Youth team to Romania in the Summer of 2008 click here

Two Years later and three have become five! Barbra, Gladys and Joy made a return trip to Romania and this time they were joined by Ruth Nesbitt and Alan McNeice.  Barbra said, "It was thrilling to be back at the Smiles Mission Centre and spend a week seeing the great things that God is doing in that needy country.  Two years ago we saw projects just being started and were there at the building stage now those buildings are an integral part of the community in some villages, bringing hope and God's love to folk who were living in despair.  What a joy to see the children's centre giving a secure home to babies who have been abandoned, and respite to families who can not cope with the hardships involved in trying to keep families together in trying circumstances.  To watch children be so excited about having a tooth brush and toothpaste that they clean their teeth after they eat anything!!  Having a shower and clean clothes and footwear never beginning to learn - as many of the poor families do not send the children to school.  We helped to construct a security fence around another horticultural project at Gepiu.  An American missionary called linda  has transformed a waste bit of land into a market garden and is also rearing chickens and pigs amazing! The Tileagd dream has come true this is a project including a school and now foundations have been laid for a church, doctor, dentist and optician facilites. To see the pride that small Roma community has in this and to have the privilege to worship with them one Sunday morning and see men who have come to faith and the passion of the women praying a truly humbling time.  But there is still so much need, another Roma community living in dreadful conditions was discovered when we were there.  The conditions that some of the elderly live in is unbelievable like pigstys only as clean as they can make them... many told us they were just waiting to die.  The life expectancy is only 50 - 60 years and this is a country that is now part of the EU! There's lots to do and the Smiles team is now mostly made up of Romanian workers.  Please pray for this needy land and the spread of the gospel.  Support it by coming to the Nia concert at our church on

  
This is a view into the work of the
Smiles Foundation

A mission trip with the Smiles Foundation is an  experience  of a life-time  and  different  to  any  other  mission trip you will have been on.  The trip is a 'Hands On' experience.  Using your gifts to impact  the  lives  of  others  who  are in need of help to stabilise and support family life.  Much of the Smiles Foundation's work in Romania  is  concerned  with  the support of nearly 200 families, living  in  the  county of Bihor, North-West Romania, close to the Hungarian border. 
Romania   is  situated in   the  southeastern part of Central Europe and    shares  borders with   Hungary  to  the northwest, Yugoslavia to      the     southwest,  Bulgaria  to  the south, the   Black    Sea    and Ukraine         to        the southeast  and  to  the north and the Republic of    Moldova    to    the east.   Romania  is  the second largest country in  the  area,  after Poland.   It extends approximately 300 miles North to South and 400 miles East to West.
Romania's   territory   features   splendid   mountains,   beautiful rolling  hills,  fertile  plains  and  numerous rivers and lakes.  The Carpathian  Mountains   traverse   the   center   of   the   country bordered on both sides by foothills and finally the great plains of the outer rim.  Forests cover one quarter of the country.

For more information on the work of The Smiles Foundation

click here