August 2005
Messages from Peter and John who were on our second Romanian trip
In August 2005 the church’s second working party to Romania took place. We have been supporting the work of Emanuel Children’s Home in the Transylvanian city of Cluj Naopca for two years now and as well as raising funds we have been keen to offer practical help in the construction of a new building there.
A group of 8 from Castle Hill, aided by 2 friends from Leamington Spa Baptist Church and another helper from Rising Brook in Stafford, travelled out to join experienced electricians. Our task was to complete the ‘first-fix’ of electrical installations for the new four-storey home.
None of us had much experience of this sort of work but under the expert guidance of Adam Broad and with help from 3 other volunteers from Cheshire, our collective efforts were more successful than we had imagined.
During the fortnight we were there, not only did we complete the electrical work but we also fixed plaster board to the top floor of the new home and did a significant amount of re-painting of the existing, 10 year-old, home.
Our aim has always been to serve God in covering our own costs to offer practical help to a needy community. Street children throughout Romania are still very common and homes such as Emanuel work hard to offer a loving, caring and safe environment for some of these children to develop.
The new building will double the potential capacity for children and also free space to provide accommodation for some elderly people who are also becoming a needy group.
Our group of willing workers ranged in age from 11 to 73, were of all shapes and sizes but enthusiastic in adopting our team motto, taken from James 2:18 ‘I will show you my faith by what I do!’
The completion of the work is obviously dependent upon further money being raised. The charity we support, (Christian Community Ministries, based in Northwhich, Cheshire) are always looking for new fund raising initiatives.
If you can help us work together for these forgotten but very needy children, we would love to hear from you.
Peter Burns
Romania Comments
When you give it is amazing how often you can get more back. We went to Romania to give of our time and limited building skills, but we got back generosity, new friends, insight into a different culture and society and w very warm welcome. It was very humbling the response we received from the Romanians. This no doubt spurred us on in our work. We arrived on a Friday and decided that we would make a start on the work on Saturday and then have Sunday off to allow time to attend local churches and share in worship. We made very good progress on that Saturday and immediately worked together in small teams developing skills along the way. This then set the pace for the rest of the time we were working on the home. Probably the biggest challenge for all of us was learning to live together with little opportunity for personal time. For couple of days fifteen people having just one shower to use also presented its challenges.
Just before and during our visit the floods hit southern Romania and one of the churches we attended was sending a team of people to help rebuild houses in a village. We heard at the end of our time that at least one Romanian had volunteered because he saw what we had given to go to Romania and was challenged.
John Levick