Regent
University Update – ‘Beautiful People’
One of the biggest concerns of the Smiles
Foundation is to continually improve professionalism and knowledge
that will allow us to have a better response to the hard situations we
confront in our projects. We want to provide the best services to our
beneficiaries and be more efficient in all we do.
This is why we all got excited when we heard o
f the opportunity to
work with The Regent University First
Response Trauma Team, for two weeks! The
team is formed of professors, doctoral and master’s students, well
trained professionals sharing the same desire of doing their best to
help the beneficiaries of the Smiles Foundation, under the capable
leadership of Dr. Benjamin Keyes and Dr. Merrill Reese.
Everyone here was nervous and excited before the visit. It is always
like this, especially when you get the chance to team up with such
great people of God that are ready to offer their time, knowledge and
heart in order to reach needy
people. The schedule was agreed,
everything was ready to accommodate our new partners. We prayed for a
good time, we were looking forward for good results. What happened
though was beyond any expectation. It was absolutely incredible, as we
experienced the best time and great results. Our visitors worked so
hard, hitting the spot and making a true difference.
We learned from experience that you are most efficient and have the
biggest impact when you’re not only doing the job alone, but when you
equip others, passing on your knowledge and skills, training and
sending them out to do it. The number of people you help increases
significantly and efficiency amazingly rises. Our top professional
visitors were gracious enough to understand and accept this concept.
This is why four days out of their visit
was dedicated to training the
staff of Smiles, people that are involved in daily activities here in
Romania, providing services through the projects. Different subjects
were approached and every presentation was doubled by practical
workshops. Some of the areas we covered were: counselling (attending
skills, active listening), working with trauma – techniques in working
with children, compassion fatigue, treating family trauma, the trauma
of domestic violence, alcohol and drugs, grief and loss, sexual trauma
and abuse, a Christian model to treat trauma (HEART), Christian models
of counselling. We found that every second was useful and helpful in
our future involvement.
The Regent University First Response Trauma Team split in four
teams, accompanied by two or three translators from our staff
every day. They got to work for 6 full days in different projects
like: Family Care – providing counselling and support for many of our
families, The Emergency House Unit and Cihei Family Centre – working
with victims of the domestic violence or with single mothers, Tileagd
Gypsy Complex – working with our beneficiaries in the Gypsy community,
with the disabled or training the school teachers, Gepiu Centre –
working with children, teens, elderly, the Homeless Project –
providing street counselling for the most needy people in the Oradea
City, the Dumbrava Nursing Home – doing reminiscence type therapy with
the elderly residents, Salard Gypsy Community – dealing with some of
the most shocking results of extreme poverty. Sunday morning our
visitors prepared an amazing program for the Tileagd Gypsy Church,
sharing their faith with the congregation and praising God with
singing, reading and preaching.
I know, even if we were there, we will st.JPG)
ill fill like saying: WOW! Do
you want to know how they did? Awesome! They were “simply the best”,
incredible, focused and efficient. Professors, doctoral students,
master’s students, they altogether got involved body and soul in these
projects, working shoulder to shoulder with our professionals,
providing the best services and setting up the ground for the work to
be continued.
We will always remember the Regent University people as the "beautiful
people”. Why? Impressed by their love and kindness, also by their
willingness to help others, one of our homeless beneficiaries
exclaimed: “they are beautiful people”! And he continued to repeat
that, on and on, until we realised that we all thought the same.
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Some very important and efficient counselling and therapy techniques
were discussed and applied during these two weeks. However, our
visitors learned from our people here some new ones, pretty useful
especially when you deal with the Gypsy people or in extreme poverty.
The Regent University People came as visitors. They left as friends
and partners. Each one of our lives was somehow touched by the work of
Smiles. For some was an incredible time, while others reported life
changing experiences. Everybody was impressed with the level of
dedication they found with the Smiles workers, with the multiple needs
we address, but also with the spirit among our team.
Here are some thoughts at the end:
“This trip represents the single most significant and life changing
experience of my life… after salvation, of course. The staff at the
Smiles Foundation lives out God’s calling to love and serve others.
Their humble sacrifice of time and energy has changed the way I will
view mission work forever.”
Doug Holland
“I will never forget the faces of the beautiful Romanian people I have
met while working at Smiles. I have been stretched and blessed on
multiple levels of being. This experience has been priceless.”
Lisa-Marie Brown
What is this all about? People, from all over the world, coming
together to work in our factory, producing love, hope, faith and…
smiles! You can be one of them, by joining our efforts to change the
world for someone. You can also be one of the “beautiful people”.
Keep smiling!
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