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Romania Report (August 2003)
PHIL
WILLIAMS REPORTS...
Firstly, before I continue with
this report I would like to say a big thank you to all who have
supported and are giving ongoing support to our Romania Project (Shubanah).
Your giving is making such a huge difference in a desperate country.
Supplies for latest trip
In
June the bike appeal was a great success, sixty four bikes of all shapes
and sizes were taken across to Dumbrava without any mishaps. In addition
we also took a couple of single beds, another kitchen, some clothing,
food, furniture for the clinic and some medical supplies.
Because of holiday timings, my
trip to Romania had to be cut to one week, so for this reason I had
arranged to meet up with the rest of the group (John, Sandra, Wynne,
James, Les, Marion, David) in Budapest. The group had left Nottingham on
Thursday afternoon and travelled through Europe to meet me at Budapest
airport, I flew into Hungary on the Sunday.
New
associate
It was great to meet up with the
group in Hungary and a relief that they were there to meet me. I was
introduced to an American guy called Chad, who the group had picked up
in Hungary, previously organised by John. Chad is a great Guy full of
faith and vision; he is a pastor in the U.S. He had heard what we were
doing in Dumbrava and had been in touch with John, and asked if he could
come over and s ee what was happening, so this was his first
visit. Chad is a tiler by trade so that came in very useful, as he was
able to completely tile the shower room in the house were the clinic is.
We all warmed to Chad and he warmed to us as we worked together in very
hot temperatures.
Border
delays
John and myself spent our usual
twelve hours at the border, I guess by now we should be used to it, but
in temperatures of 90 degrees and above sitting around waiting for some
one to sign a form because of some plasters and bandages that we should
not have had. In the end we had to leave them with the border guards.
The day becomes very tedious and frustrating especially as we do not
have time to waste when we get to Romania - time is precious.
Building work progressing
The clinic is just about
completed, the walls have been painted, the ceiling is in and most of
the furniture is there. We are still waiting the arrival of an
examination bed, we are trusting God to provide that. We do have some
medical supplies but after the problem at the border some of the
plasters and dressing were confiscated. The doctor will be visiting the
clinic twice a week - THANK YOU JESUS - what a great answer to prayer
that is. 
The buildings are developing and
after our ladies gave the doors and windows a great paint job, and our
two handy men Dave and Les had set to on the other kitchen and some
shelving in the clinic cupboard, both properties are looking good.
The kids are still enjoying the
play park in between our two houses; the park has been invaluable,
keeping the kids off the very dangerous road. The kids are brilliant
and it is great when they recognise you and come over to say hello
(chow) and hold your hand.
Petru,
Ava & Lavi
A lot of them are doing really well in Sunday
School under the fantastic teaching of Lavi, one of Petru’s and Ava’s
daughters, she really has Gods heart for these children. Please pray for
Lavi, she has come to a time in her education when she has to make some
big decisions, she is a lovely Godly girl who needs to know
 Gods will at
this time.
The rest of the family are doing
great, most of you have seen Petru and Ava in the flesh hopefully you
will be able to pray and understand more about what they are all about.
It was great having them over to the U.K. and I know they enjoyed
meeting the rest of the Church just as much as we enjoyed having them
here. Ava really does spoil us when we visit, she certainly would not
let us starve, so it was nice to be able to look after them for a week.
Distributing bikes
Now I am sure you would like to
know how it went distributing the bikes (bichaclatas). It was like a
military operation and it went something like this - all the bikes were
marked so we knew which bikes belonged to us. We placed a cross on the
bottom of the bike with an angle grinder and 3 points were punched next
to the cross. The bikes were then photographed, each bike was given a
number, and then stored at the Church and the number and photo of the
bike were given to the new owner and they were sent to the church to
collect their bike…easy !!!!!!!
Ava had previously done an
investigation to see who already had and who did not have a bike, so we
sort of knew what houses we had to visit. As we walked about the village
to give out the photos of the bikes we did encounter some problems. Some
of the people in the village did have bikes but unfortunately they
weren’t in as good a condition as the bikes we had brought, so this
caused a bit of a problem. There was a funny side to the operation
though, as we went from house to house the folk would show us their bike
to prove to us that it was in a bad state of repair, but as we moved
from one house to the other so did the battered bike - so each
house showed us the same bike, very cunning but not cunning enough to
foil inspector (Morse) Williams!
Eventually the bikes were
distributed fairly, but we did tell the ones who did not get one that we
would try and get some more bikes for the next October visit. Watch this
space!!
I n
conclusion
It really is great to see the
kids and adults in Dumbrava moving on in their lives. When I think back
to four or five years ago to what these people had then and even less to
look forward to it is amazing, these people are trophies of Gods grace.
I am sorry I was not able to
attend Shubanah’s first Baptismal Service but I am sure John and Sandra
have brought back some great photographs.
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