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| Cooking Potatoes |
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| Washing rugs by the stream |
The building continued for the next house...foundations Romanian style
And it remained the main source of entertainment throughout the day.
Until Natalie started up Simon says which caused much hilarity.
Children playing in the stream after the heavy rain..all sorts of amphibians being brought up on display!
Following the 'mari apa' (big water)- torrential downpours for a couple of days it was decided that we would be able to provide the mothers with shampoo. The children had hair which was matted with mud due to the fact that they live in mudhouses. We gave each family a bottle of shampoo to try and provide a little comfort from the itchiness!
At the same time building continued with cement mixing at the bottom of the hill and the horse and cart taking it up to the top!
In the midst of everything I found time to just sit and chat with the woman. This quickly led to me holding all the babies in the surrounding area for a wee cuddle. One lady in particular stayed around to watch the happenings so I sat with her on the stone blocks in the middle of the house the men were building foundations for. This house isn't very big so we were all pretty well packed in...classic Romanian style! A few other woman sat round about and I practised my romanian as best I could. A lot of charades for various nouns and much fun was had by me trying to speak and them trying to understand. It was so lovely to sit and chat and actually know enough words to make a dialogue out of the situation. After a little time the woman offered me her baby, which I was already holding. So I said that yes I could continue holding it. She then offered for me to take the baby back home with me...she was being serious. At this point I felt significantly out of my depth so called one of the Romanian guys working to come and take over. He embraced the opportunity and explained that God was the provider of all things and that help didn't really come from me, it ultimately all comes from above. She looked puzzled but he went on to explain that although we physically were present and they could see clearly all that we were doing to help them...the reason we were there comes down to faith. He spent time with her and offered to pray with her and for her baby. She then said that because she was the one who was looking for help that she should be the one to pray and ask for it. So there, in the middle of house foundations with the dogs barking, children playing and men building she prayed for her child. Two others then also prayed for her family.
It was such a blessing to just watch and listen. Only one woman and her baby and yet such an amazing illustration of hope for me that the Gospel can and will make a difference in people's lives. Yes there is so far to go in this village but there are barriers being broken down and trust is being built up! May we continue to live lives of good witness to those people any time we are working alongside them or with them.
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| Mud pies |
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| Just casually playing with an axe |
Finishing the day singing children's choruses.
And that it a brief summary of the last few days of the one week trip to Romania...scary how much you can accomplish in a week!
Roll on next Thursday (July 23rd) for the next visit!!
