Friends and family:
I thought I’d share some things I love about living in Romania:
1. Eating Ciorba (pronounced chorba…a sour soup).
2. Using public transportation (even when the bus jerks and I lose my balance, falling into an old man who falls onto an old woman, all the while I grab whatever I can, even if it is another old man’s jacket…I apologized profusely in English which seemed to absolve me of all evils and the old lady just kept smiling at me like I’d done her a favor).
3. Buying fruit and vegetables at a little piaţa near the apartment where I’m living. A piaţa is like an open air market and usually everything is super fresh. So fresh in fact that the other day when I was washing my lettuce, I found a slug.
4. Fresh bread shaped like French bread, not sold in bags, or pre-sliced, but purchased just the way it’s baked.
5. Walking into the courtyard at the drop-in center in the morning and being greeted by purple Morning Glory. Also, the drop-in center courtyard at around 4 in the afternoon…the sunlight dapples through the trees and everything is golden.
6. A couple old ladies who are taking care of some stray kittens. These cats are living under an ancient and crumbling cement ping pong table and one day on my way home from work I saw these women crawling under the table, setting up house complete with cardboard walls and dishes full of milk. Another day some boys were playing ping pong on the table and one of the ladies was standing guard, making certain nothing happened to those kittens.
7. This little girl at the drop-in center who a month ago could not jump rope no matter how hard she tried and now is skipping rope like she was born doing it. You should see how proud she is of herself. She is a jump roping fiend.
8. Walking home from the drop-in center in the evening and passing these little kids who have huge brown eyes and when they smile at me, they smile with their eyes. Please pray for these kids, for their protection and nourishment in all ways.
9. Cobbled streets, even though sometimes I trip on the cobbles. J
10. Living in a city where horse-drawn wagons are not uncommon and in fact signs are posted warning automobile drivers to watch for them.
11. The colorful skirts of Roma (gypsy) women. We’re talking bright pinks and oranges here.
12. Dreaming of a play therapy counseling program for the kids at the drop-in center.
13. Old crumbling buildings that were built before the utilitarianism of communism took over. These buildings are beautiful and I can imagine them in their former glory.
14. The young man who was new to the center this year and at 18 learned to read. He comes from an alcoholic home and his father is very cruel to him. Still, this guy rarely stops smiling. Since he never went to school (by the way, he told us today that he passed 5th grade…he was so proud, as we were, too) we asked him what he used to do with his days. He said he’d just stare at the clock. Every day when he says good-bye to us he says: I wish you a beautiful day. He also recently had some dental work done. If a child is under 18 this work is free, but since he is over the age limit there is a cost for the dental procedures. When this happens we will cover the cost and the kids will work at the drop-in center to pay us back. Not this young man. He got a job to pay for his dental bills. We often sit in awe at this guy and also in conviction. So many unjust things have happened to him, and he doesn’t stop smiling and just keeps working hard. We ask: Where did he learn to be this way? Shouldn’t he be terrorizing old ladies and stealing their handbags? He says: I didn’t use to have friends and now I do.
It’s amazing, really. Life can be about many things, many good things like buying fresh fruit at the piaţa or dreaming of a play therapy program or the way the sun causes a courtyard to glow or finishing 5th grade at age 18. But when you think about a life that used to be spent watching time pass with the ticking clock and now is filled with relationship, I’m just so humbled. I’m humbled by this young man’s tender spirit, by his smile, by his genuineness, by his simplicity. He so easily and joyfully reflects the Spirit of his Savior, even in the face of so much cruelty, even when life should have been so different and he should have had so much more than he was given. It comes down to this smile on his face and the words: now I have friends.
15. What I’m learning from my friends who are poor. I have much to learn about the Kingdom of God, about being like the King, from them.
Please continue to pray for me and learning Romanian, pray that we would follow our King’s leading as we talk about developing a play therapy program at the drop-in center, pray for wisdom as we enter into these precious lives who have experienced so much pain, that we would know how to serve and love them well, pray that His Kingdom would come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven, even in our little piece of earth called Romania, in a town called Galati, at a drop-in center called Casa la Vale.
I am always and still so grateful to you,
April
O.P. 6 C.P. 256
Galati, Romania
800.760
april.folkertsma@wordmadeflesh.com
p.s. Please check out my blog: www.aprilfolkertsma.blogspot.com I try to update it regularly with the daily things of my life in Galati.