*    The Smiles Foundation   *
 * * News Update December 2008  * *


Dear Friends

As this e-mailing follows the Thanksgiving weekend, we firstly wish all our American supporters a ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ and trust you had an enjoyable and happy time with family. Whilst we do not celebrate ‘Thanksgiving’ in quite the same way in the United Kingdom or Romania – it is a very good reminder for us all of just how much we have to be thankful for.

God is Good – All the Time and we thank Him for His faithfulness and provision in our lives.

As we move into December, we have even more to be thankful for this month as we look to and prepare for the Celebrations of Christmas – the Birth of Christ – Who came to serve and to save.

The Smiles Foundation loves to do its work at this special time of year as it provides another wonderful opportunity to share the Hope that Christ’s Birth brings, the Love He showed on the Cross and that through Faith – we can know Eternal Life.

As many will know through receiving the new Smiles Report, we are launching this month a totally new strategy for our Project information and support.

Having built the new concept around the power of Apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 13 –  we are re-structuring our projects under 3 new and exciting Smiles Clubs.

Smiles 100 Love Club

Smiles 200 Hope Club

Smiles 400 Faith Club

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Don’t miss out on understanding all the changes. Read the Smiles Report being delivered to your door if you are on our Mailing list or check the special reports on the website this month.

We have so many exciting things again to report to you about the work of The Smiles Foundation in Romania. Lots of great new pages to check out on the website, and hopefully this e-mail will help to get you there fast and direct.

December means Christmas is getting close and within Smiles the SOS (Sack of Smiles) campaign is about to kick-off. So many children in Romania face the prospect of NO Christmas presents unless we can deliver something special this month. SOS is a great project to do this and we have a wonderful new SOS Photovideo prepared by our Development Associate for England & Wales – Anna Quelch. Do take a look and PLEASE – support a Sack or two.

We have 32 Mission Trippers sharing the Joy of Christmas with us in Romania and they will be helping to pack the Sacks and deliver them over the next couple of weeks.
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As with many Schools, both excitement and panic is setting in to Tileagd Community School and Nursery. Excitement for Christmas of course, but panic as they prepare for the Christmas Presentation to be seen by parents and mission trip guests. But for Tileagd, this Christmas brings a real sense of excitement and celebration. For four years the school has been working towards full accreditation by the Romanian Ministry of Education. On November 6th & 7th – the Inspectors were at the School and Nursery for the final assessment. Read the exciting report of this past month from Directors of the School & Nursery – Clara and Delia.

We offer our sincere Congratulations to them both, their staff and all the students for the positive result of a Fully Accredited School and Nursery. Well Done. We are very proud of you and all you have achieved.

The School & Nursery also produced their first Newsletter and is published today.

It has been sent to many school contacts we already have but is also available on the website. If you are a school representative who would like to be directly linked with our Educational project – e-mail education@thesmilesfoundation.org and we’ll be in touch. Thank-you.
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Other reports that have been prepared for this update are a ‘must’ to read. 

  1. An exciting new club in Tileagd for young girls aged 10-14 years. READ NOW!

  2. An exciting report on the successful Operation for Nicu Musca – Thank you to all the fund-raisers!

  3. A special report from Cihei Children’s Centre and the boys from CARP family.

  4. A success story of Fund-Raising for the Disabled Children Centre Capital Fund.

 The size of Smiles now means there always seems to be news of people coming and going. This month we have the very exciting News of 2 new folk joining the Smiles Team. We are delighted to have Marian and Dana Zaharia joining December 1st. Marian will be heading up our expanded projects of Smiles 200 Hope Club and in particular the Family Care project. Dana will be Senior Nurse Practitioner heading up our medical care to the families and serving at the clinic in Tileagd.
READ the SPECIAL REPORT.

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We are sorry that we are losing Catalin and Lavinia Bakai as leaders of the Gepiu project due to Catalin taking the position of Associate Pastor at an Oradea Church. Gepiu Community project remains crucially important to The Smiles Foundation and Georgi Opreanu (Director of the Project) is already making some great decisions and appointments to ensure the work and support of the community continues with minimal impact from the interim period between leaders. We believe God has great plans for the future of Gepiu and we trust Him to provide the right people who will be truly committed to the project and the people for the long term development of the work in Gepiu.

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It has been fantastic this past month to have more Concert dates added to the UK Tour for the Tileagd Choir scheduled for February. Check the Dates and make a note to come along and enjoy the evening.

So – in closing – just a final reminder to please consider helping with the Christmas Campaign for Sack of Smiles, Christmas Food Packages and Winter Fuel, a serious need for many. The special report on the Carp boys highlighted the problem. As we prepared to take them home for the week-end, their mother who is pregnant said “Don’t bring them home, it is too cold as we can’t afford wood for the fire”. The boys wanted to go and see their parents, so they went but we hope as a result of the continuing Love and Generosity of our supporters, many families including the CARP family will be able to have Food and Fuel delivered before Christmas. Please help if you can to share the Love of Christ this Christmas in a variety of ways offered through The Smiles Foundation. 

God Bless you all.          
                                                                                                  

The Smiles Foundation       

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Click here to donate now through the website, or contact your Smiles Office.
 

The Smiles Foundation
 Tel: UK 0113-276-5060    :   Tel: USA 423-239-9525
 E-mail:  info@thesmilesfoundation.org
Website: www.thesmilesfoundation.org

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