Pray for Romania

Week of Oct. 21-27, 2013

Romania has received a lot of attention since the fall of its former dictator Ceausescu. The fallen leader left the country in a devastating state; most of us remember its Orphanages overflowing with neglected children. Romania became the focus of many ministries and as a result, it is the most evangelized among the Balkan countries today.

Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, has collected more than 100 million shoebox gifts since 1993 [giving them to needy children around the world]. Through simple gifts and a message of hope, children learn they are loved and not forgotten

Livia grew up in an orphanage in Romania. She took baths in dirty water, wore the same clothes for weeks at a time, and never celebrated a birthday. When she was younger, she asked for hair clips, but thought no one was listening. When Livia was 12-years-old, she received a shoebox from Operation Christmas Child. It was handed to her by Connie Satterfield, who was in Romania to help distribute the boxes. Livia ran to her as soon as she got off the bus, and never let her go. When Livia was told that the people who sent the boxes prayed for her and loved her, she asked, “How can people from thousands of miles away love me?”

When she opened her box, at the very top was a set of hair clips. She was so excited she put every single one in her hair.  

The battle for the children of Romania continues even today. It is taking a generation to reverse the wreckage left by the dictator. European Initiative (EI), our parent organization has conducted Humanitarian outreaches into Romania for six consecutive years. For our next outreach in January 2014 we are partnering with Buckner Romania, based in Turgu Mures. Our team will minister in the public schools, to the foster children, and to the mothers. We will bring the message of the Cross in word and in deed. We will bless the poor with warm coats, boots and shoes.

Let us pray:

1)    Lord, we ask for Your direction in the planning of this outreach to Romania. Show Zuzanna and me (the organizers) your heart and plan for this specific outreach. Give us fresh insight to your purposes for Turgu Mures.

2)    We pray for the team, that just the right people will hear Your calling them to go on this trip. Lord even now, prepare these, clear their calendars, and provide their funding.

3)    Let us pray that the needed funds will come in for the Humanitarian aspect of this outreach. We will be purchasing shoes, boots and coats in Romania this year.

4)    Pray for the Buckner team in Romania, that they would be blessed even as they prepare.

Another recent story describes the harsh reality of an orphan’s fate, approaching adulthood; he was released from an orphanage without any preparation, a place to go or any life skills.

Laurentiu Ierusalim grew up in an orphanage after he was abandoned in a hospital at birth. Now 26, he says he was told he’d be discharged only the day before he had to leave.

“I spent the entire first day standing in front of the orphanage,” he says. “I didn’t know what to do, so I slept in a playground across the street.”

Ierusalim stayed homeless. Bundled in a warm sweatshirt, his dark eyes cast downward, he describes spending three years moving from city to city, knocking on doors to ask for work, food and shelter.

Read his full story  

5)      About 2,000 Romanian orphans are released each year to the streets because they have come of age. They do not know how to cope with the real world. Let us pray that angels would guide them to safety, and to Christians that will show them love.

6)      Let us pray that the Romanian churches would become heart-broken for these homeless children. James 1:27 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction”

7)      The state provides little, by way of formalized life-training programs or ongoing support for the estimated 70,000 children who fall under the care of the Department of Child Protection, let alone the tens of thousands more believed to live on the streets. Let us pray that the state would open their doors for the churches to work with these children.

8)      My the Body of Christ at large awaken and not pull back but increase its involvement with the volatile  state of the Orphan children and youth of Romania.

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