"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Phil 4:8 (NIV).
Paul says this after he has told us to not be anxious about anything, but rather to pray with thanksgiving in our hearts, and receive God's peace. It's a wonderful approach!
We are trying a new thing this month. We'd like all our friends interested in our ministry here to receive our monthly update letters, but because of the high cost of overseas postage, primarily those with email have been receiving it. So we're creating a new mailing list of our friends and supporters who are not on our email list. Open Door Medical Ministries will then be mailing out our letters from the U.S.
We have another problem, however. We had a wonderful Christmas vacation in Budapest, Hungary, with friends from Campus Crusade there, and had plenty of time to relax and get caught up. Linda went through our "filing cabinet" in AOL, and deleted all the email letters that were no longer pertinent. When we got back to Bucharest, something happened to our address book on the computer, and when we opened it up only the first 3 names showed up. We reinstalled an old address book from last summer, but that means that any email address changes since last spring or summer may have been lost. So, please, if you have email and don't receive this newsletter via your email, let us know! Our email address is: LindaMiltH@aol.com
It's been a busy month! In late January we went to the Campus Crusade for Christ Eastern Europe Conference as the conference doctors. We were really hoping (beyond all reason) that there wouldn't be an epidemic of illness going through the conference. We thought that then we could have a really wonderful, spiritually uplifting time, listening to the excellent Bible teachers there. We did get to at least an hour a day of Bible teaching and "only" 100 of the 700 people there came to us ill, but we were glad the conference didn't last another week! By then, all 700 would have been sick!
In the last 3 weeks, we've had 3 thefts or attempted ones. That's why the Bible verse listed above is so pertinent right now. Two days after getting back from the CCC Conference, Linda had her purse pickpocketed, with money, her International Drivers License, and cellular phone stolen. A few days later, someone broke a window on the car and tried to steal the radio, only succeeding in breaking it because they couldn't pry it out. Then last week, someone climbed up the outside of our balcony and cut the wire on the alarm system. Little did they know that this would cause the alarm to go off until the battery was dead. 15 minutes of really loud noise at midnight did not endear us to the neighbors, but there was nothing we could do to turn it off! So this last week we got a new metal door and today workmen are finishing putting bars on our balcony windows.
You may be wondering what's happening with our building project! It's making progress! The architect thinks that the Certificat de Urbanism will be approved in another couple weeks (the city committee only meets once a month to approve these, and last month the entire meeting was taken up by one project). Then he starts working on getting the Autorizatie de Constructie which will take another 2 months, he believes. Once we have this, then the company in America can produce the materials which will then hopefully arrive in mid-Audgust. It's easy to understand why so many people build here illegally, without getting any of these approvals. It's taking us 8 months to get all the approvals, if the process is done by May!
We are continuing to discover interesting information on how the system works (or doesn't work) here. Sanda, our foundation president whom we've hired to do our information gathering, has learned that as a foundation we don't have to pay the 22% TVA (Value Added Tax) on goods and services (once we have gone through a lengthy application for exemption process). So that will reduce prices significantly. It still may be less expensive to import many of the things for the clinic from the U.S., but it may be possible to purchase some things here and help this battered economy.
Sanda also found out that when we put money into the foundation account, we have to go to a notary public to have the "donation" notarized first. This will add an extra 2-3 hours to the 3-4 hours it already takes to write a check on the foundation account. When we want to write a check, we have to withdraw dollars from one bank, paying a 1/2% withdrawal fee, then change the dollars into lei at exchange houses, which saves about 2% compared to the bank rate, and then go to the foundation's bank to make a "donation" to the account to cover the "ordin de plata", the check. Now, we'll have to add a trip to the Notary Public. We hope you appreciate how simple and uncomplicated things are in America and Canada!
Last Sunday we went out to the village 2 hours west of town, where the family with the child with the feeding tube (Flori-6 yrs old now) lives. His parents, Marian and Georgeta, were married with just a civil ceremony back in 1992, and Sunday an Orthodox priest came to the house to perform a religious wedding. Because we've helped them so much, they asked us to be the special guests. Flori and Marius, his 4 year old brother, were energetic and impatient as usual! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks the family will bring Flori in to the pediatric hospital to have the tests done to see if he needs surgery for his esophagus, which he injured at age 15 months by drinking caustic soda (no Mr. YUK stickers here!).
Other than all this, we've been slightly inundated with patients recently--lots of illness this month! We're glad we're here. When we occasionally become frustrated by all the barriers to accomplishing humanitarian work here, we remember that there are quite a few missionaries here who might have given up and gone home if they didn't have access to decent medical care, for their kids especially.
We came here to be witnesses of Christian love in a suspicious, post- Communist society, and we feel we are making a difference. We would love to be able to change the entire system, but the people in control somehow don't realize that the changes that are needed are not things that money can buy. It's true that the doctors need a raise in salary to be able to even feed their kids properly, but most of all the people in the medical system need to have their hearts changed, to care about their patients instead of just seeking under the table money to supplement their $75.00/month incomes. We're not opposed to gifts of appreciation, as long as they're not mandatory and as long as the doctor provides the same quality of care whether a "gift" is given or not. But the system of having 2 standards of medical care, one for the poor and one for those who will pay a bribe, really bothers us. But only Christ can change hearts.
We are glad we are here. And we thank you for being a part of our team, providing prayer and financial support for us and our clinic project. We couldn't be here without you behind us!