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.