Monday, June 21, 2021

Romania Trip 2021

 The Latest at PHFTC


Dear Friends,
   In late May, I found out that România was opening its borders to vaccinated people without a quarantine period on the 11th of June. Excitedly, I booked tickets for June 12th! Our Board's Vice Chair, Kristen, chose to accompany me as well!

                               


    Now two weeks later, we are here in România! My heart has yearned to be back doing this part of the job for over a year now! Within the first week of being here, we have driven across half the country. We flew into Cluj, Romania and drove up to Oradea, where I met with my Romanian children, and our PHFTC Romanian Outreach Director, Andrea. She has been doing an amazing job in her new role during Covid and we are so grateful for her!

                               


  We purchased supplies for Forget Me Not Ministries and Finding Hope Ministries before we left for Sibiu. Once there, we were able to visit Finding Hope Ministries, an orphanage that houses 35 children and that housed our PHFTC November Service Team in 2019. Due to a fire in one of their homes, they lost many items. We were able to purchase sheets, blankets and bath towels for the children. Kristen, Andrea and I delivered the supplies, spoke with the Director, interacted with the children and volunteers, and even helped cook in the kitchen!

                           
      

   That afternoon, due to our vaccinations, Kristen and I were allowed into the hospital for a few hours to hold and feed the babies. We have only 6 social children in the hospital now. Covid has greatly declined the number of children being left at the hospital and we are praying that the trend will continue as long as the babies aren't being neglected.

                            


    We had the opportunity to meet and visit with a member of Firm Foundations Romania in Brasov, a couple hours away. One of their projects is sending in volunteers into their pediatric hospital, much like we do! It was such a pleasure to make that connection and possibly partner or help each other in the future. Again in the afternoon, we were able to spend time with the little ones in the hospital and put up some colorful wall clings to brighten the rooms.

                                     
  The weekend has been spent, among other things, showing Kristen the beauty and culture of Romania and preparing for this coming week's meetings! I am so excited to be making two new connections this year with some very special people who have started projects of their own here! 
  1. Please pray that all will go smoothly this week and our health will be protected, not only from Covid, but the vast amounts of cigarette smoke that is affecting my allergies. Kristen is also experiencing an allergic reaction and she is trying some Romanian medicine to help. 
  2. Please pray that we can get our Covid testing done before we board our flight next Sunday without any hiccups.
  3.  Send up prayers for Monica and her children. She is a manager of a foundation that we support, who just lost her husband to Covid. It has been devastating...
  4. Pray that we can be a blessing to whomever we meet, whether it is an orphan, an NGO director, or a person on the street.
  5. Lastly, please remember our husbands and children at home holding down the fort so we can be here.
   Thank you all for your support! Without your generosity, peoples lives would not be touched with the simplest of things that we take for granted. But every diaper, every bath towel, every vitamin, every bottle of oil means so much to people here!

   I encourage you to visit our website. It is slowly being renovated with new content being added weekly! Our Donate section is ready and usable for anyone that feels called to join us for the first time or again and again!

Be Blessed,

Mona

Ramona Petrella Cummings
Executive Director of PHFTC

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