Mother's Day

March 8 is Mother's Day in Romania. March 1 is woman's day. There are little decorated pins given to females on March 1 and flowers or gifts on March 8. This day is often a difficult time for us, many of you know the situation with my daughter. The girls sometimes have difficulties being involved with the various school programs on these dates. Mother's Day is a big deal here. Sarah had asked that I be sure and attend the program today, she is in the singing group. Tuesday is Mocrea day but I stayed home. Adina ended up with 3 other volunteers today so my presence was not missed - God is Good!

Elizabeth just came in and borrowed money to buy our neighbor, who helps with the care of the household, a present. I said OK and gave her the money but include her little son in the presentation. Elizabeth then said she had already gotten me something. That was nice, maybe she is healing.

Widows

I received an interesting e-mail - how many widow's could we feed if we had the funding? My answer was that I didn't know. Buying, packaging and distributing the food is a very labor intensive thing also the price of food goes up all the time. Right now I have about 8 sponsors and we have 36 presently in the program - God has continued to provide each month.

The weather turned cold and we again have snow. Since it is the end of Feb. wood supplies have dwindled for the people in the program. We pray for loaves and fishes like provision with the wood.

In the last 2 months we have had several people in the program pass away - our latest is Gavril and now Vilma. Gavril was one of the two men in the program. He was paralyzed and his elderly wife, Florica, took care of him on less than $50 a month. Vilma had been bedridden the last few years and was being physically abused by her daughter. Vilma went to stay with her son, she was 90 and ready to go home to heaven she said!

Mocrea

Adina has been going to Mocrea with me and what a help that has been! Sometimes we have others come and help too. Most weeks we have about 50 patients in the dining-room for crafts and social time, which includes not only snacks but singing and prayer. A week or so ago I found a bottle of bubbles in my Mocrea bag and started blowing bubbles around everyone. The men enjoyed them the most. I had hoped you could have viewed some of the bigger bubbles but you can't see them in the picture. Sometimes I wonder about me - a couple of nurses would look at me and then at each other.

It will be nice when warm weather arrives and the patients can once again go outside. Since they are adding 2 floors to one of the buildings the large dining area is now a dormitory and we are using a smaller dining room for the crafts. The new building will be lovely when completed.

Smilia

Smilia went home to be with the Lord Thursday evening. Praise God!!

Smilia and Aurelia

Smilia and Aurelia were the ladies in the Widow's Mite program I wrote about in December. The mother is somewhere in her 80's and Aurelia was in her 60's and profoundly retarded. Aurelia has spent most of the last year curled up in her crib in a fetal position. The mother's one prayer was that the Lord would take Aurelia home to be with Him before she died. The conditions were deplorable and we broke up old fencing to heat their meager room and piled all our extra blankets we had on them both.

We have checked on them often and made sure that they were being cared for - at least a minimal amount. Vlad went down today and Aurelia, the daughter, has gone home to be with the Lord and now Smilia has lapsed in to a coma. The caretaker is sitting with Smilia to wait it out. This is wonderful news to me and I know that everyone that knew of their situation will join me in rejoicing! I look forward to seeing them, as I do many, in heaven.

What's New?

Gosh - a lot is new! I, along with many people worldwide, have been participating in a 21 day Daniel Fast for 2011. People are reporting some awesome things taking place. In my own life I have seen money literally multiplied in an envelope I was holding in my safe.

The vision for a program to care for abandoned babies has finally begun to materialize. This is the first step - it looks like Daniel's foundation, Humanitas, will partner with the hospital where these babies are kept. Once we establish our credibility and have funds for a building we can move the entire program to our own facility. We need volunteers! Since the facility will be to house babies we calculate it will be cheaper to obtain land soon and then build. I have no idea where the funds will come from yet - but the Lord does!

Also I wrote some time ago about being overwhelmed by a situation where I took in to my home 2 girls. In November I rented the girls and their mother a lovely apartment. The mother was to seek employment after the New year. The mother refused. She continues to self medicate and can not take care of her children. She has refused to let them be taken care of - she says "then who will take care of me?" The girls were no longer attending school regularly and the older girl had run away twice. Last week the older girl called me to pick her up off the street. When I arrived she had her younger sister with her - she was not about to be left behind! We were able to get them safely to a girl's home in Timisoara. We did not exactly do this legally but I gathered what documentation I could. I pleaded with Child Protection. The girls were cold and hungry and were in jeopardy, I had no choice, I could not leave them.

The church in Vinga is growing and we will have two more baptisms soon. I am training leaders and that is going well. We have a weekly prayer meeting that meets in a different home each week as well as a home group meeting. The teens still have a weekly meeting as well as learning English.

Mary Jill and I have another Women for Women meeting scheduled for March 12. The director of Elizabeth and Sarah's school had wanted to attend our last meeting but could not. She asked if we couldn't do a meeting here in Sofronea too. Yes we can! It is unclear whether it will be moms and other ladies in the village or is it the fathers too. We will do the extra meeting March 11. This next meeting on March 12 will be announced on the radio also.

I have hired Adina and Bogdan to help with all the projects. Adina has the heart for the abandoned babies so much of her time will be at the hospital. Bogdan is my Timothy and is in training to be a pastor. He is due to return to Ohio March 31 (if we get a visa in time)! with my pastor for 3 months of intense training.

Happy New Year!

OK, so I meant to do a really information packed Newsletter right after Christmas but in time for the New year. Oops. Instead of that I took the week off and the girls and I headed to Budapest to meet up with our friend, Mary Jill Callery - a long time missionary in Europe. We spent 3 days at the Ramada Aqua World. It was wonderful and I returned feeling stress free (well, as about stress free as I can get). I had a little difficulty in getting the girls back over the border in to Romania. I am going to have to go to court and get the documents straightened out. My attorney as well as the police say that Bucharest may have to write a new law for me as this situation has never come up before.

I will post a couple of more things on the blog later (I know, promises promises). I wanted to post pictures of all the Christmas activities for the widows, mentally ill, orphans and poor - ah, we didn't use my camera. I had pictures sent to me over e-mail and I am sure I saved them - somewhere. When I am involved in all these activities I am not usually thinking about taking pictures - sorry.

Irene and Wayne were here from Wales and together we gave out over 600 Christmas boxes. We had Christmas parties at Mocrea, at my school, at Maranatha Orphanage and the church.

At Vinga we had a wonderful Christmas Eve service including a baby dedication, a baptism, caroling and a candle light service.