We almost had it! Romanian citizenship! But there is a Romanian proverb: "Don't sell the skin until you've shot the bear." We dressed in our best clothes on Tuesday, Oct. 16, and went down to the Ministry of Justice to take the oath of citizenship. On the list of 275 applicants approved for citizenship, about 250 were from the Middle East, especially Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Palestine, and Milt was worried that there may be some anti-American sentiment in the group. There was a large crowd and the guard was telling people to wait outside. Ruxi, our foundation director, and her husband Dragos, were there, wanting the witness the event. After 20 minutes of waiting around, we went back and asked the guard who told us to speak with a lady who was standing outside. She told us that the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice had left the country on Sunday and she hadn't had enough time to notify people that the swearing in was postponed. She said they would send out another letter in the next month or two regarding the new date! But we have been given the spiritual gift of patience, which is much more necessary here than in the U.S.!
A week after the clinic dedication, Ruxi and Dragos went to Sanepid, the health authority having to do with clinics approvals, and found out that the original approval of the clinic plans that they had given in April, 2000 had 2 clauses added--we had to add 2 sterilization "points", one for the lab and one for the rest of the clinic. This piece of paper had been filed in the architect's file and none of us had seen it until just now! So now we are already doing some minor remodeling! Each sterilization "point" consists of 2 rooms--a "presterilization room" for washing the instruments and a "sterilization room" where we are supposed to have both an autoclave for steam sterilization and a dry sterilizer, like a little oven! We have never had to use anything except an autoclave in the U.S.! So our lab bathroom is being turned into the lab sterilization area, and the upstairs storeroom is being turned into the medical sterilization area!
This Friday a 5 month course on Family Medicine will be starting in our clinic, every Friday afternoon and Saturday morning! This is for doctors who are general practitioners but who haven't had the family practice residency. After completing this course and passing an exam, they will be able to call themselves "Family Physicians". This is a big improvement over the initial situation in Family Practice, which happened about 3 years ago, when the Ministry of Health just decreed that all General Practice doctors were now Family Physicians, and suddenly all the General Practice-Adult doctors were somehow supposed to know how to provide care for children and all the General Practice-Pediatrics doctors were supposed to be able to care for adults! The course will be taught primarily by Dr. Restian. Ruxi, who has taken a teaching course already, will be leading the discussion, so she has been working on translating and making overheads from some cases taken from our Family Practice Board Review book, which she finds immensely interesting! She really wants to be a doctor and not a clinic manager!
We had a good surprise about 3 weeks ago. We received a phone call from a Baptist pastor we have known for years who said he had been offered an ambulance by friends with Swedish Alliance Mission. But he really couldn't use it, so he thought that perhaps we could. Since Ruxi's husband Dragos has finished his residency in Emergency Medicine, but can't get a job in a hospital without paying a rather large bribe, they were really excited about the chance of us having an ambulance. The Swedish director and associate of the mission drove the ambulance into Romania and it arrived on 10/27. Now we have some very complicated paperwork to do to register the ambulance. This will expand our ministry, and we will have to decide how to use it in the most effective way!
We've also been unpacking boxes of supplies, purchasing more furniture and equipment, putting up more cupboards and countertops that we bought to use as desks, etc. In a couple of days we will even have the countertop tables put up in the library for the computers for Internet teaching that were donated by Global Health Ministries!
Other than all of this, we have been really busy with patients in our "free time." It is rewarding to be able to help people who need our services, and who themselves are working to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're still limiting our services to Western and Romanian missionaries, until we officially can work as doctors in Romania. The delay in our citizenship oath-taking has also delayed the process of obtaining the right to practice medicine here. But it also means that we won't have to deal with Romanian tax laws this year! God is in control, and He works everything out for the good of those who love Him, and who are called according to His purpose! And we rely on that knowledge a lot!
An interesting thing about the citizenship business is that once we are citizens, we will no longer be able to reregister our Toyota Corolla. Currently we need to reregister it with every 6 month visa renewal. Once we become citizens we would have to pay more than $2,000 in customs taxes to reregister it permanently. The car is 10 years old and not worth $2000, having been driven on Romanian roads for the last 8 years. So we have ordered a new car, a Ford Focus (is this a style in the U.S.?) which is about the size of an Escort. We would have liked to have a slightly bigger car, but we don't have a garage and a bigger car would be a bigger target for thieves. This week the inside door handle on the passenger side of the Toyota broke, and so now the driver (usually Milt) gets to walk around and open the passenger's door--what gallantry!
We want to thank you again for your support and your prayers! We have a lot of new prayer requests this month, and hope that you will have the time to lift them up before our Almighty Father!