Romania

 

You Tube

At last count, Genovieva’s videos of radio programs, books and songs had been viewed 597,525 times in 134 countries or territories on six continents. According to the You Tube viewing analytics, these include: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, USA, US Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

The total number of 690 videos posted now includes Genovieva’s stories “When Songs Are Forbidden” and “Miracles for Orphans” in English. There are now 1,098 subscribers.

You can help by giving any Romanians you know the details of how to access our You Tube videos. Go to www.YouTube.com and enter Genovieva Sfatcu Beattie in the search line.

Silviu and Laura at work in the radio room

Four Million Romanians Work Abroad

About four million Romanians work abroad, mainly in Western Europe or the United States. Their children remain in the care of grandparents or other relatives and only see their parents once a year. Although it is not easy for them to be away from their parents, reports indicate that the majority of these children grow up to become responsible students and citizens.

Genovieva’s Garden

Genovieva enjoys her newly planted garden along the side of the house. She grows basil, dill, green onions, hot peppers, lovage, parsley, raspberries, red currants, rosemary, thyme and tomatoes. Along the fence are nine vine bushes, which she is learning how to care for. She spends a few minutes watering the garden every morning after breakfast.

Genovieva watering her vines and tomato plants in the garden in Romania

Anti-Corruption Measures

The headline news for months has been the anti-corruption measures taken by the government under the leadership of President Klaus Iohannis. He promised to support and encourage those who fight the scourge of corruption. This anti-corruption offensive brings to light the scope of this problem that has been afflicting Romanian society for many years. Politicians whose parliamentary immunity made them think they are above the law, or powerful business people whose wealth gave them the illusion that they can buy anything and anyone are now being called to account for their actions.

Romanian television continues to report that many former Communists, some of whom used to follow Genovieva around even as recently as 2004, are now behind bars. Members of the Communist Party are not allowed to stand for election to public office. Most of them are being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Agency (DNA) on charges of large-scale fraud or bribery. The former mayor of Iaşi, Gheorghe Nichita, is accused of using fraudulent receipts to account for funds received from the European Union for new tramlines for the city.

Medical professors have been accused of taking bribes from their students in return for awarding them high marks in examinations. This is nothing new. When we had the orphanage in Iaşi, Genovieva had a confrontation with the head of the Child Protection Agency, Cristina Dragomir, who wanted to arrange for one of our orphan girls, Bianca Torodoc, to be adopted by an Italian family. The very next day it came out on the front page of the local newspaper that her husband, a professor of medicine at the University of Iaşi, had been selling medical certificates to his students.

From left: Ingrid, Adrian, Emma, Silvia, Sergiu, Carmen, Costel, and kneeling, Nahum and Ruben	El Roi Center in Iaşi

Co-workers in Iaşi

Costel Pintilie, who broke his leg when he fell from a tree last year, has had several sessions of physiotherapy and massage. The leg is on the mend, but is not yet completely better. He helps us by cutting the grass, watering the garden and caring for the vines along the side of our El Roi mission center in the city of Iaşi, northeast Romania.

Our dear friend and co-worker Nuşa Popescu is the mission accountant and secretary in Romania. We baptized her and she attends a Brethren church with her sister Silvia Pintilie, from the village of Valea Lupului. Nuşa mails CDs and DVDs in Romanian to those who order them from Romania, and she sends book orders in Romanian and English all over Europe, as far afield as Finland, Sweden and the UK.

Lenuţa Dracea (left) cleans the mission house once a week

Daniel and Irina Bărbuţă and their three children, Edward, Amy and Elisa, are one of the families we work with in the city of Iaşi, northeast Romania. Their third child, Elisa, was born on September 7, 2013. Daniel is a gifted musician and leads a large children’s choir in his church.

Daniel now produces negatives and musical notes to accompany the songs used by Genovieva in her books and on her CDs for children. A new Web site has been created so that these musical resources can be accessible to those who could benefit from them. Included are all the songs Genovieva composed while hiding in the church in Iaşi in the 1970s and dozens more which she composed since coming to America. Sunday school teachers can download many of them for free, and the negatives and musical notes for a reasonable price. If you are from Romania, or need children’s resources for a trip to Romania, please visit www.resursemuzicale.com.

We believe that his Web site will be a great blessing for those who work with children and pray that it will become more widely known.

Nuşa Popescu sends parcels all over Europe from our El Roi Center in Iaşi, Romania	Adrian and Emma Cireş

Children who Grew Up at Our Orphanage

We received news from Ionela Călin, one of the girls who grew up at our orphanage in Romania. She and her husband Velisar have a baby girl, Ingrid Stefania (see picture below). She was born on August 29, 2014 which happened to be Ionela’s twenty-third birthday. They are living in London, England where he has a job in construction. Ionela took her baccalaureat in Romania and then studied English and information technology. At the present time she stays at home to care for the baby.

Ionela and her younger brother Alin were two of the first children we took into the orphanage when we opened it in October 1997. Ionela told us that the eight years she spent there were the happiest of her life. We had some contact with Alin in Iaşi last year. He has now found a job in London, working at a restaurant.

Ionela Călin with her daughter Ingrid

Bianca Torodoc used to work for a Jewish family in London, England, looking after their three young girls. She married Viorel, a Romanian she met at her Romanian church there on October 11, 2014. Bianca grew up at our orphanage in Romania before being adopted by Costel and Silvia Pintilie in the village of Valea Lupului.

Back in Romania, Bianca’s adoptive sister Emma completed a course in accountancy in order to help her parents, Costel and Silvia, with their business. Emma and her husband Adrian sent us an email yesterday to say that they are both doing well and working full time. She enjoys using her accountancy skills in her present job. Her brother Sergiu, his wife Carmen and their four children — Ingrid, Ruben, Nahum and Abel—live in the same house as Emma, her husband and parents.

Camelia, Diana, Roxana and Ionuţ Hodorogea	Lenuţa Rotariu with Ionuţ and Mălina Lupu

The Hodorogea family of young people we support here in Romania are all doing well. They are in the middle of a period of exams. Gina-Camelia was able to go back to her course at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iaşi. She managed to pay part of the tuition fees from money she earned babysitting. Roxana told us that she, Diana and Ionuţ are also doing well at school.

Ionuţ Lupu and his sister Ana Mălina lived in our orphanage between the years 2000 - 2005. Ionuţ is now training to become a high school geography teacher and received a state grant. He will only have to pay for one semester in his final year. Romanian television recently reported that geography teachers are in demand and that teachers’ salaries in general are being raised by 15%. Ana Mălina and her half sister Maria are also doing well in school. The family needed extra support for going back to school expenses and with your help we were able to provide it. They would like to move from their village to the city of Iaşi in order to avoid the high cost of transport.

This generation of young people is extremely important to God. We believe we are living in the last of the last days and that we are coming into a season of great harvest. The young people need training to bring in this harvest.

From left: Mălina Lupu, Laurenţiu, Lenuţa and Maria Rotariu, and Ionuţ Lupu at the El Roi Center in Iaşi

Romania’s Neighbor, Ukraine

The situation in Ukraine is of great concern to those living in eastern Romania. Russian President Putin recently threatened to cut off the supply of natural gas, but worse than that would be any escalation of the military conflict westwards. The NATO bases in the border area are being strengthened to prepare for any eventuality. The city of Iaşi is only a few miles from the border with Moldova, a small independent country that used to be part of the Soviet Union. Romania also has a long border with Ukraine, and there is a Romanian speaking population of about 300,000 in Ukraine.

Latin, a Romanian Language

It is well known that Latin is the official language of the Vatican, the language of the Roman Empire, and that Romanian is a Latin language. What is less well known is that Romanian, or rather its archaic forerunner came before Latin and not the other way round. This according to Michael Ledwith, a former advisor to Pope John Paul II, who had access to secret Vatican archives. In other words, Romanian is not a Latin language, but rather Latin is a Romanian language. The ancient Daci, the tribe from which the Romanians descended and who lived on the territory that is now Romania, spoke a language that the Romans could understand, and did not need interpreters to communicate with Emperor Trajan.

Poor Families and Orphans

We send regular material help to a total of about eighteen poor families and orphans. With the convenience of internet banking, we can send monthly wire transfers from our account in Iaşi to each family. There are no fees and the money goes directly to the recipient’s bank account. We started helping another poor family we met since we arrived here in March.

Bianca Torodoc with the Jewish girls she looked after in London, England	Daniel, Irina, Edward and Amy Bărbuţă