Milt was really discouraged for the first 2 weeks after receiving the news that Campus Crusade could no longer be our partner in our building project. Just to build the entire building with the upstairs as a shell, empty and unfinished, will cost us (instead of a partner) an additional $104,000 approximately. To finish the upstairs would be another $60,000. We look at those numbers and think, "It's impossible!" He wondered, "Were we wrong when we thought God wanted us to go to Romania to set up a Christian clinic where we can provide free care to the poor and also teach family medicine?" "Does God want us to be doing something different? Were they just our dreams and not God's plan?"
But about 4 weeks ago, when Milt was laying awake in bed in the middle of the night praying, he "heard" the words "Luke 11:8", not audibly, but in his mind. The same words came again in the morning when he first awoke. So he hurried to his Bible and found these words: "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs."(NIV) Jesus is speaking here, using the illustration of a man receiving guests at midnight and having no bread to serve them. He goes to his neighbor, who is in bed and says, "Don't bother me!" But finally the neighbor gets up and gives him the bread because of the man's persistence! The next verse is: "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."(Luke 11:9-10) So we are determined to be persistent in praying, and believe that God will provide through His people!
In the meantime, what have we been doing, you ask? We've been busy being doctors! Day to day the number of patients varies, but there are always enough! We went to a medical conference in Cluj-Napoca, sponsored by the Humana Foundation in Kentucky and organized by the pediatric hospital here that we like, Spitalul Maria Curie. The conference was educational for us, as well as for the Romanian physicians that were there.
Last month we also went to the ICC (Adventist) orphanage twice. The first time was pretty routine--with only the 2 children with chronic medical problems--Steliana, who can't seem to digest food well and her stomach distends with a huge amount of gas almost every day, and Ionut, who has chronic asthma, and one other child, Alexandru, who had new asthma. But last week when we went there, most of the kids had colds, and about 15 of them had ear infections!! We feel so bad for some of the kids there. As an example, although they are getting the best care possible for an orphanage, there are several kids there with strabismus (lazy eye) and esotropia (crossed eyes). The eye specialists here in Romania don't believe in treating these conditions until a child is 3 or older, which means they have already lost much of the vision in that eye usually. ICC has received its license for adoptions, and anyone interested in adopting a child from Romania can contact us and we'll let you know how to get in touch with their office in Canada.
After that last trip to the orphanage, we continued out to Pitesti, which is about 70 miles west of us, to attend a medical conference put on by the Luke Society, a Christian medical group with projects in several developing countries in the world. In Pitesti they have helped to build a medical clinic for a Christian doctor. Several general practice doctors from the area were present, as well as a few specialists, about 50 doctors in all. We were impressed with how every speaker from the U.S., as well as 2 doctors from the clinic there, worked into their presentations how God had changed their lives when they received the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. Romanians know about God and about Jesus and are not opposed to hearing about the spiritual needs of patients. They generally believe that all they need to be saved is being baptized as a baby, and they generally have not heard about having a personal relationship with Jesus and the benefits one can receive from that right here and now--benefits like relief from worry, confidence in the future no matter what kind of medical problems they have, etc. It encouraged us to talk with these doctors who came from the U.S. and with the Romanian doctors.
This year we'll be here for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as the New Year (Y2K). We don't have definite plans yet for the holidays--it's hard to make plans 2 weeks in advance here! Too many things can change! But our family tradition is to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends, so we've been looking for a big turkey. I just realized we only have one can of pumpkin left, for pies, so we have to go to the market to buy a pumpkin to cook up for that! We learned how to use real pumpkin for pies the first year we were here. It's easier to use canned pumpkin, though!
We wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving, spent with friends and family! We're always struck by how much we are blessed having grown up in the U.S.A.! But we didn't realize it until we left it! We encourage you to think about how the Lord has blessed you this Thanksgiving!
Thank you again for your prayers and your support! We really appreciate them!