Into Romania

Working alongside friends to help others

So, now from the luxury and order of Holland into the excitement and wilds of Romania. I flew from Amsterdam to Vienna and then to Timisoara, Romania, where I was met by my good friend and lawyer, Daniel Musteata. Daniel is head of Bethlehem Ministries and works very hard to help poor children and families. A specialist in international adoptions, he has also set up foster family programs which have been very successful now that international adoptions have been outlawed in Romania. He trains families to become foster parents, then helps place abused and/or abandoned children into foster care. He also helps the disenfranchised with important legal issues, such as getting their identity papers. Without these papers, you simply do not exist as a person. You are denied access to education, work and even health care.

During my visit with Daniel, we went to visit a Christian Gypsy family he is helping. The young mother, who is married, has 2 little children, lives in desperate circumstances despite her husband working as much as he can. AND she has no papers! They live in a one room of a 2 room home. The 2nd room is uninhabitable due to leaks and falling walls. She has no electricity, running water is a tap outside, and she cooks on an open fire with 2 bricks as a stove. Her heat for the house comes from a converted oil barrel. We brought her food, plus toys and clothing for her eldest child. The other, her baby, is in the hospital, and since she has no papers, the hospital will want $50 USD per day to treat the baby. This is an astronomical and unreachable sum for the impoverished family. With the cleverness and team work of the gypsy community, another mother, a neighbor, who does have papers, has told hospital officials the baby is hers so that the baby could get admitted. Imagine having to go through this just to get care for your sick child! Also, notice in the picture that the elder girl has no shoes, and the bandage covering a sore on her right foot consists of plastic wrapped with tape. No bandages or bandaids even. My special thanks to our "Knit for Charity' donors, you can see the cute knitted hat with flower we gave her baby. We also gave hand knitted

Her stove
Imagine cooking on an open fire when you have 2 young children!

sweaters and socks. While visiting a second family, I gave out another hat to an older girl and she was delighted to have it as you can see. Daniel is working with this young mother to get her papers. So, we went to see both her mother and father, to see if they had any papers such as birth certificates and to get their information. Daniel will probably need to file a court case in order to obtain the identity papers for this young mom.

Next, we visited a large gypsy village where a young boy, Florin, is living. He recently came out of an orphanage which was closing due to lack of funding, and Daniel was able to reunite him with his family. It turns out he has an incredible talent in music, and has taught himself to play on an old keyboard. When we visited, all the neighbors turned out to greet us. Florin played hymns (many of these gypsies are Christian) and everyone sang. It was very moving. Florin has a serious back problem, scoliosis, and needs an examination by specialists and then a brace. Although health care is supposed to be low cost and available, the reality is that Daniel will need to pay the doctors about $200 USD for the exams & x-rays and then about $800 for the brace. If we can provide this for him, Florin has a chance to grow up straight and tall. Without it, he will live a life of deformity, pain and disability. Being unemployed myself since Febuary, I'm not able to give all the funds needed but I was able to give Daniel enough for the doctors' exam. We will all pray for God's provision for the backbrace. It would be a tragedy, in my opinion, to condemn this talented young man to a life of suffering for lack of $800 for the brace. So I'll be praying and asking God to move on donors' hearts to provide the necessary funds which will transform his future from pain to hope.

Next, I'll be on to Arad, then by train to Cluj, capital of Transylvania where I'll meet up with Floyd & Acuta Frantz and Christina Semon. They are Orthodox Christian missionaries and we will be traveling together to Moldova. There, we'll see the work Father Ioan and his wife Mihaela, are doing in this 'poorest country in Europe'.

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