“Flowing through my life to the poor and weak.
Let the things I do and the words I speak
Reveal the awesome love You have shown to me.”
From the song “Let My Life Be Like a Love Song” from the Holy album by Vineyard Music UK Worship
Dear Family and Friends,
I didn’t realize until I sat down to write this email that there is so much to write! Here is a quick run down of what has happened for you not so detailed folks:
- Easter celebration here was awesome!
- surgeries went great for the burn girls we took to Budapest
- new intern missionary came - Ramona
- intern missionary Jenna Tague left
- Spring was totally skipped and we got summer
- car was broken into and Daniel’s back pack stolen along with his PASSPORT
- preparing for construction team to come
- huge praise of donation for Agape Home
- the foster families are superb!!!
Easter totally rocked here! Everyone takes a long holiday (some businesses for two weeks) and enjoys spending time doing nothing. It was a great time of focus on the meaning of Jesus, Who He Is, and why His life continues to give us life.
The surgeries in Budapest were a tremendous success and a wonderful experience for both families. Both mothers had been through so much with their daughters in Romania and had watched their children suffer terribly in hospitals. To have such stellar medical care and results were way out of their frame of reference for medical care. We stayed until both girls were in recovery and went back nine days later to bring them back to Oradea. The photo below is Anamaria and her mother. She is burned on her entire chest and stomach to include one hand. She had skin grafts to help the stomach scar to heal. In 3 or 4 years, she will need to return to have another surgery.
This photo is Paula and her mother, Claudia, who is also a New Life House maternal assistant. Paula is severely burned on the inside of her arm and the lack of treatment in Romania resulted in a skin contracture that was corrected in Budapest. After physical therapy, she should be able to hold her arm straight again. We were able to take them to downtown Budapest the night before their surgeries to eat Pizza Hut and they enjoyed every minute! We were blessed to all get hotel rooms for free from one of the Ibis Hotels in Budapest. What a treat it was for all of us!
We have a new intern missionary, Ramona Petrella, from the USA. She will be here until September and she has already been a huge blessing to our staff at New Life House. She is a hard worker and the children love her already! I will be sending photos soon of her in action at New Life House.
Our intern missionary, Jenna Tague, went back home to Charleston, SC. She wrote to say it was good to be back with friends and family and we are so happy she is enjoying life in the land of freedom! We miss her but we are excited to see how God will use her time here in her future. We love you, Jenna!!!
The harsh winter we had ended very quickly with an abrupt introduction to summer. We had two weeks of sorta spring weather and then immediately temperatures in the mid and high 80’s (low 30’s for you Celsius people.) (random trivia: If you want to know the conversion of Celsius to Fahrenheit, take the Celsius temperature, multiple times 1.8 and then add 32.) The houses and blocks have already heated up. Daniel and I are seriously considering trying to buy a used air conditioner already because it is so hot at night and it is ONLY MAY!!!
Yes, you read correctly above. For the first time since I came to Romania, my car was broken into here in someone’s effort to steal the stereo. Oddly enough, the criminals could not get the stereo out with their tool and the tool parts were found broken off all over the floor board of the car. It appears they also cut themselves in the process leaving a trail of blood to include a bloody fingerprint on the door. Unfortunately, Daniel had left his small backpack under the seat which included his favorite little bible, several tools, and his passport. When we realized what happened, we called the police. Much to my surprise, the police came and actually fingerprinted the car and me because I had touched the door where they criminals had been when I re-entered the car. Because Daniel and I need to leave next week to pick up a team coming from my church, we had to travel to Bucuresti to get a replacement passport. We left on Sunday morning and got back this afternoon. I can’t begin to tell you what an adventure it was driving in 88 degree weather with no air conditioning across Romania. Add to that we came home to no hot water and you will know something of my current state of mind (or lack thereof!)
We have a tremendous praise regarding Agape Home. First, some wonderful friends of ours in North Carolina, USA have sent us $5,000 to help us finish Agape Home!! We are so excited to be able to buy the materials we need to keep working to finish the house. Although we STILL DO NOT HAVE THE NEEDED PERMITS, we are continuing to finish the interior of the home and trust in God’s perfect timing for the permits.
Another blessing to report related to Agape Home is the arrival of a construction team coming from my church next week. We will host six members coming to paint, lay laminate and tile flooring, hang doors, finish trim work, install sinks and toilets, and basically do whatever is needed to get the house ready for women and babies! We are looking forward to having them come and we are eager to working hard with them!
We are in the process of training our foster families and helping them understand the dynamics of working with abandoned children. I am continuously amazed at how the Lord provided us with such wonderful families to love our children. In fact, I received a phone call yesterday that one family has been out recruiting families to adopt and they brought a family in yesterday who decided the would like to begin the process of adopting one of our children!!! This has been my vision from the beginning: to place the children we care for in Christian Romanian homes whenever possible. I continue to be excited when this happens and, from my visit to the children’s hospital today, I see the need to find more families. There were so many tiny, precious babies abandoned on just one floor. One little three month old has stolen my heart as well as a set of brother/sister twins. I want to take them all home with me!! ( I doubt it would take much to convince Daniel we need to do so!) Please join us in praying the Lord would raise up Christian Romanian families to adopt these children!
We also ask you to join us in praying for our child, “Moses”, at New Life House. His behavior has now gotten so violent that he injured several children and adults and almost killed a baby two weeks ago. I simply have no option but to get him out of New Life House as soon as possible. Two families turned down the salary we offered to care for him and we are running out of solutions. Please, please pray for the Lord to give us a way to get him out before he causes serious injury.
We thank those of you who have been faithful to support the work the Lord is doing through us in Romania.
Basking in the Son,
Michelle
Posted on May 13th, 2003 by Michelle
Filed under: Michelle's Journal