| | Prayer Requests Wisdom and guidance for the staff in their relationships with the orphans. They could feel that God loves them, and see that he has a plan for their life. The Holy Spirit would convict them and God would give them the strength to turn their lives to Him and make them fruitful.
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The HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Excellence) Orphan Outreach began as a way to help the orphan youth of Romania who face a tragic situation. These orphans are forced by law to leave orphanages at age 18, destitute and without family, real friends, or job skills to support them. Consequently, the suicide rate in their first year outside the orphanage is above 10%. SLM provides housing, spiritual mentoring, and assistance in managing the personal affairs of these orphans. Currently SLM rents four apartments in the city of Alba Iulia, and another one in the village of Slatina. The Alba Iulia apartments currently house a total of seven guys and seven girls. There are some local Romanian youth as well as the V.S. youth from the U.S. (Ada Dienner, Willard Petre, and Davey Stoltzfus) that work with the orphans in Alba. There are Bible Studies on Tuesday and Thursday nights, Game night on Friday, sometimes football (soccer) or sledding on Saturday, and other special activities like camping, raising watermelons, growing potatoes, etc. The outreach in  Slatina houses 12 girls, where Regina Helmuth works with them teaching sewing, etc. and having Bible studies as well. Our goals for this program are to help these youth to learn how to live spiritually as well as physically; by showing these youth Jesus' love for them and that there is a plan for their life, to have them accept Him as their personal Saviour and then help them overcome their habits, addictions, and thought patterns, and to teach them skills they can use to support themselves and maybe future families as well. Remember these young men and women in prayer; that through God's work here in Romania, these youth could sense the Holy Spirit calling them, and then be able live a life of joy and peace with Jesus as their Saviour. | |
