From Maria's Desk



Leeds, England registered UK Charity No.1087961
Kingsport, USA charitable non-profit # 86-0957704
Oradea, Romania registered Charity No.14839712

 
...making smiles in Romania





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A Letter from Maria's Desk - December 2014

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
                 .…. well actually, I’m asking you - Is it?

For the last few years, I don’t really feel that way! The problems of life and the sad situations in this sinful world are way too much! My grandmother used to say "when you’re older, the problems will seem bigger"…..and that has proved true for me to a point!

I can’t really ignore the people around me that do not have food, or a warm house (and in Romania during winter IT’S A MUST to have a warm home) or presents, or friends or family!!! I try to treat the December month as all the other months! Why do we need to be different? Don’t we need to be the same all year round? I pray to God to help us to be more like that.

However, I do not want to ‘hide’ the joy that I have in making other people happy! In sharing SOS packages to hundreds of kids, Christmas Food Parcels to families that do not have money to buy food, and more than that - to TELL them the REAL reason why we celebrate Christmas.

I had Cornel, my husband in case you wonder who :), coming to me the other day very unhappy to ask me what means X-MAS?! He doesn’t speak fluent English and he saw a advertising sign but he did not understand what it meant. After talking to him he said: "how sad it is when people move from the REAL reason why we celebrate this season". I agree. Why would anyone take Christ, out of Christmas?! And I’m sad to see that even in Romania, the commercial side takes people’s eyes from the realty of Christ to the desperate attempt to just sell more!

So, PLEASE HELP US to share the REAL REASON of celebrating Christmas with people in my country. How can you do that? Simple!! If you can’t come to Romania to do it yourself, you can send a gift to a person!!! Me and my colleagues, helped by several Mission Trippers this month, will deliver it for you! You can start with as little as £5/$5 by contributing to our SOS (Sack of Smiles PROJECT)……and so on!!! So START TODAY, we still have time to share God’s love with the people of Romania this Christmas. Go to this link on the website now to support: Christmas Corner

Now that I’m sure you will do that, let me tell you a few things that I’ve been up to this past month!

At the beginning of the month I was in Romania, really busy with preparing for my trip to USA. I had a lot of admin work to do and to be honest, that’s not my strong point. I’m sooo thankful to God for Mr Hoy and Georgi that both help me with it. Just the weekend before I left Romania I was real busy with redecorating my office! I’M SOOOO HAPPY that after nearly 9 years being in the same office painted in purple it is now painted with my favourite colour GREEN!

It calms me down…..and my colleagues say that’s a nice thing and they can’t wait for me to be back and see the results of it working ! Because the elderly people moved to the Oradea Centre, we redecorated downstairs with was the Elderly Centre and turned it into additional offices. So now, Sminro offices are mainly downstairs and the Development Office for Emilia. They are all REALLY happy as now we have space and privacy! It is nice to do changes and to see my colleagues happy!!

So after the work I did over the weekend in the offices, Monday lunch time we started the journey to America!

First stop was at the ICOM Conference! It was AMAZING!! I was soooo happy to see soooo many missionaries all in the same room, serving the same GOD!!! and loving all the people of the World! I’ve made new friends and I’m really happy for the things that God has in store for us in the future! Please pray that the seed planted during the conference will bring a big harvest!!

I would like to say a special THANK YOU to the Archibald family, Matt Donna and Lydia…..along with Aaron and Sam  ….for ALL THE WORK they did for us at the Smiles Booth! From helping with the preparation of the stand to the time and the long hours we stayed together there to make sure people found out more and more about Romania. THANK YOU GUYS and may God bless you and keep you in His hands! ALL THE TIME!!

After the conference ended Saturday evening, we had two services Sunday morning at the Madison Christian Church in Groveport Ohio! Great time with great people!

Monday morning we had a great surprise. SNOW! I was happy to see it for the first time this year. Even if it made our fight to be delayed, we still managed to get to the next meeting in Charlotte NC. The next day we were in Richmond VA. for a meeting before visiting Regent University in Virginia Beach and meeting Dr Keys and Dr Reese which is always a great pleasure. Kingsport TN was on our list too and meeting my dear friends from there is always wow! I’m really looking forward to have them back in RO!

On our flying visit we included Baton Rouge LA. A truly great place and really great people. Our final stop was in Jacksonville, Florida. I love visiting Christ’s Church and being a part of the worship service! It is nice to see God working in sooo many ways to people’s heart!

So after working hard, I thought it was a nice idea to have a holiday! So, that’s what we did! Me and Cornel took a week off and we went in Istanbul, Turkey! About this I tell you more NEXT YEAR !

My report will stop here, but NOT BEFORE, if I will not see you in Romania this month, I wish you a BLESSED CHRISTMAS together with your family and may God’s light shine upon you ALL THE TIME!!!

THANK YOU ever so much for everything that you did for us during 2014. Thank you for helping to share GOD’S LOVE in every little thing we do!

Be blessed and continue to be a blessing.

Love Maria

Maria
Maria Hava ,
Director of Operations, Romania
maria@thesmilesfoundation.org


Previous letters from Maria:
November 2014 - Faithful to the end

October 2014 - 10,000 Reasons to be thankful to God
September 2014 -
…when good things in life come to an end!
August 2014 - Celebration...
July 2014 - Romania
June 2014 - From a child's heart
May 2014 - H.O.M.E.

April 2014 - HOME
March 2014 - Secret's of Life

February 2014 - Travelling light part II
January 2014 - Happy New Year..

 

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    Page last updated on 01/12/2014 04:22:34 PM
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