There is an excitement in our spirit as we see God move and answer prayer. This past year we have been praying for the all the abandoned babies here in Bucharest. First we tried to rent apartments to take some of them in. We had no success, people don't want to rent an apartment for 8 babies. Then we started buying food and getting donated milk for the hospitals. The babies have food but not all the love and tender care that little children need.

We began to pray for more land to build a house for babies. We had no funds in a special account hidden away, but we did have a burden for these children. Our girls started praying every day for land and a new house. I could already see that house in my mind and all those beautiful babies. We went out to the land and marched around it several different times and claimed it for the Lord. The neighbors thought we were crazy. We kept marching and praying and thanking God for the land.

Now almost a year later God sends a wonderful family to help us see that vision comes true. We are so grateful for our dear Bro. and Sister Doom in Florida, who came with their friend Mama Toal. Only three months ago her husband, who was a prosperous businessman passed away. I was told a few days before he died he had asked about coming to visit Casa Shalom and see how he might be able to help us. He never got to come and meet us but we are so thankful God put it upon Sister Toal's heart to come.

We shared our vision of how we wanted to help with all the abandoned babies and God in his mercy chooses to use Marna Toal to help us. The Toal family have built orphanages in several nations around the world and we are honored to say that they are now helping us pave the way for a home for abandoned babies here in Bucharest.

Babies like Gabi (above) will have a home with us at Casa Shalom.

1. Casa Shalom will buy 7,500 sq. meters of land at nine dollars a square meter. This is $67,500 dollars. This money has already been deposited in our Romanian bank. On this piece of land we will be building the new children's home for the ba- bies. The plans are being made now for this house. Pray God gives us wisdom in the way we design the house to be very practical, but a beautiful home for Romania's little angels.
2. Make our final architectural plan and get all the authorizations from the government. This is where we need all of you praying. This can be a stressful, lengthy process but I believe God can give us favour.
3. In August, we will build a new private driveway for Casa Shalom and for the building site. Immediately after the wheat is harvested we will plant vegetables in the new parcel of land. This will be beans, turnips and any vegetable with a short growing season. Then as soon as the government issues our authorization for construction we can begin building. We are hoping this will be by October. The house will have a basement for storage of vegetables and supplies. Our goal is to get the first floor finished before winter comes. This means there is a lot of work ahead of us. It costs much more to build today than it did a few years ago. This project will cost us over 150,000 dollars. It sounds like a lot of money but just think eighty children will get the proper nutrition, love and care that they need to get a good start in life. I believe every cent of your investment will be worth it. Pray about what God would have you and your church do to help save the lives of precious abandoned babies here in Romania.

We are amazed to see how God is working in our midst. Most of our supporters know that we have been running this house for a German organization. They were the ones that had the original vision to help the street children here in Bucharest. The project was started when an old house was bought in 1994 and remodeled in 1995.

In Dec. 1995, I was asked to come and be the director for the orphanage. We put our heart and soul in the work to make the house even more attractive. The German organization was not able to cover all the monthly expenses and more and more our sponsors from America and England began to carry the burden.

The German organization has given us the opportunity to buy Casa Shalom to be registered in our organization here. It was very complicated with keeping all the records for two organizations. This house now has a value of over $100,000 dollars on the real estate market.

The Germans graciously said, if we paid only $15,000 dollars, Casa Shalom can be transferred to our Romanian organization. This was the amount paid for the old house. All the other funds for renovation had been donated for the house from sponsors in Germany and England.

We are so thrilled for this possibility to buy Casa Shalom. It will first of all give more stability for our work here and also make it easier for my accountant with all the bookkeeping for two organizations. We are believing God that we will have the finances to buy Casa Shalom this summer so that all our official papers can be changed by the end of the year.

Maybe your church would like to give $500 or $1,000 dollars for Casa Shalom. At the present time we have 13 girls that God has changed in an incredible way. One of our girls that had the most abuse in her life came to me a few days ago and said, "You know, Becky. I don't have any problems (nici-o problema)." That was the greatest compliment that I, as a director of an orphanage, could have - to see how God can take broken lives and bring healing and restoration.