March 2006

Greetings from Romania!

One of the best parts of my day is when I open my mail—snail or e-mail. I have limited computer skills so my correspondence is basic. My computer is older, slower and has a worse memory than I do. We make a good team. However, thanks to people like Peter Kemmerle—one of my heroes in the PC(USA) office in Louisville—we have the Mission Connections Web site that allows for ease of communication with a wider audience. Peter helps all mission workers communicate with others all over the world. In biblical times Peter would have been Paul’s scribe, translating and writing to churches all over the world. Thank you, Peter.

Today I received a packet at the post office all the way from First Presbyterian Church in Ft. Worth Texas. It has pictures and letters from a Sunday school class that learned about my ministry on the Mission Connections Web site. This made my day. Thanks to you kids at First Presbyterian Church in Ft. Worth

A few weeks ago I received a wonderful letter from Justin in Grimes, Iowa, and I have been corresponding with him ever since. I received permission from Justin and his parents to share this letter and my answers to his questions.

Hi Mary,

My name is Justin Gardner. I'm in fourth grade in Grimes, Iowa, and have some questions for my AWANA's project. Would you mind answering them for me?

How many children are in your orphanage?

There are 22 government-run centers for children all over my county, which is called Tulcea. There are 40 counties in Romania, so in Romania there are hundreds of centers for abandoned children.

In the 22 centers in Tulcea, there are over a thousand children. No one will tell us exactly how many—they do not like to admit they have a big problem.

What ages are the children?

Each center is for children of different ages who are dealing with different problems. There are little newborns who were abandoned at the hospital by their mothers. The oldest children are 20, if they are still in school.

How long are the children there before they get adopted?

Sadly, very few are adopted. If they do get adopted, they are usually 3 or 4. The law needs to be changed so that children can be adopted at a younger age. They do not allow a child to be adopted before the age of 2 because they hope the parents will come back and take the baby again. Once child reaches the age of two, then it takes almost a year to do all the paperwork and social investigation—so the children are 3 before they can be adopted.

Do you have worship at the orphanage?

In Romania, the Orthodox church is the official religion, so all children are baptized as Orthodox when they are small. The children in the orphanages are allowed to participate in all the major religious celebrations, if they want to. This is a part of my mission: to take these children to church, to help them understand the Bible. The Romanian people are very religious because they were not allowed to worship for many years under the communist dictatorship. The foundation for which I work has had many services in the orphanage. I cannot say about in the centers in which we do not work. Every center has a priest from a local congregation who looks after the children. Some do a better job than others. I try to work with the priests to help them visit the children more often and help the children develop a relationship with the priest so they will like to go to church.

By law, I am not allowed to take the children to any church but the Orthodox. I am allowed to do Bible study with the children.

How long will you be in Romania?

I will be here at least until 2007. I have been here four years already and my contract with the Presbyterian church is for another two years. After 2007, we will see what God has planned. In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), every three years the missionary must come back home and reevaluate the program and our own lives.

What do the children do for fun?

This is hard for them. They are not very well accepted by other children at their school or in their communities. They have no money to do anything, but all children find some way to play. The children love to sing and dance. Our program provides them with a lot of activities for their free time.

The children love soccer and volleyball.

Also, they love to play with all the stray dogs that hang around the centers. The stray dogs hang around because the children give them food from their meals.

Do you have a school for the kids? What subjects do they have?

The children go to public schools. They have a different system here. When they graduate from eighth grade they must have two foreign languages, advanced math, Romanian grammar and literature, biology, physics, religion, history, art, and physical education.

In their schools they do not have any extra curricular sports. Even in high school, they do not have any clubs or sports. School is only for learning.

After the eighth grade all children take a big exam and then they are “matched” to a school. Some go only for one more year, some go for a two-year vocational school, some go for three years to a technical school, and only a few graduate from high school. They only go to high school if they plan to go on to college. High school is very difficult. You must pass chemistry, physics, calculus, geometry, history, Romania literature and grammar, and several other subjects.

Almost all the children from the centers are encouraged to stop after one or two years and go to work. Before our foundation began helping, there were no children in the centers in high school. Now we have five young men and two girls in university. There are five or six more children in high school at the moment. I am very proud that our foundation has provided tutoring and school supplies and encouragement so these children can continue their education.

What foods do they eat in Romania?

Romania is a very fertile country so there is plenty of fresh food. Bread is Romanians’ favorite food. They love to eat pork. They eat very little beef. Cows are important for their milk and cheese. They love chicken.

Since many of them they live near the Danube River, fish is also a favorite of theirs—not mine. They boil the fish with the head on it. I even ate a fish eye once. This is supposed to be the best part. It was served to me so I had to eat it to be polite. I smiled—but I swallowed it very quickly. They eat a special fish guts soup called “chorba de burta”—this means fish guts soup.Yuck! I do not have to eat a lot of this because everyone loves it so much; when I do not eat a lot of it, this leaves more for others.

They eat a traditional dish called mamaliga, which is corn mush—a lot like grits. They eat this with cheese on top. Yum.

People here put fresh vegetables in jars for the winter. This is called canning. I even do this now. The food is grown in the local area so people buy a lot of a vegetables when they are fresh and then they can them for the winter.

Cabbage is a big food here. They eat little cabbage rolls stuffed with ground pork, rice and spices. This is called “sarmali."

Romanians put garlic and garlic sauce on everything.

The Romanians do not waste any part of an animal or vegetable. They fry the skin from the pig, pickle the feet—they use all the chicken feathers for paint brushes. It is a good way to live.

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 182