Romania 2003

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Newsletter Nine

Date: Wednesday 17 September 2003.

On the Friday that I was coming back from Hungary (just over two weeks ago) it was 38°C in Timisoara. Just half a week later, Tuesday was a good 20°C cooler, struggling to get to 18°C. Working at the Boys' Home I kept my polarfleece on almost the whole day.

We've finished the foundations and moved on to pouring the floors. The basement beams have been replaced by temporary rafters and planks which will hold up the basement ceiling when we pour it. All the rafters and supports in the basement will be taken away later, leaving just the reinforced concrete.

In the above photo we've poured the floor at the far end and the rest is covered by steel reinforcing mesh. We've had another 150 bags of cement in the last few weeks (at roughly NZ$7.50 each). The reinforcing mesh arrived a couple of weeks ago (about NZ$50 a sheet, 25 sheets). I had the job of going to pay for it all last Friday week, then paying an even larger sum for the large light-weight white bricks for the walls the following Tuesday. To my amusement it was mostly in bills about the value of a NZ$5 note. HUGE wads. Obviously, homes don't come free, so if anyone feels like sponsoring a bag of cement or a sheet of steel mesh...

While we're having fun pouring concrete floors, the neighbours are having their own fun. It's corn harvesting time and they had a load delivered. It became a social event for the neighbourhood kids.

The problem of the streetkids isn't going away. It's not hard to find these guys (and girls), and it's not hard to find them sniffing solvents. They often start sniffing drugs to kill hunger pains, then get addicted and sniff simply for relief of their withdrawal symptoms.

But there are a few things they want more than drugs. Love is one. This kid gave up his glue bag (at least temporarily) to maintain a death-grip on Steve's neck. It's especially hard to see the kids who were on the camp quite out of it. In the wet weather at the end of last week they looked really pitiful.

Steve is the present director of International Teams Timisoara. He has done various jobs, like installing swimming pools, vehicle emission testing, and teaching "shop" class in San Antonio, Texas, USA, where he lived before coming to Timisoara. He and his wife (from Wales!) and their orange van (dubbed "The Pumpkin" by the kids) now have the distinction of being recognised by most of the streetkids here.

How does someone make the change from suburbia to full-time "missionary"? I asked Steve that question and was surprised to find that for economic reasons (no money, no job) he spent six months living on the streets himself - quite a few years ago now. Ironically the very next day after I found that out, this Steve look-alike appeared in the daily cartoon on one of my favourite web sites. (Yes, when Steve is really tired he does look somewhat like this, and yes, I do have his permission to say all this, but he has vowed to get even with me for the cartoon.)

Obviously, Steve has moved on since he was on the streets, both in his situation and especially spiritually. But it makes me wonder how many of us accept Jesus as our saviour and don't move on spiritually. How many of us (Christians) could admit that all we do is go to church on Sundays - and then only when we feel like it? How many of us spend more time in front of the TV than in prayer and/or practical action? How many of us are still living on the streets in a spiritual sense? For how many is that all we aspire to?

Getting arty with a storm one night recently:

--

Ian.
8 )
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/ianman/

"Do you have gas in your chicken?"

(Almost makes sense if you know that Romanians often confuse the English words "chicken" and "kitchen".)

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