Luminita

Luminita means little light in Romanian.
This morning, we went to orphanage number 5, also known as Luminita. It is a special needs orphanage with a slightly better staff than Marin Pazon. It was a lot like old times. We took the kids to the park and spent a lot of our time chasing after the kids and jumping on the trampoline and blowing bubbles. I remember a young autistic boy, Stefan, he didn't quite have the motor skills to blow the bubbles, so I blow bubbles at him as he stood downwind and danced around as they blew around him. One of the thing I have noticed with autistic kids, is that they don't change their facial expressions very often, but you can tell if they are happy a lot of the time by how much they gesture and move around and also by what noises they make. Stefan REALLY like bubbles, he would gurgle and dance around every time he saw them.
After Luminita, we went bowling with some of the Heart to Heart girls. These are girls that a staff member meets with once a week or more as a kind of mentoring program. We had some laughs and took lots of pictures. I bowled a 117, my highest score ever!!! The highlight of our day was definitely the worship and BBQ at the end of the day. We came back to the office and ate some delicious Romanian food. Then we had worship and prayer followed by testimonies. Some of the older boys were invited to come, so we heard testimonies from them, mostly about their trip to Marin Pazon with the BC football team! It was amazing to hear their thoughts and feelings. They know that they live in a bad situation, but after seeing the disabled children's situation, they were humbled and inspired. One of the boys told us a story of how a group of disabled kids came to his orphanage when theirs was being remodeled. He told us how he stood up for them when the other boys were making fun of them, even though he almost got beaten up for it. He then proceeded to buy all of the kids a cookie, even though he had to have spent money that he had been saving up for something.
Our worship leader Fibia, talked next about how she is moving to England to be with her sister, but she knows that God will take care of the children here. I felt the same way. If these boys could feel enough empathy and compassion to take action and take care of those less fortunate than they, then maybe Romania isn't doomed. Its the same lesson all over again. Maybe the children at Marin Pazon don't actually need me to survive and be happy. Maybe God actually does know what He is doing!
Sorry for the confusing and wordy stories, but I'm afraid my language center is just about burnt out. Noapte Buna!