Irenes Romania: A mixed day of helping those in need followed by the Vinga Youth Party

Adina and I were out and about early today but the roads are still treacherous. Adina had told me about a family in desperate need and I decided we must help so our first stop was the Profi Supermarket to buy a food parcel. Their story is heart wrenching. They Are a Christian family of 5 - dad and mum in their 30's and 3 young children, the youngest of which is 6. However, 2 years ago their world was turned upside down when dad was diagnosed with throat cancer. Everything possible was done to find a cure - much prayer went up and they even travelled to Italy for medical treatment Financial support was given by their local Baptist church and other sister churches but the treatment was so expensive that they had to borrow money to try and find a cure. At one point, during her husband's illness the mother was forced to go to France to work for 3 months to start clearing the debt. Sadly the illness was progressive and he suffered much pain leading up to his death 4 weeks ago.She said it was so hard seeing him suffer so much with the children present. There was such a sadness in her eyes but she is having to keep going for the sake of her children. She said the neighbours have been very kind and we give thanks that she has the support of her church and caring people to comfort her. She knows her husband is in a better place and she is holding on to God as her comforter. She was so grateful to receive a food parcel and shoe box gifts for the children. She said that she was not able to afford any presents for them so this was God's provision. Although it was not possible for me to visit them last year I recall sending gifts over with Adina. The children were all at school and I was sorry to miss them. Please pray for this family.

2nd stop was Jackie's house to box up loads of shoe boxes for other projects. Talk about loaves and fishes provision after we completed our task for today we still have over 100 boxes left in the store room - which is roughly the required number of 2 other ministries who need our help.

3rd stop was to a house which accommodated 3 sisters and their families plus the grandparents. Conditions are poor and each family occupies a separate room. The children of all 3 families had chicken pox and were covered in calamine lotion. Adina became involved with this family through her work at the hospital and has been supporting little Natalia who is one of the 10 children of one family. . She is 7 years old but the size of a 2 year old. As a qualified social worker Adina talked to a doctor at Timisoara and persuaded her to give free tests, diagnosis and treatment. Adina even stayed over at the hospital with Natalia who is now on daily injections of hormones to help her to grow. The doctor is confident that the treatment will work but it has to be administered carefully so Adina has trained the one aunt on how to do the daily jections. All the children were excited to receive gifts and we also gave them a blanket each.

We then delivered a few Widows Mite food parcels around the city together with Christmas gifts. We will get the rest done in the next few days. I will write more on the widows later.

Last stop of the day was the Vinga Youth Group Christmas Party - again it was risky out on the roads.. They had a Bible Study tonight with Bogdan and we arrived later with boxed gifts, drinks, cakes, biscuits and sweets. We even brought along Peter as Father Christmas which they enjoyed. This group is growing and they are putting their faith into practice with deeds. Jackie too took some of them on a mission trip to Bulgaria last year to help build an orphanage. They have also been working in the community and supported some of the elderly on the Widows Mite Project.