Joyful Christmas in Susani

Over my 35 years on this Earth I've been blessed to spend Christmas in Romania on two different occassions. Between the snow, caroling, spending time with the fatherless, and relationship building these memories rank right up at the top of some of my greatest. I hate I missed this Christmas but I'm honored to pass on the stories and pictures to you from my good friend Ovidiu and his wife Adina. I hope you enjoy his reflection and pray you will join Red Page Ministries and the House of Joy as we strive to reach even more families next Christmas. - Jon

The white snow that covered Romania during Christmas made things look better. It gave us a feeling of purity. This Christmas the children in 7 villages were blessed with the joy of receiving a gift. Christmas is about the gifts, actually about the greatest GIFT of all: God’s gift for the lost humanity. God came in the world to show us the way to heaven. That is the greatest gift a person can receive.

Samaritan’s Purse gifts reached our villages, too and 160 children were blessed to receive a gift in the shoe box. These are the children that the House of Joy is working with in the last 6 years. House of Joy exists since 2009 but our work in the area started in 2004. The kids that live in these villages are loved by God and it was great we were able to show them His love through a little gift. The number of all these 160 kids is from 6 villages that have a bigger village over them where they also have a city hall to administrate them. We wish we had 1,600 boxes for 10 large villages and distribute them during December.

The children were brought to Susani for a Christmas program. We brought them by the vans of our ministry. When they arrived to Susani they sang about Jesus, they prayed, they heard about Jesus’ birth in our world. There were also lots of parents that came with their children. They were able to see what God is doing and hear the good news about His coming in the world.

Adina, my wife and the team of our disciples, around 15 people, helped with the distribution of the gifts from Samaritan’s Purse. They help the children learn verses about Christ’s birth, taught them new Christmas songs. The whole program was great and afterwards they received their Christmas presents. At the end everybody went home very excited. This was a great experience for the House of Joy team that we did not have before giving that many shoe boxes to so many kids.

By God’s willing we’ll give more presents this year in 2011 and the greatest thing that can happen during a program like this is to see the children and their parents receiving the GIFT that is eternal, that is a person, who’s name is JESUS.

Many Blessings for a wonderful New Year. Ovidiu and Adina Patrick