We are so thankful to you, our friends and supporters, for all the prayers and support that you contribute to make our ministry successful here in Bucuresti! We are in the process of working our last day before a vacation in Minnesota and a medical conference in San Diego. So our minds are full of last minute details--for getting the doctors who are coming to cover for us taken care of, since they are staying in our apartment but we won't be there to be their hosts, also for all the possible contingencies of things that might happen here at the clinic while we're gone. We have a great staff, though, who will be able to handle anything that will happen, we hope.
One business item, before we go further, is that we wish to update our email mailing list. We know that many people over the years have become so busy that they don't have time to read our newsletters. So, if you would like to stay on our mailing list, please hit the "Reply" button now. You don't even need to say anything in the email. For those who don't reply, in another month we'll send them an email asking if they wish to continue receiving our emails and if we don't get a reply, we'll remove your name from our list. Thanks for helping us update our list!
More and more our lives are centered around work at the clinic. Linda is taking 3 afternoons off from patient care per week, but that means she gets out of the clinic by 3-5 pm, rather that at noon. There are lots of administrative details still to attend to!
Earlier this week we were blessed by a visit from a woman named Irina, who came in with snacks to celebrate her 14 year old daughter's birthday. When we met Irina a couple months ago, she was homeless, living on the street with her 5 year old daughter. Her 14 year old daughter was living in a foster home. Irina's common law husband had been imprisoned and then his mother, with whom they were living, threw the rest of the family out of the house. We helped her and her younger daughter with some medical problems. Daniela, our social worker found her a family to stay with, an orphanage for her 5 year old to stay in temporarily, and helped her find a legal job, which pays $50/month for 12 hours per day 7 days per week. But it's her first job with a Cartea de Munca, a work card, which will give her insurance benefits as well. And most employers won't hire someone without a legal residence. (The people with whom she is staying rent their home from the State and so they can't give her a legal rental contract.) Irina said she came to the clinic to celebrate her 14 year old daughter's birthday with us because, "You are my family!" Daniela visits her and talks about the Lord with her while she's helping her in other ways. Please pray for Irina.
Also, please pray for Paul. He is a missionary we saw Tuesday afternoon and evening. He was so dehydrated from severe diarrhea that he hadn't urinated in 4 days. Until he started an antibiotic on Monday, he was having up to 50 stools per day. On Tuesday, he was improved to only about 25 stools per day but was so dehydrated that we insisted he come in to be seen. We gave him 2 liters of intravenous fluids and he felt quite a bit better. He had no readable blood pressure when he came in, but it was up to 120/70 when he left. Wednesday he went to a lab for some blood tests and we only got the lab results back this afternoon, which showed our greatest fear--he has acute kidney failure from the dehydration. It's too late to get the lab tests repeated today--even the best labs here don't work after 2 pm or so. But he's urinating now so we are hoping and praying that God is healing him, without him needing to be medivac-ed for dialysis.
Daniela will be starting a Senior's Club or Women's Club in the near future. We have so many patients who are all alone, trying to live on small pensions. She hopes to bring them together for some fellowship, snacks, perhaps some handicrafts that they could then sell to make some extra money, some Bible teaching, etc.
We appreciate all your prayers and your support of our work here in Romania. We know that we couldn't survive without it. We are finding it stressful to see patient after patient who can't afford to buy the medicines that they need and who can't afford to go to the specialists because they don't have any money to pay the bribes or "unofficial fees." Many of our patients have pensions of only $30/month, and with that, it's not enough even for adequately nourishing food or to pay for their heating or other utilities. Even though we only have limited amounts of donated medicines, our patients are so appreciative when we can offer them something. And we appreciate your prayers that we can keep going and keep trying to meet at least some of the needs of our patients!