Our two boys, twin brothers, Romulus and Armando are still living here in the apartment with me. They like the privileges of living in a smaller group, but have still had some adjusting to do as they’ve always had at least ten other kids living with them at any given time. It’s a lot quieter in my apartment than in the children’s home where they were used to living. Romi has been helping me a lot with our work on the house and Armando (who can’t help much with construction due to his problems with asthma) has taken on kitchen duties… washing dishes everyday and cooking frequently. He’s also been keeping the house clean and washing clothes. They have been a great encouragement to me and I’m very happy that God has put them back into my life.

In my last update I mentioned the fact that the boys were dealing with several health problems… since then Romi has had some more health scares. At the beginning of October he was found to have unusually high blood pressure for an 18 year old his size and for that reason he had to visit a cardiologist. The cardiologist thought that his heart was fine, but said that one of his kidneys was suspect and for that reason he got to spend four days in the Arad city hospital having tests. Romanian hospital life is not exactly a fun experience. The city hospital where Romi was staying has been there since 1775 and hasn’t had any major renovations since before World War II. However, all of his tests came back fine and his blood pressure has since returned to normal. Praise God both of them are now doing fine and have no health problems. Thank you very much for your prayers for both of them.

In other news, we were blessed by the arrival of Jeff and Marcia Jones from Queensland, Australia on October 2. They lived here in the apartment with the boys and I for a few days until we got a couple of rooms arranged for them in Ghioroc at the house and they are now living there. They have been a huge help and have not only done many things for us at the house, but have encouraged me about the building process at a time when I was rather discouraged about the way things we’re going.

After arriving Jeff and Marcia did a wonderful job of organizing our house, even making make-shift shelves to organize our tools and supplies better. They’ve gotten our bathroom fixtures functioning properly for the first time… which has been as enormous emotional victory. We finally have a flush toilet and don’t have to use the outhouse anymore. We can even take a hot shower if we want to! They’ve also painted the rooms where they’re living; finished installing the window sills that John Wright started back in May and cleaned all of our 35 windows from top to bottom. That might not sound like much, but if you would have seen the state of our windows before they came after being plastered and stuccoed around, you’d be very impressed. Right now Jeff has been busy building the frame work for a wall and a doorframe that will go under our stairs separating the hall from our basement. He’s also been helping us prepare to install more of our interior doors by preparing the door holes for the door frames (all of the spaces left to install doors are different sizes and need to be repaired to fit the doors… a pretty big task).

Romi and I have gotten into some of the last of the drywall hanging by building a ceiling over the upstairs guest bathroom. We’ve also been busy installing rafters above the girl’s bathroom. The rafters we’re putting up now will support the ceiling over that room, as well as the floor under a section of attic we plan to use for storage. We hope to have drywall up there in the next week or so. Then we can finish insulating the roof above that section. We will need to do the same thing over the boy’s bathroom when we finish the girl’s side. All in all it’s been a productive month here as far as the house goes. November promises to be even more productive as our Australians are now fully settled in. We are also looking forward to two others who will be helping us work this month. Don and Mariann Welke, two American friends of ours who actually helped me come to Romania in the very beginning, have donated some labor to us by paying a construction friend of theirs to work on our house for 100 hours. We also expect a man from our church, Vasile, to come and help us get the yard cleaned up so we can call in some earth moving equipment to level out our yard once and for all. We’ve waited almost a year for the dirt to settle from when we filled in the area above our septic tank and leech beds and hope to have grass by the spring. Cleaning up the yard will be a huge morale booster after two years of total chaos… I’m sure the neighbors will appreciate it too!  

In addition to helping us get some free labor for the house, the Welke’s also donated a bed and some other things that have helped make Jeff and Marcia feel better in their rooms in Ghioroc. God keeps providing help for us from all kinds of places. We’ve even been blessed by the help of Scott and Caroline, a couple from the Chicago area who are here hoping to start a ministry to girls coming out of orphanages. They have come out a couple of times now to help us with different things and our always a joy to be around. 

God’s blessings haven’t been confined to labor on our house in Ghioroc though. He continues to bless me in so many ways. I’ve had the opportunity over the past month to spend time with kids who I never thought I’d get to spend time with again as God has opened doors I thought would be sealed shut forever. I’ve been able to meet many new people who will be able to help us in the future and I’ve even gotten the chance to spend time with old friends who I hadn’t seen for a long time. Maria Luca, a friend of mine from years and years ago even helped us put up 35 jars of Zacusca, a traditional Romanian spread made out of smoked eggplant, red peppers, onions and tomato juice. We then went on to make 13 jars of plum preserves and 12 jars of apple butter. God is continually opening doors and I am privileged to be able to step through them.

I thank you as always for your support through your prayers and your finances. Our donations have taken a bit of a hit since the financial crisis has taken hold around the world and people are worried about their personal situations. But even in that God has blessed us as the US Dollar has been rising in value for the first time in nearly seven years. Still if you are able to help us financially we certainly do appreciate your help and we definitely need it to continue in the work here. Please know that your prayers are a constant encouragement to us and that we praise God for you daily. May He continue to bless you and may all of you have a wonderful day!

God Bless!

Ryan

Back in 2004, right before we began this project at the Rophe House, I went through a terrible period. The ministry that I had worked with since I first came to Romania was falling apart and I had to leave all of our kids behind. After seven years of taking care of them daily, they were suddenly gone. My heart was broken and my only hope was in my Lord. It was in my Jehovah Rophe… my God of healing. I knew that He would never abandon my kids in Romania even if I would never get to see them again. He would always be there for them and in the end everything would be okay.

I am happy to tell you that now, after almost four years, things are working out in ways I never dreamed could be possible. Two of the kids from my earliest days in Romania have now become ours again. Twin brothers, Romulus and Armando are now living with me and are being provided for through your generosity. I have known the twins for over ten years now and have watched them grow to become fine young men. They turned 18 on August 19^th, and moved in with me the next day… just one week after I left the States to come back to Romania after my summer visit.

Because they are 18, there is very little paperwork and they can stay with us even though our foundation and facility are not yet complete. They are legally adults, but they’re much younger emotionally because of the severe neglect they suffered as babies in state run orphanages. They are, for that reason, unable to live on their own just yet. They began their sophomore years of High School this week and are most likely going to need to be with us at least until they finish school. Armando (AKA Mando) wants to be a chef, and has been a big help in the kitchen here already, both cooking and washing dishes. Romulus (AKA Romi) is specializing in mechanics at school and hopes to work on cars and machines after graduation. He’s also rather talented in construction and has been an enormous help with our house at Ghioroc already.

Of course, taking in twins has been an increased financial burden and we would appreciate any financial help you can give us to help offset those cost increases (visit our contribution page to find out how you can make a tax deductible donation). However, at the same time, the boys have been a great asset as having two strong young men comes in handy when building a house! Our commitment has always been to be a family to the abandoned children of Romania, and that commitment doesn’t change just because they are 18. They are still in need of help and we want to be there for them… thank you for making that possible through your generosity!

Things have been quite busy since I returned in August. We’ve had a couple of people visit our house, including some new contacts with a wonderful organization called Amy’s Hope that may be able to help us some here.  I also had to make a trip to Bucharest to go to the US embassy as I ran out of pages in my passport. Since I had to go on that long trip anyway, I took the boys along and we got to visit many wonderful places in Romania. We stayed in a big tent and traveled a few hours each day stopping as we went. We even got to visit the Black Sea Coast, something the boys had never seen before and had a wonderful time there, except for being stung by a jellyfish. On the way back I burned my leg with hot oil that the twins had used to make eggs on the grill. Much of the skin has now fallen off the bottom half of my left leg, but my doctor assures me it will be fine in a month or two (or three).

The boys started school again on September 15^th (this past Monday) and we have been busy buying school supplies. Armando has also been dealing with some small kidney stones and spent some time in the hospital last week. Romi also has a benign tumor growing on his leg that needs to be removed, so between doctors visits, school and the house we have plenty to do. Please be praying for the boys and for my leg… but especially for Armando as kidney stones are not too much fun from what I hear. Please pray that he won’t have too much pain with them or even better that the medications will help them dissolve.

We are looking forward to the arrival of Jeff and Marcia Jones from Queensland, Australia next week. They will be here for a couple of months to help work on the house at Ghioroc and hopefully I’ll be able to send lots of new pictures showing some progress there. Things have gone slowly lately and their arrival will definitely make things move a lot better!

As always we thank you for your prayers and your support. You are a blessing to us and we thank God for your involvement. Make sure to check out pictures of our new "kids" Romi and Armando in the Our New Kids section of the website. Have a wonderful day!

God Bless!

Ryan, Armando and Romi

We had a wonderful month of May with a team of workers arriving on the 12^th. Rod Kasler, Carl McDevitt and John Wright did an astounding amount of work while they were here. Together we installed all of the light switches and electrical outlets. We finished 20 window sills and completed the tile work on two of the porches. We also tiled the walls and floor of the staff bathroom and prepared to install a bathtub, toilet and sink. We even installed 5 interior doors and primed a couple of rooms for paint. Not only did the men get a lot of work done, but they were a tremendous encouragement to us… we laughed the month away as we served the Lord together.

After those three left June was a quiet month, but an important one with several visits to the lawyer and a lot of paperwork. Work continued on the outside of the house with the arrival of Nelu, our friend from Zalau, Romania who came to finish the stucco on the front of the house and the two dormers near the front of the roof. I ended up returning to the USA on July the 2^nd in an unplanned but wonderful visit home. I haven’t been in the states during the summer since 2003 and have been enjoying visiting family and friends in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I’ve met with several people from different churches and will probably be participating in a Vacation Bible School next week before returning to Romania on August 13^th.

We are looking forward to visits from Dick and Alma Lemal of Martins Ferry, Ohio and Jeff and Marcia Jones of Queensland, Australia during the fall. Jeff and Marcia will be here for a couple of months helping us and the Lemals also hope to spend several weeks working at the house. God keeps providing workers when we need them. If you would like to come on a short or longer term mission trip please let us know at information@romaniankids.com. We’ll be happy to help with your travel arrangements.

God is good and He keeps working in the ministry here. Thank you for your interest and please let us know how you are doing from time to time. We always love to hear from you.  Please keep praying for us as we look forward to some interesting developments over the next few months and also continue to pray for our financial situation with the ever weakening US dollar. Even though it’s tough sometimes, we’re learning to put our trust in God and not in budgets. He’s never let us down yet and we know that He’s not going to start now. May God bless you all and have a wonderful day!

Ryan and everyone else at the Rophe Mission

Let us tell you a few things about the Rophe House.

You might not know that Ryan returned to Romania in the beginning of March. Since then the house looks much more beautiful. The interior doors which we ordered for the house were made and delivered from a company in Arad, but before installing them there are a lot of other things that need to be done.

Maddy's dad came by for a few days and together with Ryan hung some more dry wall. He is a school teacher and teaches math, but he wanted to take a few days off and come and help.

Now we have somebody who will be plastering the inside of the house for the next two weeks. He is a very hard worker from Maddy's parents village. Actually Maddy's parents were his teachers and now they actually teach his children. He is a nice, simple man that does a very good job. We already can see nice white walls. Later we will add some paint.

But for now we are just happy to have the white, plastered walls at last. We always search for more opportunities and ask God to point and guide us in His will.

Here we’re enjoying sunny days, the trees are full of flowers… white, red and pink and also green is everywhere… in the trees, in the green hills and in the green grass. It is so beautiful. You can hear the birds singing in the trees, see the butterflies and smell the flowers. Spring is here.

Even at our house in Ghioroc, the Rophe house, you can see in the back yard how the green grass is growing. We had dandelions for a week and have a whole field filled with wild flowers. Each day new flowers bloom.

We hope to soon have another construction team come to work for us from the city of Zalau, a few hours north of here. One of our best friends lives there, and he actually built the structural part of the house. After that we had another team from that city. Because of the cold weather in the winter they had to interrupt the work so we hope for them to come and finish the exterior of the house now that it’s warm again.

We also hope to have Ryan's dad with a few other good men that want to help work on the house come here in May.

Our days are filled with joy as we try to find the best companies that have the best prices for tile, wood, paint and other things that we need for the house.

We also attend a small church here and Ryan has been preaching almost every week. I also have a ladies Bible class and hope to start some individual Bible studies during the week. We enjoy serving the Lord.

Step by step we follow God's way. It’s not easy, but together with you, your prayers, your support and your love we persevere and we praise God for all of His blessings. We thank you for being part of this mission work.

We keep you daily in our prayers  and we ask that you keep us and the house in your prayers.

We’ll write more soon!

The same never give up fighters in Christ,

Ryan and Maddy

 

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