July 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday (June 12) was the last day of school in Romania. It was a joyful day for many students as they finally escaped from the drudgery of hours of arithmetic calculations and from naming all those parts of speech and especially from awkward gym classes. They are looking forward to a summer of sitting in tree tops eating cherries and apricots, lots of neighborhood soccer games, grilling mici and frigărui at the local park and fishing and swimming in the Danube River. After their summer adventures conclude, they will return to school to the freshness of a new grade, a new teacher, a new classroom and new school supplies.

Others, on the other hand, found out yesterday that they will not be moving on to the next grade. Their school year has been a daily struggle of not getting their homework done maybe because their parents force them to spend their evenings begging, or maybe because they are too tired to concentrate after an entire night of sleeping in a park hiding from the violent and abusive raging of their alcoholic father. Others cannot complete their schoolwork because their parents are illiterate and cannot help them recognize even one letter of the alphabet. Some have parents who have abandoned them in search of work abroad, and so life has become a matter of survival in which school has fallen further and further down the priority list.

These are the stories of many of the children who come to The Valley House here in Galaţi. They often come telling us of how they were humiliated by their teacher or their classmates at school because they didn’t finish their homework or because they didn’t know how to write the correct answer on the board. Many of them, of Roma ethnicity, talk about the sting of racist remarks thrown at them daily by their white, Romanian colleagues.

Please pray with us as we cry out to God for justice in the lives of these children we love so much. Pray that He would work miracles of mercy and compassion and salvation. Ask that we would be filled with the Spirit of God in all of our interactions with the children and their families, communicating the love of the God who has not forgotten the most vulnerable. Pray that our work this summer would be effective as we seek to foster growth, healing and wholeness through educational and therapeutic activities.

This summer, we are looking forward to spending more time with the kids each day than we are able to during the school year. We had a summer planning meeting last week in which we talked about all sorts of ideas for what our upcoming program will look like. Each week the children will spend the morning in art time, Bible study and in different discussions about social skills. After lunch, we will have time for school work (yes, we keep working all summer!) and play time. At the end of the day, each child has a variety of clubs to choose from that might seem interesting to him or her. These clubs in the past have included things like photography, sewing, volleyball, music and aerobics. Our new idea for this summer is to have a three-week long movie-making club. It will involve sewing (the kids will make their own costumes), story-writing (they will write the plot of the film) and acting (when we actually film the final result!). We pray that this will be a summer of growth and of peace for our kids, one in which they find the freedom to truly rejoice in their childhood.

In other news, I am coming to the States for a work/vacation trip on July 14 and will be there until August 10. I am so looking forward to being able to see many of you and to being able to share some of the stories I have from this past year. Following is my schedule of group gatherings as I know it so far. I will post updates to this schedule on my blog (http://johnkoon.wordpress.com) as I find out about them. Please check there for changes.

July 22: Toledo, Ohio (speaking at SewHope Foundation)

July 26: Columbus, Ohio (open house at my parents’: 300 N. Drexel in Bexley)

July 28 or 29: Denver, Colorado (speaking to a group of Denver Seminary students)

July 30 or 31: Atlanta, Georgia (speaking to a group from All Souls Fellowship)

August 2: Nashville, Tennessee (open greeting time at Rolling Hills Community Church)

As I mentioned in my last letter, please feel free to contact me if you are interested in getting together to share a meal or a cup of coffee. I would love to be able to share about my time in Romania and Moldova so far in a more personal way than I can at the other gatherings. Please send me an email (john.koon@wordmadeflesh.org) or call me at 614.364.4098 to let me know when you’re free!

Grace and peace,

John Koon

PRAYER REQUESTS

1) Continue praying for the children this summer, especially as we have extra time with them. Pray that our relationships with them would grow and that they would be reminded daily of their beauty and dignity. Ask God to show us how to communicate His love each day.

2) In order for us to maintain our status as an official organization in Romania, we need to hire a full-time, licensed social worker.  We are praying that we find someone who not only has the correct degree, but who also feels called to serve with us at Word Made Flesh. Please pray that God would send the right person to us.

3) Continue to keep WMF Moldova in your prayers. We will be speaking at a local church here in Galaţi tomorrow (June 14) in order to start informing the Christian community here of our plans and to invite people to be involved in what God is doing. Pray that people might be moved and that they might catch sight of the vision God has for Moldova. Pray for our team as we continue to prepare for our move to Moldova in January.