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Beloved Friends of Mia’s Children ,

We praise our God for the year 2007 . Many good things God allowed us to go through and He never forsake us in the middle of all the hard times we went through

We are so grateful and want to thank you in a special way for all the support and work from year 2007 to help Mia’s Children Association from Romania .
Over 30 children from our Association benefit everyday by the help you provided in different ways through your programs , your members, motivated by your high desire to make a better world, to share Agapae love to those who are in needs most , to love and encourage the children..

We are also grateful for the permission Ariadna and her husband , Mihai, gave to us to use their home from Romania for one year with no charge of rent .Here we slept every night with about 16, 17 children and sometimes more than this and found the peace to have a safety place for our children , but right now it’s time to pray and find another home for our children , as they need to sell their home from here and buy a home in USA. Thank you ,dear Friends for this wonderful year spent in your home with our children. Many good things happened in one year and many hopes and changed life were around this place .

We want to let you know that all your support and prayers helped our children to have good and very good grades , good fruits. Two of them , Bogdan and Claudia took the national tests after the high school ; Claudia is student at the best Romanian University and Bogdan is trained with Skills for Life Foundation ‘s help, run by Dana , to become a chef . He loves this and it’s very well appreciated by the people working for . other 7 from our teenagers are sponsored by Skills for life Foundation. Two of them just came back from Cyprus with a special experience in their fields .Another boy , Marius was placed the second at the national contest for art between all the Romanian students in art school and he’s part from Romanian representative international team in art field. Nicoleta graduated the eighth grade and now she’s student at one high school in Bucharest

Year 2007 it’s the year when we could take from orphanage two beloved children Nicoleta and John Ilie and we could make official papers for Gabriela and Mathew . Right now , they exist and we can prove it with their birth certificates .The girls from Romanian Radio and TV Chorus- one of the best from the Europe , went to sing in several concerts around Europe.

Right now in the house with us came to live some more children and their Mom . They lived in a room with some more people inside and with their mom , as their father abandoned them before mom gave birth to last child , coca , 1 year and 5 month old . The girl is late , her development needs to be much improved . As the winter came so bad , there were no wood to heat , no food , no money to pay the rent , so we share our place with them and the mother helps us . She doesn’t want to abandon them or to expose them and is so nice and just would do anything to help us to keep them all with us.
So we can appreciate several from the fruits we had last year and we cannot stop before to remember that we had an art exhibit in TN and , with Andy Loveless help and other several very dear Friends ,The Calendar for 2008 catch inside several paintings made by some of our children .

Thank you so much to each of You , dear Friends for your attachment to our children , to our attempts to change something in their life . Looking at this past year we can consider that with your help and love , with your care and dedication we all can make a difference. .
There are so many children waiting to bloom with some help and we all can change and turn life from darkness to the light through the strength of education with love and patience , with a lot of determination and devotion.

We also want to thank to all the Friends we have for 10 years since we met first time , some for more than 10 years and so many new but faithful Friends we have . Thank you for allowing us to visit with Costel USA , Cambria , thank you to Catherine , Earl , Olevia Casscadden , to Cambria Church for all the support for food ,for all the wonderful people we met during all our visit and I don’t want to forget any of the special people we met in Thousand Oaks or everywhere in California ,in Rotary Club or churches as we don’t want to hurt any of the wonderful people from Lapel or the amazing people from Memphis and Mississippi , the people who were introduced to us by Joan and Darrell , by Patsy and Ray , as all our dear friends from allover The United States of America .Costel and myself were so welcome everywhere and we appreciate so much the time spent with you . Thank you to Mia’s Children Foundation , to our founders for all the constant support during so many years , for the wonderful friendship we can share with our great family from USA .It’s so , so important for us to know each of you and we know there more of you which we even never met , but who are faithful to our needs and help a lot .Thank you dear special Friends from years and years or just from now !

May you all be blessed ! We are so grateful for each of you , even your name isn’t written here.

For this 2008 year , please pray for :

1. A HOME for our children where to can stay with those children who have no place
to go

2. financial support and spiritual strength to keep working

3. health and godly fruits for all of us

Remember always that we want to do God’s will and we want to fulfill His plan for so many children .

Thank you again and blessings to all

Mia and all Mia’s Children

I spoke to Mia last night and much is going on around the mission.

Oana (Costi’s wife) was in a car accident and spent a few days in the hospital. Please pray for her as she recovers at home. Mia assured me that while there were several injuries, she is expected to have a full recovery.

Mario Robert, Mia’s grandson, is still having problems with breathing. He has been in the hospital several times this past year and the doctors are concerned about his immune system. Mia asks that we pray for him as well.

There are two boxes of items Mia received when they were here this past summer that she was unable to take with her. It will cost several hundred dollars to send them to her and so I am asking that if you would like to earmark a contribution to help me send this shipment, please do so. As you know, unless requested for us to do otherwise, 100% of the money received goes to the mission. No dollars are used for administrative purposes unless you earmark it as such. Thanks for any help you can give.

On a lighter and brighter note — Costel took a bunch of the kids to the orphanage near their summer camp site and shared the Christmas story and handmade gifts from the children. They are scheduled to visit hospitals and orphanages around Bucharest this week. Finally, they will be going out on the streets around Bucharest where the homeless children hang out. Their desire is to sing carols, read scripture and share the story of Christmas and the Good News of Jesus. What a testimony this is to their faith and their willingness to share what they have found in God.

Just a reminder that year end financial gifts are always appreciated as it is expensive to keep up with the Euro. During the next year, it is our desire to expand the circles of supporters. If you would be willing to invite your friends and family to a small get-together at your home, Patsy and I will make ourselves available to come and share what Mia’s Children is all about. You will be receiving a final newsletter in the mail this week and you will see what a wonderfully productive year we have had.

Thank you for all you do to support Mia, Costel and the kids!

Joan

Beloved friends of Mia’s Children,

We have been praising God, for He is so good and every day He has been blessing us in so many ways, many of them unexpected. Even though in Romania we continue struggling with circumstances to survive, we exalt with joy that God is in control of our lives and in everything we have victory.

On your Thanksgivig Day, November 22, we had a special time of praising and thanking God in prayer and song, pinning up autumn leaves each with children’s thanksgiving on a tree I painted on the big living room window & door. Each leaf was a history of the life of each child, pointing to the Lord and His goodness for their new life. The children said many Scriptures, from Psalms and Old & New Testament. After praying, we shared a lovely meal of celebration with, not only the children but some of the parents as well. This special time built in our spirits a strength and joy in our God. Mr. Stephan, Raluca’s father, who has been diagnosed with skin cancer, asked us to keep praying for him as he was so touched and encouraged by the time together and witness we had.

In school all the children are doing great! Because of that some of the teachers are still asking us to receive more students from their classes, usually those not only having difficulties in their families, but those who need additional help and encouragement with their homework. At this time we cannot take any of them; we are open to the possibility, but we cannot add more as we don’t have additional helpers to work with us. Most of the children have big emotional troubles and need special attention, but we cannot focus on them as well as our children. These new ones would need extra attention because of their emotional problems and everyday troubles and are for that reason behind in their learning as well.

We are very excited about the kindergarten program where we work everyday with six of our children, between three and six years old. It is just amazing to everyone, including me, how open they are to receive information, how excited they are to learn new things…in two months they are like blosoming flowers. Among these six children, three are coming from abject poverty without knowing simple personal hygene, but knowing too much about guns, knives, bad words, violence…It is often so hard to replace bad memories with joy, emotional healing, smiles instead of hurts and deep sadness. All these children are sleeping here in the house with us, and still from time to time have bad dreams and nightmares. Sometimes they confess the physical abuse they have had. We pray with them about what’s going on inside of them, and we also pray for their families. Every night we have special family fun time together (fourteen children sleeping each night with us) involving the older children in story telling, dancing, singing, acting so that they are positively affected. Costel sleeps with most of the boys downstairs, while I do so with the girls upstairs; this seems to work out well and in every moment each of them feels secure.

We want to thank you all who are helping us, especially now when the power of the dollar is so low and the price of food, electricity, gas and gasoline, all continue to increase–more than 20% in the past month. Bills for the flats, with increasing inflation, are so high we wonder how we will be able to cover them. Some of the children have been sick(thanks for the help which was given by Drs. Linda and Milt Hanson and to the Open Door Clinic ), and we still have a great need for shoes, medicine, coats.

Recently Carol, a missionary from America, living in Romania for ten years, has come to help us, to encourage us, to bring new breath to us. As you know, few Romanians understand the need to take care of these underprivileged children. She is here now helping me write this newsletter.

I want to thank God for the Rotary Clubs from America and Romania, who are open to improve the life needs for our children. We want to thank them in the same way we thank the Christians and Mia’s Children Foundation, Cambria Church and other churches & groups, who are faithful in their commitment to pray and to support the work we do here.

Mihaela and Marian are still in Cyprus, and they have the best records in their training. They have been asked to go to England right now. They asked us to pray with them to know what God’s plan is for them.

Here are some of our prayer requests:
* For a stable home for the Mia’s Children Association.
* For the stability of the dollar and that we will have the necessary finances to cover the costs: bills, food, medicine, clothing, transportation, etc..
* For health for Mia, Costel, Mario Robert (Mia’s grandson), and all the children as their immunization systems are weak from their past neglect.
* For reliable helpers other than Mia, Costel, Oana, and Costi.
* For everyday guidance and strength to go on as we face so many needs, attacks, uncertainties.
* For joy and fullness of Christmas, especially the real meaning of Jesus’ birth.
* For the founders, Joan, Darrell, Joanna; for all our faithful friends & sponsors to rejoice in the Spirit of Christmas as they bless so many children here in our association.

Love Mia and the Children

It is late Thursday night and I am thinking back over this Thanksgiving Day. I have shared a feast with my husband, daughter, son-in-law and his parents at their home in Rochester, Michigan. We are all healthy. We had great conversations. We watched a great movie “Amazing Grace” and we thanked God for loving us, sustaining us and bringing us to this season of thanksgiving. God owes us nothing. If we have anything at all it is not because we deserve it. It is a gift from God and that humbles me as I think about all that he has provided to me and my family.

Approaching the Christmas season, I know that God has shared wealth with me so that I can share it with others. Mia and Costel are also approaching the Christmas season with 30-45 children who have learned that God provides for them too. Mia’s Children is all about God’s provision and His love. He has taught us that one of the great joys in life comes from giving to others.

As you begin preparing for Christmas, please keep Mia’s Children in mind. A donation to Mia’s Children is a wonderful way to honor friends and family during the holidays. Keep in mind that there are quite a few kids and it is our goal to ensure that each child receives at least one present that is personal to them. With the fall of the dollar, our money doesn’t go quite as far as it use to. To provide a piece of clothing or toy will cost around $30 per child. It is best to let Mia and Costel decide on what they need and to prepare their Christmas plans.

As in the past, the children will be examples to us as they serve their community in song and drama during the holidays. Please reflect on all that God has provided you and if you can, send a special Christmas donation to:

Mia’s Children
c/o Joan Castle
2586 Hocksett Cove
Germantown, TN 38139

I will need to wire our combined monetary gifts to them by the 5th of December.

May God bless you and your family during this season!

Joan Castle
901-624-3884

Our Beloved Family and Friends ,

We all have so many reasons to be thankful for , that we’d need days to write about .But this Special Thanksgiving it’s for us a time to praise , to glorify , to remember , to enjoy , to wish .
The Romanian part of our great family Mia’s Children sends to You thanks , blessings , greetings , hugs and all the love .
Happy and blessed Thanksgiving to You !!!

Mia’s Children

We were blessed with the annual visits of our dear friends from the United States. As always, they filled our hearts with love, joy and encouragement. The children blossom with all the attention and love shown to them. They speak of feeling so loved, special and favored.

We enjoyed “American style” spaghetti cooked by Michael which involved a hands on project with some of the children. It was a time of interaction, learning and joy. He also brought treats and Christian tracts for the children to read (written in Romanian) and for the older ones to hand out to their friends.

Joe and Mary Ann came with clothes for all the children along with a lot of love. Joe hosted a special night to hand out the boys clothes, along with a new University of Arizona Football cap, soccer balls and basketball. The evening was concluded with a lesson on discipline, courage, character, obedience and God’s purpose for our lives along with corresponding Scripture verses. Of course, special treats for the children were served amid laughter and joy by all.

Mary Ann sent out invitations to all the girls for their special day to receive clothing. Before the clothes were given, Mary Ann spoke on what we wear and how we wear it, which speaks of our godly character and who we are. A fashion show follow with all the girls trying on their clothing and adjustments made. This is always a special time for all the
children with joy, laughter and again, special treats ending the day.
There is never a problem with clothing because the children are so thankful and so willing to share with each other!

Each day Joe and Mary Ann were here, they took the little ones outside to help develop their eye to hand coordination through games and exercises, to teach the children how to take turns and be a team player. Time was also given to help Mia develop kindergarden lessons. They also gathered all the children for 2 more sessions on“life lessons” giving their own testimonies and talking about becoming the living word of God. Special attention and love was given to each child along with a lot of encouragement and love to Mia and Costel for the job they are doing.

Each evening as Mia tutors the older children with the homework, Costel gathers the younger ones and encourages their thinking and language skills by their story telling. As school fees are so very high, the little ones are being prepared to enter school with a level of proficiency, conceptual thinking and verbal skills. By incoroporating the alphabet, numbers and colors through art projects, the children learn the English and Romanian language simultaneously.

The visits by our guests are so important to the children because they see God’s word in application. The Bible says in James 2:24, “You see that a person is justified (made acceptable to God) by what he does; not by faith alone.” We feel that this example and application of God’s word is vital to their Christian growth. They must learn, that what they have learned, they MUST also apply to their lives.

We are teaching and expecting the children to raise the bar. The standard of life can already be seen with the older children. Mihaela and Marion are leading the way while in Cyprus studying and working, Claudia with her enrollment in college and with many of the others enrolled in work study programs around the city. This sets a standard and example for the younger children.

We are encouraged by the way God is moving in all our lives. Thank you all again for your love and support.

Love,

Mia and Costel

Dear Friends of Mia’s Children,

We Praise the Lord for the many blessings he is pouring over us, no matter how the times are. After a long summer with very high temperatures and no rain when we served every day our children with no warm water, no air conditioning and washing machine we feel so blessed that with your help we can have finally hot water and the wonderful washing machine. Even so, the summer was a special time for our mission when the kids could spend a fruitful time in the Lord in Joy, Love and Peace learning more about God’s protection about His Creation about how no matter the circumstances the life brought us we can stand on His promises, never forgetting His care for us.

Most of the summer the kids spent actively of the new house/home were we had a small swimming pool. The time was easier for the children in the heat that was over 100 degree’s. It was not only fun, it was a time of work and learn when they could understand and apply many knowledge in scriptures in science, also involving the duties inside the house and the garden the children took pleasure in learning from seed to produce. Many times after hard work finally they could taste the fruits of their labor. This gave them the sense of finality of the hard work and made them proud and their reward.
When they could see so many changes and interaction what God is giving to you and the part you bring to this process they could understand better that it is very important to be yourself in a serious way and to be part of God’s creation not to be lazy and to wait to receive and to give of yourself from the teaching’s in Proverbs.

It was a great challenge for the kids and for us but we could see again that with God’s help all Things are possible. In this way after months of prayer we could have again a summer camp.
This time a Romanian girl, Miriam, from Switzerland applied from her school a humanitarian project
involving Mia’s Children Romania. Her project was very much supported by teachers and school with the program she did she showe our pictures, sewings, paintings and special meeting for us. She could gather most of the money for the Summer Camp. Her mother is a good friend of Mrs. Grumbach and Mr. Grumbach brought his help to meet our needs and to have a blessed time. We also received help from my nephew, Robert, who is very touched by the work we do for the children. You can imagine that it was a time of fun, recreation, creation a time you could socialize with the children of the village and witness to the children from another foundation.
In the last night we had a Christian program and we welcomed other’s to participate and we presented to everyone songs, dances, poems, and skits written by the children about everyday life.
We also Praised God for the school supplies that was provided by you who allowed us to send all the kids to school in good condition. Nicoletta started High school, and Claudia her first year in University. Dana’s Foundation Skills for Children continues to help and to sponsor seven of our teenagers as well as Olivia Casscadden. Two of these children Marian and Mihaela are still in Cyprus.
Bigo broke his arm and had to come back and also GiGi came back because the owner did not respect the agreement of pay.

God put in our hearts to start the Kindergarten program because eight of our children are of the age we need heat and we can’t afford to pay for them to go to kindergarten. There are many needs but looking at the development of their personalities and the necessity to face primary school, after a time of prayer we assumed the responsbility to start this program no matter the difficulty in our time and our efforts are producing a learning environment that is stimulating their imaginations and skills. We are sure you will join us to increase the visibility and the goals of running this program. We also need lot of help and volunteers, any one is welcome to come join us.

Dana together wonderful people from the Rotary Club from United States sent money to buy and install a heater for the house. Right now for 5 days we have hot water.
We want to thank you each and everyone of you, to Cambria Church for the money for food and to all of our faithful friends and sponsors, to each church and group who sustains us in prayers and help.
Without your help we could never do what we are doing.

We ask you to keep us in prayer, our prayer requests are:

-Pray for Mia’s Children family from Romania to United States;
-Pray that God will give us the Vision and the Strength to can run according to His Will this Mission;
-Pray that the children will have protection in school, work and in Cyprus;
-Pray that the funds will always cover our expenses as Romania’s cost of living rises;
-Pray for our health and for the team we are together with Costi and Oana;
-Pray that God will provide medicine for Costell and myself;
-Pray for Dwight and our church, Romanian authorities and our relationship in our community where we serve;
-Pray for us daily;
-Pray for internet connections as the village systems fails a lot;

Thank you again and be sure that all your help is more then welcomed. We are grateful for each of you and the website and we feel sorry that we can not be in connection with you.

Thank you for all of those who gave us so much attention their Love and Friendship, Love and Support here and in the United States.
We know that we have the best friends in the World.

Our gratitude and blessings,
Mia’s Children

I spoke with Mia last night and she had much news including the fact that they are having a real difficult time with their old model computers and internet service.

The new school year has begun and once back in school the children were all asked to write about their time off during the summer. According to Mia, the teachers collected the best papers and many of our children’s essays were put on display.

So what happens to the little ones when the older kids go to school? Well, this year Mia has begun a kindergarten for the 7-8 children under 6 years old. They have their little tables and chairs and she says that while they have only had two days of class, they love it! Claudia is helping Mia out until classes begin for her October 1st.

Bogdon cannot begin college until next year, so he is currently training in a program that will provide a life-skill for him. Mia says that there is a good possibility that we will have three students ready for the university next fall!

In closing, Mia expressed her appreciation for the washing machine and dryer. She is relieved of the work of washing and can spend the time on more appropriate work. I will continue to stay in touch with them until they get their computer issues resolved.

Prayer Requests

We need to pray for the children’s fathers who seem unable to grasp the benefit of being a loving, protecting, providing father and husband. Thus the abuses upset the whole family and the children’s hearts are broken. We must pray that the fathers and mothers will do what is right for their children — allow them to continue to come to the mission where they receive nourishment and love.

The Rotary Club has provided the heating system for the house where Mia and the kids live. There seems to be some problems with getting the gas turned on by the gas company as they are needing proof of ownership papers which Mia and Costel do not have. It is getting cool in the evenings and they will need heat before very long. We need to pray that this will get straightened out.

We need to pray that Mia and Costel will be able to help the kids adjust to this year at school, personal family issues in their families, and just the stuff that comes with growing up. Mia mentioned that there are several people who have asked if they can come visit, so there will be visitors living with them for 4-6 straight weeks. We need to pray that Mia and Costel will stay healthy, that their financial needs will be met and that the visitors will understand that this is an extra busy time for the mission.

We are always looking for new people who might be interested in supporting Mia’s Children through contributions and service. So, direct your friends and family to this website remembering that your investment in these children has an eternal payoff and an immediate blessing.

Joan Castle

Claudia, the first of our children to graduate from high school will begin classes at the University of Bucharest on September 15th. I asked Claudia to write about her feelings after graduation and prior to college. The following in her article.

Times of growing

For me , the years of high school meant to have the strenght to grow and to descover yourself , to open wide the eyes to the world and to concord every citadel, bounded by the love of God with so many things and humans . A time of thoughts and hopes , of achievements , but mostly the time when you feel the love and the desire to be yourself , to fly , to build for future .And not only this .Many concerns for me were destroyed by a special relation I had with my Lord during all my school years . A strong feeling and a certain feeling that He is with me all the time gave me the brave to be not intimidated by the descrimination in my classroom with my teachers and classmates , in a society where the children coming from gypsy’s families are not so well treat .With all my steps I tryed to show that I deserve respect , attaention , that I’m not different that any other student , that I can understand and I can grow , I can proove I’m capable to stay in a school and I mean something !!! I couldn’t be “The best student “, but I graduated with good results and I deare to go at the Bucharest University , to become a social worker . My desire is to help other children as I am to breake the circles of unhhapy life , to encourage all the children coming from very poor families or abused children that with God all the things are possible !!!
I have the feeling that God expects from me to share my very special and dramatic experience since I came in Mia’s Children to other children in needs .
I am what I am just becouse God gave me the oportunity to meet Mia’s Children , To be with Mia and Costel for almost 10 years and to descover Him and another life . There are many friends alover the world whom helped me and continue to help and encourage me . I want to thank to all of them and to let you know this :I might not be the best or the most persone in the world , but through your love and thanks to Him and to you , I descovered myself , I have dignity and I have something to say , to work , to hope , to feel , to show , to prove !
So ,even I’m such a tiny little girl , my heart and my experience are so big and great and just wait to show it !
Look at me , please and do the good work to help and encourage children as I am and I’m sure that the world will be a better place !
Thank you !!!
Your friend , Claudia

I spoke to Mia tonight and she is very tired but they had a good camp. Several of the older kids got a serious virus, went back to Bucharest to the doctor/hospital, but all are o.k. now. Money for the school supplies and washing machine is being sent this week. (Look at the last posting to see how you can help)

What an amazing story Mia tells in the email below. What a blessing these children are — serving wherever they are. What a lesson for the rest of us!

“Good to be back ! We just arrived last night and are very tired . It was a long time far away and some of the kids were sick, but many blessings were with us all the time . All the kids enjoyed so much the beauty of the nature , the river, the connection with the people from village .Two beautiful girls came with us like an exchange of fellowship . There are so many nice children there and many bonds between our children and these children . Next week another boy will come for 3 days . In the winter we wish to take another dear little girl , Diana for Christmas time . There are no ways for those children to go far from their village , so it’s such a blessing for our children to present the Gospel and to witness His love and to serve the Lord !

Mia and all”