Miniature Snow Man! We enjoyed a nice dusting of snow today which delighted our kids. There wasn't much on the ground but our kids were able to scrounge enough together for a nice little snowman.

Special Christmas Gift! Thank you to a Woman of Worth Chapter in SC. These fleece throws are keeping our children warm. God bless!

Merry Christmas! Thank you to all of our friends and family for your support of us. Thank you for the extra little things during Christmas time. We thank you for your generous gifts during the Christmas season. Cards, emails, extra financial gifts and prayers are very much appreciated. The tree was a gift from some friends in TN. Family, friends and even some we've never met have sent us gifts and oh how the children get delighted when we go to the city to pick up the boxes at the post office. You all have helped to make our childrens Christmas even better, and we thank you. I also thank you for each of your prayers. It is so encouraging to get an email or card and have someone tell you they are praying for you. Without your prayers, God's kingdom can't be advanced.

May Jesus show himself real to each of you. The greatest gift that we ever could receive is free. All you must do is receive God's free gift of salvation by repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus as your personal Saviour. He doesn't want to live in a stable but He wants to live in your heart. It will be the greatest decision you ever make for it will bring peace that can only come through Jesus Christ.

Christmas in Romania! Here's a little glimpse into our Christmas Weekend! Sunday, was the Lord's Day and so we went to church both in the Morning and Evening. Daryl skipped the band concert that he was too play in during the afternoon, since he was recovering from being sick all week. Sunday evening was when Sally Sebo had the children and youth's Christmas program. After the service the youth went carolling. It is customery here for the youth to go caroling on Christmas Eve and so we brought our whole family to enjoy in the fun. They carol until around 2 a.m. and if they don't finish caroling to all of the people on the list, then we go on Christmas Night. Well, we didn't make it the whole time, since Bryan fell asleep and so around 11:00 p.m. we headed for the house. Oh yeah, you walk everywhere you go, no cars, and there's church on Christmas Day at 10:00 a.m. The band concert is in Talpos Christmas night followed by more carolling. Many of the people invite you in to their homes for candy, cakes, soda and a light snack. We also had the wonderful priviledge of being invited over to 2 different families houses during this weekend and enjoyed the "delicious" food and fellowship. The day after Christmas there are services as well. So while many of you are going back to work, taking something back to the store due to a wrong size or "it doesn't work". We will be sitting down for our Christmas dinner and opening gifts on Dec. 26th. There simply wasn't any time in the day! Don't feel sorry for us, we'll enjoy our Christmas as much as anyone else, maybe even more.

Our family has totally enjoyed having special Holidays like Christmas in a foreign country. It has been WONDERFUL to step back from the intense commercialism and liberalism of Christmas in the states. I've probably heard more truly Christmas songs in Russia and Romania than I did in public places in the states. Even as a follower of Jesus, we are affected by our culture and it's easy to get "pressed into the worlds' mold". Living in a foreign country has given us a better understanding and appreciation for Christmas as well as learn new ways that people celebrate Christ' birth.

I am thankful that God has called me to a foreign field and feel very blessed by Him. He is so good to us, more than we ever deserve.

Sharing the Love of Jesus! Oh what a joy to be able to see the delights on the faces of young and old as we delivered some of the Christmas packs to the poor and needy in Talpos.

We went along with Sally to deliver about 1/2 of the packs that were made. The joy on people's faces, as they received the bags of basic grocery & health items, was priceless.

I can't emphasize enough how much we (Sally Sebo along with the Hausmans) appreciate your generous giving. We were just the ones who were able to see the joy that it brought to people. You were the ones who helped to make it all possible. Without your help we would never be able to be in a position to share the Love of Jesus with the needy. God bless each of you!

Preparing more Christmas Packs! What a joy it is to be able to share with the very needy in our world. Sally has been doing this for several years and so we were able to get in on the fun this year. She has been preparing Christmas packs for the needy in Talpos.

Sally and Laura went to the city to shop for all of these goodies and Laura said, they received quite a few stares. After loading up the van and heading back to Talpos, Sally unloaded all of this into her kitchen. We came along later to help load up the 2 bags of goodies to be given out to 50 different needy families and things went fast. The Lord willing all of these will be given out on Saturday. Thank you for your generous support of this project, Sally Sebo, and The Hausman Clan. It is through your generous support that we are able to share the love of Christ to a needy world.

Lots 0f Goodies! Sally's kitchen was loaded with items to put in the bags. Things like: cooking oil, salt, noodles, flour, fruit, salami, cookies, candy, soap, detergent, toothpaste, and probably a few other items I'm forgetting. These gift packs will be handed out to around 50 needy homes in the village of Talpos.

Everyone got involved! It went very quick since everyone got involved in filling bags. Well, almost everyone got involved. Our son was having too much fun playing with the toys at Sally's. We hope to deliver the packs on Saturday!

Our wonderful Ukrainian friends! Here's a picture of Stephan and some of his family members. The accomodations were wonderful, the food was fabulous but most importantly of all the fellowship with some more of God's people was uplifting and encouraging. We ate and ate until we thought we would "pop" and anjoyed every last bite.

(Read a little more about this in the other post, below)

Gypsy children with their gifts! In these packs there are things like: toothpaste, toothbrush, laundry detergent, soap, comb, brush, lotion, candy, cookies, & fruit. These people are very poor and needy so these gifts are of great value to them.

As you can see, Sally is a blurrrr in this picture! Those of you who know her, know this is normal for she's constantly on the go!

Once again we thank you for your generous giving for it is through your giving that we are able to assist with these needs.

Christmas gifts to the Gypsies! Each year Sally Sebo makes out Christmas packs to give to many, many, people. One of these groups is the gypsies. She holds a service for the gypsy children each Sunday in a nearby village. There were over 125 children crowded into a small church eagerly awaiting their Christmas gifts. We were not all allowed to attend because our attendance would have brought even more chaos. Sally must sneak into the church the night before and put the gifts in the church and make sure no one sees or hears. The reason for this is because if someone sees, then all of the gypsies will come the next day for the gifts and we would have major problems, one being, not enough gifts. Also, if they were to hear our diesel van or see it, they would know what was happening and so only one of us could go, preferably one of the children. Natasha jumped at the chance and she was able to go help hand out the gifts to these children.

Thank you Sally for your labors with these children and we thank you who support Sally Sebo, this project, and us. If it wasn't for your generous support we would not be able to link up with Sally and help spread the love of Christ to some desperately needy gypsy children.

A Christmas Gift! Thanks to some special friends in TN, we are enjoying a Christmas Tree! God is so good that we feel spoiled at times. I had just been pricing some trees, but didnt' feel like we had the money to spend on a tree right then. We came home from the city and I got an email that some friends of ours wanted to give some money to us for Christmas! I used it as a wonderful opportunity to show our family how good God is and how He cares about our needs and desires. Thanks to all of you for your cards, packages and generosity to us during this Christmas season. May the world see that the REASON for the season is CHRIST!

An unexpected treat! Since we were blessed with beautiful weather, we decided to take a picnic in one of the lovely little parks in town. We had a little time between our Romanian lesson and the girls violin lessons so we enjoyed the wonderful day God had given us.

God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!

Daryl and Stephan; We at H.I.M. are trying to be proactive in our desire to reach the most amount of people in the least amount of time. Since early 2006, H.I.M. has been interested in ministering in Western Ukraine to plant Holiness Churches.

The Boyds plan to move to this area in mid-summer and so we took a short drive up to the Ukraine to meet with Stephan. He is interested in working with H.I.M. Pray that God would have His divine will accomplished as we at Hope International Missions seek to follow the Lord's leadership.

I just thought I would put a couple more pics so you could see a little more of what has gone on. This is the man in charge of the overall building. I believe he is 72 years old and I just hope I'm that agile at his age. You can see him here working on the steps, making sure they are perfectly straight. He then put in the rest of the forms and the steps were poured.

FYI: Thank you for your prayers when all of the concrete was being poured. Guess where I was? Well as you saw earlier, there we polls ever 3 feet holding up the form for the floor. Well, while all 4 truckloads were being poured, it was my job to be under all of that and making sure the bottom of the support polls didn't kick out. Well, what would I have done, if they had kicked out? It was a little eary knowing all of this concrete is being poured up over top of your head, but God protected, even though I got wet with concrete as it seeped through the cracks in the boards.

The big winners in the "guess who" contest in the look back was all of you! So each of you can give a 1000 dollars to the Mission or Missionary of your choice. Being in God's will brings peace, which allows us have joy and then we can share the most blessed news in all of the world....that Jesus can save us from our sins. Praise God!

With the building of Hope Chrisian Fellowship Center we are trying to be agressive in reaching out to our needy world. The Center will be used for children, youth and even the "not so young" to try to share the good news that Jesus can save them from their sins. Continue to pray for God's leadership and the necessary funds for Phase II of the project.


Those 2 adoreable children in the "Look Back" section are none other than your's truly and my older sister Doreen. They look a little like our 2 youngest and hence the reason for the photo. Aren't you glad your not related to me, or you might have had your picture on the blog.