MORNING THOUGHT for Thursday April 19th  2007 broadcast on BBC Radio Jersey, presented by Rose Helie:

 

Good morning. Earlier this month we were in Romania on our most recent humanitarian trip. Each day this week I hope to share with you some of our experiences in the last year as we have been taking relief aid to Romania. Looking back over 2006, without any shadow of doubt the greatest highlight of the year for us in Mustard Seed was bringing Nicu's Girls to Jersey for a holiday in July. All seven of the girls have been known to us for more than 5 years and have lived in an apartment in Oradea, Romania sponsored by Mustard Seed. The first 4 girls were rescued from the streets, when they left the Romanian state orphanage system at the age of 18 in 2000, they were unprepared for life. They were sleeping under a bridge trying to keep warm with rags and cardboard  when they were taken in by Nicu and Miheala Gal. Nicu contacted us and asked for our help financially and practically with clothes, furniture, etc. to make it possible for the girls to have the security of an apartment. Hence the name Nicu's Girls for that project. Then 18 months later the second group of 4 girls were helped and placed in a second apartment.

 

For one of the original eight girls there has been a huge success as she is married now and has her own child; she and her husband are doing well. The remaining unmarried 7 others are all virtually independent, with jobs. But the scars remain and there are still a few tell-tale signs of the abuse they suffered in the state orphanages – it shows especially in their response to men.

 

For several years now the Nicu's Girls have been asking if they could come to Jersey for a holiday. In December 2005 we told them if they could learn enough English to be able to make themselves understood then we would do our best to raise the funds to bring them to Jersey for a holiday in the summer.

 

So in July last year the first group of 4 girls arrived and stayed with us for a week. Phil and I live in a large house and my parents live in one section of it.  It was interesting and revealing to watch how the girls related to my parents as well as other strangers. We quickly realised that this was probably the girls' first experience of family life, they adored my step-mother, calling her Bunica which means Grandmother and all spent hours with her. But they were all wary of my father, as all had had bad experiences of men abusing them. Over the last six years when we have visited, they had learnt they could trust Phil my husband but it took all the week they were with us to begin to trust my father. I had warned my father that they would probably find it hard to relate to him so he was understanding of how they ignored him. For my part I did all I could to show by my actions that I felt safe with my father and was not afraid of him.

 

It got me thinking – I have been fortunate having a father who has loved me and protected me and who I have always known I could trust. It is something I have always taken for granted. But of course many people are not so fortunate and do not have the privilege of having a loving father to help and support them for a number of reasons.

 

Every single one of us has a loving heavenly Father who longs to show His love and care for us, to protect us and have a good relationship with us. He showed the depth of His commitment to us by sending His son Jesus Christ as a baby  to the earth to make it possible for us to become children of God. But God will never force Himself upon us, it is up to us to respond.

 

 

 

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