Greetings!,
Well, we finally made it back to Romania! After being gone for 11 weeks, we returned to the land of ice and snow. When we arrived in Bucharest, we were able to get to a hotel and no further. Roads were closed, people were stuck in their cars on the highways, and we were just happy to have a warm place to sleep. After a couple of days we made it to Sibiu. Jet lag has been a constant companion (but not friend!) since we got back, but things are beginning to settle down a bit. Thank you for your prayers for us as we traveled and returned to the job God has given us to do here.
It is so easy for us to feel overwhelmed when we re-enter the country. It seems like there is so much to do! But God is reminding us to take our daily directions from Him. Jesus says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light, so when things do not seem to be in agreement with this, certainly we have made the mistake, not Jesus! It's just another opportunity to practice keeping our eyes on Him.
Tomorrow morning we will meet with the director of the maternity home to discuss Patronela's transition from this facility. Our current plan is to move her and her baby to our house for a period of observation and independent living training. Since she is accustomed to living in an institution, she has not had the need to be fully responsible for herself and we do not know what she is actually capable of. So, for a period, she will live with us but practice managing a home of her own. This will mean cooking, cleaning, shopping for herself, and caring for her baby. We really do not know how this will work out, but we feel like we need to have her try to be independent. After a period of time we will know what she is capable of and know what kind of help to pursue for her and her baby, Alexandra, for their future.
Dana has been without a job for quite some time now. She is living on her small disability pension, but this is not enough for her to survive on for long. She told us yesterday that she is planning to marry her boyfriend, also an adult orphan, soon. He has no job and no stability, so this is a great concern for us. Please pray that God will protect her from any decisions that might be made out of her own brokenness, instead of His best plan for her. God is the father to the fatherless and the defender of the weak! We know that He has a plan for Dana's restoration.
God continues to bring people that desire to help the adult orphans. One by one, people are seeing the needs of this group and compassion is rising in their hearts. Though some of these that desire to help do not even know Jesus personally, they are ready to do what God created them to do- love! We are praying that through our interaction with them, they will see Jesus in us and desire what they see. Please pray with us that our example of compassion will influence many and that God will use the Romanian people to bring healing to their own.
Thank you for standing with us! You are a vital part of what God desires to do in this place and around the world. May His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Going for Him, Leslie and Stephanie |
