Praise God for His love
and patience with us. We have had a very exciting and interesting month. It was
wonderful having Peter, Kathleen, George, Elizabeth, Chris and Janice here from
Kinmylies for 6 days in which they taught English, helped with music and dance
lessons for Downs Syndrome adults, spent an evening playing English word games
with boys from the Daniel Centre, played with the children at the Usa Sperantei
Children's Home in Blaj, visited Bogdan and other the students at the Christ
for All Nations Bible School here in Cluj, went 'Go Carting' with Alfred, did
an assessment for a blind, mute and partially deaf boy that Mihai helps to look
after, visited the Turda salt mines, walked through the Cheie Turzi gorge,
spoke at our house group, preached in the Pentecostal Gypsy Church in Floresti,
scoured through the huge Marasti market, drank lots of coffee and ate sticky
cakes. They experienced too Romania's
special weather... 26 C and beautiful sunshine on Monday.... -3 C with snow on
Wednesday. We are praying for their recovery! A special word of thanks must go
to Alfred who gave up a week to drive the folk around.
Winter has arrived very early this
year - central heating was switched on in our block of flats on 15th October as
it is every year, whatever the weather. It will stay till 15th March, again
whatever the weather. This is a throwback from the Communist system when
everything was regulated, and dates were fixed and inflexible. There are still
so many reminders of Romania's dark past. E.g because Bogdan is an orphan he
will have to go back to his home town to register his existence every November.
He cannot do it by post or electronically or in the Cluj office - he will have
to make the 13 hour train journey to and from Ortenia for an official stamp on
his form that will take 5 minutes, which he has to obtain in person otherwise
his meagre pension of £41 per month will cease. E.g. Mihai on his crutches and
with his medical apparatus still attached to his leg has to make 10 bus
journeys to and from the hospital, his work place, his family doctor, the
Health Ministry and a specially designated post office every 3rd Monday in the
month to obtain his sickness benefit of £65 per month. He even has to do this
if he is in hospital - the hospital provide him with an extra warm dressing
gown for a day out of the hospital. If he is too ill or in the operating
theatre on that 3rd Monday he loses his benefit for that month. E.g. Alfred has
a similar trek between various offices and ministries, every Wednesday in order
to keep receiving his redundancy pay of £62 per month. He however has managed
to obtain a month of labouring work beginning tomorrow but it will only pay him
£39 for the month, and next week he has a more permanent job interview.
We are ready for
the winter - Joy has over 120 Kilner jars filled with bottled, pickled, jammed
and preserved everything, and a friend gave us a 50lb barrel full of salted and
pickled vegetables!!! I noticed that the
street stalls that last week filled the air with the smell of freshly cooked
pop corn today filled the air with the smell of roast chestnuts. Everywhere
gypsies are selling bags of wallnuts for storing or pickling. Fruit and nuts
are simply here for the picking by the roadside, and in the hundreds of
abandoned orchards - abandoned by decree from Ceaucescu who wanted an
industrial not a agricultural society. A neighbour recently picked 100 kg (@
220lb) apples free by the roadside for bottling.
News just in and
requiring much prayer is that the Mayor has responded very positively to the
request for the old cinema in Marasti to be changed into a church/centre for
the disabled. He and other councillors have asked if they can come to our
church next Sunday or the Sunday after for the service and to meet us
afterwards. We have been collecting an offering for the town council for some
time to use on any charity they wish so we will present it to them when they
are with us. Please pray this is a very
special privilege for us and an opportunity to share with the leaders of our
city that Jesus is Lord
Our thanks to you
all so much for your prayers and support. We are very busy at the moment but we
are well aware that we are living in times when God is moving.
May God's presence
fill you with Joy and peace.
In Jesus
David, Joy (+ our
ever growing family)
1. The Kinmylies
team who were truly amazing, and for whom we thank
God.
2. The visit of the Mayor and Councilors
to the church that God will touch their hearts.
3. For the proposed centre for the disabled (
we were at a meeting for organisations who work with the disabled and there is
a vast need for a centre)
4. Mihai - he now has to wait till
December to see if he can have the apparatus removed from his leg
5. Bogdan at the bible school - he is
so keen to learn about the Lord, but it is difficult for him to write notes
with many congenitally missing fingers. he has such a lovely sincere faith and
trust in the Lord.
6. Ciprian who is showing a lot of
interest in Christianity at the moment
7. Mihaela who is working so hard to
get her Cambridge English exam
8. Ovidiu
(ICC) who is here for his brother's wedding. Pray for
his adoptive mother's health.
9. The Bible School.
David starts teaching English there next week and some bible teaching
10. Two severely disabled and wheelchair bound
disabled guys - Jani and Otilo
living in a really difficult circumstances near the Jucu orphanage. Bogdan has
been witnessing to them and our pastor will go to see them next week.
11 Alfred-
the interview for the job, and his constant struggle with faith in the Lord and
his memories of the past
12. Our house group
and the need to grow in the Lord - Mihai, Simona, Mihaela, Dana, Alfred,
Vasile, Rasvan, Ovidiu Moldovan, Alina. Ovidiu (ICC) will speak next week.
13. The Daniel Centre boys
who are growing in the Lord so rapidly - Danut, Eugen, Erno, Calin, Sebi, Gita,
Marian. Pray for Cristina and Sandel the house parents who have become
grandparents twice in 3 weeks, and Bolas the manager whose wife had a boy last
week.
I have not attached any photos this month I
will try to next month but if anyone would like some, please contact and
specify and I will try to send you what you require.