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continued on page 2 Liliana was overwhelmed by the surprise delivery to her home

1

December 2012

MISSIONWITHOUTBORDERS

On the outskirts of Ploiesti, a city of about 200,000, in southern Romania, lies a rough neighbourhood. Muddy, smelly and the scene of many fights. Poor people, mostly Roma. Dilapidated houses and neglected lives behind rickety wooden fences.The Ghiompirica family lives here. Ion and Liliana have eleven children, seven still at home with them. The elder three children are married and have left home and the fourth girl, Maria (22), often goes away, but nobody knows where.

Their parents scavenge among the rubbish piles for things they can sell. The older children should be going to school, but poverty has forced some of them to stay at home.

Maria left school when she was in Year 6, as she had to help her mother with the younger three children. Estera (16) left school with only eight years of school and Rebeca (13) with only five years. Emanuel is in Year 5, but he often misses classes because he lacks proper shoes and clothing. Lazar is in Year 2 and loves it. He doesn’t have a winter coat, but borrows his brother’s coat when he comes home. The younger two children stay at home with their older sisters then their parents when they come home from work.

The family’s living conditions are tough. They all live in two rooms and don’t have a proper kitchen or bathroom, no sewerage system or water or gas connection. They heat the house using firewood or off cuts from a carpentry workshop. Firewood is too expensive for them, but they have a simple choice: heat the house or buy food? They prefer to heat the house because if

God came to my house!

22 MWB in FOCUS | DECEMBER 2012

the children got sick from the cold, it will be more expensive for them to buy medication than firewood. Simple economics, because some have health issues: Estera suffers from osteoporosis and has intestinal problems (she has had an operation); Lazar has heart problems; and Matei has congenital cataracts and needs an operation, but they can’t afford it. Even though the family has such financial and health struggles, the parents are still happy that none of the children or parents are more seriously ill. Liliana says “We are blessed that my husband works in a carpentry workshop and we receive some scraps of wood to warm the house. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to afford to buy wood. Food is scarce too, but God takes care of us. Right now, wood for the fire is a priority.”

Liliana’s dreams of having a small bathroom. At the moment, they are using an old, broken, plastic bathtub to wash in. They start with the youngest child and all of them, including the parents, use the same water to bathe in, because it is difficult to heat a lot of water using their small wood stove.

The parents try to bring their children up decently. They believe in the power of prayer and they are very grateful for everything they receive from God. Several years ago, at a time when Ion didn’t feel close to God, Ion was working in a field and a piece of wire became lodged in his leg. It became so badly infected that the doctors thought that the leg would need to be amputated. He believes God was trying to teach him something. It is a miracle that now that after five operations, he still has his leg and, even

though he limps sometimes, he is able to work. He is blind in one eye, but he does not want to consider applying for a disability pension because he believes that he must work for his children’s sakes.

The Ghiompirica family was enrolled in our Family to Family (F2F) programme last year and since then they have received a bed and mattress and other furniture from Mission Without Borders, Christmas gifts and this time warm clothing, shoes, blankets, scarves, school

supplies and toys for the children. Our local F2F Coordinator Ilia Costel, and some MWB staff took some Operation Winter Rescue items to their house. These things brought tears to Liliana’s eyes and happiness to the children’s faces. They all spontaneously knelt down and prayed, thanking the Lord for everything and for His great love.

“Today, when we received all these warm clothes, shoes, blankets and other items, I can truly say that God came to my house.” Liliana said to us.

We asked Ilia, our coordinator for this community, about the family, “They are a family of keen Christians and I think this helps them to hold together better than other families. They are hard-working and they often take on extra work to cover the great needs they have. I have a great relationship with this family. When we had a Christmas party, the mother was the one who invited the other families in the neighbourhood, who are also part of our F2F programme, to come to the church for the special meeting. They are very grateful, honest and don’t complain, even though they struggle. They prefer to pray and believe that God will help them.” ♦

continued from page 1

“Today, when we

received all these

warm clothes,

shoes, blankets and

other items, I can

truly say that God

came to my house.”

Liliana with her husband and childrenA pile of clothing, shoes and warm things

delivered (thanks to Operation Cover Up NZ)

33MWB in FOCUS | DECEMBER 2012

operation cover upThe contents of two 40 foot containers are being distributed around our field countries in preparation for the coldest time of the year after Christmas. Knitted blankets and clothing, toys, hygiene sets, linen for sewing and sewing machines, and all kinds of useful things for orphanages, community centres and families. THANK YOU to all who have helped. It will be very much appreciated and we will post feedback on the new part of our web site dedicated to this great project:

www.operation-cover-up.org.nz

nZ office holiDay closurePlease note that the Auckland office of Mission Without Borders is closed from 22 December 2012 until we re-open on 14 January 2013.

MISSION WITHOUT BORDERS: New Zealand

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In the MWB warehouse in Mostar, Bosnia, fouryear old Aldijana sits on an Operation ChristmasLove box. Her family is enrolled in the Family toFamily (F2F) sponsorship programme and havecome to receive some Christmas parcels. Shelives in a refugges camp with her mum, 6 siblingsand sick father.

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