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A Special Month !!!
Maria's Report –
October 2012
Oooohhhhhhhhh ……… where should I start?
Last month I left you, saying that I’m off for a holiday!
……. I HAD AN AMAZING TIME!! Very refreshing and recovering from
the busy summer and the stress I had in the last few months! The
location, the accommodation, the food and the view of the beauty
God created, made my holiday perfect!
Being
most of the time on my own, I had time to reflect on things…had
time to pray…had time to think
..had more time with God…which was perfect!! I
really missed that! Sorry for Mr
Hoy who spent his time looking
after the kids!!
But the
week went fast, and soon I had to come back to work!
I would like to say
thank you very very, very much to Mr Hoy for this amazing holiday!
Me and the kids really appreciated that but the sad part for Mr
Hoy is that now we are making plans for the next one
....!!!!!
Being back in
Romania, and missing for 2 weeks, meant I had a lot of things to
catch up on! The school and nursery started their new academic
year. More challenging than ever before! Due to the new structure
we had to put in place because of the financial restrictions, the
people there including
Lady Clara, Geta, Ghiuri &
Meda, the teachers, the kitchen staff, the security staff
- all need to work harder
and longer……but they do a great job even if it’s harder!! THANK
YOU!
You
might have heard, but now we have kids in the nursery,
primary school 1 to 4 grades, kids in 5-8 grade, and High School!!
I’m soooo happy when they understand and appreciate the education
they get. It is not easy but no one said it would be, but it is
worth the challenge! For the first time ever in the Tileagd
community, we have girls in the high school! Please pray for them
as they need our support all the way through. The first day when
we went with them to the opening, the girls said: ”we won’t
survive here one day”
….well is nearly 2
weeks and they have survived.
They enjoy the school and we hope and pray
for them getting to the end of the school year.
But all of this can’t be done
without your prayers and financial support! Things in Romania are
getting very bad and feel over the top! I can’t really understand
how people can survive!...only by God’s Grace. I know everybody
says we are part of the EU but the instability, within the country
is more than we can imagine. There is no balance between the
salary people get and the prices that are on fuel, food,
electricity and so many other things!
For example, the average
salary in RO is around £300/$450 a month. The cost for 1 litre of
fuel is £1.22
($6.50 a gallon), the cost for a loaf of bread is £1/$1.50. The
utilities for a 3 room apartment
for a family of 4 people is around £250/$375 a month!
No wonder Smiles’ is so crucial to help in the community! I think
God is using us in an amazing way! I wish to have/to receive the
money that we had in 2008, before all the financial crisis started
around the World! But I’m happy that God is helping us to still do
the job we do!!! Please continue the support you are giving to us,
even with small amounts… God will bless it and make the impact
double!!!
All the other projects started their full time programme following
the summer break.
Gepiu Centre is in
full swing. We have there over 30 kids coming to the after school
program and Rebeca,
Calin, Violeta, Anita, Livia and Danut
are doing a wonderful job.
Between the horticultural project we have there and the Centre the
entire community
benefit
from our help!
Great news is that the Glasshouse and the Farm are doing good too.
If in August we told you about the sad news with the Glasshouse
crisis, now we started from the beginning again with a whole new
crop! We plant salad crops of lettuce, spring
onion as well as flowers, all of this helping us to raise money to
pay the bills and support the work of Smiles!!
I thank God that He made woman!! Because of them, the
Sminro Shops are doing a great trade! We should not underestimate
the men, but still the ladies are the best customers we have month
by month!! Please continue to look around for great offers on
clothes, buy them and send them to the Leeds office, marked for
the RO SHOPS!
So overall a good month, a very busy desk ….. even if at times
it’s hard!! But when things are hard, God sends us little messages
that He loves us and
He cares about us! Or there are other good things happening,
that are covering the bad ones!
This past month I
had one of these things happening to me!
I got
engaged!!!
Well,
yes you’ve heard/read correctly -
ENGAGED!!
Is not a misprint, it’s real! Some of you might ask “when on earth
she had time for this??” Some might say ”finally she made it
public and recognize it”…Either way I understand you!!
…Let me tell you a
little bit of the story and the guy! He name is
Cornel Hava,
and is 32 years old. Works as a cameraman at the TV station in
Oradea and nationally, he loves God and he loves me! That’s
enough, right??
…
The truth is that I
have known Cornel for nearly 2 years and a half!
In all this time we had ups and downs, but as every relationship
made to last, we got over it! No one says a successful happy life
is always easy! There are sacrifices you have to make.
We’ve met each other at Dr Claudia’s wedding!!!
Me, Georgi, Mioara and others Smiles girls were organizing the
wedding! I was in charge of the flower arrangements, and the
transport of the bride!...to make sure the timing is ok and no
delays!! So being with the bride all the time, I had to wait and
wait and wait until she had all the filming and photos done!
Cornel is filming at weddings as a hobby with other friends, at
weekends, so he was present there!
I did not like him at all….especially
when I’ve heard that he works in media! I’m not a good friend of
media, not in Romania at least
!!
But he did not give up!
At the end of the
wedding he asked me out! I said “you boys are all the same……..you
say one thing and do another thing”…I thought this would put him
off! I was busy with my work and did not have time for jokes! But
because I had to do my report update on my desk, for the May 2010,
I asked Dr Claudia for the pictures she did in the office that day
as a bride!.. She said, “no,
I did not get them yet, but
please call the guys that did them and ask them to give it to you
because you have my permission!”…So I did!
And in less than 10 minutes I
had the pictures in Cihei and the guy that brought them, was
Cornel!!...
Then again, he was
asking me out, for the 1st of May!(in RO that day is
off)…but because I had my favourite mission trip in the
country….plus a container full of goodies I refused “his offer!!!”
.....This
time I was sure he will give up!
Then I had a holiday booked, in Cyprus with the girls. If you read
my report back then, you see where I ended up after that holiday!!
…. in the hospital, sunburned!!!! Apart from Georgi and the girls
that were with me, the only other person that visited me in the
hospital was Cornel…… So, this time I did not have where to
run!!!...from there everything else is history!!!
This past month, on September 14th,
he popped the question.
Unexpected! Unplanned! …but cute!! That story another time
…After a few hours
thinking……(I joke) I said YES!! Then I shared my news with Georgi
and Sefu (Mr Hoy)…and our families!! To see the support that I’ve
got from these people means the world to me! And I will never have
enough words to thank God for each of them!
LOVE YOU LOTS!
Soooooooo, the plans for the wedding are beginning! It will
happen, with God’s help, next year in
May 2013…….so
if you want to have a mission trip around that date and see me,
the bride….talk to Mr Hoy!!
Until then, please DO NOT
forget about the Smiles work we do here! Continue to pray and
support! Continue to give up your time and come to help us! God is
doing an amazing job with HIS CHILDREN and THROUGH HIS CHILDREN!!
Let’s show HIM we are one of them!
Sincerely
Maria
…..and PLEASE make
sure you send a THANK YOU note to our UK administrator
DAWN WILSON
that is celebrating on
October 1st , 25 years since she is working with Mr Hoy
and Smiles!!!! Should I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWN?!?!.....THANK YOU
for everything you are doing for us!!