The Gospel in Action

What We Saw and Learned in Romania

Day Center for Street Children

The Lord first used the plight of Romanian street children to spark our desire to minister in Romania.

While in Romania we had the opportunity to visit one ministry to street kids in Timişoara (the county capital). Many of the kids there were suffering the effects of substance abuse. The younger kids still had some sparks of life left, but a look into the eyes of the older ones revealed only hopelessness.

An adult volunteer we talked to seemed disillusioned, believing that she was having no impact on the children’s lives. The center was a Christian organization in name, but the gospel was not given while we were there, and the organization has no direct relationship with any church.

We were told that if a child is not rescued from the streets within his first two weeks of homelessness that he will not ever leave the streets. Many of the kids that we met had been on the street for years

Public Orphanages

Think of the odor, and filth of the worst nursing home that you can imagine. Now blend that stench with images of an unsupervised prison, and then know that the public orphanages are worse.

When we first entered, many of the young children kids jumped on us, desperate for attention. Most of the workers seemed not to care for the kids at all, leaving them unattended and unloved as they sat drinking coffee or smoking while chatting among themselves. Those who did care for them were utterly incapable of giving the kids the attention that they needed. The conditions were so abysmal, we were not permitted to take pictures.

In addition to the obvious external problems, we were also informed that sexual activity and abuse is rampant in the orphanage. The younger children are systematically abused by the older ones (most of whom were also abused when they were younger). The adult workers, aware of the problem, do nothing to stop it and are sometimes involved themselves. The lack of care for the orphans permeates beyond the orphanage walls throughout all of society. For example when a volunteer reported that one of the workers had molested a minor under her care, Romanian social services dismissed this as a problem by rationalizing that the caregiver was divorced and lonely. She still works there. These orphanages are unquestionably strongholds of the devil.

Public Group Homes

Thanks to western pressure the government of Romania is gradually attempting to close down some of the orphanages replacing them with group homes. Unfortunately, many of the same problems migrate with the children and workers to their new location.

The state group homes vary greatly in quality according to the character of those put in charge as parent figures. A few of the parent figures treat the children under their care with the love that a normal parent would show his or her own children and do their best to create a situation somewhat resembling a natural home environment.

However, many other house parents make an obvious distinction between the orphans and their own children and have basically turned their government provided home into a mini-orphanage. Another problem with this system is that many of the group homes are run by the same people people who once staffed the orphanages. None of the public group homes that we visited were run by Bible believers.

Private Orphanages

The love and care that was shown to the kids at the private, Christian orphanage (22 children) was admirable. The people there pour themselves out for those kids and most are Christians. But it is incredibly draining to give so much of yourself to so many for such a prolonged period. And the children in the orphanage obviously wanted someone they could consider their mom or dad.

Private Group Homes

Staffed almost exclusively by Christians and organized to be as much like a natural home as possible, the private group homes were the healthiest institutional organizations that we saw. The kids were generally well behaved and well loved. But even in the best of situations, we saw problems that we believe can only be avoided through having a parent-child relationship.

Baby Hospitals

Abandoned babies, younger than two years old, are not allowed to be put in orphanages or in group homes. They must be put in foster care. This might seem to be a sensible directive. Unfortunately, the number of abandoned babies exceeds the number of foster families, and those babies who do not go into foster care are simply left in baby hospitals.

These babies, who would otherwise be learning, exploring, and developing, spend the formative first two years of their life alone in a crib like an animal in a pet store without the hope of a loving home. Few Romanians foster and even fewer adopt. Seeing and leaving the babies in the hospital was undoubtedly the most difficult thing we did on the trip, and perhaps the most difficult thing that we have ever done in our lives.

How We Believe the Lord is Leading Us

Bereea Baptistă Independentă

We spent a good deal of time interacting with Baron and Joyce Howerton, missionaries who started Bereea Baptistă Independentă. We also attended several services and interacted with many of the people from Bereea. We spent our time observing and seriously discussing potentially difficult subjects and situations with the Howertons. From our discussions, observations, and prayers, we have come to believe that the Lord would have us work with this family.

We all agree that social work without the gospel has no eternal value, and that social work outside of the church, even if the gospel is present, cannot fulfill the Great Commission effectively.

However, we also believe that there are multiple New Testament mandates to be reaching lost souls by giving truth and demonstrating love to the whole person. Lugoj has an obvious orphans problem and the local church there has a group of young believers who want to serve their Lord but do not really know how.

The Howertons have been praying for the Lord to send someone to assist them in teaching their people how to fulfill the Great Commission in their Jerusalem. They and we see the Lord bringing us together as an answer to prayer.

Our aim is to assist in church planting by helping Bereea to fulfill its responsibility to reach out to the fatherless in and around Lugoj. We cannot do this alone. We would burn out within a year. But the church is not one member but many. We want personally to reach out to the street children and orphans, but we also want to train and equip the members of Bereea to do the same.

Ministry to Orphan Care Facilities

The public orphanages and group homes in Romania are in desperate need of the gospel. The kids need to know that there is a Heavenly Father who loves them and who cares for them, and they need to see that love demonstrated to them. We believe that Bible Clubs and camps could help fulfill these needs. We intend to organize a Bible club church outreach. A weekly time in the institutions of fun activity and attention to God’s Word will provide an opportunity for the kids to learn of Christ’s love for them and to experience it through the love of Christians.

These clubs will probably be held in the early evening or on Saturday, so that people from the church can be involved. So in addition to the ministry to the lost children, the Bible Clubs will serve as opportunities for the people in the church to learn to serve and to grow. Training and guidance will be provided with the intent of turning the ministry over to national hands. We also hope to eventually develop camps for the institutionalized children in the future.

Fostering to Adopt

The downside to the Bible Club ministry is that the children and teens only see and learn of Christ’s love for them for a couple hours, one day a week. Children in the group homes, orphanages, and baby hospitals need to be parented by godly parents. As good as some private orphanages or group homes may be, they cannot provide the individual care that a parent can. In addition to this, fostering is the only way that the abandoned babies in the baby hospitals will be given the opportunity to develop normally. As it is now, statistically, one in five of these babies will never adjust to society, even if adopted early.

We will be encouraging Romanian church members to consider the possibility of fostering and especially encouraging fostering to adopt. For the Romanian Christians who choose to minister in this way, we will provide training and follow-up to insure the healthy integration of children into Christian homes.

In a logically flawed attempt to gain EU membership, Romania placed and currently maintains a moratorium on foreign adoption of its abandoned children. However, Romania makes an exception for foreigners who are permanent residents. One must be a resident in Romania for five years before he can apply for permanent residency. Once we qualify, we intend to pursue adoption ourselves.

Private Group Homes?

Our desire is to avoid opening a group home in favor of facilitating fostering and adoption instead. There are several reasons for this preference: it is better for the children; it avoids logically impaired government restrictions; and it will be easier to turn over to national hands. As we visited the different private group homes, we kept asking ourselves how they could possibly be turned over to Romanian funding. We and those running them saw no way to accomplish this. Since our desire is to completely turn the ministry over to Romanian hands, we are not inclined to start a group home.

However, we have discussed the possibility with the Howertons of running into a state orphanage, similar to the one described above, that is blatantly abusing the children entrusted to it. In such a situation, if there are not enough Christians in the church willing to foster, we might be willing to rethink this decision.

After-school Ministry Center

There are two groups of children, both of whom we refer to as street children. One group is made up of those who actually live on the street. They have run away from orphanages, group homes, or their own families. This group is more common in large cities like Timişoara. This first group is rare in Lugoj, a smaller city.

The second group, more common in Lugoj, is made up of those who have family members whom they live with. However, their families take very little responsibility for them allowing the children to run the streets wild all day never going to school.

We hope to set up a ministry center for these street children in Lugoj. We would encourage the kids to go to school. And for those who go, we will provide help with homework after school (a necessity in the Romanian school system). We will also have a fun time and a Bible time every day. The picture is of a piece of land close to the church that we hope God will provide for the center.

This center will also be available to the Romanian Christians who foster to adopt as a resource to help them with their children.