear how God worked in one city and helped a group to start up and then how that group saw they could then go to a new city and begin to invest there and see a student group get started.

Saturday afternoon we took off to visit the old fortress at Rasnov. It was a beautiful day and a welcomed change as we had been sitting and meeting for a day and a half straight!

Our last night we had the traditional celebration of Slanina (pig fat), onions, bread and garlic!! WOW pass the listerine!!

OSCEB Ski Camp Feb. 2011

2011-03-09T11:25:00.000+02:00

This year our ski camp was held at Azuga, just a few hours north of Bucuresti. We spent four days on the slopes, but there was very little real snow. I, Mike was in the intermediate class and here we are with our instructor Dan, in red. Dan was a student in OSCEB a number of years ago!!

One day we did get snow at the top of the mountain and it was pretty foggy!! Here we are getting ready to head down the mountain.

Loredana, staff in Bucharest, does well skiing. Here she shows how she can slalom in-between the others!

Sara has just joined us from the US and will be working with OSCER for the next two years at least. She has only be here for about 2 weeks and is doing great learning the language. She was here on a summer team in 2008.

Here the beginners spend their first day learning the basics of skiing! By the end of the day they had mastered the snow plow to stop!!

Christmas Time is Here!

2010-12-25T14:44:00.001+02:00

Each year there are many activities happening as Christmas approaches. Here are a few that we have been involved with:

OSCEB Christmas Concert

Once again the students in Bucharest hosted a Christmas carol concert. For 2 weeks before the concert the students went through many of the dorms doing a survey with students and inviting them to the concert. They found students open and often had great in-depth talks with the students about the Gospel, but we find it very hard to motivate them to come to a meeting or study to discuss more about Christianity. Please pray for us to have insight into how to reach this new generation of student in Romania.

We also passed out over 4000 invitations to the concert and were pleased that about 300 students came to listen to the Carols and a short message.

Other Student Groups

This month Mike was asked to speak in Pitesti to the students, about the topic "Who is celebrated at Christmas?" It was a good meeting with both university and high school students in the group. The meeting was a week before their big outreach meeting that attracted many students.

We both traveled to the city of Craiova to visit the student group there. They had a big outreach meeting with about 120 students in attendance. One extremely encouraging thing was to see how the churches have come together to support the student group. They had students from four different churches, which is a great step forward for the group. Please pray for unity as the churches work together to reach students in their city!

BCA Christmas Program

The students at BCA had a fun Christmas program as they presented an adaptation of the Christmas story with songs from the group 'ABBA,' changed to reflect the Christmas message of Christ's birth. Rebekah played the part of the innkeeper's wife as well as one of the angels that appeared to the shepherds. To see more pictures click here

Caroling in Romania

On Dec. 23 we went caroling with some friends to other friends of ours in the city. We had a great time singing in the apartment building hallways, where there are beautiful echos. We must have sounded pretty good as people we didn't even know handed us money and said we sounded good. The tradition in Romania is that you carol people and they give you a treat or sometimes money! We enjoyed mandarins, cookies and chocolates!! It was a fun evening.

OSCER National Conference 2010 ReImagine the Christian Student

2010-11-24T19:43:00.000+02:00

Nov. 11-14, we had our first national conference in 5 years. We inaugurated the "Imagine" conferences that we plan to hold every two years. Our Conference theme this year was the Gospel, and the three main talks where "What is the Gospel?", "The Gospel and Me", and "The Gospel and Others". Each talk was well presented and we had small groups after each talk to help the students process the information.

Kris was asked to present "The Gospel and me" where she focused on our need to "preach the Gospel to ourselves daily and to battle with the sin in our life.

The conference took place in a beautiful location in the north-western part of Romania. One highlight was our service time on Saturday afternoon. We split up into teams and were given jobs to do around the conference center. It was a small way that we could serve. Here are some pictures of the jobs we were involved in!

Overall, we were very encouraged by the conference and look forward to how we can develop this conference and make it a much anticipated event every 2 years.

We were greatly encouraged that many students from Bucharest were able to attend since we had to travel the furthest.

The first evening we had some games to get to know each other!

The times of worship were led by a Romania Christian group Decean.

Thank you for your prayers!

OSCER National Conference

2010-10-20T19:42:00.000+03:00

Please pray along with us for the upcoming OSCER National Conference "Re-imagine the Christian Student"! It will take place 11-14 Nov. We are praying for 150 students to participate in this conference from the 10 groups across Romania. The theme will be the Gospel, with talks focused on "What is the Gospel?", "The Gospel and Me" and "The Gospel and Others". We will also have a variety of seminars centered around Understanding today's culture, and motivating students in evangelism and discipleship.

Please be in prayer for us and the conference as we work at organizing all the details of the conference as well as raising up the deficit of the conference budget, which is about 2,000 euros. If you are interested in giving to help out you can send a tax deductible donation by check made payable to IFES/USA and designated for OSCER: IFES Romania and mail to:

IFES/USA

PO Box 748

Monument, CO 80132

Thank you!

Summer Fun!

2010-09-02T16:08:00.000+03:00

This summer we had several trips to the mountains. At the beginning of the summer we
spent a week with a dear friend we work with at her parents vacation house in the west of Romania.

Visiting the Romanian "Mount Rushmore" alongside the Danube River!! (It's really the face of Decebal, one of the early Romanian rulers)

A picnic alongside the Danube (that's Serbia across the river!)

Swimming in a naturally heated pool (heated by a hot spring)

In early July we spent a week camping with some friends and saw very beautiful areas of Romania!!

Inside the "Bear cave" in the north-west of Romania!

Blueberry picking!!

On the Trans-Fagarasan Road where there was snow at the top in July!!

Along the highest road in Romania (over 2,200 meters high)

2010 University Year ends & 20 Year celebration of OSCEB!

2010-06-28T17:24:00.000+03:00

Each year we celebrate the seniors who graduated. They work hard and often face difficulties trying to "do the right thing" in an education system where many people get by, by cheating and often compromising their values! This year the economic climate is adding another difficulty to graduation. We heard recently that 3000 students finished the Engineering school and only 150 of them had jobs at graduation.

In May OSCEB celebrated 20 years of ministry to students! It was a wonderful evening with many former students coming out to celebrate God's work among students in Bucharest in the last 20 years!

We had a great time visiting graduates. Here Mike talks to Cristi, who we met in 1992 when he was working as a volunteer with OSCEB!

Seussical!!

2010-05-17T16:35:00.002+03:00

BCA's first musical was proudly presented by the students on April 24. All the students worked so hard on this and they were able to present it once at a small theater in the city. The owner of the theater remarked after the performance that he had never seen anything like this musical and was very impressed by the hard work of all the students, the directors and everyone who worked behind the scenes to make it a successful.
Rebekah was a bird-girl and had a lot of dancing parts. Her best friend, Daniella, was Gertrude!

All the Whos down in Who-ville included Hannah!!

Andrew was the Grinch!

A few weekends later the students were invited to present three of their songs at an International Festival.

Ravi Zacharais Conference

2010-05-17T15:01:00.000+03:00

A number of OSCER leaders were invited to a Conference featuring Ravi Zacharias. It was a very stimulating conference and offered us time to be together and think more about evangelism and apologetics.

We gathered one night for a late night snack of sausages, bread and soda. It was a time to relax and share a bit more of what we were learning, and get to know each other better.

Gabi and Ionut, two leaders from Pitesti. Gabi was Mike's roommate during the conference.

It was also possible for us to invite 5 staff from the, IFES, student movement in the Republic of Moldova to come to the conference. Just a few weeks before the conference a small group from Romania had been to the Republic of Moldova to help them with an evangelistic conference. It was amazing for the team to see how many nonbelievers came to the camp. It was very encouraging.

Great Sermon on the meaning of Gethsemane!!!

2010-04-07T17:15:00.000+03:00

Here is a wonderful sermon by Pastor CJ Mahaney from Covenant Church called Gethsemane from March 7, 2010. The sermon is about 50 minutes long, but is well worth the time to listen to it. There are many different opinions of what Christ's work on the Cross means and many that we hear today are not Biblical. This sermon brought tears to our eyes as we were confronted once again with the anguish that Jesus endured in order to reconcile us to the Father. May the Holy Spirit illumine your minds and hearts as you listen to this.

http://www.covlife.org/modules/listen-online/3588470

Enjoy!

You can download the sermon here:
http://www.covlife.org/resources/3588470-Gethsemane

Retreat with Student from Brasov!!

2010-03-23T11:02:00.000+02:00

12-14 March- The student group in Brasov organized their first local training camp. This means they planned all the events, food, speakers,etc. They invited a local pastor to come and speak on finding your calling and discovering your gifts. We had an incredible time together with great teaching and plenty of time to discuss things we were learning.

Loredana (staff from Bucuresti), Simona (Graduate who helped start group in Brasov) Oti (leader now in Brasov) & Ruxi (staff from Bucuresti)

Washing up after a great meal

Robert and Manu planning.

Friday when we arrived it snowed!

Each day ended with a few games of Catan. A new favorite among Romanian students.

Ploiesti Ski Camp

2010-03-04T14:44:00.000+02:00

More fun on the slopes this winter in the second ski camp in Azuga, near Sinaia, north of Bucharest with students from Ploiesti! The weather was a bit warmer, but we still had snow on the slopes!

On Friday we all went out to the beginners slope to help those that had not been skiing before! Most people caught on after a few runs down the slope!!

The advanced and intermediate took off on the second day to the top of the mountain to try their hand at the whole mountain! Here we are at the top of the mountain, where it was snowing!

Taking time to enjoy the view on the slopes!

Andrei works his snowboard down the mountain!! Andrei has worked with the group in Ploiesti in the past and now serves on our national board.

Each day we had a worship time together in the morning before breakfast and then a short presentation after Breakfast. A pastor from Ploiesti led two sessions and presented clearly the gospel very clearly and with some good analogies!! On the last day Mike had a short presentation on the need to be involved in community and challenged the students to stay involved with the group or a church with similar values and to continue to seek God and He will make himself known.

OSCEB Ski Camp 2010

2010-02-22T10:22:00.000+02:00

After a week of snow, wind and the beauty of God's creation all around us we returned from Ski Camp 2010. It was a great week with lots of conversations about Jesus, a very complete presentation of the gospel and plenty of time skiing!! Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of the OSCEB Ski camp week held at Straja in the Vulcan Mountains near the city of Petrosani. Thanks so much for your prayers as we saw evidence of God's hand at work as we were all kept safe and had lots of good conversations about the Gospel!

Each morning we had a presentation on some aspect of Christianity. Here Dan, on the last full day of camp, presented an outline of what it means to follow Christ and shared how God had worked in him and changed him!

In the evenings we had time to play games and talk. Here the students enjoy Musical Chairs!

Eating great food at the cabin in the morning and evening and lunch each day on the slopes!

Each day on the slopes began with ski classes for beginners, intermediate and advanced.

Lots of exercises to help us get the right technique to make us better skiers!

Urbana 09

2010-01-12T14:49:00.000+02:00

InterVarsity sponsored, Urbana 09 took place in December in St. Louis, MO. The theme was "God moved into the neighborhood". 17,000 students gathered from over 100 countries to be challenged to reach out and take the Gospel, the story that God came to dwell among men, to all nations.

We were not there but have watched many of the talks on line. You may enjoy watching some of them, we have included a link to all the talks:

http://www.urbana09.org/videos.cfm

Here is the final talk by IVCF Pres. Alec Hill as he challenged students not to wait until they get out onto the mission field to begin sharing Christ. There are some wonderful stories here of God's work through students. One story is from UVA, of two students, Sharon and Lisa, who we worked with while on staff there! Enjoy!

Missions on Your Campus: Alec Hill from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

OSCEB Chapter Retreat!

2009-11-18T15:06:00.000+02:00

Forming deep community in a student group takes time and effort. It comes by spending quality time together. In Bucharest, where getting from one end of the city to the other for a meeting or even a class can take up to 1 hour or more makes getting together informally difficult. So, to have 2 1/2 days together for worship, Bibles teaching, and discussions on evangelism and discipleship doesn't happen too often!! The students took full advantage of a weekend away by staying up late, getting up early, playing volleyball and talking till all hours of the night.

Times of Worship

Kris talks with Ruxi, OSCEB staffworker

Cristi OSCEB leader working on his Doctorate in Engineering

Emma & Hannah enjoying nature

Andrew waiting for his team to play in the next volleyball game!

Fall Fun!!

2009-10-08T15:04:00.000+03:00

Here are a few highlights of the last month.

Andrew & Mike got to go fishing with 2 friends (George and Adi). We didn't catch anything worth keeping, but we had a good time!!

You should have seen the one that got away!!!

BCA Secondary Retreat!!

The staff and students enjoyed some beautiful days at Casa Elim as they deepened their relationships and received some good teaching in Revelation.

BCA Secondary

Enjoying some Soccer!!

Enjoying the view

Waiting on the train!!