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Maria Hava

Maria – Romans 8:28

Maria and her GrandmaRomans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

If I have to choose a favourite bible verse, for me this is the one! Many times in my life I came back to this verse. But to be honest with you not all the time I felt that all things works for good of those who love God….Even if I say loud that I love God, that I do trust Him and I do know that my life without Him is nonsense, there are moments when I feel “he abandons me”.

This past month I had to say good bye to my dear grandmother that raised me until I was 8 years old. She died at age 87. Many people would say, she lived a long life. But for us that know her as an active person it felt that she was “still young”. I’m sad for the loss but I’m happy that I know I will see her again. Now she is with my other 3 grandparents ….and all 4 of them are waiting for me (and the rest of the family!)

My grandmother had one regret, and that was that her only son did not commit his life to God. She prayed for my uncle all the time, until the last breath and she told me many times that she knows he will “be ok” even if she will not see it “with her own eyes”.

So, how do you react in moments like this? When God’s promise is so clear, yet we doubt so much! I pray for forgiveness and I do want to “be better”.

This past month in Smiles was busy! That’s not something new. The new thing is that we are busy with lots of new things, ideas that are going on all the time.

IBathroom work at Tileagd told you about the new adventure that we are working on in Tileagd! Well that’s going very good. The construction side is progressing well and if everything will continue that way by the end of May we will have a new place ready to be furnished in June and opened in July!

Once it is open, the good news is that we can take people with needs from 18 years old until 99 years old and more without any restriction. At this moment in time we can’t do that in JFL or at ECO. So Tileagd is a new beginning for us! Please pray for that and if you want to be a part of it with your financial support too, please do as we are in need of help with the costs of redevelopment.

Here is where you can do that: Support Club 500

Rapa village and churchAlso this past month I was happy to be a part of a church service in Rapa. I was so impressed to see the children worshiping God.

There is a lady there, lady Florica, who is teaching them songs and each Sunday they have a new one on the list! That community changed a lot in the last year!! I was so happy to hear them saying that they are thankful to God that this year their winter was different. When I asked them what that means, they said ” we did not freeze…and there was no death in community because of cold weather. God loves us”. Thank you dear friends for being a part of that and PLEASE continue to support us in Rapa. The work in not finished. Not yet! We hope to employ a community worker soon to teach literacy to children and adults in Rapa along with other important issues on health and social behaviour. Please pray for this and where possible, support the work with your gifts:Rapa Support.

While I write this update we are getting ready for a new mission trip team to arrive. It was great to have the team in March from Eureka Illinois and now our dear friend Lindsay brings a team from her church in Scotland. I’m looking forward to have new people coming to us, to spend their time serving God and others with us.

If you can’t come there are still many ways you can help us. Even though your time with us here is more important, if you can’t come please pray for us!

Yes, things is Romania are better than 25 years ago, but NOT for all the people. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger and bigger each day!

You can also help us financially. One pound or one dollar can go a long way! You might say that’s not much to work with, but with one pound/one dollar I can feed a kid in Tileagd for one day! Or Georgi can feed an elderly person one meal a day!! Raul feeds a homeless person and Nelu is able to take a bag of sugar and a bag of flour to a family!

So it may not be much to us, but for the people here living such desperate lives, one pound or one dollar can make a major difference. Support through the HiFive Club.

If you feel you can’t help us financially, help us by donating goods!

Believe me or not, for the last 3 years we did not buy toilet tissue paper because we received 14,000 rolls in the container! I know it sounds funny, but imagine if we add all the projects that we have and buy it day by day we spend so much money on it. Now the 14,000 rolls have almost gone!

So if you are living in Northern Ireland we have a container that is leaving in May and we would like to make sure it is full with good things, including toilet rolls!

If you are in England, Scotland or Wales you can always send or take them to the Leeds office because we have a van coming later in the year to Romania! If you are in America and would like to donate things just send me an e mail and I can tell you the best way of doing that!!! ALL THIS will help us immensely!

AND when we add all the things together then the verse from Romans 8: 28 would be totally true in our day to day life!

Indeed all things would work together for the good of those WHO LOVE GOD and ARE CALLED by Him!

Let apply that to our life and for sure our eternal life would be guaranteed.

In His service

Maria

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

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