December 1, 2003
Dear Friends,
As this is Thanksgiving week, I want to begin by saying thank
you to God for this past wonderful year. Everything we do, every
breath we take, God is infused into the fabric of every action.
I know what Paul meant by praying without ceasing. Since I live
in crisis mode a lot, God is my partner minute by minute, second
by second.
With God’s direction and help, NOROC has truly harvested
a bumper crop of young adults who are amazing in every way. I
want to thank all of you for your diligent prayers, your faithful
financial support, and your unflagging friendship and emotional
backing. You have all remained beside me throughout every ordeal
we face. I will highlight a few examples of the good year we have
had, and close by asking for prayers.
At Cocorri, the baby orphanage, we just completed a wonderful
two-day training with our grannies by Dr. Jones, who helped the
staff institute a regime of using a nasal wash to prevent respiratory
problems. Some of you remember the year before last, when four
babies died from respiratory ailments. Dr. Jones’s simple
treatment will be highly effective, if they use it. Also, the
heating system seems to be working fully for the first year that
I remember. Jerry Bozeman did a wonderful training session with
the grannies on play therapy. This was a follow-up to session
done last year.
The work of our grannies is so vital here at Cocorri. We now
have two shifts working with the newborns—more needs to
be done in this area—but we are making progress.
The older toddlers are starting pre-school in the community and
are doing very well. We want to thank our speech therapist and
our kindergarten teacher, both of whom come faithfully every week
to work on speech development and readiness for school. The staff
has undergone an amazing transformation here as well. There does
not seem to be the “us versus them” philosophy, but
more of a team effort. NOROC’s part-time psychologist, Cristina,
does a lot to make this happen, and we count on the faithfulness
of Florintina, the director of the center.
NOROC is no longer the only group coming to Tulcea from outside
of Romania to help in Cocorri. The Danish, the French, and the
English have all come this year. I think the readiness of the
Romanian government’s Department of Protection of Children
to allow other groups to have hands-on experience is directly
related to the good will created by the work NOROC has done. All
in all, things are better at Cocorri than I have ever seen them.
This is a great cause for rejoicing.
Our program in Babadag with our club NOROC has remained faithful
and steady, and very deep relationships are developing between
the older children we serve and the grannies who work there. As
some of you may not know, a year and a half ago they moved all
the toddlers from Babadag to Cocorri and moved into the redeveloped
center 35 older children who have families in the Babadag area.
This meant NOROC and our grannies had to shift our facilities
to accommodate the older children. We established a club for the
children that offers a huge range of activities. We now have to
provide our own heat to the club. This is difficult because of
the inadequate wiring. I am confident this problem will be overcome,
but it will mean an additional expense for NOROC each month. It
is a good trade-off, because once the heat is working properly
we will not be considered a financial drain on this center.
This summer they combined the boys home and the girls home in
Tulcea. They accomplished this by drastically reducing the number
of students in each center. Many of these children have been sent
back to their families, and in most cases this is very good. Even
if they are poor, being with their families is very important.
In many of the villages they have opened centers to feed the children
in the daytime and offered them places to come to do their homework.
They call these centers “daycare centers,” but they
are not for the working parents, only for parents who are destitute.
It is a different concept than we have in America. Some children
have been moved several times, from center to center, and this
is creating a problem with some of them. However, I pray that
most of the moving around is over. The new refurbished center
for boys and girls in Tulcea, called “Speranza,” is
nice and warm. The staff seems to be working very hard, and they
have a good, tough director with whom we have an excellent relationship.
We managed to maintain our “Big Hearted Teachers”
throughout all this turmoil, so we can be very glad of this. There
are increasing needs for more advanced tutoring, as more girls
move into high school. At the other end of the spectrum, more
children have had their education disrupted and are in need of
special catch-up help.
Our Big Hearted Friends program is still a roaring success. It
is easier now that there are fewer children and now that they
are all together. However, the boys have lost their place to play
soccer and their outdoor sports area, which was at the boys home,
and this is not good. We have cooking and sewing classes every
Saturday, recreational activities every week, monthly birthday
parties, and small group activities every two weeks. These activities
also provide the children an incentive for behaving, as we do
not allow children who have skipped school or who have misbehaved
to participate.
Many of you have been following faithfully the fate of the private
orphanage for the handicapped children/young adults—CRISP.
Their beloved director had a stroke and probably will never return
to full-time involvement. The staff has struggled, successfully
so far, to keep everything going. The Department of Protection
for children has decided that the center will no longer be allowed
to house children under age 18. These children will all have to
be involved in one of the state-run centers. This is not good
news for these children. However, it does mean that now the center
is solely under the Department of the Handicapped. Mr. Cabuz is
still the overall director from the city council, but the Department
of Protection of the Handicapped is under a very nice man, Mr.
Marinov who is very good to work with. This will be a blessing,
we hope. Thanks to the generous contributions of many of you out
there, CRISP has managed to pay regularly on their bills and we
hope that in January, the bills will be assumed by the Department
of the Handicapped. This will be a true blessing. Many of our
favorite young adults are finding a refuge in this wonderful center
with their open-door policy, so this is a place to continue supporting
and praying for. In fact, today, Georgita will go and take a small
apartment they have for rent at CRISP. Georgita is a wonderful
young man who is crippled in his leg from polio. He graduated
from the boys home and has a bad job, with very little money,
at the worst sewing factory in town. It was the only place that
would hire him with his disability. Even with financial assistance
from NOROC, he has been unable to find a place to live. No one
wants to rent to people from the boys home, much less some one
who is crippled. He has had four places to live in two months.
The new director at CRISP, Daniela, has agreed to rent Georgita
this small efficiency apartment until we can find a permanent
place for him.
Most of my time is spent working with the youth when they leave
the system. We have a wonderful “youth group” of these
young adults, and this is a growing positive force. They are helping
one another, and me, a lot. There is always someone in crisis
from this group. Remember my “ I’ll Just Throw Myself
in the Danube”—all four of these kids are doing fine
at the moment. More and more of them want to continue their education.
They serve as positive role models for the kids still in the system,
as they see that hard work and honest behavior pays off.
Not every one of these kids is perfect, but there is marked improvement
in most of them. As a whole, the group is doing great. We now
have five young men enrolled in a university. NOROC is not paying
for all of these young men, as each one is a different case, but
we are emotionally supporting them, and they were all in our groups
before they graduated. Without a doubt, except for Dragos, who
would have gone to university anyway, the other four would not
be there except for the help given them by NOROC. There are now
five girls in high school from the girls home. This is a tremendous
achievement. We also are supporting two other girls in boarding
school who have been terminated by the department and are in high
school. Ana Maria Ivanov was our first girl to graduate from grade
twelve. She passed all her classes and now is working to pass
her baccalaureate exam.
Of particular prayer concern today
- Bianca is a very troubled young woman with a history of terrible
abuse who is now on highs school and making very good grades.
However, she continues to act up in the boarding school and
is sometimes defiant of their rules and of all authority. We
need to pray for her continued progress and that she will behave
so she is not terminated from school.
- CRISP. They are in limbo as to their status at the moment
and, selfishly, I do not want them to close as we would not
have a place for Aurel, Marius, Georgita, Dana.
- Mihai Russo is having a terrible problem adjusting to the
new center. The staff he was the closest to at the boys home
did not make the move and he is having an emotional breakdown
at the moment.
- Carolyn White and all the board of directors of NOROC. Give
constant prayers of thanksgiving and support for these wonderful,
wise people. Carolyn especially carries the burden of the financial
side of our mission. This she does without compensation, except
for stars in her crown in heaven. She taught me the Lord is
the Lord of all the gold and silver, so I pray enough of this
gold and silver passes through NOROC’s mission to keep
us going and to allow us to expand.
- All the children. So many of them have passed out of the system
without our noticing and I know God knows where they are. Many
of the children I have grown to love very much are gone. They
have been moved for one reason or another. Please pray that
this shuffling around stops.
- We have a real medical crisis we need to plan and deal with.
Thirteen of the 19 boys at Speranza are now smoking. Most of
the older girls also smoke. Some of these children are as young
as 10. This is a mushrooming crisis. It has never been this
bad. I do not have a formal plan yet, but be assured we will
do something. Suggestions are welcome.
- Continued health for all of us involved in NOROC.
This letter is too long already, so thank God for Jesus, my best
friend and confidant and without whom we would not live or move
or have our being.
Peace and to God be the Glory
Rev. Mary Ferris
Thanksgiving revenge
I finally got revenge on my Romanian friends who have all fed
me to the point of death so many times. Anyone having visited
here and having attended a Romanian feast knows what I mean. I
fed them an authentic American Thanksgiving—turkey, dressing,
mashed potatoes, gravy, etc. When we were about to eat the apple
pie with whipping cream I commented that the only thing that would
make this a complete American Thanksgiving would be to be watching
football on television. Well, my guests perked up—there
was a big Romanian versus Russian football (that is, soccer) match
as we were eating but they were too polite to say anything. Needless
to say the television was turned on and we got to see the Romanians
crush the Russians.
When they left I know we had all gained five pounds, so it felt
good to return the favor for all the times they have fed me.
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
318 |
