ODO February Update

Romania Update!

When we were in Romania last year, we visited a city named Cluj Napoca.  It is one of our favorite cities, very beautiful with an excellent deaf church/community.  We met a man named Costea Sandor there - and he took us to a deaf school where we met three older deaf orphans.  All three of them had some issues with their eyesight, and there was nobody who could help to pay for their glasses - the school was not able to afford it, and their summer orphanages also was unable to cover the costs.  So, we asked Fairfax Church of Christ in Fairfax, VA (Where Alex worked as an intern minister for two years) to raise around $300 to meet the costs of three eyeglasses.  FXCC responded to the challenge, the money was raised, and sent to Sandor.  We have been waiting for quite a while to get the pictures, and recently, we received with great joy pictures of not three but four girls with new eyeglasses!  We did not have the chance to meet the fourth girl, but was glad that one more person was able to have eyeglasses.  Now, these girls will be able to read everything on the blackboard and enjoy life more with sharp vision!  Here are the pictures.  

The three orphan girls we met in Cluj.  The one on the left was only recently abandoned by her parents, the two on the right have been "social orphans" - abandoned for most of their lives.  We are grateful that they have a wonderful deaf school to stay in and a wonderful deaf church only ten minutes away - where Sandor and another man, Laszlo minister to every Thursday and weekends.  

20/20 vision!

The girl on the far left is the one that we did not meet, but we are glad that the money from FXCC church was enough to cover the costs of one more pair of eyeglasses.

No more squinting!

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Wanted to give you all an update about what is going on with us in Iowa and for ODO this summer in Africa!  

The ODO team (those who live in Iowa/Nebraska) met for the second time last night, and we went over what we would do during our two-month stay in Africa.  We focused mostly on planning for the summer camp - what themes we would be teaching, what activities we would do with the children, what the opportunities would be for for outreach and evangelism, and many more details.  

We will organize and run two summer camps, and both will be three weeks long.  One will be at Lance's Deaf Orphans in Kisii, and the second one will be at Boangeres Deaf Initiative in Uganda.  If you are not familiar with both ministries, please check out www.odeafo.com and click "Africa 2012".  

We will also visit deaf churches and attend a weeklong Christian conference in Kenya which is expected to draw over 300 deaf Kenyans and Ugandans.  We are looking forward to meeting our brothers and sisters in Africa and working together to inspire and motivate both parties to work hard for a better future for deaf youth there in Africa.

When we were on VP with Lance weeks ago - he suggested an excellent idea - that we raise funds to pay for one more building at LDO's site which would be used for missionaries.  That way, we will not have to pay hotel costs and save almost $1,000 per person!  It also makes far more sense to invest in LDO's land and for them to be blessed with one extra building to accommodate with whatever their needs would be when we or other teams aren't there.  

Each building cost around $1,000.  Christ's Church of the Deaf, our home church was able to donate $500, and ODO was able to donate another $500 to come up with the money to send to LDO.  We are looking forward to helping LDO erect yet another building and for that to be our home for one month!  

Here is an idea of what the building might look like.

That's all for now!  Please keep on praying for the ODO team, and if you have an extra $5, $10, or $10,000, please consider donating it at the link below to support our ministry!  

DONATE HERE - http://www.odeafo.com/donate.html

God bless!

- Alex n Alexa