Newsletter March 2002

Friday 22^nd March

            There were just three of us on this trip Fred Horn, Carl Edwards and myself what we lacked in numbers we more than made up for in enthusiasm. Despite the amount of aid we had sent out on a truck some weeks before our single van was so packed with extras that the customs man at Hull took one look and waved us on. We arrived in Rotterdam at eight thirty on Saturday morning and reached the Oasis in Cluj Romania at eight thirty on the Sunday morning. Just twenty-four hours of non-stop driving. It was a record and with out a doubt the fastest crossing of Europe that I had ever taken part in.

After another of the lively services that the Oasis is famous for, which again included a personal singing appearance from Carl, we unloaded the van and repacked it with the aid ready for Monday morning, our first stop was to visit Edith the nurse and health visitor from the baby clinic in the Dimbu-Rotund area of Cluj. We also met up with her daughter Erika who is now a qualified doctor. The clinic is one of the regular projects and after unloading supplies it was back to the Oasis for a much-needed rest.

That evening we had a visit from our old friend Lori who seemed very happy with the medical machines and equipment we gave him for use at the hospital he works in. It was time to set out and get down to some serious work and on Monday morning we packed our overnight bags and headed south to Harteg, we were on our way to visit a combined school and orphanage which is a new challenge for Mission to Eastern Europe. We distributed all manner of sports equipment and school supplies but the thing they welcomed most was a new sewing machine.

 After giving out some of the things we had brought Carl and Fred went outside to play with the kids. Football, basketball and tennis soon became forgotten as Fred started twirling a baton between his fingers, the kids were fascinated and all wanted to learn to do it, I do believe he has started a new craze.

 Our contact for this visit was Titus and Leigha Blaj, Leigha is a teacher at the orphanage school and her husband teaches art at a school in Harteg. Titus also runs a place called ‘ Clubul Copiilor ‘ which means youth club. There are many activities at the youth centre such as art, dancing, painting, and how to use computers. As usual supplies are short and once again a shopping list was compiled.

A new activity that they wish to begin at the club is rock climbing and we will be looking out for ropes and other climbing equipment. We stayed the night at the home of Titus and Leigha and for a treat they took us to visit some local tourist spots, One was an excavation of Roman ruins some two thousand years old it was very interesting. Next to a place of national interest a wild life reservation. It consisted of a small field containing four buffalo, or maybe they were bison, then there was a small enclosure with just one small deer in it but the saddest sight I have seem for a long time A cage about the size of a average bathroom was the home to fully grown brown bears, they didn’t have much room to move and seemed grateful for the chunks of bread that was thrown to them.

Next day we went to Hunedoara to a home for abandoned babies but upon our arrival we discovered that the place was also home for twenty handicapped children aged between six and sixteen. This had happened since November last year. Another shopping list vitamins, cough mixture, etc. A few days before we had set of for this trip we had met some people from another charity Aid for Romanian children. They were due to arrive in Romania three days after us, so we made arrangements to meet on the Wednesday. They came to Cluj and the Oasis for a meal and hope this could be the start of some form of liaison between the two groups with a view to mutual assistance.

Ray Clare and John Williams we pray that God will bless you in your work. It was Thursday and today was Fred’s day as this was his pet project, the visit to the village school at Negrelesti. We had made up over two hundred packs of toiletries and the same amount of stationary packs to distribute to the children. We had also a varied assortment of sports equipment. Incidentally the toiletries and stationary was packed into some home made draw string bags, which had been made by Fred’s sister Jean and the ladies of Trinity Methodist church in Runcorn.

The school director was waiting for us and made us very welcome. After going to every class and giving out the packs we gathered in the teachers room for a meal. This was a very strange assortment as we were first presented with a bowl containing a mixture of salad and small pieces of ham; blended with a sort of mayonnaise although it looked very nice we could only eat a very small amount. This was followed by bowls of soup, then plates of small cakes, we thought or rather hoped this was it, but to our surprise they brought in another course, this time it was chicken with cold lumpy potato and greasy gherkins. It was one of those occasions when you wished that you didn’t have to be polite.

After the children had all gone home we decided to take a stroll around the village. This is not an easy as it sounds when you consider the state of the streets. A few children were working in their gardens. We visited a wonderful new Baptist church that had been built for the village by the American Baptist movement. I just wondered why they couldn’t have provided as much money and enthusiasm to making the village better.

Friday morning we paid a visit to a kindergarten in Cluj and gave them writing material and toys. Our next stop was to the Institute for deaf children, which is another of our long term projects, we gave them a new photocopier to replace the old broken one along with cotton and needles.

Sunday we met up with Radule who works with the street kids, a house has been rented and has been turned into a halfway house for the kids off the street already a downstairs bathroom has been fitted so the kids can have a bath or shower and some clean clothes. The respect given by these ragamuffin street kids to Radule was an indication of how much his efforts were appreciated by the homeless waifs and strays that are so abundant in the city. We heard stories of the brutal and callous way the kids of the street are treated by local police. The police seem to take some sort of perverse pleasure in intimidating the kids with beatings and humiliation before destroying their ramshackle shelters and moving them on wherever they have tried to settle. We left supplies of soap and shampoo also money to keep this project going.

 On Saturday I went to visit some old friends while Carl and Fred joined Istvan our Romanian director and some young men from the church to play five a side football it was quite an exhilarating and hectic game so I was told with Fred taking up his best position as a spectator. The drive in Istvan’s old Dacia car was all the excitement they need for one day.

Monday was a very quite day; we did a little shopping, and spent time reflecting on the things we had seen and done in Romania and planning our return later this year with our shopping list turned into material goods, so it was with sad hearts we said goodbye to Romania.         

                                          John Rushworth   Mission Director   

June 2000: Become a Supporter of Romanian    Children.

Dear Mission Partner,

I have just returned from my forty second trip to Romania with some sense of achievement. Having seen the completion of the painting we under took at a hospital for the handicapped in Timus de sus It has been a hard but fulfilling job over the past two years to organise the teams to take out. My thanks go to Paul Fulton a painter from Liverpool with out him the job would not have got done, and to all the volunteers who have worked so hard. It was good to see the central heating boiler we sent out last year working well. More baby milk, medical supplies and baby clothes were taken to the children's clinic in Cluj that we have supported for the past ten years, the clinic has two thousand children on its register and still continues to increase. The church we built is now to small and plans are in hand to extend the building for which we praise God. It has been good to see some of the young people we have helped over the years grow up get married and have children of their own. I had the privilege to meet a Baptist Pastor in the Bhior district of Romania who looks after eight village churches with four hundred families, Most of the children have few clothes and some have no shoes, it is hard to imagine that after ten years some thing have not changed, many of the men have little or no work which makes life very difficult. Mission to Eastern Europe plans to send a truck load of food and clothing out later this year to help them through the very hard winter that Romania has. Nine dialysis machines have been delivered to hospitals in Romania I was able to see four working in Cluj. They are used sixteen hours a day in the city hospital in Cluj keeping many people alive, I found this very rewarding knowing that I had been able to take out these machines. Some of the team went to a village school in Negrelisti just north of Cluj to take some sports equipment and educational equipment that was badly needed, when you see schools without basic materials you relies how fortunate our own children are. The group had a great time playing football ,cricket and having a balloon fight with the children, They also came back with a shopping list for next time. I went through the town Gheria near Cluj and was shown a large building to be told it was a notorious prison and that in 1970 the prison had flooded and some 600 prisoners had drowned in their cells after the prison director ordered the inmates to be locked in before fleeing the building himself. I saw the memorial close to the prison that was erected in 1993 to the ones who died. it was a very emotional time for me. I thank God that I have had the privilege to be able to help the Romanian people for the past 10 years and with your help I will continue to do so.

WILL YOU HELP THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE

We need people like you to help us achieve our vision for the people of Romania

Would you become a prayer partner ? Give a gift to help support Romanian children.

For further information please contact us at the above address

God Bless You

John Rushworth mission director

15th December 1999: More Dialysis Machines donated and May trip planned

10 more AK10 Dialysis machines have been donated and will be going out as soon as possible.

The May trip is now well into the planning stages and will take sports and education equipment to the village school (scoala genelala sai) in Negrilesti.

The painting of the home for the physical and mentally handicapped is set to go on for at least two years and will be continued thanks to the generous contribution of paint and brushes by a Stockport manufacturer.

We need to start looking at organising training for the carers.

10th December 1999: Generous donation sends boiler on it's way

A generous donation has allowed us to send the boiler out to the home for the physical and mentally handicapped. It has been plumbed in and now the residents live in the comfort of central heating and can enjoy hot showers.

It has made a great difference and just in time as winter closes in.

19th August 1999: Late News... Since our return..

Messes Potterton the boiler manufacturers have given us a brand new boiler to replace the split one at the hospital. the problem is that it will cost £1300 to transport it out as it is too large and heavy for our vehicles. We have also been promised all the paint and brushes that we will require for our next trip by our present supporters.

Romanian Trip, May 1999.

This trip saw us making a stop-over at Budapest so that the new members of our party could see this beautiful city. The new drivers were Geoff, from the Wirral, Carl from Wigan and Paul from Liverpool. Paul (a professional painter) volunteered when he heard we were off to paint a Hospital for the Mental and Physically handicapped in Brasov.

Full story (with pictures)

Romanian Trip, November 1998.

In November '98 John Rushworth, Ernie Hedge and Jim Bradshaw accompanied by three new volunteer drivers, set off once more with the three vans loaded with goods all aimed at making life a little easier for at least a few people in Romania. Our biggest problem we knew was going to be the weather, and so it proved to be.

Full Story

8th August 1998: Good News, Bad News

Good News...
We have been given 6 AK10 Dialysis machines in full working order plus spares. Most will go to the Cluj city dialysis wards as soon as possible. Some will end up in the new children's home and convalescent units being built in the hills outside Cluj-Napoca.
The next official trip out by members of the team will be in November when we will have a special guest with us - a local press reporter.