It has been a hot month! The last 2 days it has finally cooled into the 70s, but before that it was consistently in the 80's and 90's. Some folks love that hot weather, but we find it hard to function. Maybe that's why July and August are vacation months--especially August here.
But the vacation season has held up the approval process for our clinic building. To get the pompieri (fire service) approval, the architect has to provide the approval for the foundation and basement of the building, and that person has been on vacation! After the pompieri approval, then we still need the mediu (environmental) approval, and then the Autorizatie de Constructie! So, only 3 more approvals to go, after the foundation approval, which sounds like it's pretty routine, once the man is back from vacation! However, this delay may mean that even the foundation won't get done before winter, and since they don't have concrete here that can be poured in cold weather, the beginning of the project may end up waiting until March. We've been here 5 years now, and another winter doesn't bother us. We have to remember that God's timing is perfect, and He is in control, and if He wants the foundation poured this fall, He will speed the last 3 approvals!!
A wonderful thing that occurred is that the shipment of medical equipment that Drs. Mona Mikaelsen and Amy Manierre gathered for our clinic finally arrived in the Cluj warehouse of Christian Aid Ministries! So late last month, we drove up to Cluj to sign the papers and thank them for their help in shipping the equipment. We expected to be there for the loading of the truck we had arranged, but then the truck had engine trouble. So we drove back to Bucharest and the truck and boxes came down to Bucharest 5 days later! Several men at the Baptist Union, which has donated a room for storage to us, helped us unload the equipment, including 6 heavy exam tables and a heavy treatment room table. To get everything up the stairs and down the hall was a BIG JOB, about 3500 pounds total!!! But now it's done! The next day we did an inventory and were even more pleasantly surprised at all the extra little things that were stuffed into the drawers of the exam tables!
We've been working on clearing the land for the clinic. It had become rather overgrown with weeds, and so we finally bought a lawn mower! Have you ever tried cutting thigh-high weeds with a lawn mower, on land that has rocks and bricks and concrete pieces and metal wires and posts hidden everywhere? It was sort of fun--the feeling of accomplishment one gets after that sort of physical labor! Now, a team of men with a front end loader are removing a pile of garbage and trash that has been collected over many years, and by tomorrow, the land should be reasonably clean. However, the current fence around the land is really ugly--it's barbed wire reinforced by pieces of old metal and other junk--like the roof of a car in a couple places! But we've been warned that if we take all the junk out, then dogs and anyone else can come in. We had a new wood fence constructed on the front of the land, facing the street, so that we can actually lock it up. Two weeks ago we had a concrete slab poured for the garage that came with the land, and the garage will be moved to the back of the property later this week. So the land is getting ready for building!
All the work on the land has had its downside for Linda. She has developed asthma from it! She's had allergies for 30 years or so, and has always coughed a bit during her worse seasons. But the heavy exposure working on the land brought on coughing and wheezing that wouldn't quit, and so after a chest X-ray ruled out pneumonia and tuberculosis, we decided the diagnosis was asthma! Her allergist 25 years ago told her she had a 15% risk of developing it someday, because of her mold allergies, and there certainly was a LOT of mold stirred up working on the land! Pills and inhalers are helping the symptoms but haven't eliminated them yet!
We witnessed an event here that in our entire lives we have never seen--a total eclipse of the sun!! On the 11th of August, Romania was one of the best places to see the total eclipse that traveled across Europe! People paid up the $5000/night to rent a house in the best part of England to see it, and then it was rained out for them! But here we only had wispy clouds that didn't interfere with viewing the eclipse, and it was remarkable!! And for free!!
A week later, the catastrophic earthquake occurred in Turkey, 7 days ago now. Your prayers are needed for the people who have suffered such a catastrophic event. It was a big earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter scale, but much of the problem in the cities seems to have been caused by shoddy construction, ignoring the building codes. They probably have the same system as here, that if you pay bribes to the authorities, they ignore the rules and close their eyes to the infractions. Up to 40,000 people have died and 200,000 are homeless, and most of them have never heard about Jesus Christ their entire lives. The few missionaries who work in Turkey can only obtain visas by working in non-Christian jobs--in fact, if they were discovered, Christian missionaries would be expelled. Pray for the people whose lives have been spared to open their minds and hearts to the Only One who can give eternal life, and pray that the message will be heard by all those who need it, from some source--perhaps Christian radio, international relief workers or some other source of information.
We thank you again for your support and your prayers! We appreciate you!