A true cultural experience! Just before Christmas they kill their pigs with neighbors and family to help! Of course I had to experience that!
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Piggy Day - Christmas 2004
A true cultural experience! Just before Christmas they kill their pigs with neighbors and family to help! Of course I had to experience that!
Friday, December 03, 2004
Happy Turkey Day 2004!
Got to go to a turkey farm to get a fresh, live turkey and see that whole process from start to finish. First experience! It was a 24 Kilo turkey which weighs in at about 48 pounds! The drumstick was the size of my forearm and the thigh fed 10 people! Here are some shots from the farm on that day.
Got pretty grossed out about the actual process!Thursday, July 08, 2004
The Center is guaranteed!
The time is drawing near very quickly when I will be on US soil for a while. As usual, much has happened since I last wrote - the room for The Center for Early Detection of Hearing Loss in Children (yes, we now have a name!) has finally been guaranteed by the hospital administrator so that we can proceed! PTL! After the first feeling of paralysis, many creative design ideas came to me for the room and Winnie the Pooh still reigns supreme in my mind as the resident mascot. The goals are to make the place bright and cheerful for people to come with their kiddies. Believe it or not, that is a different concept here!
The Lord has blessed my contacts here. He put me in contact with a lovely woman (daughter of a hearing aid recipient) who works at city hall and has caught the vision of this center for the city of Cluj and for Transylvania. She has been advocating for me and has already gotten me a donation of a desk and some building supplies and possibly volunteers for the constructing and painting etc. She even arranged for me to meet the new mayor! I have also met the American consul already! You know me - hobnobbing with the rich and famous!
Health? Ho-hum?? Hello!! Health has been anything but ho-hum since arriving here! Contracted a dry cough from a teammate (we like to share things!) and was coughing so hard that I "popped a cork". Please ask me if you would like to know what I mean! Taking antibiotics now and am under a doctor's care. Please pray with me that my energy and strength would come back very soon. Needless to say it will be nice to be home to rest, relax and recuperate and eat shrimp!
My friend, Maureen, arrived here for a delightful 4 days from Strasbourg, France. She has been a missionary there for 12 years. Another wonderfully exciting arrival just happened TODAY - the 2 NEW pieces of equipment!!! What fun to have these new goodies!
Hope to see some of you this summer - Home from July 16th to Sept. 3rd, in AZ for sis' wedding July 22nd - Aug. 3rd.
The Lord has blessed my contacts here. He put me in contact with a lovely woman (daughter of a hearing aid recipient) who works at city hall and has caught the vision of this center for the city of Cluj and for Transylvania. She has been advocating for me and has already gotten me a donation of a desk and some building supplies and possibly volunteers for the constructing and painting etc. She even arranged for me to meet the new mayor! I have also met the American consul already! You know me - hobnobbing with the rich and famous!
Health? Ho-hum?? Hello!! Health has been anything but ho-hum since arriving here! Contracted a dry cough from a teammate (we like to share things!) and was coughing so hard that I "popped a cork". Please ask me if you would like to know what I mean! Taking antibiotics now and am under a doctor's care. Please pray with me that my energy and strength would come back very soon. Needless to say it will be nice to be home to rest, relax and recuperate and eat shrimp!
My friend, Maureen, arrived here for a delightful 4 days from Strasbourg, France. She has been a missionary there for 12 years. Another wonderfully exciting arrival just happened TODAY - the 2 NEW pieces of equipment!!! What fun to have these new goodies!
Hope to see some of you this summer - Home from July 16th to Sept. 3rd, in AZ for sis' wedding July 22nd - Aug. 3rd.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Showers of Blessings - Miracles of Two's!
Gotta get this out before the next miracle happens!! First of all, since last writing, it seems that the Lord is directing me to work primarily with children where the needs seem to be the greatest. Hearing aids are more accessible than I previously thought for those who can afford them. I will continue helping those who cannot afford them with the donated hearing aids and looking for low-cost alternatives for the future.
I was put in contact with two pediatric ENT doctors who had just moved to a new site at a children’s hospital/clinic. They are all moved in and seeing patients and performing surgeries and need someone to DESIGN the available room for a pediatric hearing testing room! Have I ever done that before?? Nope! Thinking of Winnie-the-Pooh characters for the walls! More on that as I proceed!
Many miracles have been occurring! I got a surprise telephone call two weeks ago from Denmark from a manufacturer who accepted the monies that I got from MPF for TWO (yes, TWO!) pieces of NEW, portable testing equipment for the price of ONE!! They even said they wanted to make sure I had NEW equipment and not used or demo models! “Oh, OK, I stuttered!” Is anything too hard for the Lord? I should be getting them in the middle of this month. Then…last week I found out that Mike Webb in Arizona (who started the project 11 years ago) has somehow arranged to get the much-needed, state-of-the-art neurological testing equipment, called ABR/OAE, needed for testing the babies and children and valued at $25-$30,000! Although Cluj is one of Romania’s largest cities with one of the largest and best medical schools in the country, they do not have this much-needed equipment for children, or adults. They have to send people two hours away to have this test done and some patients have traveled 2 hours already just to get here. The doctors desperately need these higher diagnostic capabilities.
So, in less than two weeks I received promises of over $35,000 worth of equipment!! Incredible!! Praise the Lord with me.
Hope to see some of you this summer – Home from July 16th to Sept. 3rd, in AZ for sis’ wedding July 22nd – Aug. 3rd.
I was put in contact with two pediatric ENT doctors who had just moved to a new site at a children’s hospital/clinic. They are all moved in and seeing patients and performing surgeries and need someone to DESIGN the available room for a pediatric hearing testing room! Have I ever done that before?? Nope! Thinking of Winnie-the-Pooh characters for the walls! More on that as I proceed!
Many miracles have been occurring! I got a surprise telephone call two weeks ago from Denmark from a manufacturer who accepted the monies that I got from MPF for TWO (yes, TWO!) pieces of NEW, portable testing equipment for the price of ONE!! They even said they wanted to make sure I had NEW equipment and not used or demo models! “Oh, OK, I stuttered!” Is anything too hard for the Lord? I should be getting them in the middle of this month. Then…last week I found out that Mike Webb in Arizona (who started the project 11 years ago) has somehow arranged to get the much-needed, state-of-the-art neurological testing equipment, called ABR/OAE, needed for testing the babies and children and valued at $25-$30,000! Although Cluj is one of Romania’s largest cities with one of the largest and best medical schools in the country, they do not have this much-needed equipment for children, or adults. They have to send people two hours away to have this test done and some patients have traveled 2 hours already just to get here. The doctors desperately need these higher diagnostic capabilities.
So, in less than two weeks I received promises of over $35,000 worth of equipment!! Incredible!! Praise the Lord with me.
Hope to see some of you this summer – Home from July 16th to Sept. 3rd, in AZ for sis’ wedding July 22nd – Aug. 3rd.
Monday, May 24, 2004
It has not been dull!
Well, much has been happening in the month since I last wrote from this Transylvanian land where it is still light until 9:30PM but we can’t seem to get out of the 50’s, the LOW 50’s, that is! As you can imagine, it has not been dull!
First of all, I may not have shared with you the great news of a $5196 donation from Mission Projects Fellowship for the Romanian Hearing Project. They accepted me as a project in the fall and raised the monies for equipment in record-breaking time. Thank You, Father! It will give me the opportunity to get some portable equipment so that I can test people in various locales.
I have been meeting with professionals and doctors in the area and it appears that the Lord is directing my steps to primarily work with children at a children’s clinic, as well as continuing to work with those who need hearing aids and cannot afford them. More places than I previously realized already sell hearing aids but at prices that not everyone can afford. This week I dispense my fourth hearing aid and I have already made my first business contract ordering an earmold from an earmold manufacturer in a city 1 hr. away from here. I will be meeting with the two pediatric ENT doctors this weekend for further plans for the future. I may have the opportunity to help them design their new testing area for kids. Exciting how the Lord has me doing so many things that I have never done before! Definitely stretches me and takes me outside of my comfort zone!
My team has been busy this past month – Tracey from New Zealand has been here since March for a 6 months’ term, 2 nursing students were here from England for a month, as well as a 2-week short-term team of 14 Canadians and a Frenchman. Whew! My apt. was full for a while with Tracey and the nursing students staying here. We all visited a special-needs kindergarten and “it just so happened” that one of the kids in the group I visited had a cochlear implant (a surgically-implanted hearing device for the deaf). She is in great need of further training and therapy for her speech development and I believe the Lord will be using me to empower the parents with greater skills to help their little 5 year old named Stefi. Further stretching outside of my comfort zone!
My friend, Rachel, was also here for 4 days and I had an opportunity to help her go across the Hungarian border to get her passport stamped for a longer stay. Sure, I “helped” her a lot by forgetting my own passport! It was an adventure to say the least and we did accomplish it, even though Rachel had to walk across the border by herself while I waited on this side.
Plans are already moving ahead for a 6 week trip home this summer. I will be arriving home in Philadelphia on July 16th and plan to travel to Arizona to attend my sister’s wedding from July 22nd to August 3rd, visiting Mike Webb in AZ as well, then visiting, meeting with folks and returning to Cluj on the 3rd of Sept. These travel plans were not put in my original budget, so if you have any frequent flyer miles which can be transferred and/or sense the Lord’s prompting to contribute for my travel while in the US and for my stay home, the costs will probably come to around $1000. Checks can be sent to International Teams. Thanks!
Re: never-dull health issues! Recently sustained a corneal scratch and I need patience in the healing process with the power of your continued prayers. Thank you!
Blessings to you all!
First of all, I may not have shared with you the great news of a $5196 donation from Mission Projects Fellowship for the Romanian Hearing Project. They accepted me as a project in the fall and raised the monies for equipment in record-breaking time. Thank You, Father! It will give me the opportunity to get some portable equipment so that I can test people in various locales.
I have been meeting with professionals and doctors in the area and it appears that the Lord is directing my steps to primarily work with children at a children’s clinic, as well as continuing to work with those who need hearing aids and cannot afford them. More places than I previously realized already sell hearing aids but at prices that not everyone can afford. This week I dispense my fourth hearing aid and I have already made my first business contract ordering an earmold from an earmold manufacturer in a city 1 hr. away from here. I will be meeting with the two pediatric ENT doctors this weekend for further plans for the future. I may have the opportunity to help them design their new testing area for kids. Exciting how the Lord has me doing so many things that I have never done before! Definitely stretches me and takes me outside of my comfort zone!
My team has been busy this past month – Tracey from New Zealand has been here since March for a 6 months’ term, 2 nursing students were here from England for a month, as well as a 2-week short-term team of 14 Canadians and a Frenchman. Whew! My apt. was full for a while with Tracey and the nursing students staying here. We all visited a special-needs kindergarten and “it just so happened” that one of the kids in the group I visited had a cochlear implant (a surgically-implanted hearing device for the deaf). She is in great need of further training and therapy for her speech development and I believe the Lord will be using me to empower the parents with greater skills to help their little 5 year old named Stefi. Further stretching outside of my comfort zone!
My friend, Rachel, was also here for 4 days and I had an opportunity to help her go across the Hungarian border to get her passport stamped for a longer stay. Sure, I “helped” her a lot by forgetting my own passport! It was an adventure to say the least and we did accomplish it, even though Rachel had to walk across the border by herself while I waited on this side.
Plans are already moving ahead for a 6 week trip home this summer. I will be arriving home in Philadelphia on July 16th and plan to travel to Arizona to attend my sister’s wedding from July 22nd to August 3rd, visiting Mike Webb in AZ as well, then visiting, meeting with folks and returning to Cluj on the 3rd of Sept. These travel plans were not put in my original budget, so if you have any frequent flyer miles which can be transferred and/or sense the Lord’s prompting to contribute for my travel while in the US and for my stay home, the costs will probably come to around $1000. Checks can be sent to International Teams. Thanks!
Re: never-dull health issues! Recently sustained a corneal scratch and I need patience in the healing process with the power of your continued prayers. Thank you!
Blessings to you all!
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