We sat down three weeks ago to write our monthly newsletter and only now are we finding time to finish it. Lots has happened since early September. First of all, we got the final building permit signed and stamped by the mayor!!! We went down to the mayor's office on Tuesday, October 3 to pick it up. We were very, very thankful, but at the same time it was a little stressful because we had to pay several hundred dollars for inspection and building permit fees, and we wouldn't have enough money for salaries on Friday. We sat down to send an e-mail to our friends with the good news about the building permit and also asking for prayer for the necessary funds. While we were typing, a missionary called and told us that they had received a gift and wanted to donate $1000 to our project, which covered what we needed for the salaries!
We had also thought that we would have enough money to get the building enclosed for winter, and that we could wait till spring or whenever the funds came in for the rest including the heating unit. The contractor, however, told us that the sheetrock might be damaged by the cold and humidity if there wasn't at least some heat in the building over winter, so we prayed that God would provide for the heating unit. One of the men who was coming to help put up the sheetrock gave a temple talk in his home church and included this prayer need. The next day, a man called him and told him that he and his wife wanted to provide the funds for the whole heating unit!!! We got this wonderful news via e-mail the same evening that we had sent out the "please pray" e-mail request!!! And another church e-mailed us with news about another gift!
The teams from North Street Christian Church in Butler, PA were great! Their main objective was to put up the sheetrock, and a total of 17 people (14 men and 3 women) came in three separate groups starting in late September. The last group left Friday morning. The team leader and his wife and one other woman came in late September and stayed three and a half weeks. The women spent time with the Mitchells (missionaries here with OCI whose home church is North Street Christian Church) and worked at a home for street kids and another home for children of street kids. One of the women also worked at the construction site several days. The teams got all the sheetrock up on the main floor and most of the upper floor, including the ceiling. A big job. Some of the rooms on the main floor are completely taped, and several more are partially done. They could have gotten even more done if the special ordered sheet rock had arrived in time! The company however provided 300 sheets of standard metric sheetrock until the special ordered sheetrock arrived 4 days before the last team was scheduled to leave. The Romanian plumbers and electricians also had to really hustle to get their part of the project done ahead of the American team, since the pipes and wires have to go inside the walls before the sheetrock can go on.
There was a lot of fellowship, too. They seemed like old friends from the moment we met, and we were really blessed by the sense of support they gave us--that they actually spent their time and funds to come over and help us!!! They also brought a lot of medicines and other supplies, including Bibles, car parts, treats, and maternity clothes and materials for Cathy Mitchell's new project to help supply pregnant women with maternity clothes. Two of the men are uncles of the senior pastor from NSCC and one of them brought some quilts from his home church in Camas, Washington, and said, "There's more of these if you want them!" The pastors spoke three Sundays in a row at BEL fellowship, and one Sunday there were people from 6 different continents! Our part in all this was to deal with the logistics and help feed the guys. We brought lunch to the work site, and then they came to our apartment or the Mitchells' for supper. One evening we had 11 people for supper, a real challenge in our small living room/dining room, but we made it! Some of the guys really enjoyed Romanian food, but even the ones who didn't were good sports and tolerated it. We only saw acute and urgent medical problems, no routine problems this whole last month.
Not everything else has gone as well. We're still waiting for the approvals for the gas and electricity hookups to the city lines, and there is still a lot that has to be done before the building is completely ready for winter. The weather has been very cooperative, however. We're also still waiting for the Romanian government to reimburse the foundation for the VAT tax that was paid in April through June. It should have been paid by the end of August. We also expected to receive official notice that we had obtained dual cit izenship in September, but our lawyer told us that she had learned that now the earliest that we can expect to hear is December. So this morning we went to the Institute of Public Health and the Ministry of Health to start the visa renewal and car re-registration process again (which has to be completed by next Tuesday or we get to walk again). The first two steps went very smoothly. :>)
Other than that life seems pretty normal (for Romania, that is). We drove out to the Traistaru's yesterday for Flori's eighth birthday. (Flori's the child with the feeding tube due to the caustic soda injury.) He is in first grade and seems to be doing well, wanting to practice his penmanship every evening at home and liking mathematics. (Children typically start first grade at age 7.) He also got a new teacher two weeks ago. The first teacher used a lot of corporal punishment such as hair pulling for discipline.
We are already planning our trip back to the US before the clinic opens next year. If you know of any churches or other groups that might be interested in hearing about our work here, please let us know. Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington State and Missouri are already on the list of places we hope to visit.
Again, thank you for all of your support and your prayers! We really appreciate you!