Hey Friends!

Well, it is Wednesday, June 7 and tomorrow will be my last day in Romania. I have had so little time at the computer here that I have basically only had time to read my email and send one or two. I really wanted to send one more post from here, though, so I am glad that I have a little time this morning to do so.

The time here has been quite busy and full of many amazing experiences and a few heart-breaking ones. We have been involved in pretty much every type of ministry that is done here at CAIRD Romania. We went to all of the remote villages that CAIRD is working in and were able to see life here in a completely different way than people who come here as tourists. What a blessing. We were involved in children's ministry, church services, renovation work on our newly acquired mission station, ladies ministry (this happened last night and guess who got to be the speaker? ). We have also been able to do quite a few visitations with the Father's House families. I was surprised to find out that many of our kids are not even orphans. They have been abandoned by their parents. They come from very sad situations. Yesterday, Peter drove us to the Leagan (Child's Cradle) orphanage where a few of our kids came from. He could barely keep control of his emotions as he shared some of the stories of these kids. There were an average of 3 staff for about 70 kids. The children would lay in their cribs most of the day and not be changed for 10 hours at a time. A lot of them had health problems as they were not fed properly. No milk at all - they would put tea in their bottles. For the older ones, they would dip bread into warm water that had a little oil in it and feed the kids. Peter shared a memory of his own adopted daughter: He came for a visit and saw two older children holding her down to take the food from her mouth. So many heart-wrenching stories like this. So difficult to fathom! As for this particular orphanage, it has been closed down and the kids have been placed with relatives and the rest have been shipped to an orphanage in a bigger city. I asked him if things have improved in the orphanages and he said "yes" but they are still pretty bad. To contrast this, I was able to visit quite a few children in the last few days that are no longer in that situation but are living with very loving families who treat them as their own. The smiles we saw and the hugs we received told a completely different story. These children have been saved. In so many ways and I am so blessed to see what God has done in their lives. He's turned sorrow into joy and despair into hope. What an amazing thing to witness!

Other than working and visiting and taking part in the different ministries, my friend and I have also had some "normal" times here as well. We've eaten out a couple of times and really enjoyed that. We were taken on a trip to Sighisoara - an old medieval town which is an hour's train ride from here. It has an old castle and many beautiful old churches and lots of good, german architecture. It was beautiful. But even there, I experienced some heartache. There were many children on the street begging. One little girl even had her baby sister with her the whole day, hoping her presence would give her more money. I was told not to give them anything because the children are put there by adults who collect the money each night. I did give one boy my water bottle and I found a way to give the little girl and her baby sister a coin - I took a photo of them. How my heart ached each time I saw one of these little ones hold out their hand and beg me for something and I had to shake my head. That was one of the hardest things about this trip.

Well, I better quit writing now so that I can have enough time to walk back to Father's House for lunch. God bless you all. I will write again once I reach home.

La revedere!