Update from Floyd and Ancuta Frantz in Romania

Dear Friends, Greetings, and I hope that this finds you well and in good spirits on this most beautiful and blessed of days. Our "Holy Week" is moving along quite well towards Pascha, our Orthodox Easter and the celebration of our Risen Lord. In preparation for the holiday Ancuta has given away I don't know how many food packages at the Protection Center this week. It will be for around 50 or so families. She is not answering her phone so she's busy at any rate. Believe it or not I forgot to ask her to take pictures. She may be taking them anyway, and if so I'll send them along in our next newsletter.

Claudia, one of our social workers just returned from the Cluj County Chronic Psychiatric Hospital in Borsa. We took some packages for our group out there, and tomorrow we will take some to the patients in Savadisla, the tuberculosis hospital near Cluj where we have a program. I'll try to do special newsletters on these places, I have in the past but it is about time for an update.

Fr. Liviu from Sanpaul has brought to our day-center "Casa Alba" some traditional "Pascha" food made in his village. His parish makes it every year so that our homeless can have a traditional Pascha meal instead of the regular meal that we provide. The normal meals that we provide are donated by a local restaurant, so it is not very "traditional" so to speak. It's good food though, normally with lots of protein.

I was at Liturgy this morning, and afterwards Fr. Ioan Ras, our new spiritual counselor, was blessed by the Metropolitan Andrei to hear confessions. Over here they don't let priests hear confessions until they exhibit some degree of maturity. He is a young priest, but we are very optimistic about his coming on-board with us at the St. Dimitrie Program.

Well, that is about it for now. For Pascha, Anca and I are heading to a small village in the mountains near Cluj where there is a monastery. I am not sure about the internet up there, so there is a possibility that I will not be sending out a Pascha greeting until next week sometime. So I'll close by wishing you all a most blessed Holy Week and Pascha now, "in anticipation".

Last Supper Thank you for your interest in our work, please do keep us in your prayers, we all need them.

As as a final note, please remember that as OCMC missionaries we are 100 % reliant upon your financial support to continue our work through OCMC. Please consider a small gift so that we can continue to do our Lord's work.

 If you can make such a donation, send it to: OCMC 220 Mason Manatee Way St. Augustine, Fl. 32086 and please mark the donation "STDIMITRIE/ROMANIA so that we can use the funds directly for the St. Dimitrie Program.

Online and credit card donations are also possible by contacting OCMC, or visiting the web site at www.ocmc.org. And please feel free to pass along our email to others who you believe might be interested in our work here in Romania.
If you would like to contact us through email, please use: Stdimitrie@yahoo.com for myself and the St. Dimitrie Program, or Ancutafrantz@yahoo.com for Anca and the Protection Center.

 I am also shedding my dinosaur skin, and Twittering. If you too do Twit, just hit the link and it will put you over to my page. Here is that link to follow us on Twitter!

Please also go to the Orthodox Christian Mission Center web site at www.ocmc.org to read online about our missionary activities here in Romania. We do thank you for your interest in our work, for your support, and most of all for your prayers.
In His Love, One day at a time,
Floyd & Ancuta Frantz, OCMC Missionaries