Director's perspective: It would have been enough...

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.

‘It would have been enough…’ goes the ancient Passover song, Dayenu. If God had only given us the Law, it would have been enough. If God had only brought us out of Egypt, it would have been enough. Or given us the Promised Land. But instead, as the poem goes, God has given us all that and so much more.

RCE is entering its 25th year. The Passover poem comes to mind as I ponder what God has accomplished in our midst in those years.

It would have been enough, I thought, watching Manu go about his daily life with purpose and joy -- it would have been enough to see just this life rescued. Manu endured all manner of domestic violence that left him mute, followed by time in a state orphanage, but today he has a joyful and purpose-filled life.

It would have been enough to see this young man, so severely disabled, now thriving in his own apartment in RCE’s community. He invites friends over. And he cooks them dinner! He enjoys his job at the RCE Thrift Store and Farm & Garden. It would have been enough.

Cici, whose finger was taken off with a machete by her drunken father, is now part of RCE’s Job Program learning marketable skills she will use one day at a job in the community. Georgiana graduates from high school this year. And Vasile, adopted age seven, is now married and expecting his first child. The cycle is broken. It would have been enough.

And yet there are so many restored lives. There is Darius. And Albert and Emilian. YoYo and Bobi, and more boys named Dani than I can keep straight. There is Florin, Florinel, and Florian. Madalina, and Ema. It would have been enough.

By God’s grace, in the past two and a half decades, RCE has placed more than 100 children into loving Romanian families. We marvel to witness the compassion, generosity and great grace of our God displayed in just one restored life, but what joy to behold it in the many!

Your Christmas gifts are arriving just in time!

Brutal winter weather has settled over Eastern Europe and poor families in remote villages are experiencing a disproportionate share of the suffering. Without sufficient resources of food or fuel, families huddle in one tiny room and struggle with the related consequences of increased illness and social dysfunction. Snow is not charming when you are poor.

There is a temptation to sentimentalize poverty in Romania when the weather is warm, flocks of geese graze by the road, flowers are blooming and grapes drape county courtyards. But not now, not when the reality of winter arrives.  

RCE’s poverty prevention program works all year long to prepare impoverished families to be ready to meet their own needs at such times. And thanks to your partnership hundreds of families are prepared. They have farm animals that provide meat, milk, eggs and limited income. Families have started small businesses with no-interest RCE loans and a growing number are learning to save for emergencies with the micro-savings plan. Preventative medical and dental care is provided all year long. Eight more families (just in 2016) moved into a safe and warm house. Many, many more people received and are receiving your gifts of firewood, farm animals, food, warm clothing and other emergency supplies.

Our team will be busy delivering your gifts of . . . 35 flocks of chickens, 54 goats, pigs and lambs, 13 loads of firewood, 6 milk cows and 4 work horses . . . so that poor families can live in dignity all year long. Your gifts also provided for students at Sunshine School with physical therapy equipment and new school supplies. Darius House kids will enjoy going out on Friday night for pizza parties and other field trips. Hundreds of kids will go to summer Bible camp. The Job’s Program will have the resources needed for the Snack Packs and seeds and plants for the ‘farm’.

Thank you for your generous partnership in 2016; with your help RCE more than met the budget!

RCE Christmas gifts multiply!

Mercy in 2017!  Thanks to you we can make more of that happen!

Guest Post: Worshiping together in Romania

The rising high school senior class at one of RCE's partner churches travels to Romania in the summer to learn about the ministry and to help staff and support summer camps for children from impoverished families. The following is a reflection from Grace, one of last year's high school seniors.

This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Romania with the high school senior class at my church, Fourth Presbyterian. We spent the week serving at RCE's summer camp for children from families experiencing economic hardship as well as helping pour concrete for the roof of a new house that RCE was building.

Throughout the week I was able to witness the hands and feet of Jesus through the work of RCE. As they care for widows and orphans, they directly follow Jesus’ command in James 1:27. While in church we hear about the work being done by RCE and other wonderful mission organizations Fourth helps support, it is quite different to leave our comfortable suburban homes and witness it first-hand.

This summer I had that chance.  At the camp I was working with kids from all different rough backgrounds. I was amazed that no matter the situation, whether it was poverty, sickness, or abandonment, they came together at worship time to sing praises to Jesus.

I am grateful I had the privilege to participate.

-Grace E.

Fourth Presbyterian Church

Board Chairman's perspective: A Normal Life

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 Jim Perry, the board chairman, who recently returned from a trip with a group of American businessmen to visit RCE.

Denis is 14 years old and was abandoned to the state by his family. Placed in a state institution for handicapped children, he was diagnosed with acute language disorder and emotional behavioral disorder. 

Traian is 8 years and was removed from an extremely violent and abusive home by child protection authorities. He was diagnosed with severe ADHD and mild mental retardation. 

Both came to live at RCE's Darius Houses earlier this year. Under the loving, nurturing care of RCE staff, both have thrived and are making great progress to overcome any disabilities. 

On a Friday evening last fall, they enjoyed a night out for pizza along with all the other Darius House kids and a team of American businessmen. Just another example of how RCE strives to give the Darius House kids a normal life so they can heal and be placed back into Romanian families. 

Please pray that God would continue to bless Denis and Traian with good progress and would provide them with new families very soon.
 

The Foxes Found Rest

“The foxes found rest, and the birds their nest…but Thy couch was the sod, oh Thou Son of God . . . when Thou came-est to earth for me.”

      Claudiu (Bobi to his family) was alone in this world after being abandoned as an infant. A wonderful Christian family took Bobi, and another 4-year-old orphan, into their family two years ago this Christmas. Bobi, who suffers a mild form of autism, does not yet speak but his bother Yo Yo ‘speaks’ for him. The boys know the love of a family and life in community.  

This amazing act of mercy reflects the generosity and compassion of the God that the Balog family serves. During Advent season, as we celebrate God’s gift of His Son to us, I am encouraged and amazed by the many acts of mercy carried out every day by God’s people at RCE, people, like the Balog family and many, many others who have adopted special needs orphans.

And right now there are hundreds of impoverished families in rural Romania who will be warm this winter, living in safe and decent houses, with farm animals in the stable to provide milk, eggs, and meat for their children. 

There are seventy children with special needs in the city of Arad enjoying the opportunity to learn and reach their full potential at Sunshine School.   Abandoned children who knew suffering and abuse at the hands of those who were meant to love and protect them are now safe at Darius House. And young people with special needs are learning how to become responsible adults through the dignity of work and independence.

God has loved us in order that we might love others and show His generosity and compassion to the widow, the orphan, the poor and oppressed and the stranger at the gate, in humble obedience. In these troubled times when so many in our own country and around the world are excluded for political, religious, and racial reasons, we are called not to exclude but to embrace and speak peace in word and in deed!

May God bless you and your family during this Advent season! Thank you for your partnership with RCE in making mercy happen for the ‘least of these’ in Romania.