Jeff and I are now finished with seminary and grad school. We are parents of our beautiful daughter, Lorelei, who is already 19 months old!! We have also been appointed and called as Reformed Church in America (RCA) mission personnel in Romania (rca.org/lampen). We are partnering with New Horizons Foundation (NFO) (http://noi-orizonturi.ro/index.php/ro/?lang=en). Here is a little bit from our letter we wrote to family and friends:
"As students at Western Theological Seminary, we thought
that the next step God was preparing us for was to work in a church setting and
that, someday in the distant future, we might have the opportunity to visit
Eastern Europe again. Jeff had volunteered in Hungary with the RCA for a year,
and Chelsea had studied abroad in Romania during her time at Northwestern
College. But God has his own timing for things and presented us with this
opportunity just as we were graduating!
As RCA mission personnel, we will partner with
New Horizons Foundation, an organization in Romania dedicated to encouraging
young people to follow the Gospel by investing in their local communities. This is accomplished through adventure
education camps and weekly youth groups, referred to as IMPACT clubs. We believe that the Holy Spirit works in
communities to create wholistic change, and we are very excited to join that
work in Romania. Together, we hope to
discover the gifts that God has planted within the young people of Romania, as
well as within us as a couple, so that the full richness of the Gospel might
take deep root and produce something beautiful in the lives of the Romanian
people. Chelsea will support this
mission through her role as Supervisor of Community Development and Social Work
Internships, while Jeff will develop faith-based curriculum as IMPACT
Development Director, as well as ministering to the community and spiritual
life of the staff."
Over the past 5-ish months we have traveled to northwest Iowa, South Dakota, New York state, Minnesota, Illinois, central Iowa, and all over Michigan. We have been extremely blessed by many who have taken us into their home, fed us, and blessed us with great company. Lorelei has played in MANY nurseries, watched numerous episodes of Sesame Street, and given many people all over the RCA hugs and blown kisses.
We are currently about 60% of the way fund-raised. Before we are able to move to Lupeni, Romania, we need to raise 123% of our budget. This way, we are secure in insurance, daily support, travel, and other fun adult things like pension :). We are grateful to the RCA staff who continues to help us.
Once we reached 50% in our support we began receiving a stipend from the RCA so that we are able to more fully engage in raising support. Within the month, Jeff will be ending his position at Out of the Box in Zeeland. (That doesn't mean we will stop promoting the shop - - - check this store out - amazing board games, puzzles, and kid's toys!!!) We have been extremely blessed by Jeff and Hillary who understood when Jeff needed to leave to visit various churches.
Where we are looking within the next couple weeks/months:
Lord willing, on March 29th, I will be ordained in Sibley, Iowa! We are going to be staying out by my family for the following month to spend time with them. We are also looking forward to going to a week-long family counseling retreat later in the spring to better prepare us for moving overseas. We ask you to pray for both these things.
I know this has been a LONG post, one with a lot of information, and not many great stories of all we have been doing. I wished to give you an overview and glimpse into the life of the Lampen family. More detailed posts will follow. I ask you to prayerfully consider following this blog and commit to praying for us while we continue to raise support and then move to Romania.
We would ask you also to prayerfully consider partnering with us in our call to Romania. We count it a blessing to have the opportunity to carry your prayers and support to the work of the New Horizons Foundation and the people of Romania. One-time gifts would help us establish roots in Romania and begin our ministry (see www.rca.org/lampen for how to contribute a one-time gift). Any yearly recurring amount that you might give to this mission would be gratefully received and would help maintain us on the road that God has called us to walk. If you think your home church would like to support us, we would also be delighted to meet with pastors, consistories/leadership boards and congregations to provide more details about this opportunity and to simply get to know them better!
Blessings and love to you all!!
Jeff, Chelsea, and Lorelei
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