It’s been four months since you read my last prayer letter. I am grateful for having you by my side in this ministry.
As a family we went through quite a few trials these last few months. Our path seems to look different from what we thought it would look.
Many of you know that my wife Cristina used to be on WMF staff a while ago. She currently has a regular job but she continues to serve as a collaborator in the Advocacy department. We both share the desire to be in missions and we are aware of the changes that would bring in our lives, especially in terms of the place where we may live.
This year in May, after the community retreat, we found out we are going to be parents. The news brought some amount of fear that this pregnancy would take us even further away from our dream, given the new responsibilities. Don’t get us wrong. We love children. We are ready to leave everything and go where God tells us to so that children may find hope. We only thought that our family would grow in number way later and that that would happen by adoption. We had dreamed of bringing unwanted children into our home and we felt that God validated that in our lives.
These changes made us question many things, including our capacity to hear and discern God’s will for our lives. We came to the point where we doubted everything. Things got even worse when my wife started to feel sick and depressed. As she struggled with depression in the past, what was supposed to be a normal prenatal low emotional state became a very alarming depression that looked too familiar and too scary.
We are sharing these things with you not because we want to talk about our pain. It’s because we want to share how God’s love has blessed us through it all. We are now happy and excited about this little one and we think you will be too.
The new responsibilities and challenges are still scary! And yet we are called to trust in Him and rely on His provision as He promised He would walk with us every step of the way. We will need to depend on Him on a different level from now on!
I will be a father and I became aware of this when we saw the little body of our baby on the sophisticated screen at the doctor’s office. The little thing looked like it waving at us. I cried when I saw this tiny person playing in the womb, pushing itself up and then sliding as if it were on a water slide. That was when I realized that that 2 inch person would change our lives forever and that our love story would be an adventure even more than it had ever been. This baby truly is a gift from God, a gift that will be with us wherever we go. In about five months we’ll hold him or her and we’ll get to see all the features that are now being completed.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth. (Psalm 139:15)
The prayer letter you are now reading has only talked about me and my family. In closing, I will include a few things about our community as well.
– The little children we work among will go to camp in the mountains (in Lepsa) in September 22nd to 28th. Camps are such great opportunities for the kids as they are given the chance to spend a week away from the context they live is, which is all too often a hard one. Pray that we would know how to show them that they are loved, valued and appreciated for who they are. The theme of this year’s camp is The Fruit of the Spirit.
– We are happy to let you know that The Reading for Adults project has started. Among the parents of the children who come to the community center there are some who for a while expressed their desire to learn how to read and write. Some may say it’s too late for them to actually sit behind a desk and attempt to decipher the alphabet. And yet, six parents let their guard down and chose to come to the center three times a week and learn. Due to a revolutionary Brain Development Program they have been able to learn up to 10 letters a day. It is such a beautiful thing to see them come, to see their eyes as they feel encouraged to press on, to see them read Bible verses, to see them happy that for the first time they can read things they only heard from other people before.
Those of you who can read Romanian, can find more details here.
Now that I post my prayer letters on this blog you can write back if you want.
Thank you for walking with me in this.
Bogdan Chelariu, servant and father-to-be!
Blessings!