The Forgotten Children

This summer, James and I trekked to Bucharest. It took nearly 24 hours enroute from Seattle, Washington. It was almost midnight and we were exhausted, yet excited about our adventure. We were met by Eugen who helped cart our bags to his little truck and then on into the city to a tiny apartment we'd been lent for the week.

Starting around 10:00 a.m. the next morning we were met by the pastor's wife, Imogene McAnulty, and immediately driven to their small Church of Christ sanctuary and put to work. Three Sunday School rooms and the entire foyer were filled with boxes of clothing for us to make into bundles for the children. We had been unaware of the largeness of this effort and were astounded at the magnitude of work ahead of us for the next six days. There were 2500 clothing bundles to be created, in varying sizes or age groupings, and then delivered to over 22 children's schools/homes. Some of the schools were orphanages proper, others were state run schools serving the very poor families of Bucharest. Some of the children have little in the way of clothing outside of what is given by Imogene's team.

June 1st is Children's Day, and a significant event for the children there. It is second only to Christmas for many of these children.

Imogene has lists and lists from each school/orphanage with details of how many sizes are required for either girls or boys. We have to sort through dozens of boxes of clothing that has been purchased or donated throughout the year. Imogene spends months in the states visiting churches talking about "her children" and raising funds. She also shops for clothing specials at Walmart, Old Navy, Children's Place, during special sales and picks up clothing at rock-bottom prices.

James and I brought a lot of candy to add to the packages, the children LOVE candy, and found that we only had enough for about two schools! We ended up making a trip to the local candy store down the block, almost every day, to purchase more candy so that each child had a piece along with their new clothes. We bought a lot of candy!

Towards the end of the week we made trips to several of the orphanages/schools and distributed the packages. One of the orphanages had worked with the kids to prepare a show for us. It was so sweet. They were colorful dancing flowers, bugs, and mushrooms all set to music. It was adorable. We hugged them, gave them their candy and packages and then had to go. Every place we visited was full of grateful children. They gobbled up the candy and beamed when they opened their packages of clothes. For some of these children this would be the only new set of clothes they would get until Christmas. They have very little.

Our hearts were sad as we realized the sheer number of children Imogene was trying to serve. Apparently sometimes the donations even get taken by some of the workers and/or parents and then sold. Imogene works hard to make sure that doesn't happen by checking with the children and watching the schools closely. If she finds out that the donations have been taken away from the children, she takes will refuse to work with the school again. Most of the schools are very happy to have Imogene's help and are very grateful. She has formed good bonds with most of the administrators and they love to have her come. Several of the schools we visited offered us refreshments and spent time talking to us about how the children were doing, what their schools needs were. Clearly Imogene's work was a big help to them.

Our hearts were touched by this trip. We hope to continue looking for mission trips such as this where we can affect children in particular. If no one watches for the children, then who will? They are the future and we want to impact that future for Christ.

Children Put on a Play for Us

The children put on a play for us to say "thank you" for the gifts. They were adorable.

Sorting Clothes in Bucharest

Here I am sorting out clothes in Bucharest for the orphanages and schools.

Exotic Trip Coming Up!

Those of you who know and love me (or at least like me) know that I fell in love with Europe in 2001 after my first visit with my mother and little sister. I've been back twice since. Now, I get to go again!

James and I have wanted to do a mission-type trip and our heart was set on something having to do with children. My heart was affected about six or seven years ago about the plight of unwanted children in the Eastern block of Europe: Russia, Romania, Kosovo; areas such as that. The people are so poor that many times they abandon their children. The children are in state run homes/orphanages and many times don't get much attention, and even less love. So we researched several organizations for a few years and we finally zeroed in on one facilitated by an older couple in Romania. She ministers to over 11 of these homes (some hospice-type institutions too since many children battle disabilities or illnesses) and even more on a more peripheral basis. She packs packages full of goodies, treats, and just visits too. At Christmas and on Children's Day, which is June 1st, she supplies gift boxes for each child. Needless to say this is a LOT of work.

We will be heading over there to work with her to prepare for Children's Day. We'll be there for about 6 days helping put together the packages as well as deliver them and spend time with the children. The average age is toddler through about age 12.

From there we'll fly over to the exotic Istanbul for a few days. We are very excited about visiting the bazaars and taking in the Byzantine architecture. We've been boning up on the history of Turkey so we can be somewhat informed as to what periods came when in history; like was the Ottoman empire before the or after the Byzantine?

From Istanbul we'll jet down the coast to Izmir and we'll explore a couple of the "seven churches" like Ephesus. Then we'll take ferries and head off to the Greek island of Naxos. We'll end our stay in Athens after taking in the Acropolis.

We're very jazzed about the trip and most of the planning and plotting are complete. I'll make sure to blog while we're gone too.