This post is also available in: Romanian
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” used to say Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As humans, we have to admit that we are more preoccupied with our needs than the needs of our peers. How much of the time God gave us is being used to help others? How much of the money God provides us with is spent for the needs of others? These are just two parameters from our daily life that measure our involvement in the life of others.
Someone used to say that “our main purpose in life is to help our neighbors.” Indeed, we have to help them? The time and money we invest in others have no value if we don’t do it with a deep passion for them. If there is no passion, if there is no appreciation for your neighbors, and if you do not take into consideration the words of Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 10:24 “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others”, then everything you do for others is a useless expense. When you want to help your neighbors, do not forget the words of Rolland E. Hoffman: “Purpose is to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about others”.
The action of helping others is voluntary. I liked what Erma Bombek said: “Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another.”Over our 27 years of serving, I met both Romanian and foreign volunteers. Some served out of curiosity, others out of interest, but most of them because they had a passion for people and God’s ministry.
I could give you a lot of examples, but I will share with you just one, the most recent: Vincent. This man came to serve in Romania during his annual leave, at his expense. He spent a few days with the people from Dumbrava and Tinca. He helped prepare the meals and distribute them. He worked in the garden and did different chores. Then he came to Charis where he helped with a lot of passion and dedication in our small vegetable garden. He dug, sowed, and planted. I watched him frequently and saw how much attention he had for everything he was doing. I then remembered what someone used to say: “Volunteers are love in motion”.
In Vincent, I saw love and passion in every little thing he was doing. It did not matter how small or big the thing was, he worked with the same passion, giving his best!The door of our mission is open to all those who honestly want to do something for their neighbors in need or for the hopeless people, but also for the ministry God gave us. If you are from the US, Great Britain, or Western Europe, we have a program which offers you the possibility to volunteer in Romania. The program is called 2 CULTURES 1 GOD and it targets both individuals and organized groups who want to get voluntarily involved in God’s ministry from Romania, through Charis.
Nelson Rockefeller said: “You can’t leave footprints in the sands of time while sitting down.” If you want to leave a footprint in Eastern Europe, get up and come to Romania. People here need you! What about spending your next holiday here, getting involved in the lives of people and communities that need you? Come! We are waiting for you!
Daniel Ciupe
General Manager of Charis Foundation
Charis Project Updates
1. CHARIS RETREAT CENTER SÂNTION
During April-June, we had some major projects within this program: God’s Garden, Fruit for the soul, and housekeeping activities.
God’s Garden
This is a project throughout which we developed three activities: the fruits and vegetables farm, our small animal farm, and apiculture.
In the vegetable farm, we had onions, garlic, tomatoes, beetroot, salad, and herbs. In our fruit farm, we had cherries, sour cherries, apricots, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries. We, therefore, made fruit jam, compote, and syrup.
In our small animal farm, we have a few goats that give milk and also a few kids.
In our apiary, we have 8 bee families. We have already extracted the honey from some of them. Everything that we produce in God’s Garden is for internal use, for our social and charity projects and to offer our visitors the possibility to enjoy these fruits.
Fruits for the Soul
This is a project in which we want to offer our visiting groups and individuals the possibility to enjoy the fruits of God’s Garden and support our ministry at the same time.
The housekeeping activities have been numerous lately. We had to cut the grass in all the green spaces, parks and sports yard twice a month. We had to repair some items in the playground and some fences that had been destroyed by a storm.
We remade the fountain from the park and continued working at the fountain near the playground. We changed two water networks in the building, one was destroyed by the frosty winter, the other one was very old. We cut a part of the fruit trees torn by a storm.
2. NEHEMIAH
We continued to support the ministry from the Gypsy Church from Telechiu by serving periodically with sermons. At Easter, we prepared and distributed goods to the church families. We offered some of the families second-hand computers that we received from a publishing house.
3. AGAPEO
We developed two projects in this period. Through GIVE AND YOU WILL RECEIVE project we tried to support three families with children by offering them 5 goats to have milk.
Through FAMILIES IN NEED project, we helped two Gypsy families from a village nearby Charis with clothes and food. We also organized some playtime for the children in the Charis playground.
4. A CHANCE FOR EVERYONE
We cared for some of the orphan boys who were part of our program.
Feri, one of the boys who graduated from the Faculty of Management started working in Germany and visited us twice lately. The first time, it was a short holiday and we had the opportunity to discuss together some of his problems and worries. The second one was a short visit and we were glad that we have been able to give him some goods from God’s Garden.
We were also glad to receive a visit from Bogdan together with his wife and child. We enjoyed spending some quality time together and offering him a goat to provide milk for his child.
5. OPEN DOORS
In this period we opened the doors of Charis Center for 7 groups who had different activities. Around 500 people were involved in this program.
- A family had a birthday party for their daughter.
- Some small groups from a church organised a relaxing day out.
- A class from a Christian high school organised a party for students and their parents.
- Another class of students celebrated their end of school year.
- The small groups from a church from Oradea organised a party and a fellowship time at the end of a year of Bible study.
- A group of parents and children from a high school organised a day out to relax together.
- A group of families from a church from Cluj spent some time in Charis having fellowship and relaxing.
If you want to see pictures from our activities, check out this link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/194562261279540/?ref=bookmarks
PRAYER REQUEST
- Our activity in Charis is complex: projects, programs, administrative and household activities, and investments. Charis employees are the ones who have to face difficult moments at times. Pray for the protection of our 3 employees.
- Some of the orphan boys who were in Charis reached 40 and have nothing of their own. They have no place to call home. We want to be able to motivate them and help some of them to buy their first home, a caravan. Pray that God will help us with this project.
- In 2019 we want to have more groups from abroad to get involved as missionaries through our program 2 Cultures 1 God. Join us in prayer for this objective.
NEEDS
The financial support of our mission is possible through the involvement of the members of the foundation, some churches from abroad, and some believers from Romania, UK, and US. There are 10 families from Romania, UK, and US that constantly support our ministry. Their involvement covers a part of the needs. We need more people to offer financial support. Starting from September, we are launching the project CHARIS PARTNER IN MISSION. The main objective will be to double the number of donor and supporters by the end of 2020.
If you are from Romania and you want to join this mission by offering financial support for our projects, programs, and activities, please contact us via email at: [email protected] and we will provide further details.
If you are from the UK, you can support us via STEWARDSHIP. It’s a simple and efficient method. All you need to do is use one of these two methods: Support Form or Direct Debit form
If you are from the US or other European countries, you can send your donation directly to our account. For further details, check out this link: CHARIS_2015_account
Question: How much should I donate?
Answer: The Bible says that each should give as much as he decided in this heart. Therefore, feel free to donate as much as you want and can!
Question: When should you donate?
Answer: You can donate once a month, once a trimester, once a semester, or once a year. The decision is yours, but please let us you so that we can organize our budget accordingly.
IMPORTANT: All those who are or will be part of CHARIS PARTNER IN MISSION will receive periodically a newsletter and annually, until July 1st, a financial report of the foundation for the previous year. Get involved!
Leave a Reply