MORNING THOUGHT for Thursday November 20th
Good morning. Like many others I enjoy looking through photos from my
trips and remembering the significance or the memory attached to those photos.
But few photos have ever given me greater satisfaction than the ones of Lotsi's family. He lives in a house owned by Mustard Seed Jersey
in a Romanian village. We invariably felt a mixture of frustration, admiration
and sorrow when we visited. The wife and mother of the 7 children worked so
hard to keep the kids and home clean and the kids in school.
Her husband Lotsi had huge potential - we saw
that when they were homeless in how he worked to improve their shelter and we
had high hopes when we placed them in the house. All had gone well apart from Lotsi's increasingly frequent drinking binges. Our final
visit of last year was really difficult.
When we went there this summer we realised a change had taken place -
there were crops in the garden, chickens, vegetables, even a mud brick house extension
in progress and other improvements. Everyone was happier, calmer.
Lotsi explained and his
wife confirmed that he had stopped his drinking for the last 6 months. His face
glowed with pride as he showed us the improvements he had made and told of the
job he now had.
Yes the risk Mustard Seed took in housing this family and offering the
whole family this opportunity had worked - after a rocky first couple of years.
Now our dreams and prayers for them to have a future full of hope are coming
true.