Once again we wish to thank all of you who have so faithfully supported our ministry with your finances and your prayers! We have confidence because we know that God is in control. But we also know that He wants us to come to Him in prayer--He wants us to ask Him to meet our needs and fulfill our desires. And when we desire to be closer to Him, and for Him to give us wisdom, He is pleased!
This last month was a great month! Being able to celebrate God coming to earth in the form of Jesus, to make Himself known to man and to offer us a means of salvation--what a wonderful gift! Not all peoples in the world are able to celebrate this. There are many countries still in which converting to Christianity may cost you your life, or at least some years in prison. But here in Bucharest, there were Christmas carols played in McDonalds and many other stores and restaurants! This was one nice result of Romania considering itself a Christian country.
Here, St. Nicholas day is celebrated on December 6. Children are supposed to put a nice clean shoe outside the door overnight and St. Nicholas leaves presents in the shoe. Usually the presents are some candy and an orange. Then presents are also given on Christmas Day, or Christmas Eve in some families. That is, if you have the money!
Our clinic gave 2 Christmas parties for poor children, including about 115 children total, this Christmas. Daniela, our social worker, went to school with the young man who was in charge of distributing the shoeboxes received through Operation Christmas Child. Daniela gathered the names of children of poor families who have come to our clinic for medical care, split them into 2 groups, younger kids and older kids, and we had 2 packed Christmas programs! Fitting 50+ kids plus parents into our waiting room was a challenge! But everyone fit! First, kids were asked to participate, and many of them sang Christmas songs or recited poetry. Then Mirela, our receptionist, did a flannelgraph presentation of the Christmas story, followed by a teaching by Dave Cox about why one should believe in Jesus. Both Mirela and Dave were able to adjust their presentations to the age of the kids, and we could see that the parents were really listening as well! Then we served cookies and soda to the kids and their moms or dads. At the end, Daniela handed out the shoeboxes. The kids were so happy! For many of them, it would be their only gifts this Christmas.
Another wonderful thing that happened was that a teacher at Bucharest Christian Academy called us in early December and asked if we had poor elderly patients, because the children in 2 of the grades wanted to collect food for Christmas gifts. Daniela made a list and over 40 of elderly poor patients received bags of food. The students delivered some of them, and some of the elderly were reluctant to open their doors until the students said, "We're from Dr. Hanson's clinic,"--then they opened their doors and were amazed and blessed. Also, Daniela gave a party the Saturday before Christmas for her older women's group. A devout Orthodox woman shared her faith and the real meaning of Christmas. It was very well received.
In preparation for Christmas, and especially for the kids parties, Linda made Christmas cookies, especially snickerdoodles and Russian teacakes--about 400 in all! She also participated in the "Christmas Cookie Club." Several missionary gals for several years have gathered together for Christmas cookie decorating. We each make a batch of cookies. Then on Saturday about 2 weeks before Christmas we spend about 6 hours decorating the cookies. A couple of the women have the equipment and the recipes and the special coloring for the frostings. Some of this year's cookies were works of art! We saved our share of the cookies for the little kids Christmas party--it was fun watching each of them pick their cookie!
On Christmas Eve we went to a candlelight service at our church. Then we had a quiet Christmas Day with the Cox family--they live one floor below us in our apartment building. They invited three single missionaries as well. We provided the turkey, stuffing, gravy, and 2 pumpkin pies. They provided everything else. After dinner we had a rally of little cars that raced down a flat wooden door that was painted with a starting line, finish line, etc. The starting line end of the door was propped on the sofa. After the rally, we put together a puzzle. A fun, quiet day with friends!
Bucharest decorated its main street with beautiful Christmas lights this year, which were still on a few days after New Year's Day. And on many streets around the town there were Christmas lights on the electric poles at major intersections. Even though we live in the periphery, a nearby boulevard had Christmas lights at the major intersections.
The government is working on other improvements as well. As of January 1, the minimum wage increased from 1,700,000 lei/month to 2,500,000 lei/month. At 33,500 lei/$, that's an increase from $51/month before taxes to $75 before taxes. Taxes even on low salaries (about 35%) bring the take home pay down to about $50/month minimum. Unfortunately, many peoples retirement pensions are still in the $30-$39 per month range. Many of our elderly widowed patients would like to sell their 3 or 4 room apartments and move into a smaller one to save on their heating bills. But the laws here entitle the children to 2/3 of the property of the dead spouse, leaving the widow with not even enough money for a one room apartment. So the widow, with only one pension, has to pay the monthly maintenance fee on the larger apartment. Often this is more than $30/month in the winter, because of the inefficient central hot water heating system. It's been so cold here this winter, the coldest winter since we arrived in 1994, that the heating bills are really high.
Work has been normal--we're seeing more and more patients, especially the poor who receive our care and medications essentially for free. But we're not seeing as many patients from the West as we had thought. So we still are depending on God to supply donors to cover our expenses, including employees salaries.
We really thank you again for your prayers and your financial support of our ministry here in Romania! We wouldn't be able to be here without you!