Dear friends,

 

At last we got to Romania after we had to postpone our planned trip in April because we both got covid.

We had a tiring but really good trip seeing lots of changes, some good and some not so good. 

Travelling from Bucharest to Barlad we saw many improvements in the roads and surroundings, particularly in the south of the country, but as we travelled north,  there was a definite decline but we could see some improvements. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case in the villages! Our weather was very dry so there was lots of dust around but when it’s wet, some village roads become almost impassable. This makes village life even more difficult.

On our journey, we saw more prostitutes on the roadside than we’ve ever seen before which made us very sad. 

During our time there we were able to spend time chatting with the families gnfr supports, it was good to hear Tiberiu Rosca explain that he wants to train to be a motor mechanic when he finishes school in 3 years when he’s 20, then he will have 3 years at college to train. 

The Rosca Mum who was badly burned with hot food was still in hospital when we were there so we didn’t get to see her. She is struggling, it’s going to take a long time for her skin grafted wounds to heal. 

Although life is still hard, the Rosca family has improved so much, Dad stopped drinking over 3 years ago and it’s been a life changer for the whole family. Their new kitchen has also helped massively, they were so proud to show us everything and couldn’t thank GNfR supporters enough. Dad also proudly showed us the vegetables he’s growing on his land. 

On the Saturday, we travelled 45 minutes into remote countryside to see the Tabacaru family. Dad had come out of hospital the day before so it was good to see him. His daughter Teodora explained that health wise, he isn’t good and now needs dialysis 3 times a week in Barlad, it will be tough! 

It was certainly good to see everyone again after almost 3 years, the children have all grown and some children we haven’t met before as they have been born since our last visit. 

Visiting the orphanage for disabled children was quite different from the orphanages we visited 32 years ago, very encouraging to see! 

Everyone couldn’t stress enough how much the help means to them, it eased their burdens massively. 

Oana & Florin continue to struggle with losing Eva, her sister Adina had baby Maria a month ago and it was clear that Oana is clearly finding comfort in holding her. Florin just cries if he’s given Maria to hold, very hard. Oana’s health isn’t good and she continues to see the doctor each month. She was certainly neglected after giving birth which isn’t good at all.

Seeing the children at the Delia centre was wonderful, the committed staff there do such good work and we are proud to play a small part of making those childrens lives better. 

We met head teacher of a middle school in Barlad, Daniel Stefancia, he does a lot of good work during and after school encouraging the children to join organised activities and to stay out of trouble. He is president of the scout movement in the area too. 

We are trying to encourage the Rosca boys to join the scout group, Daniel is keen that they do. 

He has also taken 9 refugees into his home so we were able to give him a donation to help to support these families.

We are going to keep in touch with him.  

We worked out that during our 7 days in Barlad, we spent time with 67 people from 18 households which is amazing, for us, it’s a privilege to share the Lords love with those less fortunate than us. 

We honestly couldn’t do this work without your support, we didn’t need to worry about having the money to give the help needed, thank you so much. 

Thank you all for your messages and prayer support while we were there, we really did feel upheld, especially on the more difficult days when we felt exhausted emotionally and physically.

There’s a possibility we may go again in November when we will buy Christmas gifts for everyone as we won’t be sending boxes again.

We will keep in touch! 

Thank you all again. 

Much love,
David & Kath xxxx