Special Report



Leeds, England registered UK Charity No.1087961
Kingsport, USA charitable non-profit # 86-0957704
Oradea, Romania registered Charity No.14839712

 
...making smiles in Romania





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Adi Matis – Smiles Romania Assistant Director
December 2014

Preparing for the Celebration!

Yes, it is indeed amazing and unbelievable, but another year has almost gone by! Here we are again, preparing for Christmas and soon we’ll get into the fever of giving and hopefully receiving gifts and wishes for the Holidays… The time of celebration is soon to be upon us and we all feel the sweet anticipation. We are all planning visits and time to spend with family and friends. We all are getting ready to do some good for those around us.

During November, here at the offices in Cihei, we thought we could have a slower time between October and December Mission Trips. Time to consider and work on the reports needed, which almost all the time get delayed when we have guests in Romania, time for planning and thinking and preparing for next year in all the projects, time to do more administrative tasks. Well, we did those and hopefully we are closer now than before to completing all that was needed, but on top of these things, we were also preparing and starting the campaign for raising support for the Smiles projects, right here in Romania.

Many of you will know about our desire and effort to get our own people here in Romania, involved with supporting what Smiles does for Romanians. One way of doing that is by challenging them to donate food for the families we have in our projects. We started this campaign for Christmas in 2011 and the response from the people was very encouraging. Of course, it is just a fraction of all the support we need, but nevertheless, a good sign, so we continued doing it each of the past three years. People of Oradea could donate food in the special places we prepared, being encouraged in doing this by our volunteers, who would speak with them and hand them a flyer and tell them more about Smiles.

So, we have this ‘Christmas Campaign’ again. We started on 18th November, a little bit earlier this year, so we can get the full season of Christmas, when people are usually more open and willing to give something for others. As usual, our partner in this is TreiG, a local chain of supermarkets, who were always very supportive towards us. We have a good number of volunteers from a local church, they are so fresh and full of energy – they are mainly teenagers after all – and the positiveness and optimism they share will produce a good response from the donors. The first quantities were already collected, sorted and ready to be taken to those who couldn’t afford to buy food themselves for what their family needs.

Soon we’ll start also the campaign for raising support for homeless people of Oradea. You may remember the great time spent serving people hot tea and in return they can make a small donation – all this goes straight in supporting the Homeless Project.

I just wanted to share all this with you, because I find it to be very encouraging and gives me a great sense of what the coming season is about. I remember from the last years, it is amazing to see people that do not seem to have too much of their own are still so glad to be able to donate something, maybe just a packet of biscuits, maybe some flower or some oil, but they are giving with great joy!

I see the light in the volunteers eyes, when they talk about those that are poor and needy and how happy they are when someone decides to donate… I was impressed by one girl that managed to talk and to motivate people to donate and in four hours, only by herself, she filled two large trolley carts with food – and she was so proud and happy to show this to me!

We are so enthusiastic these days about Christmas coming! All around us the tension and anticipation is building and soon we’ll hear songs on the radio, we’ll see the commercials on TV, all to make us all buy more and more and to get excited, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

But we actually could do something to bring us the "right" joy! We could give, we could support, we could donate something to someone! I myself get very motivated seeing the young volunteers, seeing the people who stop and put something in our trolley, seeing the joy and smiles on their faces.

Isn’t this that it’s all about in the end? Christ came into the world to give. The Word tells us it is much better to give than to receive. Christmas is the perfect time for giving selflessly and to inspire those around us to do the same. I encourage you to think about people around you this season. The preparation for a real celebration must start with "what can I do for someone else?" No one will truly be happy unless they did something for somebody. So let’s start our Christmas now, by following our Lord’s example!

Please go to our website:Christmas Corner

Or telephone the Smiles Office: UK – 0113.276.5060 / USA – 423.239.9525

Thank you all for the support you’ve given so far this year to the Smiles Foundation. Our projects couldn’t run without your kindness and desire to do good for others and to help someone. That’s why I know you will wholly agree with me in everything I have written above!

God bless you and enjoy the Christmas season.

Adi Matis
Project Manager
Assistant Director Smiles Romania

adrian.matis@thesmilesfoundation.org

 


Previous reports from Adi:

November 2014 - A man's true story... an inspiration to us all

October 2014 - Golden September

September 2014 - A Summer of Experiences

August 2014 - Salard Community Reloaded

July 2014 - Sessions for the Mind

June 2014 - Unknown

May 2014 - Celebrate with us

April 2014 - Beliefs

March 2014 - From being taken care of to taking care...

February 2014 - My dream... to become a pig caretaker

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    Page last updated on 01/12/2014 03:28:53 PM
   by ADMIN1

  

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