Pray For Romania Part 2

In the last post I talked about what has happened in Romania in the last half century as far as the government and what communism did to the faith of most of the people in the country. One of the things that the communists wanted was a large industrial work force and a large army, so the way they went about that was to make women have lots of kids. Women were supposed to have at least five children and were considered national heroes if they had ten or more.

All forms of birth control were outlawed and so the population started to grow. The problem was that there was no infrastructure or economical prosperity to support all these kids, and their families couldn't take care of them. The children would be dropped off as babies at hospitals where they were basically warehoused because there were so many. Sometimes they would be three or four in a crib and none would make a sound because they got used to being ignored.

Medical sciences were taken away by the dictator because he thought they were worthless, so nurses and doctors didn't know how to properly care for the kids nor did they have proper equipment. The nurses were given two needles per year and they didn't have sterilization so diseases spread easily.

Kids languished in their cribs and if they survived long enough they would be sent to the orphanages where they lived in close quarters with little personal care at all. Their development was stunted and they developed behavioral disorders.

By the time of the revolution in 1989 there were around 150,000 orphans who had never known what it was like to have a family or even people who loved them. They had no hope of a normal life because of their problems and the stigma of being an abandoned kid.

Thankfully their plight was brought to the public eye after the revolution by people like the man who made the "Hand Held" documentary, but change was really slow to take place. Many Romanians didn't even know that there were orphanages in their own cities and still had a hard time believing what was being said about all these kids.

People from America started adopting kids and going to Romania to help, but in the early 2000's adoption was stopped due to corruption in the system, so once again these kids had no hope for a future.

Over time the number of kids who end up in the orphanages has dropped, but not by much. There are still many babies being left in the hospitals and now it isn't because of government policies, it is because of the high teen pregnancy rate and widespread poverty. A of lack of readily available birth control and a culture that is very open sexually means that there are many young girls who are having babies. Many people are struggling financially so they can't take care of their children so they also end up in the orphanages.

This problem has created a new problem, abortion. Today Romania has the highest abortion rate in Europe, so while the number of kids in orphanages has gone down the abortions have skyrocketed.

This is why we are here in Romania, because there are still so many kids here who need to be loved. They don't have a lot of hope for their lives and we are here to help them see that they can have a bright future.

We also long to share with them the most important thing in our lives, which is our faith in Jesus Christ. This faith brings salvation through the grace of God and without it everything we do in this life is in vain.

To accomplish our goals we build relationships with the kids through our classes and interactions with them. We have really deep relationships with some and love being called Mommy and Daddy by the little ones. We love the kids with all of our being and love spending time with them and encouraging them. We are here to show them love that we have through our savior Jesus and through the joy that we have in knowing him.

There is so much yet to be done here. Things have gotten better for the kids in general but there are still thousands who grow up in orphanages without loving parents.

Please pray for these kids, that they can have hope for their future and that they will come to know Christ as their personal savior. Please pray for us and others who are working here to make a difference in their lives. We are so few and there are so many kids, please pray for God to send more people to help. Please pray for God to continue providing for us and our organization Heart 2 Heart. Pray also for other organizations that are working here too.

Please pray against the powers of darkness that strive to stop our work here. The kids have so many temptations here, pray for them to choose to follow the path that God wants for them. Pray for the directors of the orphanages to be open to us helping and speaking about God. We have a problem with one of them now who has forbid us from teaching about God, pray that his heart is changed or that someone who loves God would replace him. Most of all please pray for God to work here and to do his will, that he will use ordinary people like us to change this place.

Pray For Romania Part 1

Last weekend we went to the movie theater to watch a documentary about Romania titled "Hand Held." It is the story of a man who traveled to Romania shortly after the fall of Communism in 1989 and what he found here. It was a very moving film and it made me think about why we are here and what we are doing. Many people wonder: why Romania? Out of all the countries that we could have gone to why did we chose to come here? Aren't there people even in America that need help too, and isn't Romania already a Christian nation? Well yes of course, there are people all over the world who need help, even in America, yet we ended up here. First of all, we know that God called us here, we would have gone anywhere but we felt him calling us to Romania.

It all started when one girl from our church wanted her parents to adopt, but they didn't feel it was the right time for them. Instead they searched for a way they could help children in great need, and found out about mission trips to Romania. We went with them on their second trip and after that we felt God pulling us there more and more, to the point when, after our second trip we felt that he was telling us to leave everything that we knew to work there full time. I'd like to share some of the recent history of Romania so you can have a glimpse of what these people have gone through in the last half century.

Romania has been a largely rural and agricultural country for a long time. They were in fact quite prosperous, their capitol Bucharest was called "Little Paris" because of the prosperity and architecture in similar style to Paris, France.

Then world war two happened and it all went wrong, Romania was originally allied with the Axis powers and it wasn't until near the end of the war that there was a coup that changed the leadership so they changed their alliance to the Allies. It was too late though, as Romania was given over to Russia which led to the rise of communism.

The communists took everything good in the country for themselves and didn't leave much for the rest of the people. They constructed block buildings and forced most of the people to move in so that they would all be equal and so they could build a huge industrial work force.

I've always wondered why the plumbing is always so bad in the block buildings, and I heard the answer in the film: when they were constructed the builders said "If they don't have indoor plumbing in their houses in the country they don't need it here." Imagine living in a 5 to 12 story building with no bathroom and no elevator. The conditions were horrible in the winters especially. It was all really a method of control. Thankfully plumbing was added later and this puts it in perspective: any plumbing is better than no plumbing at all.

Another method of control of the communists was to take over the Orthodox church and install priests who worked for them. Priests who wouldn't agree to be informants and to only talk about approved things were put in jail and badly mistreated. The communists took the truth that faith in Jesus is the only way to be with God and instead said that someone would have to be stupid to believe in God. This lead to a whole generation of lost people who believe that they are OK because they are Orthodox but they don't have a relationship with Jesus or even believe that God exists. The evil one really used this to bring a veil of darkness over this country and to create a place where people are very resistant to the truth and are very oppressed.

So I ask you to really pray for the people of Romania. Pray that God will soften their hearts and prepare them to hear and receive his gospel. Pray for God to bind the evil one so he can no longer oppress these people and that they will revel in their freedom by turning to God. Pray for a true revival here, and pray for the faithful people here to make a big impact on their society. Pray for those working here including us who are trying to bring God's kingdom here by sharing about Jesus Christ and how he died for our sins so that through faith we can come to God.

The last few weeks have been bitterly cold here and there has been lots of snow, up to 12 feet in some remote areas. Please pray for the people who are too poor to heat their homes and are struggling to survive this winter. Many people have died not just here but in many other areas of Europe too. Please pray that God will give some relief from this snow and cold and that when it starts to melt that there aren't floods.

Thanks for your prayers, they are so important! In the next couple weeks I will finish this story by talking about what happened to the kids of Romania under communism and how they and the country are doing today.

Boys Transition House and Boys School

Each week we go to the boys transition house to teach some classes and get to know the boys better. These are boys who either finished high school or aged out of the orphanage system. They come into our program to learn trades like welding and construction and to learn how to live on their own. Our hope is that when they are finished with the program they will be able to get a job and become productive members of society.

Here we are with the boys and our newest intern Talitha. We teach English, math, and science to the boys, they are really starting to get into the science lessons, they love the experiments.

We are also cooking with them to so that when they are living on their own they will be able to make themselves healthy food.

We also go and teach at the special needs school for boys (and a couple of girls).

I (Mark) have a story and craft time with my partner Mariana for the younger kids.

Then we (Rebecca and I) also teach some English classes. The kids always love to draw on the white board so we use that frequently.

It has been a winter wonderland here for the past couple weeks. Up until then we were having a very mild winter, but we knew it would be coming. There have been blizzards, road closures, people stuck in cars on the roads, and extremely cold temperatures. Last week the car wouldn't start because it was so cold, so after much searching we found a repair shop that towed it in and fixed it up. It is a diesel and the glow plugs which are supposed to heat up the fuel so it can start the engine weren't working. So thankfully that was taken care of quickly and the mechanics seemed to be very good and honest.

Please continue to pray for safe traveling and for our ministry to go well, unhindered from any outside forces that would try to stop it.

Classes at the apartments

Each week we teach at the apartments of the kids who go to regular school. Mark and Mariana teach English classes and Sanda and I have a Geography/Science class. We are learning about the culture and the conditions of different countries. It is not only educational, but we have all enjoyed seeing, hearing and tasting unique aspects of each country. We have listened to bagpipe music, eaten Irish bread, looked at pictures, and made crafts representing different countries. We have learned about bog people, climate, endangered animals, and how much we have compared to others. After learning about Kenya, some of the kids wanted to give (and did) their own toys to those kids who use rags to make soccer balls. Our ultimate goal in all our classes is not about information, but building relationships and shaping these kids in a positive way, and helping them to see and know the God who loves them.

Showing them on the map the continent of Africa

Coloring elephants

Teaching the kids and english song

Mark with a few of the kids

Writing in their english notebook

Georgiana and I