Maria’s
Report – August 2011
A month is a long time to
give you update on!
SO much happens in Smiles every day!!
As a child, I always wondered what the bible verse means when it
says: “to God a day is like a thousand years and 1000 years is
like a day!” …In Smiles things are often like that. In one month
there are 1000 things going on!! If you do not believe me … Come
and see for yourself!!
Until you decide, let me tell you what was
going on here during the month of July.
With the Glasshouse finished, construction wise, we needed to
start planning what will go inside! After long meetings and
discussions we decided!
CUCUMBERS!
We were advised these would
grow well even though we were a little late in the season for
starting.
So, 9,250 CUCUMBER
PLANTS were
ordered
from a supplier in Hungary. The day they arrived we suddenly
realised how many
plants
that was. LOTS!!
The job needed to be done fast! So, together with the mission trip
people and even some of the Smiles staff, we did it!! Well
the
truth is that we had
Paul and Ali Jeanes
leading the team, Sam and Barbara
Morrison from the Farm came for a
day to help, even to plough inside the Glasshouse was crucial to
make planting possible and ensure we did a good job.
The results??? ALL the plants were put in the ground in 2 days!!!
What an amazing team!
Thank
you guys for doing such a great job! Now we need to pray that the
results will be good!
If everything works out ok, God will bless us with over 20 tonnes
of cucumbers!!! We already have a company that wants to buy the
entire crop! Praise the Lord…. otherwise I would have to see how I
could eat them all!!
Then?? Well, we have
mission trip people
visiting us
all
the time and during the summer we have lots of friends sharing the
joy of the work with us!! Sadly, because of the office work I
spend less and less time nowadays with the teams! But this summer,
one day a week, me together with other staff members of Smiles,
spend an evening at the Centre, sharing worship together with the
Mission Team and share a little of our story! We have a great
time! I love it!! We’re even thinking of going on a tour …because
we make a great choir!
Watch
this space!!
What
else is happening on my desk?
Meetings, meetings and meetings! Lots of them. Some really hard
ones where we have to take difficult decisions and these are not
always easy! Please pray for us, the management team and please
pray for Mr Hoy in order for God to give him wisdom and power to
do what is right, to do the difficult job of running Smiles,
according with His will.
This month we also
received 3 containers!!
We thought it was to be two, but then we got an e-mail to say a
third had left England and was arriving Friday, July 29th!
All have come from the UK!! It’s AMAZING to see what God is doing
through people! We had one container from Inskip near Preston, one
from Wigton &
Carlisle and the
last one from
Chelmsford!!
I
would like to say
THANK YOU to ALL
the people that made this dream possible!! It is amazing to see
all the things that we receive within the containers! I feel like
it’s Christmas morning every day, even when outside is 35
degrees!! For nearly 2 years now we did not need to use money from
the projects budgets to buy simple things like toilet paper, or
copy paper, or soap or shampoos!!! Or big things like mattresses,
furniture, computers, ALL sorts of things that makes a HUGE
difference in our life!!
Because I talk about dreams
coming true, I would like to share another one that became real
this month! Last year when we had the DA conference in Leeds,
someone said: “what
about if Smiles supporters would climb Kilimanjaro mountain in
order to raise money for Smiles!?”
When I heard this I said to
Mr. Hoy that I would like to do it! He said, that if everything
will be ok, and if I raise the support and if it is at a good
time- with no mission trip visitors to Romania- I could go!!
I
was over the moon for a few months!! I started to stress everybody
around me in order for them to support me! People that know me
well, they know that walking for more than 1 km and waking up in
the morning earlier than 9am it is a nightmare for me!! But for
Smiles, the challenge was more than ok with me!! Sadly, when the
time for the climb changed, I had to drop out and could not do it!
But I still received all the e-mails from
Penny Kennedy
- the team leader with all the updates and the things that were
going on in the team!
I was over the moon when I saw that this is coming to reality.
Before the team left, I asked all the Smiles team in Romania to
pray for them and ask for God’s protection over all of the team
members that went! One week later, when I saw that there was no
response from Penny I began to panic! The next day Mr Hoy came and
said: “the team is back!”
I was happy and relieved that all were back, but very curious for
how it went!!
Few days later, Mr Hoy came and read part of the report to several
staff members.
While reading he started to cry! We – the Smiles staff panicked!
I went to my office and read again the report! Did the same thing-
cry! Why??
Because I am amazed
and humbled to
see
the effort that people take in order to raise money for Smiles!!
Coffee mornings, Tesco bag packing or climbing Kilimanjaro - All
have the same outcome!! People that give up at their time, give up
at their families in order
to do all sorts of things to raise money for some strangers in
Romania!! People that don’t always meet face to face!! It humbles
me and makes me more responsible when I have responsibility to
spend that money!!
I would like to say
THANK YOU to
the people who climbed Kilimanjaro. Thank you for doing this for
us! Thank you for the hard work and I’m sorry for the “scary
moments” that you had to go through in order to make a smile for
people in Romania! Thank you.
(Please read their report on the trip for
yourself!).
Thank
you to all the people that did a fundraising event this past
summer, this month!! Thank you soooooooo much for your time and
for the effort! Thank you for not giving up in supporting us!
Thank you!
And I would like to close
with a Psalm. My favourite one! This psalm I take it as a motto
every time when I’m leaving Romania!! This psalm we read it this
past Tuesday at our fellowship meeting with the Smiles staff
member!! This psalm was the one that the Kilimanjaro team read it
the day before the “final step!”……..this psalm it is a real
encouragement for me when I’m down, and when I feel that the
mountains that I have to climb are too high for me, no hope and
everything is lost!
But don’t forget, when we
feel down we need to remember this: