We wish to thank you once again for your prayers and your financial support for our ministry here in Romania! We really need and appreciate both! Prayer really works.
This month we have had more patients, especially Romanian. Our number of Western patients is down somewhat, so we have less income with which to pay the clinic bills. But God has continued to provide for our ministry's needs, and we praise Him for that.
We have also had a couple of days when several refugees came from a refugee camp across town--mainly from Iran and Iraq. Some of them speak some English, some speak only Arabic or Farsi (the language of Iran). Their translator speaks English and Arabic, but not Farsi! Some of the Iraqi's are Christian and fled Iraq because of the persecution there. Others are Muslim. We consider it a God-given privilege to care for these people. They come to us from all the way across town for several reasons. BEL church helps to support a ministry to the refugees, so they learn about us. It is also difficult for them to communicate with Romanian doctors who don't speak English. We treat them with respect and we don't ask for bribes to give them care. They have even less money than the widows trying to live on $40/month pensions.
We had 2 Easters last month. At BEL Fellowship we celebrated Western Easter on April 20. Orthodox Easter was one week later on April 27. On Orthodox Good Friday, our clinic hosted a party. Daniela, our social worker, invited all of our senior citizen patients. Everybody, about 75 in all, received a cozonac, a special holiday bread with nuts and chocolate. Daniela and Milt shared the message of Easter. The party was followed by a Good Friday service and everyone was invited to stay if they wished. Most of them did stay and others came for the service as well. So our waiting room was full! Dave Cox, whose Evangelical Free church plant meets in our clinic, gave a very clear Gospel message as well.
In April we were also blessed with a visit for 3 weeks by a couple from Little Rock, AK, who are residents in pediatrics. Steve and Melissa were really helpful to us including seeing some more complicated pediatric cases, including children with ADHD from Lebanon, Holland and Romania! Unfortunately, there is no treatment for ADHD here in Romania. The medications aren't even available. So most of these kids just end up eventually dropping out of school. The foreign children's parents were able to obtain medication in their home countries. We really enjoyed Steve and Melissa's company, and the time went so fast!
We're still hoping to get residents to work at our clinic this year. The residents themselves have to find a clinic at which to work in their 3rd year. And many prefer a clinic that will just sign their papers and not require them to actually show up. The new head of the family practice residency program came to visit our clinic, and immediately gave us official approval to train residents. However, so far we've only had a couple inquiries. One may start Monday.
Some good news: Linda's back is better and Kara's foot is getting better. She very much hopes to return this summer to work with us in nursing 2 days per week and be involved in other ministries the other 3 days. We also have hired a gal who will be part-time receptionist and part-time nurse. One nurse we interviewed told us that she hadn't taken a job in a hospital because she would have had to pay a bribe of $1,000--that's the going rate unless you have some other connections such as a relative working at the hospital. We've heard more than once that for a doctor the expected bribe is $10,000!
We still need one or more doctors to come to cover for us during August (no bribe necessary)! :>)
This has been an interesting spring. It snowed on the 13th of April. It had been warm enough so that the city turned off the heat to all the apartment buildings. Then after several cold days, the heat finally came back on. Then, within 2 weeks of the last snow it was up to about 90 degrees. Today is the first cool day in 3 weeks!
For at least these last two months the Ministry of Health hasn't been reimbursing the pharmacies for the subsidies that patients with insurance are supposed to get for some of their medicines. So the pharmacies are no longer giving the subsidies and many patients are going without their chronic medications, especially heart and blood pressure meds. Because of this and the high winter heating bills, we have received many more requests from our patients for help with medications. We receive some medications through Christian Aid Ministries. And because of your donations, we are able to buy medications for at least some of the other patients in need.
A new concern we have is that the nurse practitioner at the Embassy is leaving in a week and her replacement was to arrive this week. This last week his 4 year old developed a medical problem that will prevent them from coming. Linda will need to work there part-time, plus be on call all the time. This really takes time from her being able to see patients and do administrative work at our clinic. Please pray for the State Department to find another replacement soon!
We thank you again for all your prayer and financial support. Without them we would not be able to continue our ministry here in Bucharest.