Romania, Day 4

Today, our team split into two teams. Most of us returned to the same village we went to yesterday. I won't name the village or any other locations we go to to maintain some privacy for those we are working with. The rest stayed at a clinic in the city that asked for a gynecologist to come and serve for a couple of days. Many women here are in need of that service but cannot afford it themselves. So Sunni, Debbie, Larry, Joyce, and Pepper stayed at that clinic. The clinic where they worked serves the poor, but does not have a gyn. Here are a couple of pics of the clinic.

Debbie, Larry, and Joyce in the entrance area.

Sunni in one of the exam rooms. As you can see, the facilities were excellent.

I think the day was a hard day for this half of the team. There were 2 large issues they came across time and again. The biggest was that many women had had multiple abortions - up to 6. It is obviously an accepted form of birth control here, which is sad. None of the women really seemed torn by this issue or showed any remorse, which was even harder. Sunni would try to talk to them about it from a health standpoint but said she felt powerless from a spiritual or emotional standpoint because they showed no emotion or regard. This was a non-issue for these women. They weren't there because they felt distress from having had one or regret. It was just another line on their medical history. The other issue was that Sunni saw many women who were experiencing infertility problems. There were a couple of times where the 2 cooresponded and Sunni pointed out that having had an abortion is a risk factor for some infertility problems, but many times they did not. It still stuck out to me that these were the two major issues of the day.

Larry and Debbie talked with the women after their visits. They gave them gifts and offered to pray with them as we always do. They said there were several that seemed dark, like they were overwhelmed with burden but at the same time blank to emotion. Time and again they felt like they were talking to brick walls. One woman in particular seemed "dead inside" Larry said. Like I said, I think it was a hard day for them.

In the village, the day was lighter in my opinion. It seemed like we saw many more patients, though at the end of the day the count was not significantly different. In the 2 days we were there, we saw 112 patients. We did see more men and children today, however. We also didn't have any of the issues we had the day before. Many of the patients were still widows. Their chief complaint was always that they were lonely because they live alone. Here is one of these sweet women.

And here are some other sights of the village life.

A man and wife bringing their field gatherings in from the prior day's work:

Children trading their gifts:

As I mentioned, we did see more children today. In fact this whole group (and a few more not seen in the picture) all came in right after school. They were all healthy but enjoyed seeing the visiting Americans and appreciated their gifts of tooth brushes, soap, and gloves or hats. It was so fun to watch them all run outside and start negotiating trades with one another. Some things just are the same no matter where you go in the world.

Here is a picture of the village team at the end of today, including the local pastor and some congregants. We'll have to get one tomorrow in the next village when our whole team is together again.

One of the things that was most encouraging today was when the local pastor asked us for a list of the people who had come to the clinic. He wanted to go visit them, share the love of Christ, and invite them back to join in the services. Johnny mentioned that he may visit people multiple times, and he immediately replied oh yes, I will visit them 20 times if they allow me to. This was very encouraging, especially after seeing the women who were sad about being alone because maybe we helped give that pastor a way to show them there is a place in their own village where they can find love and belonging.

Tomorrow we come together again and head out to work with the pastor of a church in a different village. I'm looking forward to being together with my wife again and to seeing what God brings our way.