NEWSLETTER

PRISON FELLOWSHIP ROMANIA

No. 4, Octomber- December2010

WHAT DO WE DO WITH OUR BURDENS? “WINTER IS NOT LIKE SUMMER... ”

The truth is that on our shoulders there are so many

We’re just past the middle of winter and we miss summer pigeons and sometimes they are very heavy.
so much! I didn’t think that this winter would be a painful and
When it's warm it does not matter that you eat less ... To be humiliating one, but these days we all have our difficulties,
honest folks, cold is one of our greatest enemies ... heating isn’t it?
bills are such a heavy burden for us... Some pigeons visit us every day: unemployed young
I meet many people every day buried under numerous people, sick people, food costs, drugs, high energy costs.
burdens: poverty, disease, families with a lot of children, I never recovered from the pain caused by talking to
unemployment... the one who said that winter is not like someone who said: "I do not identify in any way with
summer was right especially when you have burdens to beggars, street children, homeless and people from
carry... prisons ...” You’re right!
I saw a cartoon with a truck that had to go over a bridge. Talking with you I noticed a flock of pigeons coming gently
Two traffic signs caught my eyes: the bridge weight limit and tenderly sitting on my shoulders...
was indicating 8 tons and the truck weighted exactly 8 tons. Come my dears, and tell other pigeons to come! This way,
The truck started to cross the bridge and when it reached you help us trust the Father of Grace, of Mercy and
half way over the bridge an innocent pigeon sat on the Compassion... because we forget Him so often and cry out
canvas. Because of the extra "weight" the bridge broke to Him only when we need Him ...
down into two pieces and the truck plunged into the river. It's a freezing, cruel winter in Cluj and pigeons shiver with
Just like in cartoons, right? Funny, isn’t it? cold. Some of them cannot fly anymore.
Please pray for us! We humbly and
gently ask you to!

CONSTANTIN ASAVOAIE,
Chairman of Prison Fellowship Romania

THE AGENDA OF CONSTANTIN ASĂVOAIE, PRESIDENT OF PRISON

FELLOWSHIP ROMANIA
31st to 4th of November, Prison Fellowship Europe and Prison Fellowship International board meeting, held in
Washington DC, USA
12th of November 2010, TEDx Conference, City Plaza Hotel, topic: "Be strong! Never give up!" (Rated "most
impressive speech”)
19th to 20th of November 2010, meeting with Dan Larsson, Inga Lill Beggren and George Dobre in Sweden
1st to 4th of December 2010, visit to Tirana - Prison Fellowship Albania. Create the new board and training its
members.
10th of December, attending the final presentation of the national reintegration strategy (2011-2014), National Prison
Administration, Bucharest, UN Information Center in Romania
 Page 2 NEWSLETTER

WE OFFERED THEM GIFTS ...

I and the mission group from Prison Fellowship have a year this year? Where do you see yourself this year? We were
full of gifts from heaven above, a year of blessings and joy! glad to see prisoners who chose to serve the Lord this year!
Thank God for everything he has done for us and through us Even children promised to engage in certain activities for
for those behind bars and not only.... God's glory and joy of many people. May the Lord say to
We were glad that we could sing Christmas carols to the each one of us: they brought gifts ... ...
people behind bars in Satu Mare prison, while bringing gifts we wish all those behind bars and all those who love them a
for 80 people who have no one to support them. In addition year full of gifts from up above!
we brought them clothes and books.
A few days ago we visited poor families bringing them gifts
from the Lord. We saw a lot of joy on the faces of over one Volunteers
hundred children both from our church and from the places
near the city. They all received gifts from Prison Fellowship P. F. Romania
Romania Mission.
It's such great feeling to have amazing experiences with the
Lord, when He uses you to bring smiles on other people’s
faces, and not only smiles.... The Wise men brought gifts
when Jesus was born and we need to bring gifts with a
pleasant odor. What is your gift? How will you bring it to God

Despite all our attempts to prove the contrary, this world is battles that no
not our home. And the situations we encountered along the child should fight;
course of the program " Angel Tree” only proves this once they are alone,
again: children with both parents in prison, children whose abandoned and
father killed their mother or one of their brothers or crushed in
grandparents, brothers and sisters scattered to orphanages, despair.
foster families, monasteries; parents in prison who have
never seen their children, children who, besides growing
without the love of their parents, lack basic living conditions Through “Angel
such as electricity, running water etc. It's an inexhaustible list tree” we try not to
reminding us that there is something fundamentally wrong look away and
with our world. There are undeniable stories that shine in the respond to God's
darkness, stories about left alone parents who did not despair call to participate
and seem to do more than is humanly possible for their in the restoration
children. You may remember Mrs. Mary whose story was that He brings in the relationships between children and their
presented in our previous newsletter. Or Mr. Rus who works parents in prison. A present, a photo and a thought from the
at night and sleeps only a few hours a day in order to spend mother or father can make miracles and we are privileged to
as much time as possible with his boys so that they don’t feel be able to witness them and enjoy the happiness of the
their mother's absence. children who discover their parents have not forgotten them.

Unfortunately, exceptions like these only seem to confirm the We tried to do this around this Christmas holidays but “Angel
rule. Usually, the situations we encounter throughout “Angel tree” does not end here. We still have three initiatives
Tree” program remind us how different our reality is from the planned for 2011. In 2010 we managed to reach the nearly
one we were actually created for. It is a deep hostility in it that 150 families who have prisoners in Gherla prison, Cluj-
makes us look away. But God did not look away from us and Napoca women section and Targu Mures prison. That means
we celebrate this (or should celebrate this) every Christmas. almost 290 children. We traveled thousands of kilometers
We celebrate the love of God who gave Himself to bring us and have covered seven counties. But in Romania there are
closer to Him, us who were once foreigners and lost. almost 30,000 prisoners who have probably thousands of
“Angel tree” is nothing but a glimpse of our attempt to children. More resources and more volunteers means more
celebrate the children included in the “Angel tree" program.
love of God who
does not turn So, finally, we want to thank you in Jesus’ name, on behalf of
His face away those whom we got to touch this Christmas and on behalf of
from our despair Prison Fellowship Romania for all the prayers and material
and resources that you put in his program. We want to invite you
helplessness. to join us in this amazing journey of giving prisoners, prison-
Around the ers’ children and families God's love that never turns away
holidays, in from them nor from us.
particular
prisoners’
children feel
alienated,
defeated in
 NO. 4, OCTOMBER- DECEMBER2010 Page 3

EXHIBITION OF CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS MADE BY CHILDREN

Among the activities we have at the Day Care
Center, I'll talk about artistic plastic-art workshop.
Every Friday, the children are taught by volunteers
from the Faculty of Fine Arts to discover the
secrets of drawing, painting and beauty.
In December we had a Christmas exhibition.
Each child from the center made greeting
cards, wreaths and painted angels. We had
many cards made from different tissues that
turned out to be very beautiful.
Adela, Diana and Alexandra, all volunteers,
helped us to create and manufacture them.

Some kids sold many cards to the members of a bank.Ana,

Andrea, Narcisa and I felt good at the exhibition. People
treated us very nice, and we felt no discrimination at all, on
the contrary, the people helped us very much by buying our
greetings and little wreaths.
We felt very proud that what we created was so treasured
and helped decorate peoples’ homes for Christmas.
Ana-Member of the artistic creative arts workshop

Impressions of a volunteer

The children’s exhibition took place in the public space of a bank

where I helped them sell the objects made for Christmas.
Visitors were able to choose greeting cards, wreaths, globes and
candle holders and appreciated all the objects according to their
own sensitivity.

But visitors would have been even more blessed if they had just
smiled to one of the participating children. Those who did not
spend a moment with a child do not know their loss, because we
were so lucky to have been enriched by their smiles during our
participation in the creative education session. If we could have, we
would have bought every object of the exhibition.
The results were more than satisfactory!
Diana Otet, student at the University of Art and Design
Volunteer at the Day Care Centre for Social Integration of Children

FORUM THEATRE
Forum Theatre is a more interesting way of acting in a play.
Spectators are allowed to interrupt the play when they do not
like something, and can replace a character, and seek to
change his/her behavior. They can act for 5 min. The aim of
the intervention is that by the end of the play the actors have
to be able to find a solution to the problem presented in order
to avoid negative behaviors and attitudes .
Discrimination was the main theme of our play.
A lot of children have acted in the play including us, Noemi
and Andrea. The play was called "A flower and two
gardeners'. Andrew played the leading role of "Medallion".
The play is about two boys arguing for a girl. But also, how
ethnicity can determine the way people are treated by their
peers, teachers and community. The characters were: Erika,
the girl the boys were
fighting for, Alex,
Tunde - Erika’s friend,
the teacher, students
in the classroom and
the housekeeper.
the audience
began to get
involved in the play. Most of them did not like the way
Medalion, who was Romany, was treated by the teacher and
his colleagues. Some of the people in the audience were
Romanis and did not like how the teacher, Erika and Alex's
friend treated Medallion. First spectators played the role of
the teacher who discriminated against Medallion, by giving
him a lower mark than he deserved. Then the audience
changed the end of the play, which initially supposed to end
with a fight between the two boys. Alex and Medallion
reconciled with the public’s help, who intervened to do justice
to Medallion.When I played Medallion I felt a bit discriminated
against and pushed aside as if Romanis do not matter.
When I played the role of the teacher I was a little nervous
because of the lines, which I was afraid not to forget. In the
end I felt relieved, and everything went well.
The forum theater is trying to engage and challenge the
audience to find solutions that can make our life better and
more beautiful.

We played the Noemi-teacher

scenario as we've Andrei "Medallion"
imagined it and then
 Page 4 NEWSLETTER

A SPECIAL MOMENT WITH SPECIAL PEOPLE

”"Fireside stories" a tea with

cinnamon and gingerbread, brings
sweet childhood memories...
stories and dear guests, cultured
people from Cluj community. Here
the center’s beneficiaries can ask
guests questions to discover the
value and beauty of culture but
also to know them as people.

PYJAMA PARTY
HEART MAIL IMAGES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
The children and young people from the center are
encouraged and get involved in the decisions that
concern them and also in activities such as the "heart
mail" initiated by Lia. According to her "...this is a nice
way to communicate and especially appreciate our
parents and people working with us. In the same time
Lia decided she should use her talent and publish a
storybook and a booklet of poems.
In the children’s committee they are discussing about

WE WERE AT A CONCERT Some of the center’s beneficiaries were

accompanied by volunteers to a concert in
Brasov to see the well-known Christian singer M.W.
Smith’s “fabulous concert and great performance. But
most of all it was an experience full of grace and
divine presence sent especially for us through the
message, the lyrics and the melodies. You can cry
and laugh at the same time, you can scream and be
silent at the same time. You cannot describe this kind EXHIBITION
of moments, you can only live them. "
Decorative Objects
I want to be Santa Claus at We wanted to welcome Santa Claus and we
least once in my life! created an exhibition. Children from the
"Christian Center for Street Children" were
This year, our children have involved in creating indoor Christmas
been touched by the wishes of the decorations. And this time just like last year, we
juveniles from Tg. Mures prison, who exceeded our expectations and created amazing
asked Santa Claus in their letters to ornaments so that our loved ones could decorate
him to bring them sweets and some their homes for the winter holidays.
gloves or sneakers. So around the
holidays they have made Christmas
gifts and gave them to the juveniles in "Reme
prison. "This is the time of the year
dedicated to the Son of God,
born from the desire to be love,
CELEBRATING NEW YEAR’S IN THE comfort and support for all of us.
MOUNTAINS Children’s play, winter songs,
Some of the beneficiaries of our center Christmas carols and warm
spent the winter holidays in the mountains with smiles remind us that we should
friends and volunteers from the association the keep Christmas as a unique moment in our hearts."
“Mount Fortress”. They organized trips to the Children from our Center sent this message through
caves and went skiing. They also had fun playing
the program prepared with Mommy dire (director).
games and singing a lot.