“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me” (Matthew 25:40).

Greetings to you in the Name of Yeshua HaMashiach, the Lord Jesus Christ!

We write this letter from Israel and the United States. We spent most of March together writing stories in our apartment in Tiberias. They will first be published in future newsletters, and later on will be put into books. We enjoy the wonderful variety of fish, fresh fruit and vegetables in Israel, and thank the Lord for the privilege of being in His land. The view of the Sea of Galilee from our window always inspires us and reminds us of Yeshua’s earthly ministry. Just a few miles up the coast is the place where He multiplied the bread and fish and fed the multitudes. We were reminded of the Lord’s command to feed the hungry and of our ongoing work in Iaşi, some 1,100 miles to the north-west, where with your support we feed about 750 children a day at our canteens and orphanage.

As we drove to the new Ben Gurion airport, opened last November, we thanked the Lord for you. We prayed that some of you would have the opportunity to come and visit us in Israel. Stephen then took a flight to Romania and Genovieva returned home to Tiberias. It is only a two hour flight from Tel Aviv to Bucharest, and in the same time zone, so there is no jet lag to get over!

In Iaşi I was joined by some American friends: Pastor Eric Nordin and his family and a group from his church in Delaware. We spent a lot of time talking to the staff and children at the orphanage and also met many of the children we feed on a daily basis at the canteens. We visited Cantina El Roi and saw the progress on the extension to the canteen. The structure of the new building is very solid. When it is finished the ground floor will provide facilities to feed many more children a day. The second floor will be used as a worship center and the top floor will be used for accommodation and offices. So far we have invested about $100,000 (£66,667) in the building and we still need about $170,000 (£113,333) to complete it. It is in an excellent location near the railway station and will be a great blessing to the work when it is completed. Hundreds of poor children at the other canteens continue to be fed daily with your support.

We saw the bakery, which is attached to Cantina El Roi, and met our bakers, Teofil, and his wife, Nina. At the present time they make about 600 loaves of bread a day, plus pastries for desserts. It costs about $0.37 (£0.25) to produce a 12oz (350g) loaf of bread. The oven has the capacity to produce about 2,000 loaves a day, but that would necessitate an increase in regular financial support. We would very much like to be able to send a loaf of bread home with the children who eat at the canteens. All the bread we make is given to poor children in the name of Yeshua.

I sat in on one of the sessions of the International School of Ministry at Cantina Betel along with a group of young people from the canteen. They are now about a third of the way through the eighteen-month course. The particular topic that day was the power of prayer. Dr Dick Eastman, the teacher of this section, is president of Every Home for Christ, a ministry committed to bringing the gospel message to every home in the world. In this series, Dr Eastman teaches how prayer can unlock every closed door and open the way for the gospel to be proclaimed. He also teaches how prayer effectiveness is closely tied to intimacy with God. This session of the ISOM course forms the beginning of trimester two. Each session of the ISOM course is translated into Romanian.

There was much discussion on the changes to come at the orphanage. Some of the children will be reintegrated into their own families and some will go to foster families in the Iaşi area. Others will remain at the orphanage, but on the basis of a contract made directly with their families. They will be cared for by staff that we will continue to employ there. Please pray for this transition to families. For the school-aged children, we expect it to start in June, at the end of the school year. As the children grow up, it will be very important that there are father figures in their lives.

The orphanage children have made great progress in their dancing. They have learned to perform dances to the songs in our creation book, choreographed by Olga, the dancing teacher. It will be very important for us that the families they go to allow them to continue these activities.

We had the joy of baptizing three of our staff and two of the older children while we were there. Some of those being baptized come from hostile families who do not understand the need for believer’s baptism. Please pray that they remain strong in their commitment to the Lord. We also had a dedication service for Laurian’s new-born granddaughter, Larisa Genovieva Sfatcu, born to Alex and Ana Maria.

Our mission office in Iaşi, which is also Laurian’s home, is in urgent need of renovation work. It is the Sfatcu family house where Genovieva lived when she was a child. The neighbors completely demolished their side of the semi-detached house, leaving our side vulnerable to sudden collapse. The problem is all the more acute because the house, built in 1953, has no concrete foundation and the bricks are held together with clay rather than cement! It will cost about $25,000 (£16,667) to restore the walls and foundation and to construct an upper floor.

Upon my return from Romania, I went to Indiana for a radio interview. The same radio station that collected boots, shoes and winter coats, hats, scarves and gloves for the children in the last two years again interviewed me in the studio and Genovieva on the phone from Israel. Because of the increasingly strict customs controls we decided this year only to ship brand-new items. We didn’t know what effect that decision might have on the listeners. The station decided to have the collection earlier this year to give us more time to ship and also to enable listeners to take advantage of end-of-the-winter sales. The response was phenomenal! Almost 25,000 brand-new items were collected, as well as almost $25,000 (£16,667) for the project. Praise the Lord! This is a wonderful reminder of the Lord’s faithfulness and love towards the poor children of Romania. The money collected will go well beyond the cost of the project and help us towards the goal of completing the extension to Cantina El Roi.

We plan to ship one or more containers to Romania during the next few weeks. The wonderful load will arrive in good time for next winter.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.