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Dear Friends
June 15th, 2008
Due
to preparations of the
Grand Opening at Tileagd,
as reported earlier in the month, the main web-site update for June would
follow midway through the month. Now, we are delighted to be sharing with
you the awesome stories and pictures of the past week or so. Although 7 days
can go by so fast – the preparations have gone on for years. In fact, the
Community Complex was 5 years in the planning – 3 years under construction
and on June 7th 2008 – the Opening Ceremony was finally greeted
by hundreds of people from the United Kingdom, United States and of course
Romania.
No
amount of stories or pictures will be able to fully convey the Celebration
that took place over the week-end of 7th & 8th June
2008. One visitor who attended the Opening, wrote to us on their return
home:-
“Just to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the Smiles Team for a
fantastic celebration week-end in Romania. The Complex is absolutely
unbelievable, incredible, beautiful and all the other adjectives. I was so
moved by it all - got through a lot of tissues!”
This
was just one of so many wonderful e-mails and comments received. Thank you
all for your love and kindness towards our people and our work.
For those of you who couldn’t be there, we have a special
Gallery of the
Completed Complex for you to view.
There is also a special Report on the
Opening Celebrations.
We
also have a DVD being edited of the entire week-end Celebrations. I’m sure
you would like a copy of this historical footage of the most Miraculous
week-end in the history of Tileagd and The Smiles Foundation.
Lodge your interest here
and
we’ll get back to you soon with completion date, cost and delivery
arrangements.
Just
10 days before the Grand Opening, Smiles were delighted to host our second
Educational Challenge. May 25th – 29th
we
had 18 professionals join us for an intensive 3 days of Challenge at the
Tileagd Community School and Nursery.
Read the full report from Trustee and Educational Advisor – Stephen
Woodward.
Following the hectic yet incredible week-end of the Opening, we immediately
embarked upon the full Mission Trip of Summer 2008.
It
could have felt an anticlimax after such a week-end, but not this team! 30+
folk from the UK and US joined together to make the week a major impact in
as many lives as possible. It was incredible. Read the special
report on the first Mission Trip week
of
the summer.
Spaces are limited now for this summer, but if you have a week to give to
Missions, you won’t do better than with Smiles. Contact us now to see when
you can join us. This summer or on various weeks from now until Christmas.
You can even lodge your interest in a trip for next year – 2009. Then
you’ll be first to receive the information when available later this year.
Mission Trips is a great time for being able to raise important funds for
the work of Smiles projects throughout the year. We’ve got off to a great
start this summer.
The Special Gift Day
Offering at the opening celebration service on Sunday June 8th
at Tileagd Community Church totalled £11,789 / $23,578 which was truly
fantastic. We thank God for His provision and those who so generously gave
to launch the work of the Community Complex.
Many
others have also been doing some great fund-raising. First Baptist
Leesburg raised over $4,000 (£2,000) towards Mission Trip projects;
Claire Smyth of Northern Ireland did a Skydive in April and raised
£1,000 ($2,000) for Smiles; Hilary and David Kent of Great Ayton,
England raised a £1,000 ($2,000) for Smiles in lieu of their Wedding
Anniversary; Considerable funds were raised in the Belfast marathon
last month along with further funds from Fiona Presho who held a
birthday party with an ‘allo-allo’ theme with gifts to Smiles instead of
presents. See the
News page
for photos of some fund raising fun.
Every day we are informed of more fund-raising activities and all of them,
big and small are crucially important for the work of Smiles to keep growing
and impacting lives here in Romania. Thank you for all the plans and events
going on right now and for the weeks ahead.
School and Nursery has just finished their term with
Graduations
taking place last week. Many of our Mission Trippers enjoyed the
presentations made by the children. Now we start Summer School and begin
planning for the new academic year in September. We have a lot of plans to
take the school on to the next level. We anticipate a significant increase
in the number of children wanting to attend Tileagd Community School &
Nursery if we can accommodate them. That will depend largely on our
continued sponsorship and increased sponsors for the new children wanting to
attend.
If you can help with sponsoring a Child to attend School or Nursery,
please do so now or plan a fund-raising event to cover a child to attend
school for one year with just £420 / $720. What a tremendous opportunity and
blessing to enable a Child to attend school and create all the Hope for the
future an education can bring. Contact us if you can help –
Sponsoring a Child.
There is always so much to share, but this month we’ve had a bumper list
to get through. In just two weeks we’ll be working again on the July update,
and there will be a lot more to share then. So we’ll leave June’s News here
and just thank you for your wonderful support and prayers that make all the
Dreams we have in Smiles possible.
God Bless you all. |
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