Saturday April 12^th 2008

It has been a fairly low-key day. We went to Ken and Florence Holmes' house for coffee; they have a group staying with them from Ireland and had had a half night of prayer (till 3.00 am) and were feeling a bit fragile! We must have stayed there for a couple of hours.

Early in the afternoon we met Nicu's Girls (who had come to Jersey 2 years ago for a sponsored holiday). They are the young women – ex state orphanage who were “rescued” by Nicu and Miheala Gal of People to People about 8 or 9 years ago – they have stayed together as a group, all having jobs in either the hospital or factories. We ate together at MacDonalds, which is where we met, being one of the few places we can always find! The plan had been to have lunch then go for a walk but it was raining so we went back to their apartment.

In the evening we took Flori and Gyonghyi out from the Mustard Seed Romania apartment. It is Flori's 32^nd birthday and after the disappointment of her planned kidney transplant falling through in February, we are very aware that this could be her last birthday, so we wanted to make it special by taking her and Alex and Rody (social workers) out to a restaurant for a meal.

Sunday April 13^th

This is Bill and Katie's last day – it began with going to the cathedral for the service, where though we could not understand a word the music was incredible and the deep sense of prayer and majesty was powerful and moving.

This was followed by a trip to where our hosts Geo and Simona are building their new house, which is in a lovely situation. We admired it all and really are impressed at what Geo and his 2 sons have achieved. This was followed by an excellent lunch cooked by Simona and Georghe (oldest son).

Following that we went to Cefa – this time Bill and Katie drove the donated Peugeot to the boys hostel where it will remain while Alex wrestles with paperwork to register it. It really is mission accomplished for B & K as big Teddy went to his new home as well today – they had travelled with him all the way from Jersey. Tomorrow they fly back home to Jersey.

We distributed the tinned meat and bags of medical first aid type items to the pensioners at Cefa along with shoeboxes packed by sponsors. It was a beautiful short service, in the afternoon, where the young people sang, all wearing the new mauve shirts donated by Whitbreads.

The day ended with Flori's birthday party in the girls' apartment – when we arrived with big Ted he was immediately loved, cuddled, even fed!! Yes he will be loved by them, it is the right place to leave him, he will be loved and bring much pleasure to the girls who all still need a cuddle from time to time.

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