During these cold winter days, we like to remember some of our favorite warm weather memories. This one from last summer is especially dear. Mari, our special educator, arranged for a playful stroll in some lavender fields near where we live. We had such a wonderful time in the fresh air and summer sunshine!
Easter at The House of New Life
Easter is coming soon and we have prepared with joy and hope! Check out our beautifully decorated eggs! Even while the pandemic continues to affect life for all of us, we have much to be thankful for.
Birthday news
Happy birthday, Florin!
Summer birthdays
Yesterday and today we celebrated three birthdays! Our house administrator Ligia had a birthday, as well as Benguta (33) and Viorica (31). We celebrated with birthday cakes and some gifts in our back yard. We've been blessed that everyone is staying healthy despite the ongoing pandemic. We also recently replaced our hard working stove and oven, and the new one is a great upgrade. God is good!
Art by Camelia
Art is a big part of our day-to-day life here at the House. Today, Camelia drew us a picture of some of her favorite people. From left to right, here are her friends Leila, Anton (an imaginary boy), then Cynthia and Hud. Great job, Cami!
Life During Coronavirus
Like many families around the world, we have been staying home the past few weeks to reduce exposure to the coronavirus. In Romania, there have been over 11,000 cases - 229 have occurred in our county of Constanta. For the most part, our routine hasn’t changed too much. The biggest difference is we’ve hired a private driver to pick up and drop off our staff so they don’t have to rely on public transportation to come to work.
We’re fortunate that so far no one in our family has been impacted by this terrible disease. Recently we celebrated Easter as well as Cami’s 32nd birthday! Thank you as always to you our supporters for keeping us in your prayers during these precarious times.
2019 Letter from the Board
Dear Friends and Sponsors of Chi Rho,
As another year draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on the kindness, prayers and generosity of the many faithful friends who have supported the Chi Rho ministry. Once again, on our latest trip in October, we witnessed young lives being redeemed and transformed by God’s grace, our loving staff, and the generosity of Chi Rho’s supporters. Our beloved brother in Christ and former ministry partner, the late Adrian Olariu, would often say, “God is still working!” With these words we would frequently encourage each other during challenging moments. We rest on that belief because it is true. As we look back on this year’s accomplishments and those of the past 20 plus years of Chi Rho ministry, we must say it again: God has been and is still at work!
What is the proof of this saying for God’s work and His people? A recent sermon series at our church in Scottsdale, Arizona, focused on the book of Esther. When the lives of the Jews living in exile were threatened, Queen Esther and her relative Mordecai perceived the threat. They not only spoke up in the face of grave personal danger, but also acted upon God’s direction. The result was their enemies were vanquished and the threat to God’s people was turned away. God was still working even though His name is not mentioned once in the entire book of Esther.
We know firsthand we are experiencing that same love and protection. With your support and our Board’s efforts, we respond to God’s direction. We are pleased to tell you that the condition of the House, the staff, and the kids has never been better. This was our hope and prayer 28 years ago. We can testify that God is indeed still working, correcting, and directing us.
There are challenges, as we know there always will be. Romania continues to raise the minimum wage and as a result the staff payroll withholding taxes have increased dramatically. In order to compete with positions of equal pay and opportunity in the overall economy, we have needed to increase our staff salaries. This is something we wanted to do, as well, since it rewards our faithful caregivers and has increased our ability to recruit new staff. Many of our original “mamas” have now been with us for well over 20 years and need to retire for personal and health reasons.
Another challenge is the status of some of the “kids’” health. Complications from HIV, hepatitis, and TB treatment are prevalent and difficult. Yet the kids receive excellent care from Dr. Margaret Illie, who continually thanks us for the opportunity to treat the kids and always refuses our offer of a stipend. The staff and kids may never meet you, nor “see” firsthand the efforts and sacrifices put forth to sustain their lives, but surely they experience the strong love of our God still working through you.
Will the needs in Romania continue for another 20 years? We don’t know, but another saying our friend Adrian was fond of was, “God knows!” We have our challenges, but He is working through all of us. For your part in supporting Chi Rho by making unseen sacrifices, we say thank you! You are the Body of Christ, Jesus’ hands and feet and you are proof He is still working. All of us on the Chi Rho Board wish you a gracious measure of joy and comfort to be found in the Lord, who never tires of working with and for His people.
May you have a Merry Christmas and a blessing filled 2020.
Cynthia and Hud Staffield
For the Chi Rho Board: Moe Baniani, Dan Byrne, Gary Gillam, Gabe Gilliam, Brittany Staffield Gonzalez, Greg Jamison, Ken Olsen, Cynthia Staffield, Hud Staffield, Bob Tomlin
Letter Art
Today we decorated our driveway with new painted letters. They really brighten up the yard and we had so much fun making it!
Cherry Picking
Our cherry tree has produced fruit this year! Time to pick our fill.
Happy 30th Birthday, Florin B!
Happy 30th birthday, Florin! We love you!
Love Is In The Air
Happy Valentines Day from the House of New Life!
Christmas comes to the House of New Life
We’ve had a wonderful week celebrating Christmas! First Santa came and made his annual visit to the House of New Life. Everyone got a chance to visit him and receive a fun gift. Among the highlights:
Florin received a police car with lights and sounds. It was a hit!
Cami received a toy cat that meows.
Laura was happy with her Christmas lights, as she wanted to decorate her room.
Marcu received a smart phone toy, also a huge hit!
We also had a group of teens from a nearby high school come and sing Christmas carols with us. We love getting visits from the local community, their visit was a wonderful treat.
From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!
The House receives a donation from Selgros, our local shopping center
Some encouraging news! Selgros, the retailer where we do our shopping for the House, invited us to a special event. Every year, they organize a dinner party to celebrate their top clients. At the end of the dinner party they organize a raffle, selling tickets for a few things they intend to offer.
The money raised from this raffle they offer as donation to an organization (NGO). This year, they invited us as recipients of this donation! Here, Ligia and Mari were there to receive the donation, as well as to enjoy a wonderful dinner party. The donation was for a little over 1000 Euro, about 4760 Romanian Lei.
We’re so grateful for the gesture and generosity of local partners like Selgros!
Youth With A Mission comes for a visit
For the past two weeks, we’ve been blessed to have volunteers from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at the House. We had so much fun doing crafts, singing songs, and dancing with our friends! YWAM has made visits to the House in the past and we always love having them come by.
Hud and Cindy visit
Hud and Cindy recently visited the House of New Life and our foster kids living nearby. In Hud’s words:
We are having a good trip here. I wish everyone could be here to see how solid the work is. The House is in good working order, the addition of the handymen has really improved the storage area. The ongoing every day tasks to keep up the grounds and make repairs to the house don't go waiting. The maintenance guys are all over it.
The staff and kids are well. It's a solid program, actually a large family. Vero and Mari reflect on their memories of the old PC#3. They express their gratitude for the facilities and support they have now to care for the kids and they share much more personally. All in all, a very smooth working family with very good management.
The kids eat well. Lunch is soup with chicken and dumplings, grilled spicy Romanian sausage, grilled chicken and homemade french fries. The HIV virus robs their systems of calories. Each kid is small in stature and none is overweight, despite three meals each day and snacks. Vero is the woman in the first photo. She is Veronica Zaharia. She has been with the kids since their infancy, first as a nurses assistant, and now as house mother.
Thank you to everyone who supports this work. We ask for your prayers for the kids’ continuing health and also for our staff. We are blessed to have such a faithful team of women who care for our kids, please pray God will continue to raise up individuals locally with a heart for this work.
Summer trip to Sinaia
We just got back from our annual summer trip to Sinaia! Sinaia is a mountain town and resort about 4 hours northwest from where we live, and it's one of the highlights of our year. This year the weather was looking to be quite rainy, but we lucked out and got a good number of sunny days while there. We took long walks, visited the surrounding castles and even took a train ride. Everyone had a fantastic time, we can't wait to come back next year!
Family Outing to the Aquarium and McDonalds
Today we took a family outing to our local aquarium and McDonalds - two of our favorite places! Everyone had a ball as always!
Spring Happenings
The cold weather has finally left us and we are enjoying a beautiful spring! We recently celebrated Easter and now two birthdays for some special girls. Birthdays are always milestone events, since back in the 1990s no one expected our kids to live much past the age of 5. We are thriving with love and good medical care!
Snowed In
We're under a heavy snowfall here in late February. Many roads are closed and our team is pulling triple shifts to cover staff who can't drive to the House. Thankfully we have enough heat, warm clothes, and food to see us through. Hoping for a break in the weather soon!
Just for girls
We got our nails done today with Mari!
