In March I had the privilege to visit many of our friends and partners  
in the USA.  An important part of the trip was the forming of a team  
to focus on Alpinis.  We met for evaluation and planning in Knoxville  
and were hosted by Alec & Pati Woodhull from USAffairs.  After a few  
days in Knoxville, I spent time with a variety of church and  
parachurch groups in Midland (TX), Toledo (OH), Nappannee, Zionsville  
and Indianapolis (IN), Nashville & Memphis (TN). Thank you dear  
friends for your participation in Alpinis and for your great  
hospitality.

Church groups and leaders in Romania are increasingly aware of Alpinis  
as a beautiful place for retreats and camps.  However, our needs for  
operations and edevelopment are far from being met.  We still have  
some critical needs before having the “OPEN” sign on the door.  We  
need to put in a sewage system that can handle the new capacity of the  
cabin, insulate and finish the cabin on the outside; to develop the  
sports field, and to upgrade the kitchen with commercial equipment.

We have the funds for the kitchen, thanks to Lois Mitten Rosenberry  
from Toledo, OH, and it is critical that we at least do the sewage  
system before the summer.  We have camps and retreats scheduled at  
Alpinis throughout the Summer and into the Fall.  I invite you to pray  
with us and participate in making this work possible.  Please contact  
our MLI/USAffairs office in Knoxville, TN if you would like to receive  
more information about Alpinis and if you consider coming to serve  
with a team on a camp or work project.

The city of Sibiu receives a lot of attention this year as it has been  
appointed Cultural Capital of Europe.  Hundred of cultural events,  
expositions, concerts, and conferences are taking place in the  
medieval city with a rich historical and cultural heritage. One effect  
of this is the number of tourists going up, and hopefully this will  
mean more infrastructure development for the area around Alpinis.  One  
good news is that a new ski slope is being developed very near our  
cabin.

A group from the Evangelical Free Church from Craivoa, south of  
Romania, came to Alpinis for a retreat in the winter with youth pastor  
Dan Vieru and had this to say:
“I am very grateful for the time at Alpinis ? for experiencing so many  
wonders, the supernatural view of the mountains covered with snow, the  
wind blowing in flute-like tunes, it was a dream.  I could communicate  
with God through all these wonders, His greatness has no limits.  I  
look forward tdo come back and I hope other young people will  
experience at least the same joy of being with the Father here as I  
have.”        –Sorina Stanceanu, Craiova

Emil Toader

Dear Friends,

Approximatelly a month ago, I sent a message to you with an update on the progress we are making at Alpinis. Some of the construction pictures may have looked discouraging at that time considering we were to start the first camp this summer on July 10th.

I am very grateful to God for the way He has helped us to complete this phase in time for the camps and activities this summer. Today (Saturday) first group of campers, teenagers from Bethany Baptist in Timisoara, are going home. On Monday, the youth from Giurgiu (in southern Romania) and a team from their church partner Zionsville Presbyterian Church (ZPC), from Zionsville, Indiana, will come for a week of camp. The team from ZPC will stay on for one more week of camp, until July 29, with the group from Fetesti, in southeastern Romania.

Please take a look at our pictures where you will see all the progress that has taken place recently. The deck is not yet finished so you will notice a temporary railing, this should be done over the next week.

Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your participation in this work, and please know that we continue to appreciate and need your support.

A lot is happening at Alpinis these days, and I would like to share it with you who are part of this work from far away. The first thing I need to say is “thank you”. Thank you for your prayers and participation in our work, and thank You Lord for your faithfulness and providence.

As I shared in the last MLI printed newsletter, the process of transforming the Alpinis villa into a ministry facility continues, the good news is that it comes very close to completion. Our first camp this summer is scheduled July 10-16. Before then we are closing a big part of the development of the villa. I will include a few pictures from the recent works.

The main development for this time is the addition of the dining hall. The cabin had a nice back porch viewing the mountains. We had enlarged and transformed this back porch into an enclosed dining hall with windows, heating and a very nice suspended deck. The building only had a living room until now, and the dining hall will be a great asset as we now have room for larger groups both for meetings and meals. Before we had to do both activities in the living room which was difficult. We also built a wood shed for tools and fire wood, the attic of the shed is equipped for sleeping 10-12 people in ‘hay loft’ conditions. This will enlarge our capacity to approximately 40-42 people for the summer.

The agenda for this summer is quite full. We are having a camp with teenagers from Bethany Baptist in Timisoara July 10-16. The following two weeks of July we will have two camps with churches from Giurgiu area and Fetesti area in the south and southeast of Romania and a team from their church partner in the USA, Zionsville Presbyterian Church. In August we are expecting a group from a church in the south of Romania, a journalism and writing camp with Written Word organization (August 21-26) and a one week mentoring retreat at the end of August. In September we will host a camp with the girls from Deborah House and the Vessels of Mercy team from Virginia, USA. I will ask your prayers for all those who are coming to Alpinis as camps will include hikes, mountain activities and games, Bible studies and worship, team building and discipleship.

Please pray for the mentoring retreat at the end of August. We intend this to be a first of many such events where we invite young adults to a time away for personal and spiritual formation. Our objectives are that participants:

• will be challenged to a deeper life with God;
• will be exposed to Christian perspectives in areas like art, literature, and theology; (this is open to seeking non-believers also)
• will grow in understanding of themselves and gain new abilities in personal management, relationships, learning/thinking styles;
• will be assisted/mentored in areas of spiritual and practical/professional/intellectual interest.

The underlining word in all the above is modeling and mentoring as the retreat will not have a conference format, but participants will spend personal quality time as well as be part of group activities with gifted and well equipped Christian leaders.

Back to development: once camps and summer activities are over we still have work to do on the building. The main job for the autumn remains the outside insulation and finishing of the building, and if possible raising the small apartment on the side building. Being located at approximately 4,500 feet altitude, a good management of the building and resources imposes good insulation. At once with working on the outside we would like to give the building more of a mountain look, the present look is a mixture inherited from the previous owner and our additions to the cabin.

I really appreciate the generous support coming from churches, individuals and organizations in the US. I will not make a list here of all of you who supported Alpinis but I will highlight how important this is for us. Whether you gave little or much, please know that your money has come as a blessing and bears with it the spiritual weight of you being a part of this work with us. Please feel free to ask questions and we will be happy to give more details about various projects. The recent developments are not yet fully covered and the needs for the rest of the year are far from being met at this point. The matching grant of $50,000 from the ProVision Foundation, Knoxville, TN has been a great help. I am very thankful to ProVision and to all of you who made this match possible and thus furthered the work here. The costs for camps and retreats are being covered by participants, yet we do that at a cost that is affordable for most Romanians. This means that operations remain a need at Alpinis also. I hope this report bears a realistic note of gratitude and appreciation for what we have done together, and a clear expression of the need to continue to walk together in this work.

In closing I want to emphasize that we are building and adding and working so that PEOPLE will be served and assisted to find God and be enriched in their walk with Him.

Joy and Peace to you all,
Emil Toader

A cycle has developed at Alpinis over the last year. We are running camps and retreats during the summer and the skiing season and working on the building during spring and autumn, when we have less activities. The process of transforming the villa we bought in 2003/2003 into a ministry facility continues.

Before the summer camps in July, we want to complete the conversion of the porch into an enclosed dinig area, and develop the activites area with a volleyball court and playgrounds. We have six camps scheduled at Alpinis over the summer and a few more to be organized and planned. After the summer, we need to finish the outside of the building with insulation and if we have the resources, we will add a small apartment on the side of the building.

Somehow building and adding doesn’t seem to stop. Facilities are cruicial in what we are doing. We had two church ski camps at Alpinis this winter and we hosted a few Christian groups for recreation and skiing.

I am excited for all God has in store for us at Alpinis and espeically for partnering with you and others in ministering through camps and spiritual formation retreats.

Recently a group from Stonegate Fellowship Church in Midland, TX came to visit Alpinis together with Mr. Alec Woodhull and Mrs. Lauren Clevenger from Knoxville, TN. Building continues on all dimensions. We are building a dining room and facilities needed for camps and ministry. At the same time, we are building a team, working on spiritual retreats and the ministry of Alpinis. We are very grateful to friends and partners who believe in this project and came to be involved even before seeing the fruit. I need to mention here ProVision Foundation in Knoxville, Tennessee, has provided a second matching grant to Alpinis, and friends who gave and thus made the grant (as well as new funds) available. It would be difficult to name everyone here, but please know that your generosity is very much appreciated and well used. I invite you to take part with us in building the Kingdom this way.

Here are some specific ways you can participate:

• Pray and ask the Lord for His grace on this work
• Come and work with us as part of a team or as an individual; we have teams coming to work on the building or to run a camp together with a Romanian group
• Support our operational and/or capital investment costs; we still have to raise approximately $5,000 to complete the matching grant, and our needs for the year are far from being covered.

Please feel free to contact us and the USAffairs office in Maryville, TN with any questions you may have about this work.

Emil Toader