Dear Friends,
As the Christmas season approaches, I want to thank you for the gift that you are to us. You take our hurts and joys and make them your own. You carry us before the Father. We are grateful for your constant commitment to our lives and to the ministry that we are blessed to be part of.
In the last few weeks, our community has been walking through some painful events. Last week, one of our girls unexpectedly ran off to “get married.” She is only 17 and had been doing very well over the last few years. Despite having constant struggles at home with her alcoholic father, she was praised by her teachers for doing so well at school. So, we are still reeling from the shock that she has left. We pray that the seeds sewn will continue to grow and will bear fruit.
Also, the Klepac family, who has served with us for the past 8 years, recently decided to return to the States. Because their oldest son has some special medical needs, they need to be specialized doctors to serve him. So, we are deeply sad that our friends will no longer be living with us in Galati.
As we grieve those who are leaving, we are also rejoicing in others coming. In my last letter, I mentioned that Lau's sister Anca has joined our community. She is still adapting to Galati and to our community, but we are blessed that she is with us. Also, we welcomed three new boys to the Community Center. You can pray that they will bond with the other kids and start to feel “at home” with us.
We continue to pray for the job creation project. As the global markets are collapsing, many Romanians are returning to Romania, which makes the job market more stringent. We pray that the finances will continue to come in so that we can pay for the architectural plans, the urban authorizations and, eventually, the construction.
Since June, our front fence has been the back wall to four families. Another two families set up cellophane shacks around the corner. And a family of 18 moved into a dilapidated building with no doors or windows and with holes in the roof and ceiling. These families all lost their social housing when the houses were given back to their pre-communist owners. In August the local media reported on these street dwellings after one of the young children was hit by a car.
Then the mayor has promised to provide them with social housing. Some of the families are still hoping to receive something before Christmas. Throughout the summer we provided them with water and showers. But it's cold and they are despairing. Please pray that these families would seek God's face and be found by Him. Pray that He would provide them with a home and protect them from the cold. Pray especially for the little children in these families.
I was studying Luke's Gospel over the past few weeks and was profoundly encouraged by Jesus' words: “sell your possessions and give alms” (12:33). I usually have seen this as being a literal call for “a few” but a symbolic, more spiritualized call for “the rest of us.” Still, it is an uncomfortable text that is often felt more as a threat than a promise. Part of my misunderstanding though has been in how I have viewed almsgiving. I have seen this as charity for the needy. But this is precisely what Jesus' words are not saying. In the Roman world, almsgiving was done to advance and preserve one's social standing. When the poor beneficiaries receive from a wealthy benefactor, their social position is established as being lower and they are bound to serve their benefactor through favors and praise. However, when Jesus calls his disciples to give alms, He also calls them not to exact reciprocity. Instead of giving that distinguishes between Christian giving diminishes social differences. Instead of benefactor and beneficiary, Christian giving expresses social solidarity that treats the needy as one's own family. And, rather than the poor “paying back” the giver, Jesus says that God will pay back the giver (12:32-35). Seen in this way, possessions are not thrown away; rather, possessions are shared, invested, and given new value because they are not for their owner but for the needy and for an expression of the kingdom of God in our midst.
So, we pray that we can grow in self-sacrifice, that we can better learn to be family to the needy, and that we, in our weakness and inadequacy, can be a sign that points to the kingdom of God. Please pray with us.
Yours in Christ,
David and Lenutsa