Director's perspective: Pockets of spring in Romania

Every few weeks in this space, one of RCE's directors or board members will share the heart and philosophy behind the ministry. This week's post is by Mary Ann Bell, a co-founder of RCE who serves as Executive Director.

C.S. Lewis paints a picture in The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe of a frozen landscape where it is “always winter and never Christmas.” Then Aslan comes and “the trees shook off their robes of snow. Shafts of delicious sunlight struck down onto the forest floor and overhead you could see blue sky between the tree tops.”

“This is no thaw,” the dwarf remarked, “This is Spring!” 

Romania had its own long winter of communism with a very wicked dictator who ruled with an iron fist. This was followed by decades of corrupt and often inept “democratic” governments.  Today there are pockets of a thaw but it is hardly spring in Romania, especially for the poor and oppressed, the widow and the orphan.

However, if you look closely, you can see the Gospel at work in and around the city of Arad bringing shafts of delicious sunlight and very blue sky to poor families and to children who have endured abandonment, neglect, and abuse at the hands of those who were meant to protect and nourish them.

These shafts of sunlight are brought by brave men and women who are unashamed of the Gospel and are committed to loving and serving the God of all compassion. Each RCE Love House family (a Romanian family that takes an orphan with disabilities into their family for life through adoption or permanent placement) is a point of sunlight.  

In time, this biblical truth has dawned on my too-often pragmatic heart and soul: that the broken and oppressed of this world have more to teach us, more to give us than we have to give them. Sitting in the humble home of a Romanian family that has chosen to take a very disabled (often disturbed) child into their family for life and watching the pride and joy they take in this cherished child is to see the face of God. Sharing in a beautifully prepared meal with them that is offered out of limited means in gratitude to us - for bringing this beloved son or daughter into their lives - is to taste and see that God is good and that His love endures in a place where the weak things of this world do confound the wise.

Photo credit: Future/Past Visual Adventures

Beauty and Dignity (Guest Post)

The following story is written by Rebecca Adams, a physical therapist who works at the National Rehab Hospital in Washington D.C. Becca is a colleague of Marti Carroll, an RCE board member who has volunteered in Romania many times. Becca and Marti visited RCE this spring. Here are Becca’s impressions.

One of my favorite songs focuses on beauty and why it matters. It says our efforts to create or to be a part of the beauty are like a ‘statue in the park of a war torn town, with its protest of the darkness and the chaos all around.’ RCE’s daily rhythms are marked by an incorruptible beauty, God’s steady river of life, which stands in protest to the realities of oppression and injustice.                                                                                                     

I had the privilege of glimpsing these daily rhythms for a week in my visit this past March alongside longtime RCE board member and PT consultant, Marti Carroll.

First glimpse: RCE’s Residential Campus & Enterprise Center in the village of Pecica. We had the joy of attending Alex’s 16th birthday party. The room was full of uninhibited joy. Hugging/squeezing, non-traditional shouts of delight, an abundance of phone selfie photo requests. And a glimpse into a beautiful brotherhood unfolded. Sandu and Alex have lived together under RCEs care for nine years. Sandu is mostly non-verbal, yet moves around without any trouble. Alex has muscular dystrophy. The characteristic steady loss of muscle mass and function has left him with minimal, spared upper body movement. He’s 40 pounds of skin and bones and heart. Sandu wakes up on his own every 2 hours (and has been doing so for years) to turn Alex so he doesn’t suffer from skin breakdown. You can’t deny the depth of character and love behind that intuitive action.  Ovi Martin, general director of RCE, offered to help Alex transfer to and from the toilet during the party, but Alex declined and insisted on having Sandu come help instead.  

Second glimpse: We wrapped up the afternoon at the beautiful facility in Pecica with a visit to Manu’s independent living space. Manu has lived under RCE’s care since he was a child—from Darius Houses to the Sunshine School to Amy’s House and now Pecica. He’s 21 and employed by RCE through the jobs program. He joyfully welcomed us in to his spotless, clean, very own space – kitchen, bathroom, and bed. His smile was contagious as he opened his fridge to display his very own eggs and basic essentials. Doina Martin offered him the dignity of the opportunity to fully embrace the host role, “Manu, what food do you have to share with your guests?” Manu quickly leapt to the cabinet and retrieved all his cookie stores to lay before us.

Jean Vanier writes that, ‘the greatest pain is rejection, the feeling that you are seen as ugly, dirty, a burden, of no value…And yet we all know that a child, even on the day of his or her birth, knows whether he or she is loved. And if the child feels loved, the body is relaxed, the eyes are bright, there is a smile on the face; in some way the flesh becomes transparent. A child that is loved is beautiful.”

Sandu and Alex display a beautiful brotherhood because they are loved by their Father through the hands of RCE. Manu can experience the beautiful dignity of taking care of and welcoming guests into his space because he feels the safety and assurance of God’s love through RCE.

Learning to fly again: Nicoleta's Story

Imagine a little swallow who breaks her wings just before summer ends.  How can she watch her sisters preparing for the long journey, knowing she will be left behind, unable to go for reasons that are not her fault…?

Nicoleta was born on February 2007 in Arad, Romania. She spent the first part of her childhood at home with her family. Her mother would often call the ambulance and say her daughter was having convulsions. During one of her hospital stays, Nicoleta was abandoned. She was five years old.

RCE was asked by Child Protection to get Nicoleta from the hospital. RCE’s team learned from the doctors that Nicoleta had never had a convulsion during any of her many visits to the hospital.

That summer, Nicoleta found a home in RCE’s Darius Houses. She won everybody’s hearts with her energy and sweet smile. Carmen and Mimi Bocsa, along with others on the Placement team, began looking for a family for her.

While she waited for a family, Nicoleta enjoyed all the new experiences for kids at the Darius Houses – summer camps, trips and activities. In the fall, she started school at the Sunshine School but was soon moved to a regular kindergarten in the neighborhood. She made a lot of progress that fall both socially and academically. And by God's grace, in the summer of 2013 she got a family of her own.

RCE is committed to finding forever families (not foster care), either through adoption or permanent placement.  The wonderful people who took Nicoleta into their family had every intention of caring for her for life but the mother became seriously ill and eventually it became clear Nicoleta would need to come back to the Darius Houses. This was in the beginning of 2015.

She attended the Sunshine School that semester. We all prayed another family would be soon found who could love her and take care of her for life. God listened to our team’s prayers and last summer Nicoleta was placed in a new family.

Today, Nicoleta is a first grader at a school in her village and she is thriving. She loves her family and they love her so much that they wanted to bring her to God for dedication. 

This past March, in a festive atmosphere, the local Church prayed for Nicoleta and asked God’s blessings upon her! For the party following the dedication, Nicoleta’s mother went to great pains to make it special, sewing her a special dress for the occasion and baking beautiful cakes.

Nicoleta is flying again. There are still wounds, but time will heal them, because God takes care of each and every swallow!

Nicoleta was abandoned, a soul with broken wings who found strength to fly again through the love of a family! Each child has the right to a family, the right to experience unconditional love and a healthy environment and so to rise and learn to fly again!

Meet Laurențiu

Laurențiu is the oldest from a family of five children. I write to you about him with lots of emotion, because I was a part of many "firsts" in his life. I was there for his first time in a city, his first summer camp, his first time in a grocery store, his first time on the train, his first time at a restaurant – and many more.

Laurențiu and his younger siblings in their home.

  Laurențiu is a happy kid – he is smart, a hard worker and full of life. But his life is difficult because he carries burdens no child should have to carry. His mother has special needs and his father does not support his family. Often, ten-year-old Laurențiu cares for the house and his little siblings.

Whoppers!

            Our Poverty Prevention team has become deeply involved in his life.

We regularly give him the opportunity to come to Arad to socialize and to learn daily life skills like personal hygiene, how to clean his house and how to navigate a bustling city.

Laurențiu and Doina from Poverty Prevention.

            We believe each child has a right to be educated, and we work hard to give them the opportunities and support they need to thrive. By doing so, we are helping to raise a better society!

We ran for their lives!

Early showers did not deter Maryland participants who came to run for the lives of children with special needs at Darius House, Amy’s House and Sunshine School. RCE’s 5k race at Landon School in Bethesda was well attended and had an enthusiastic crowd despite the weather.

John Riker won the race for the second year in a row! Then the high school track and field athlete from Fourth Church watched and cheered Florinel who crossed the finish line with a little help from his adopted father, Ghitsa.

Michelle Lacey was the first woman finisher. Michelle came to run with her Lockheed Martin colleague, John Mollard, who said when he met Florinel and Ghitsa: “I am amazed someone my age would be willing to adopt a three-year-old – much less a three-year-old with Cerebral Palsy. Here it is seven years later and the love they have for each other is so obvious.”

The events brought out new friends -- like young Lucy, from Fourth Presbyterian Church, who was so excited to raise money for the kids of Sunshine School that she visited all of her neighbors, told them about RCE, then rewarded everyone who sponsored her with a homemade cupcake! 

And old friends -- like Moses the ‘missionary dog’ who has befriended special needs kids from Romania at our events for 12 years!  Moses is seen here leading RCE’s special guests, including Sunshine School teacher Alina Jurcan, down the W&OD trail.

Families and friends from McLean Presbyterian Church walked or biked the trail in the afternoon sunshine with supporters from Ambleside, Lorien Wood, and Dominion Schools. Ambleside Principal, Ginnie Wilcox, has welcomed RCE special guests to their chapel for more than a decade – giving the students a glimpse of what it means to ‘love mercy’ as God requires through stories of rescue and restoration.

Children proudly presented their (rain-soaked) envelopes stuffed with dollar bills they had saved or raised from friends and relations.  All the generous gifts – and those of RCE’s generous business sponsors - (# put in sponsor sheet) will add up to the goal of $30,000 – and all donations go directly to Romania to help rescue more children like Florinel.

There were about 200 total participants between the two events. Each of them came in the rain and the sunshine to walk for those who cannot walk, and to speak up for those who cannot talk -- orphans with no voice or power, abandoned and alone until God rescued them using His people at RCE.

Thank you for running for their lives!

Many thanks to our generous business sponsors!