Its Summer Time....
Maria’s Report – July 2012
Hot
weather…. summer holidays… eating ice cream as much as you drink
water. In Romania we have really hot weather, nearly 40C today
(104F.) I feel like I just want to go on extended holiday. This
heat makes you feeling sleepy!
BUT I
can’t think too much about it!! Why? Because summer time in
Smiles’ busiest time of the year!! The good news is that in May I
had a holiday and I re-charged my batteries, so now I have power
to “move forward”.
June
started for me with another friend’s wedding…..so many weddings. A
friend of mine said recently!!! But I’m glad to see people doing
so! In Smiles, since 2007, when our social assistant Jenny “broke
the ice!” and got married, there is no year without a wedding!!!
So watch this space for future news.
But how
was the day to day work in Smiles, in June?? Well, busy as always!
At the
beginning of the month we had a Mission Trip of people with
special skills in the medical field. Thanks to
Dr Jim and Donna Watts,
we managed to serve and make happy once again over 500 people
through Eye Care Ministry. They were helped by a great team,
Dr Jerry Maida
and his daughter
Ashley, Dr Claudia,
Pastor
Mark and his wife Debbie.
These people during the week, helped many people to see not only
with their eyes but with their hearts!
They helped many people to
get to know God as their great Physician
and personal Saviour.
Thank you all soooo much
for everything you are doing for us! Be blessed!
After they left we had another mission team arriving! This
included Geoff and Liz
who are close friends to Smiles. They got involved for two weeks
in the day to day activities and worked hand in hand with our
Smiles team! We were thinking to employ them, but we do not have
enough money to pay the salary related to their value
J.
So we are pleased they want to stay volunteers. Thank you for all
your dedication and help!
Also we
had other dear friends visiting us in Smiles this past month.
Norman and Elaine,
Sarah - came all
the way to Romania to share God’s love with the people here.
As
soon as they left we had a group of
34 Americans arriving!
So we were in for a big treat
……Because they are also special to us, we decided that the week
they are with us, we would celebrate
10 years of Smiles
activities in Romania!!! So for
one week, we had different activities within Smiles projects,
where we had special events going on! We called this week, a week
of kindness! We had activities of: Elderly Lunches in Gepiu, Cihei;
VBS in Cauajd, Darnisoara, Salard. A Special day with the homeless
people of Oradea, special events in Tileagd and many other things
that marked the 10 years of activity here in Romania!
I was sooo
happy to see sooo many people smiling and thankful for the work we
do. Sometimes it is hard and sometime we get down, but that’s the
moment when God sends you a person to say ”thank you” or “you are
doing a great job!”.
It was a
very demanding week with many activities every day all over the
county of Bihor where Smiles works. Logistics were a challenge and
all our staff were involved in different places every day. It’s
about the week I’ve appreciated having so many staff. We had
enough to do the job properly and our beneficiaries and Mission
trip guests all had a fantastic time.
The
morning after our celebrations finished I had to go to another
wedding, in Austria this time. We planned to leave at 5am for the
7 hour drive to Vienna, and that is in 5 hours time, so I have to
leave you and pack my case!
But my
dear friend, I just want to ask you a simple question:
“when was the last time
you made a person smile”?
Even thought it’s an easy task, it is becoming harder and harder
these days to SMILE. The financial pressure that we
are under or the responsibilities of the day to day challenges are
keeping us busier than ever……..and we forget to smile. We forget
to share with our dear ones, our friends and neighbours a smile!
I
encourage you to SMILE!
Think
about ‘What would Jesus have done?’ if he was in you place? He had
demands, lots of people running after Him daily, unthankful people
that He did good for and they still did not care…..yet still he
loved them, always gave them a word of encouragement, a hug, a
SMILE!
Let’s do
the same, and I’m sure this world will be a happier place!! No
matter what season we are in!!
Be blessed
and keep in touch.
Have
a great summer!
Be
blessed!
Maria