Alex, Alexandra, Naomi & Sarah Avram
The Avram Family. Photo: Jayda Iye 2023
WHY "HARVEST OF JOY"?
"The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with Joy..."-PSALM 126:3
"Harvest of Joy Ministries" sprung up from a deep desire to share the gospel and love of Jesus Christ while providing for the needs of the disabled children and underprivileged families of Romania and the USA. Alexandra and Alex Avram were both born and raised in Orthodox Romanian families. They immigrated to the United States of America in 2004 where they became US Citizens. It was in America where they not only got to know God, but developed a relationship with Him and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
In 2006 God answered their prayers and sent them their first child, Sarah Emma. Early in her pregnancy due to some complications, Alexandra and Alex learned their baby Sarah have Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus from where multiple complications might put Sarah in a wheelchair for life or even her life in danger. At the ultrasound where the baby was first give the diagnostic, was given the option to abort the baby, but abortion was not an option for them. They received the trial as a blessing from God. Through prayer and by faith they received peace and little Sarah was born at Loma Linda Children Hospital where she had the first surgery on the spine followed by the surgery on her brain for implanting her first and actual VP shunt. Sarah is a living miracle of God and a very active youngster living with her "special abilities".
m.youtube.com/watch?v=1dwEUjz7XAs&feature=youtu.be
The Lord answered another prayer and sent second sweet girl to the family, Naomi two years later. Naomi brings so much joy to the family and she is such great support to her sister and a blessing to all around her.
This little family of disciples serve the Lord together. Through "Harvest of Joy Ministries" they share the Lord with other people here in the USA, in Romania, and everywhere they go, not on the basis of how capable they are but on the basis of how good God is. After each mission trip they come back rejoicing, amazed that God would use them. They know they are not great, but the seed they sow is powerful and potent indeed.
In the New Testament parable of "The Sower" Jesus likens the Word of God
to “seed”. (Matthew 13). As they share the love of Jesus with the disabled and underprivileged families in Romania, and around the world, through “Harvest of Joy Ministries”, they are able to touch the lives of many who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many Romanian mothers of children who are born with disabilities in Romania have been abandoned by their husbands left to raise their families with little to no resources of their own. Oftentimes this allows seeds of bitterness and anger to take root. These families live in abject poverty, with little food and clothing. Many households even use the left over coals that cooked their morning porridge to warm their feet for lack of shoes -- if they were fortunate enough to have eaten a morning meal.
If we sow with tears do we reap with songs of joy? (Psalms 126) Why then, particularly with these Romanian families, is there so much weeping? Because: Children go to bed hungry and cold. Old women wait in hope for someone to come by to help them take care of their daily needs. Mothers spend their days looking for shelter and food for their families. The simple act of obtaining potable water takes great effort; the conveniences of washing machines and cook stoves are a rare luxury in most villages. The poverty there is unseen in America but yet we do believe the Lord has called us to faithfully bloom where we were planted and go out to plant the seed under His guidance.
Because we are able to go from village to village we have seen their tears turned into joy and our tears when we return home come out of a sense of humility – amazed that God would be so good to us. Blessing us with so much in the United States of America as we are traveling through this world investing our lives and our treasures in Heaven, our final destination.
Won't you join us in this mission?
STATEMENT OF FAITH
WE BELIEVE:
- In the absolute truth of the Old and New Testament as being the very God breathed words of God.
- In the deity of the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- In the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, his substitutionary atonement for sin, his bodily resurrection and his personal visible return to earth to reign in righteousness and glory.
- In the person of the Holy Spirit and his work of conviction, regeneration and sanctification, who indwells every believer.
- In the necessity of the new birth, in salvation by faith through grace in Jesus Christ alone, and the importance of a life committed to the will of God, in Christ.