Spring Update

123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
208.321.7440

Str. Ion Vidu Nr. 25
Bistrita -JUD BN Code 4400
Romania, Europe
40.075.118.3962

I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last update! So much has happened that it’s hard to know where to start. I thought I would group the events into categories and update you on the things that have been happening the past few months. Overall, it’s been an exciting time here in Romania. Each day seems to bring a new adventure bigger than the day before. God is really blessing us here and we are growing in His Grace each day.

Orphanage
There are currently 8 children in the “baby room” at the orphanage…not all of them are babies, but they are all special needs children. I have seen some great progress in them over the past few months. We have been working specifically with three of the children who could not stand or walk and I’m happy to report that we’ve made successful steps forward (pun intended!). Marius is walking comfortably with help and some on his own, Nicoleta is standing and walking with assistance, and Lacrimoara can pull herself up and stand alone in her crib. It may not sound like much, but if you had seen them only a few months ago, you would recognize that a miracle has taken place. Our challenge with these three now is language development and social skills.

One of the boys, Mario, is 3 and is developmentally delayed due to living in institutions his entire life. He exhibits some autistic behaviors, but it is difficult to determine if they are a result of copying autistic children or if he is truly autistic. The Lord put it on my heart to begin taking him out of the orphanage for extended periods of time to expose him to more experiences…like playing with normal children in a home with educational toys, riding in a taxi and going to the grocery store, playing in the park, etc. After much prayer, I approached the director and asked if this would even be possible as I am only a volunteer. Without hesitation, she said yes and said she could have the necessary paperwork completed that day! I was amazed! I sincerely expected there to be a lot of red tape and bureaucracy involved…and at the very least, the need to ask someone higher up for permission. So, the next day I began my excursions with Mario outside the orphanage. I’m happy to say that Mario and I have spent many hours together over the past two months and although it has been challenging, we are both enjoying it immensely. In that time he has mastered 8 new words and is responding to discipline (timeouts) to correct his temper tantrums and other misbehavior. He is also less fearful of new experiences (e.g. taxi rides) and people and seems to be more comfortable going anywhere with me.

I am now working with the director to develop a recognition and reward program for the workers to encourage more diligent attention to the individual needs and developmental goals of the children. I put together an initial proposal and it was met with great excitement. We are now working out the details and hope to have it implemented in the next few weeks.

I am also increasing my hours to include more time on the weekends and we hope to find another volunteer to work on the days when I have other commitments. This decision came after the director pointed out to me recently that most of the deaths of children in our hospital occur on the weekends when extra care-givers and volunteers are gone. Most of us look forward to the weekend, but these children dread it. Although we don’t have many deaths of children at the orphanage, it is still a great need for the well-being of the children. Sadly, there are several children who seem to being doing worse now than when I first met them. Mia and Georgel have been at the orphanage the longest and they seem to be more frustrated and upset than they used to be. I’m hoping that with more attention, they will do better.

Open Doors



I continue to work 4 days a week at the after-school program for underprivileged gypsy kids (Open Doors). We have 3 new children who are, or should be, in kindergarten. They’re great kids, but they have no discipline and one of them (Adrian) couldn’t even hold a pencil or draw a simple picture when he first came. I’m happy to report that they are responding to the routine and structure of our program and actually require fewer timeouts. Also, Adrian seems to be passing up the other kindergarten aged kids with his abilities now. His drawings are much more detailed and his letters and numbers are consistently better than the others. He has just blossomed over the past few months and it is so exciting to see. He was extremely shy and reserved when he first came and he has come out of his shell and is maturing by leaps and bounds. We hope to have him ready for school in the fall.

The kids have been working hard on their school homework as well as their extra reading and math homework and other learning activities. They’ve been earning points for all this hard work and have had the opportunity to cash in their points for exciting outings. We took the kids to Cluj, a two-hour train ride from our town, to see the Botanical Gardens there.
Their favorite part was seeing the banana and palm trees in a special greenhouse section of the garden. They talked about the banana trees for weeks! We also hiked up to a scenic overlook to get a great view of the entire city as well as enjoyed a special treat…McDonald’s Happy Meals!






The kids also earned enough points for a 3-day trip to the cabin in the mountains where they got to pick raspberries, run and play, and visit the Dracula castle hotel located just down the road. The cabin is always a special treat for the kids. Every time we take them there they always say they wish they could live there. Sadly, it is because conditions at home are so bad. It makes for a challenging time at the center because their behavior reflects the neglect and abuse they receive at home. Many times we have angry and sullen children on our hands and it is difficult to teach a child in those conditions. We offer unconditional love and consistency and although it is difficult, we do see progress.

We have had some challenges recently with the program and would greatly appreciate your prayers. We have had to hire two new workers to replace the two who are leaving. The first few months are extremely challenging for new workers as you can imagine...remember how you used to test the limits with substitute teachers who weren’t sure of the rules? Yeah…it’s like that. In addition to that huge change, the owner of the apartment we’ve been renting has announced he is selling the apartment and we’ve had to find a new one. So, we’ll be moving to a new location in a couple of months. It’s not as big or nice as our current location, but we’re being optimistic that it will have other benefits, like being less expensive to heat in the winter.

Our next big event is a trip to the Black Sea. A team of High School students from England raise money throughout the year so that we can take the kids on an all-expense paid trip to the beach. We’ll be taking them in August and this will be my first time accompanying them. I’m sure it will be memorable!

Conference

I had the privilege of joining pastors, missionaries, workers, and other volunteers from all over Eastern Europe at an annual conference in Hungary two weeks ago. We had a great time meeting people and hearing about the work they’re doing all over Eastern Europe.

We also heard some excellent speakers and enjoyed some great facilities at the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta, Hungary. They had a huge swimming pool, sand volleyball pit, outdoor basketball court, large grounds to explore, and a castle tour to name a few things. The college is located in a castle that was purchased very inexpensively because it had not been used in years. They’ve done some remodeling, but much of it was restored to its original condition (or as close as possible due to the expense). It is a huge, beautiful building with magnificent grounds, and it was a wonderful experience.

One of my favorite experiences at the conference was an evening “jam session” with all the Romanians in attendance at the conference. I saw old friends and made new ones as we sang song after song enjoying each other’s company and the presence of the Lord. It reminded me of evenings with my family and friends growing up…when everyone who played got out their guitars and the words to every song we knew and started singing through the list. It was so awesome to hear so many voices raised in song.


The last day of the conference we took advantage of the free time and drove into the closest big city to Vijta, which was an hour away. The city’s name is Szekesfehervar…don’t ask me how to pronounce it!! The city had a quaint old city center filled with little cafes and restaurants, as well as interesting stores. This city is famous for being the location where Hungary’s first king was crowned more than 1000 years ago.

The theme of the conference was Zechariah 4:6.... Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of Hosts. We were reminded the importance of prayer, allowing God to do the impossible in and through us…not by our skills and abilities but by his Holy Spirit. When we remember who God is and what He is able to do we are released from fear or overwhelming situations and we get to see Him move in miraculous ways. It was exciting to be unified with so many great people and have the chance to get to know the people from our own church even better. It truly was a blessed time!


The Black Sea
One of our New Beginnings sponsors has been taking the child he sponsors and her entire foster family who live at our family center (the house-parents, their two children and the four New Beginnings kids) to the Black Sea for an all-expense paid vacation each summer.





It is the highlight of the summer for these children as it includes an overnight train ride to and from the Black Sea, staying at a nice (yet inexpensive) home during the week, playing at the beach twice a day, walks into town each evening where they get to spend the money they’ve earned from good behavior, great food, and lots of laughs.

This year the house-parents were unable to go on the trip and I was asked to accompany the children along with two other Romanian speakers for the week. What a treat it was to spend so much time with these great kids. Our favorite memories include riding the bumper cars at the carnival in town, eating watermelon, and roasting marshmallows over a fire. We had a wonderful time and after we got back they told me they cried because they missed us so much. Fortunately for me, these kids live next door so I get to see them every day!

Winky’s Big Adventures



Winky has been on three big adventures in addition to her ongoing hospital visits. On May 18th, she attended the 2nd Annual Special Olympics here in Bistrita and had a wonderful time making balloons and cheering on the participants for hours. We all had a marvelous time and the weather held out pretty well for us. It didn’t start to rain until the very end of the scheduled events and didn’t last long.

On May 30th the Department of Child Protective Services (DPC) and Non-profit partner organization of the DPC hosted the annual National Children’s Day party for all the foster kids in the Bistrita area. The party was at the park again this year and the kids were treated to games, snacks, prizes, and balloons. Winky had a fabulous time playing with the kids again this year. Many of the kids remembered Winky from last year, so it was a special treat for all of us to play together again. It’s definitely a highlight of the year for Winky.


On June 1st the New Beginnings foster kids were treated to another party in their honor at a local gymnasium due to inclement weather. We played some fabulous new games using balloons and followed the formula for success…food and presents for each kid! Our foster parents were also there which made it a special family event as well. Winky was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but it was a good kind of tired. Even after the make-up came off, a huge smile remained!

A Special Project
A few weeks ago I got to use my HR skills to assist Clare (the founder of the Open Doors program) with a huge grad school assignment. She is working on a project that requires a one-hour interview of 100 gypsy women who have children between the ages of 5-15 living at home. It is a daunting task, so I suggested an interview day similar to the kind we used to have at Albertsons. She loved the idea…so she created a flyer and solicited some help from her gypsy kids’ parents to get the word out and we prepared food packets for each volunteer who came to be interviewed. We only had 4 interviewers because the interviews had to be done by a female who spoke Romanian and with it being finals week at the high schools, all the gals I knew who would have loved to help, couldn’t. In the end, it turned out great though. We completed 30 interviews and I managed to keep all the ladies and their kids entertained with balloons for hours in the waiting room. At one point there were 50 people in the waiting room because the ladies had no one to watch their kids and they have so many of them!! We started our interviews at 10AM and by 8PM when we said goodbye to the last lady we were ready to drop dead. My fingers were going to fall off from tying so many balloons…but it was such a joy to see how much the kids loved their balloons. Many of these ladies are so poor they are living in cardboard boxes.

The interviews were about the life-stresses the women faced on a daily basis and included a section on discrimination. The interesting thing we discovered after a preliminary look at the results was that the greater the life-stress in a woman’s life (e.g. husband out of work, many children, no running water, no close family, living in a cardboard structure, etc.), the more likely she was to feel discriminated against. The women who had relatively low life-stress did not feel discriminated against. Another sad consequence of the interviews was the discovery that at least 3 of the women had recently been contemplating suicide. It really broke out hearts to see so many hurting women. Right now, I don’t know how to help them except to pray for them and I would ask you to do the same.

Well, as you can see…life has been exciting for me lately and the summer has only just begun. This summer we’re looking at kids’ and youth camps and teams visiting from the States and lots of special outings with the New Beginnings foster kids and the gypsy kids. It’s going to be busy, but I’m looking forward to it!! Thanks for taking the time to read this update…write me a note if can, I’d love to hear from you!!!


Answered Prayer:
• Because I’ve been traveling a bit, I have had a reprieve from the fleas lately. It’s such a relief!!!
• Having the chance to use my HR experience to bless Clare by helping with interviews and the school project and developing the reward and recognition program for the orphanage workers.
• Great progress in the physical development of the orphans who are learning to walk.

Please continue to pray for:
• Learning the Romanian Language.
• Ongoing flea issues.
• Ideas for building relationships with my English students who would like to continue meeting with me over the summer break.
• The children at the orphanage…that we will be able to help them develop to their full potential and for the workers to actually show them love.
• That I will continue to learn to work with children with special needs and the success implementation of the reward/recognition program for the workers.
• Transitions for the Open Doors program with new workers and a new location.
• For the gypsy women who have such huge life-stresses.
• That I will have a greater servant’s heart to be a blessing to the Romanian people.


With much love,
Natalie Bridges
natalie926@hotmail.com


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