Dear Friends

Summer used to be a time when one thought of slowing down a little, taking a holiday, enjoying the
long days and warm evenings. Not here in Romania!

Life has been frantically busy all summer and with the last of 82 Mission Trippers from July leaving
July 31^st, we have the first of 38 arriving for August. Life isn't about to slow down here just yet!! 

We have had some large groups visiting Smiles this summer, which has been very demanding on all the Romanian staff, but it has been very successful and productive in all our endeavours to progress the Projects. Financial support from so many Mission Trippers has also been encouraging, helping to off-set a little the effects of the economic downturn this past year. On many fronts, we see an improvement in people’s optimism and commitment to the future, with many new monthly sponsorships. We pray hard that this will enable us to make full impact on our beneficiaries as we try to restore HOPE and SUPPORT every day through our programmes.

At the beginning of the month, we had our specialists (Paul Jeanes and Sam Morrison) here in Romania looking further into the Enterprise Initiatives of Farm and Glasshouse plans. These are complex issues and need a lot of discussions and meetings to get everything right before important decisions are made. 

The Farm is progressing well. Zeno and Mihaela have settled in and are making good progress with establishing  the operation at Arpasel. We now have 6 Holstein cows, 20 Large White Sows and one Boar, plus our first 100 chicks (just 2 days old) arrived at the Farm Friday July 30^th.        

The Orchard is full of fruit and plans are already being made for our first brand of Smiles Jam!
See the full update on the web-report. 

The Horticultural project has also gathered momentum through meetings with Glasshouse suppliers, Irrigation system providers and numerous other issues that are very specialised but show the serious intention we have to make the project a success. 

While the ‘Harvest Project’ advisers were still in Romania, the
Tileagd Choir left for a 2 week tour in England. Especially exciting as it was the first time the new Choir, with 4 new members aged 8 years of age, were to perform publicly on Tour. Many firsts for these children from our Tileagd Gypsy Community project. First time away from home, first time to have a passport, first time on an airplane!  It was all very exciting and a very special experience for everyone. See the Tour mentioned in 2 reports this month.
The UK DA Report from Rob Nightingale in Region 1 and
Romanian Director, Maria Cimpoca’s Page.   

July 10^th-24^th had over 20 students and faculty staff from Regent University (VA.) USA on a special Mission Trip to Smiles, providing Trauma Counselling with several of our projects in addition to extensive training for our staff. It was another ‘first’ for us, but hopefully not the last. Next month we will have a full Report on the Website of the visit and work of Regent University in Virginia.

This month, the USA Webpage is a feature story from Ashley Maida who made her first visit to Romania with Smiles in June and has written a beautiful account of her experience. Enjoy!              

We have also continued to have a lot of activity with our
Container Project this past month. Two more 40ft Shipping Containers have been converted into Housing Units for the Homeless programme. These have been completed to a high standard at a cost of £5,000 ($7,500) which is a pretty good price for a house, but we wanted to see what was truly possible to achieve here in Romania. 

We are delighted with the results and visitors who have seen them have also been very impressed. We need support for this programme if we are to really make a difference within the Homeless community.

We need donations to cover these costs and allow us to do the next conversions on Containers arriving soon.
 
We are thrilled that another full Container is leaving Ballymoney this week and will be with us in a few days. Barbara Morrison has managed the project brilliantly and we are very excited to see all the contents when unloading begins.   

There isn’t too much news this month on the progress of the property for the Nursing Home site and Centre for Children with Disabilities. We are still waiting for the decision on our application for a ‘Change of Use’ at the premises, but until we are sure of that, we can not begin the negotiating procedure on a possible purchase.

 We are moving in faith as currently we still need over £100,000 ($150,000) additional funds in our account to realistically negotiate ‘terms of purchase’. We wait to see what the Lord will do here – but if you can help with supporting this project, please let us know as soon as possible so we can make plans accordingly. 

Later this month, the Tileagd Choir will once again be on the road, leaving Romania for 3 weeks of touring the United Kingdom. This time we’ll be starting in Scotland, before heading to Northern Ireland and then back to Wales before finishing up in England. Many Schools and Churches will be visited on the journey. We have just one or two openings on the Tour, so if you are interested for the Choir to visit your area – contact the Leeds Office and we’ll see what is possible.     

With the summer Mission Trips drawing to a close this month, we’ll be
looking to October and December for the next opportunities. Two of the three weeks in October are already full but we still have places available for week of October 16^th-23^rd.

Christmas Trips are beginning to fill up but there are still places on both weeks starting December 4^th and/or 11^th.  Both these Christmas Trips will feature the S.O.S. (Sack of Smiles) programme and brings a special dimension to Christmas visiting so many families bringing Gifts and Hope to them at Christmas. Why not join us? Apply now and get it booked!

Don’t forget the new Budget Plan for Mission Trips is available for Christmas 2010 and all 2011 Trips. Sign up now – start budgeting – and you
won’t need to miss the ‘Experience of a Lifetime’ in Romania with the
Smiles Foundation!

God Bless you all.

The Smiles Foundation