Tuesday is Mocrea Day

Woke up to a sore throat this morning so dosing myself up to hopefully backtrack it.  The weather is surprising mild at the moment - certainly for December in Romania.  Prayers are required for Pastor Jackie - as well as her ongoing health problems she experienced a fall on Sunday and hurt her shoulder which is very painful.  She was not able to make Mocrea today and so our team consisted of myself, Adina, Peter, Christine, Bogdan and T (seen in the background serving coffee) which I will write about separately.


It takes us about an hour to drive to Mocrea and the condition of this main road is bad - does nothing for the suspension of cars!!!  We were so warmly greeted by patients and staff and soon everyone was enjoying refreshments of coffee, suc (fizzy pop) and snacks.   We had prepared lots of Christmas colouring pages and took along lots of crafts from Wales so the more able patients could make Christmas cards.  Adina brought along a DVD of Romanian Christmas carols and soon we were all soaking up the atmosphere of the real reason for the season.    Before we knew it the whole dining room was full of patients (including many from the secure wards) and every table was filled.  With a team of 5 were able to spread ourselves out so the whole morning ran smoothly.  There was much joy and excitement in their creations which we displayed in preparation for Christmas.   We ended the morning with a prayer session where patients are invited to join in and many do.  What a blessed day - I so love being part of this ministry and am looking forward to returning next week.  We experienced a few hiccups with Adina's car on the way home but we give thanks that the problem seems to have corrected itself.

GOD IS GOOD AND FAITHFUL.  In our latest newsletter I talked about how the Mocrea Ministry has been expanded into assisting patients to be reunited with their families and to be integrated back into society.  "T" mentioned above was such a patient.  He is 52 years old and had an alcohol addiction for many years.  Because there was nowhere suitable to put him he ended up in Mocrea Psychiatric Hospital where he overcame his problem.  He took great joy in assisting the team with serving refreshments and relationships were built. Earlier this year Peter Grover, who has a home in Romania, where he spends a lot of time since retiring, with the permission of the hospital invited T to stay for a month.  During this time, Pastor Jackie arranged for him to be reunited with his former wife and 2 sons.  After Peter returned to England T was accommodated for a short time in a small apartment supplied by Pastor Jackie's ministry during which time he rebuilt his relationship with his family.  He has now returned home to the small apartment he shares with his ex wife and she is taking such good care of him. Although he has health problems I could not believe it today when we picked him up for Mocrea.  He was so well groomed and dressed  and looked a different person - he says his ex-wife is feeding him well!!  She is so grateful to everyone who has cared enough to help.  WE GIVE GOD ALL THE GLORY.