The forgotten people

I am making the most of early morning Internet access and I want to share with you a little about last Thursday's visit to the Judet(State) of Timisoara where we delivered food and spent value time with 14 widows, all of whom live in villages near the Serbian border. To give you an idea of the geographical area that our ministry covers, we travelled 380 kilometres. We left at around 8.30am and returned home at 11.30 pm.

Most of the streets in the villages are dirt tracks which can be tricky after heavy rain. We have 7 new ladies on the program and it was fun trying to find their addresses! There are no street names in Romanian villages, not even the ones with over a 1000 homes and few of the houses are numbered. In one village we eventually tracked down the postman at his home who came to our aid!

I will be writing further on this project and will also produce a booklet and pictures on the tragic lives of these dear ladies. Their stories will touch the depths of your heart. We simply must raise more money for their winter wood and medical needs.

Two of the widows receive no pension and so rely on handouts from neighbours - another survived on just 10 pounds per month after she had paid her medical bill which should be free. One dear lady with no pension lived in real squalor but she had the most joy in her heart and was still giving thanks to her Saviour - we were humbled. The last lady we visited lived in a little house in the middle of a corn field with just her dog for company. Everyone was thankful for God's food supply but their priority was the provision of wood for the winter ahead. Wood is expensive here - ideally it needs to be purchased during the summer when it is cheaper. It also needs to be sawn and split.