Thursday in Romania: Orphanage, visiting foster families, and market day in Beius

Peter and Ana Lucaciu and Howie, the dog. Peter is Executive Director of the Romanian Evangelical Medical Mission (REMM). Ana is the banker, coordinator, planner, orphanage director, etc. Howie is the Deal or No Deal translator.

Today we had a celebration with the families who have chosen to be foster families here in Beius. Here are some of the children from the orphanage and their foster mothers. To the left is Catelin, a baby we saw two years ago. He is now almost 3 years old.To the right are two other children who are being cared for by the Romanian foster parents.

This is Emily and Daniel with Daria, one of the girls at the House of Josef orphanage. Dave Tippit's organization, Eternal Concepts, had sent them gifts of lipstick, sunglasses, shoes, and dolls. The children were so excited with their gifts.
At the party for the foster families, some of the students from Emmanuel University in Oradea played with the chldren. Here is Emil with 2 of the students. Market Day in Beius. The vegetables were beautiful. This old man could hardly walk, but was buying his produce from the market.

This is Mike and Mike. Mike, our translator, is a student living in Stei, where we held our first medical clinic and Bible School. He speaks English very well. So he translated for us and helped us during our morning at the market. Here Mike Sirman is purchasing a Romanian pitchfork which is used to create the haystacks we see all over Romania. Karen wanted a pitchfork. The question is: HOW do we transport this back to the US?

While in the market, Karen was approached by a gypsy family to purchase this handmade skirt. The gypsies asked us 100 Euros for this skirt. Too much, we told them. We only had 30 leis, which was $15. They were quite the salesmen!Children at the market.

Mike, Claire, and Daniel at the party for the foster families.

Students from Emmanuel University. Dave Tippit is at the head of the table. Dave will be teaching the students discipleship principles during his stay here next week. The students were very sweet and curious about our work. We appreciate their time with us and especially their service work for REMM.

This is one of the gypsy families at market day. Their clothes were very colorful. Their children were beautiful.

Amy, Daniel, Claire, and Emily with the girls from the House of Josef orphanage. Also, Mike, our translator is in there with the gang. The girls love to play with us. Some of these children have families in America waiting for Romania to open international adoption again. Some do not have a family waiting. REMM works to get families for these children and currently there are not many families willing to adopt in Romania.

Another full day here in Beius. Tonight the Istrouma team must pack to go back to Budapest. The Holmes family leaves for Bucharest. Karen and Mike will be staying to do some more work at the orphanage and warehouse.

This is the team from Istrouma Baptist and Westminister Presbyterian in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Please consider joining us next year for our mission trip to ROmania. There is much more work to be done here. We thank God for our time here. We have been so happy to work here among these lovely people and to share the few materials, medicine, and clothing we brought and Jesus' love, his sacrificial forever love, with them.

Domnezeu este mare! God is great!

Dumnezeu este bun! God is good!

A face pe plac la pray pentru nouă. Please pray for us.

Multumesc Lord! Thank you, Lord!

Wednesday : Agape runs, at the orphanage for work, visiting the gypsy village

This morning while Keith, Gail, Dave, Elizabeth, and Daniel went on an agape run with the driver, Johnny, the rest of us went to the orphanage. The agape runs went to visit 3 families. What an awesome experience for the Holmes family! After two days of hard work at the medical clinic, they were truly blessed by helping these poor families who have so little. The aim of REMM is to keep these families together, so that more children are not abandoned here in Romania. REMM wants a family for every child. Even though Romania has banned international adoption, REMM’s focus is still children and putting a child with a family. Now they have many children in Romanian foster families. Johnny, our driver, told us he is now a foster family for one child. Michah and Pastor George have now adopted two Romanian children. The children still living at the orphanage are 9 girls. While some of the team played with them on the bikes and in the yard, Mike started working on electrical fixtures at the orphanage. Claire and I worked in the clothing closet, sorting the clothing we brought. Then we left to go back to the mission house for lunch. What a wonderful lunch it was …some meatballs in a red sauce, vegetable soup, and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in the onion/garlic dressing we love. Buna Mary outdid herself!

Then Peter and Johnny drove us to the gypsy village in Petreasa. It was not far down the road. The road to the gypsy village with a dirt road than ran off of the main road. It was very rough and potted. As soon as we turned in, there were children waving to us, as if they were awaiting us, Yet they did not know we were coming. The village quickly assembled, men and women and children from every corner of the small village. They met our vans in eager anticipation. We all gathered under some shade and the leader had the ladies set up two benches with pretty cloths on them. Peter took charge and introduced us to the leader of the village. The village leader was very proud and was the “boss”, we could tell. There were about 20-25 children, a few teenagers, and very few young men and women. Peter told us the village wanted to sing a Christian song for us. We did not know what they were saying, but we did hear “Isus” in the song. They sang joyfully, happily, and boldly. After that, we sang “I’ll Fly Away” and “Jesus Loves Me” for them. Then the Holmes family presented them with a soccer ball. They were quite honored by that. David and Peter then told them a story about a drawbridge and the drawbridge operator. The operator had to close the bridge each day when a train was coming and open the bridge when a ship was coming. He told his son never to play in the space under the bridge as he would be crushed if the bridge were to close. He told him also never to play in the top of the bridge, as he would fall into the river if the bridge were to open. One day, the operator heard a train coming and a ship coming, and he knew he had no time to find his son. When he finally found his son, he saw he was playing in the space under the bridge, but it was too late to save him, because the train was coming. He had to close the bridge or people would die. He made a choice…to save the people and sacrifice his son. So he closed the bridge. Tears were streaming down his face, because he knew his son had to be sacrificed; yet he knew the people on the train did not even know what he had done for them as they went about their busy lives on the train. He cried out to God for both of these reasons. Our God has done the same for these gypsies, for Romanians, for Americans, for the world. Yet we go about our lives as if God did nothing for us; Jesus was God’s only beloved son, who was sacrificed for us. Shouldn’t we honor him and praise him and tell others about his sacrifice? After this story, Dave told another story which demonstrated passion. He told of his chance to visit a Brazilian soccer game, when the stadium went wild when the Brazilian team scored to win the game. He related this to having passion for God and putting this passion to work in our lives.

The villagers loved both stories. We prayed with them. Then Peter gave them vitamins for the children and candy for everyone. They were so excited. We took pictures and as we did, many came up and asked that we take their picture. It was very precious to see the reaction, the pleasure and excitement we brought to them over one soccer ball, some candy and stories. What little effort we have to give to bring such joy to those who need it. I am reminded of the story of the lilies of the field and the birds who God takes care of, because they cannot take care of themselves. I am also reminded how little I do daily to help others, especially those who cannot help themselves. What happiness and pure, childlike joy they had just from our simple visit. To God be the glory ; great things he has done today for the team!

Tonight we went to a BBQ for supper in the mountains. It was so lovely and cool. The Transylvania area of Romania is so beautiful. After the BBQ, Peter met with the team and told the story of the persecution in Romania during the days of Communism, his days of smuggling Bibles and being persecuted by the Communist regime and the secret police, his leaving Romania for America in 1987, Anna and Anca’s leaving Romania in 1989, and then their return to help their country in 1990. Since that time, their ministry has grown. The REMM website details the history, but there is so much more work to be done here. We hope some of you reading this blog will one day want to join us here for mission work. Believe me; you will come away with a changed perspective of the world; the things we worry about seem so trivial compared to what we have seen here. It is a joy to serve our God here in Romania.

Tuesday Medical Work, Bible Schools, and Agape Runs

Elisa has a wonderful story to tell about the work in the medical clinic today.



Hey guys,
Greetings from Romania. We have a wonderful trip so far. For the past two days we have been in the village of Stei conducting medical clinics while some of the other group held VBS for the children. I was so blessed by the patients we have met in the past two days. I met a woman today that explained to me that she had no one in the world. She continued to explain that she had lost her one and only daughter and that she had been widowed several years before that. As she was explaining her circumstances to me tears welled up in her eyes, which began to make me cry as well. After I had finished my assessment, I asked if I could pray for her. She said please. As I began to pray we both began to cry. God really reminded me of how fortunate I am and it also broke my heart to know that I would not be able to stay here in Romania to take care of her. I spoke with the pastor about her and he wanted to meet with her. As a result of my prayer time with her she explained to the pastor that she wanted to be a part of their fellowship and she asked if churches like this one we were in, could be started in her home village. I was so in awe of how God moved today in that situation.
As we were getting ready to leave I was blessed with a very special gift. Earlier in the day I had admired one of the older ladies traditional skirt and one of the church members over heard me. She went home and got her skirt like that from when she was a little girl and gave it to me. She explained to me that the skirt had been in her family since before world war II and that it had been passed down from mother to daughter since then. Since she had no daughters she wanted me to have the skirt. I was truly to be given such a sentimental blessing.
God is working here so much. He has already taught me to much and I have seen His hand in everything here. Please continue to pray for the efforts here. God Bless, Elisa

Monday in Romania

Today we headed to our first Bible School/medical mission location. Pastor George met us there. He pastors a small congregation of about 30-40 members. We were told to hold the Bible School in the schoolyard across the street, but we had to clean away the pile of construction boards first. The children were arriving a few at a time. In the end, we had almost 30 children and 2 teenage interpreters. Gail, Sue, and the Holmes children led the activities with the Wordless book, which has a color and no words on each page. With each page, they talked about what each color means and related the colors to the scriptures (Gold=heaven, Black=Sin, Red= Blood of Jesus, White=Cleansing/forgiveness of sin, Green=growth as a Christian)

Across the street at the medical clinic, Keith, Elizabeth, Nathan, and Elisa worked very hard seeing many patients, dispensing medications, and working through the interpreters to understand the patient’s illnesses and complaints. They checked blood sugar, blood pressure, and talked to them about their symptoms and pains. Pastor George and I made another run to Beius to bring back more Ibuprofen, gloves, gauze, headache powder, dry eye drops, etc. The patients were extremely patient in waiting their turn to see Dr. Holmes and for their medications. And they were so very grateful for whatever they received. Someday in heaven, I hope we are just this patient waiting at the pearly gates!

We broke for lunch and Pastor George took us down the street to eat with a wonderful Romanian family. The ladies of the church had cooked us a meal and the team ate with the pastor, his wife, and the interpreters who helped us today. What a wonderful meal and such a generous spirit they had! They shared all they had with us, even bought us Coke and Sprite and bottled water. They were so very generous and welcomed us so openly!

It was time to go, so we walked back to the church and boarded the van with Seani, our driver. In Beius, Sue, Nathan, Emily, Amy, and Claire, and Karen boarded another vehicle for our afternoon agape runs. Pastor Daniel, a local pastor of the Remedea, Tarcaita, and other churches in the area, was our guide and responsible for bringing the food and clothing to the families on our list. With his help, REMM identified the needy widows and families; he knew where they lived and escorted us to their homes.

First we visited Mary, who is old and has been very ill with lung disease. Her husband was in the fields. Though very poor and living in a home with dirt floors and conditions we cannot even imagine, she was so loving and hugged us, so glad to have visitors to her home. We told her our names. She loved the children. Next we visited Katerina in Matiu. She was a widow and very elderly and again, we were welcomed with open arms and hugged. She was a tiny woman, a widow, and had no children to look after her. She could not see us very well, but we introduced ourselves and told her the children’s ages, which made her happy. Next, we traveled across a wooden bridge to see Catita and her 3 children. Catita has been very ill; her children were so beautiful. They went with us to see their church at Maziad, right down the road from their home. Catita brought us apples from her yard. Lastly, we visited Varvara in Maziad. Though elderly and alone with no children and no husband for over 40 years, she was quite spry and fell in love with Claire. She asked if Claire would come live with her. Pastor Daniel told her that Claire would decide and write her a letter. Varvara had begun her fire for the night and we asked her if she cooked each night and she replied yes, she did.

I felt so stunned by the abject poverty. This week we have had a full stomach every second of the day. We have had a good bed with no flies in the room. We have had clean sheets and a warm shower. We have had clean clothing, a floor instead of dirt to walk on, walls that were not crumbling around us, medicine for a headache, TV to see the news, and a computer to communicate with. My heart could not really fathom what my eyes were seeing and what my head was processing. Could it be that there are still people in this much poverty in the world today? We were seeing it first hand and yet each person we visited warmly greeted us and told us God Bless You! Yet we did so very little today…a few loaves of bread and other food made them so happy. We went to bless them and yet we came away amazed at how they knew God loved them!

Sunday in Romania..What a wonderful day

We awoke around 8AM, still tired, but so glad to be here at last. Last night, we heard a choir of dogs who serenaded us right outside the window. They had a great time entertaining us with their howls! This morning, Peter and Keith drove us in two vans to visit the Romanian Evangelical Church at Remedea. When we arrived, there were about 20 people in the church singing Christian hymns. The sound was so beautiful on this lovely Sunday morning. How wonderful to hear the same songs we sing in America from this small village church!

We went into the church and sat amongst the members. Peter told us this was a small church and was fairly new; it is an offshoot of the local Hungarian church, which is bigger. Thus the believers need encouragement, which is why he brought us here. Though we did not notice at first, the men were on the left side and the women sat on the right. Peter talked to the church and told them we came from America to bring greetings to the Romanian people and to work in the mission this week. Mike introduced the team and brought greetings from Istrouma Baptist and Westminster Presbyterian in Baton Rouge.

Our team sang 3 songs, Shout to the Lord, In the Garden, and Amazing Grace; then Sue gave a wonderful testimony about how she as a wife and then widow had to call on God to get her through many rough times, especially during and after her husband died of cancer. Next, we sang I’ll Fly Away and Jesus Loves me. The congregation sang with us on the last song. When they sang many hymns from their hymnal, we sang along with them. The last song we sang was How Great Thou Art. The songs we sang to the church and those they sang to us were all so wonderful. My dream of bringing a team to Romania had finally come true. God blessed us all in the service.

Peter preached in Romanian and spoke to the team as well about the Good Samaritan. While he was encouraging the Romanian brothers and sisters in Christ, he was encouraging us as well. I know that God does have a plan for this seed being planted in the hearts of our team members; it seems that what we are doing is so small compared to what we can really do as Christian believers to support Peter and Ana and REMM. We are all so wealthy compared to these people; America is indeed rich in possessions, in education, in freedoms, in opportunity.

Buna Mary has been cooking wonderful meals for us. Today we had omelets for breakfast; lunch was a wonderful chicken noodle soup and fried chicken and mashed potatoes; supper was delicious cabbage rolls and bread.

We met with Peter and Ana to go over the week’s activities. We will be very busy. We have 2 days of medical clinics, 3 days of VBS activities, several agape runs planned, and projects for Mike and those who want to do physical work.

At 4:30 we headed to a small Romanian village on the outside of town, called Tarcaita. It is up in the edge of the mountains. There we attended a church service at the local evangelical church. We sang songs for the congregation, then Sue, Karen, and Keith gave a short testimony to the members. I told them how I had seen a TV special in 1990 in America on the hardships of the Romanian people and the many abandoned babies after the fall of Communism. I wanted to go to Romania, but could not, as I had a family and work obligations. These many years, I wanted to go, but my opportunity did not come until 2005, when we made a trip with Sammy Tippit Ministries for teaching Romanian pastors in Oradea. On that trip, we met Peter and Ana and visited House of Josef Orphanage. We determined at that time to come back to Romania with a mission team. God knows the desires of our hearts, and he wants us to have them, but sometimes we must wait upon the Lord for what we ask. Sometimes our prayers are answered with No, sometimes, Yes, and sometimes Wait. It is now 2007 and here we are worshiping with a Romanian Christian church and working with Ana and Peter in their ministry. I have been taught to “Wait upon the Lord” for my prayers to be answered.

Arrival in ROmania!

It is now 9:30PM in Beius, Romania. We are 8 hours ahead of Baton Rouge, La. The flights here were uneventful; Thank God for Derrick at the Baton Rouge airport; he was our Delta agent and he let our bags pass, though most of them weighed over 50 pounds. He helped us shuffle our mission donations to get each bag even; but the last bag weighted 57 pounds and he let us go!
The flights were great; even the Lufthansa food was not bad. We flew through Customs in Budapest and our ride came fast. We picked up the Holmes family and Elizabeth and were on our way to Beius. Despite our excitement, we dozed off several times. But our arrival in Beius was wonderful; we have lovely weather. Andrea and AJ and Buna Mary gave us supper, set us up in our rooms, showed us the showers and hte coffee house. Now we are relaxing at last eating in the Mission Coffee House.

All is well. Please send us comments. The Coffee House will close in 5 minutes, so this is our only quick post for today. Thanks for your prayers for our safe journey!

Robo Team Meeting....last preparation for mission trip

5 of us met at the Sirman's house and packed the remainder of the mission trip supplies, ziplocked medicine, chocolate chips, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and stuffed suitcases until they were around 50 pounds apiece. We hope if we go over a pound or two, the airline agents will have mercy on us. Surely they won't fuss if we are wearing our red T shirts! Wearing our ROBO team T shirts, we took our first team picture in the back yard. Here are Mike and Karen, Sue, Elisa, and Nathan. Other members of our team are not here: the Holmes family is already in Vienna for their children's choir competition. Dave will meet us from Texas. So the team of 13 will be complete once we all meet in Beius, Romania!

Ready to go!

More than Enough to Take......Blessings to bring to Romania!

Greetings! Our Romania mission trip is less than 2 weeks out. A group of talented ladies at the church have knitted 35+ hats and scarves for the children at the REMM orphanage. Many of the children are now living in foster homes and Ana must bring them supplies and clothing to the families. So these hats and scarves will bring much delight to the children when we see them! God bless these faithful ladies. Also one of the Adult Sunday School classes has donated money toward our mission supplies. There will be many uses for this: construction of the warehouse which will be used as a distribution point for REMM comes to mind first and foremost. Ana and Peter will be delighted by all that the Istrouma members have done for their mission.

We are asking family and friends to pray for each member of the team. Some have not traveled overseas before; some have, but never to a post Communist country. While we are prepared with clothing, hats and scarves, medicine, and baking supplies for the coffee house, (SO MUCH to BRING and so LITTLE ROOM), pray that we will be able to get all these things through the airport and customs authorities to Romania! Pray for Dave and Nathan who will be coming a day later. And, since the Holmes family has already left for BUCHAREST and will be traveling many places, before we meet them, please pray for their safe journey.

Lastly, please pray for our families. We ask for health, comfort, and peace for them as we journey far away from home!

We will most likely be able to continue this journal once we get to Beius on July 7 (pending Internet service). Please contact Karen or Mike if you want to make a donation to REMM before we go. The money will go directly to the mission, not to the team's travel expenses. Ana and Peter Lucaciu, who run the ministry and the medical mission are still looking for sponsors for the children who are still awaiting adoption as these children cannot be adopted outside of Romania due to new laws banning international adoptions there.

We would love to take more "stuff" but due to the limits on the planes and strict security guidelines, we have more than enough to take. Donations to REMM are always welcome and are wisely used to help orphans, widows, and those in poverty, as well as to build churches in poor, gypsy communities. You may donate through Mike and Karen or through the REMM web site: www.remm-ministry.org

God go with our ROBO team!

Karen and Mike

Mission Team Preparation

It is 24 days until we leave for Romania for our 2007 IBC mission trip. We are the Ro Bo team. We are headed to Beius, Romania, in the northwest corner of Romania near the Hungarian border and in the Transylvania region. We will be working with REMM, the Romanian Evangelical Medical Mission, doing mission work with the poor, the gypsy villages, with orphans and widows. On the RoBo team, we have 13 members going:

• Mike and Karen (do it yourselfers with a heart for Romania)
• Sue (a choir teacher and enthusiastic Bible teacher)
• Elisa (a nursing student)
• Nathan (a fireman)
• The Holmes family (blessed with medical skills and Bible teaching skills, a ready made choir!)
• Elizabeth (a nurse)
• Dave (discipleship teacher, sports enthusiast, and leader of Eternal Concepts ministry)

We had a training session last week at Istrouma Baptist Church and we are preparing spiritually as well as physically to go. The Holmes family leaves next week; The remaining team members leave on July 6 or July 7. So far we have almost 650 pounds of clothing collected and numerous supplies to take. Many at the church have contributed to this trip. We have a group of women who have donated their time knitting winter scarves and hats for the children. Other classes have donated money. We appreciate each and every one of them!

Please pray for our team's health, well-being, and that we will find joy in our service to the Lord. Please pray for safety and an uneventful journey to and from the US. We will continue to post on the blog as events unfold.

Karen