A letter from Liz Searles in Romania
September 2014 - Learning Center Opens
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Bride, groom, "godparents" especially chosen for the occasion, and best man and bridesmaid on the ends. In the Romanian Orthodox Church one cannot marry in church without godparents, who promise to nurture the couple's relationship and, as proof of their serious intention, pay the fees for the priest, cantor, flowers, crowns, candles, etc. Not a small commitment.
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Part of the wedding attendees in front of the Church of the Transfiguration.
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Mission co-worker Liz and her husband Doug arriving at the dinner. The bride and groom welcome each arriving guest with champagne and a toast to the couple. Gifts are not so usual. The place cards are also envelopes. Those who attend the dinner are expected to give about three times the cost of the meal. If the couple knows that a friend cannot bear the cost, they may not invite them. This helps avoid embarrassment.
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We witnessed every kind of dancing from every corner of Romania—over seven hours of folk dancing and ballroom dancing. The couple never missed a step !!
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And, of course, every man danced with the bride and every woman danced with the groom.
It's back-to-school time and we at NOROC (New Opportunities for Romanian Orphaned Children) have a short break from nonstop summer camps, excursions and activities to communicate and give thanks.
One BIG news item is the opening of our new Learning Center in a small three-room apartment near the big Tulcea orphanage, Speranta. Thanks to a Texas individual donor, the Louise Covington Learning Center is open with two staff members for about four hours each day. Kids of all ages come to read new books, do crafts, work on the computers, do learning activities, etc. The place is a-BUZZ !!
The Learning Center has transformed NOROC’s ministry and deepened life skills and educational programs. Kids can sign out, drop in, and work on ongoing craft and computer projects in a safe, quiet environment. And they can read new books and have access to a whole new world of fun and learning. There is no TV.
We do have a few guitars and a keyboard (with earphones) and hope to start doing some (quiet) music there as well.
The joys of summer have included day camps, horse camp, English language camp, speech therapy camp, crafts camp, and also a three-night "Passport to Camp" experience for kids of all ages who had never been to a residential camp before. Two interns who came here from Stephen F. Austin State University supported programs, painted, and worked on NOROC’s website. Also, two groups visited from the U.S. and worked on the Learning Center and the educational Granny Packs. QUITE a summer of getting NOROC’s education support programs ready to go!
In very special news, we are celebrating a wedding—yes that's Liz in the line dance and Doug dancing with the bride in the photos!
Mariana and Cristi, both without family, grew up "in the system" at a time when Romanian institutions were very difficult places to thrive, indeed. And yet, both have been able to learn life skills and job skills, get a job and (drum roll) sustain a healthy relationship. Mariana has been diligent in continuing to attend Bible Study and mentor youth still in the system. The couple's marriage demonstrates to all in Tulcea County that hope for the future is possible, in spite of whatever has happened in our lives.
Thanks to generous congregations in the U.S., Mariana had the wedding dress of her choice from David's and a DJ. Thanks to new Romanian friends, Cristi and Mariana had the full treatment: license at the government office, church wedding, and wedding dinner at a small restaurant, where the dancing (Cristi has learned traditional folk dancing from every nook and cranny of Romania) and food continued into the wee hours. The cake didn't arrive until 4 AM!! It was a chocolate sheet cake with cream and fruit filling and a bride and groom on top. It's taken a week for us to recover from the dancing and the calories!!
To sustain a relationship such as Mariana and Cristi's one needs hope for a future—a conviction that dreams may come true. Mariana and Cristi hoped for a "real" wedding, and had one. Now they are hoping to start a family as parents who offer unconditional love, constancy, hope and gentle direction.
At Bible Study recently a 16-year-old boy raised in Tulcea institutions confided: "Liz, my life experiences have taught me never to hope." And yet he is faithfully attending Bible Study and is learning to put his hopes where they matter most.
That's where sharing the good news of God's love, forgiveness, acceptance and plan for the future comes in. That message—that we are each and all members of a loving, accepting family of God—resonates with children of trauma in ways we can only imagine. The Good News can help heal wounds and through the God of hope break cycles of abuse, poverty, and dependency.
NOROC seeks to bring "New Opportunities to Romanian Orphaned Children." Cristi and Mariana are among those who have embraced those opportunities. They're back from their three-day honeymoon in Brasov still basking in the glow of having had a "real" traditional Romanian wedding celebration. Hold them in your prayers, won't you?
Without your giving to support NOROC's mission co-worker and NOROC’s Big-hearted Grannies, these and many other joys would not be possible.
Of course we also have new concerns:
• Three new facilities for smaller children are opening in Tulcea, so that means meeting the cost of engaging more Grannies and supplying them with Granny Pack materials.
• Just this week we have learned that 19 primary school boys will be transferred out of the large Tulcea City orphanage to a smaller residential home in Mahmudia. Although it's good that they can leave the chaotic home where hazing and bullying thrive unchecked, NOROC staff and volunteers will not have regular contact with them through small groups, hanging out at the Learning Center, tutoring, etc.
We want to begin an after-school program for them in Mahmudia, as well as an every-other-week activity with small group leaders and a psychologist. This will require local volunteers and trips out from Tulcea in the van, with gas at $8 a gallon. We want to make sure that close friends and brothers and sisters can go out and visit from time to time as well.
Their move will be hard on everyone at the orphanages. Over half the group is leaving one or more siblings behind in Tulcea, so it is breaking up family relationships rather than knitting them together.
NOROC's ministries of care and advocacy are so needed. Thank you all for your prayers, and for helping NOROC offer constancy, safe relationships, healing and hope to children and youth whose lives are disrupted daily in ways small and large.
Even small gifts can make much possible for NOROC as we seek to bring "New Opportunities for Romanian Orphaned Children"—institutionalized children and youth in Tulcea County, Romania. We celebrate your prayers and your faithfulness in giving via PC(USA) World Mission.
Keep leaning forward in love, and keep those prayers rising!!
Liz
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 317
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