August 2018
Darius and Nicoleta, both eight years old, are friends with something in common. They were both abandoned by their parents and raised by grandparents in Romania, in a remote village that feels lost and forgotten. Grass grows over the railway lines, houses are dilapidated, and little seems to develop or move forward. This isolated community was once a GermanSaxon settlement and is now populated by Roma people. Many children in this village are caught up in a cycle of low self-esteem and their families have been marginalized from the wider society for many decades. Cont. next page
COMMUNITY CENTRES and Projects like the Bread Oven run by MWB need your urgent support. JUST $50 could provide resources for 1 days baking (125 loaves of bread) or a month of hot meals for one person at our Soup Kitchens.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. Acts 2:46 Today Darius’ grandmother is up early – and Darius and Nicoleta are making their way towards the church to see her. Darius’ grandmother is a volunteer at a Bread Oven project, created by Mission Without Borders (MWB) and the local Church. Darius and Nicoleta pause for a minute in the cool room of the church. Darius’ aunt, Martina, is in the oven room with his grandmother, helping her make the last finishing touches to the dough and put it in the oven. The temperature is just right as sweat pours down the grandmother’s face – and Martina passes her a towel. In a village that can feel as though it has no purpose, the oven is becoming a point of interest and a hub of development. Skills that people have taken for granted, such as kneading the dough or knowing the exact timings and temperatures for baking it, have found a place to flourish. After the bread is placed in the oven, the people wait – knitting, talking together, and discussing Bible topics – a precious time for our MWB Coordinator and the Church Pastor to minister to and counsel the people. The children are also involved – and enjoy helping with the breadmaking. Together, they clean the big trays where the dough rose, and after the bread is taken out of the oven, they help beat the thick crust to make the bread taste delicious. Darius takes a small crumb from a
Almost 3/4 of families in rural areas struggle to provide a quality diet for their children.
loaf and breathes in the fresh smell before letting out a short sigh of appreciation. “This project is a great source of help to families living in poverty in this village – they are keen to be involved in the bread making process. Everyone brings what they can to the table and we make 125, 1kg loaves of bread three times a week. We want to continue this work and we put our heart into it so that more people can benefit from it,” said Paula Boruga, an MWB Coordinator who supports children in the village. “Since our work and the Bread Oven project started, we have seen families coming together a lot more,” said Pastor Rohan, of the local Church. “People are also more interested in attending church gatherings since they see we are doing something practical here and showing our love proactively.” Darius and Nicoleta are excited and happy to each take home a warm loaf of fresh bread – a food that symbolises to them the love and support that has come into their lives through MWB and the Church. With the help of our supporters, we can reach more people in villages with the Bread Oven project, pass on more skills and provide more freshly baked bread and support to families who need it. And one day, instead of being a forgotten village, it is our prayer that this community will be known for its love, hope and purpose in Christ – and of course, its wonderful bread.
One in ten children in Romania go to bed hungry.
More than half of all children under 18 in Romania are at risk of poverty.
“Now I have a second home” An elderly carer finds Christian community.
Every day the Soup Kitchens in Albania, another of the poorest countries’ in Europe, offer physical and spiritual food to people forgotten by society and public institutions. This food is offered without contempt or discrimination, but instead with much love – love that comes only from Christ. Hanke, one of the beneficiaries from the Soup Kitchen in Lapraka, says that the Soup Kitchen and the local church is the only good thing in her family’s life. Hanke describes her son Beni, his issues with mental illness, and how hard it’s been to manage and support him. “Beni was always a good boy, very communicative. He was a lovely son and a hard worker. But something happened to him when he emigrated to Greece. Since then, he hasn’t been the same,” said Hanke, 75. Beni, 46, like many Albanians, went abroad in search of work because of the lack of opportunity at home. But migrants can be vulnerable to exploitation and abuse by their employers – suffering everything from low wages or wage theft to sexual or physical abuse. Hanke said, “He went to Greece to earn money to provide for the family, but he got sick there. We don’t know what happened to him. But his mind stopped working the way it should. At night he goes out. I often go out to search for him. But
I’m tired and I can’t walk fast – I have pain in my feet. I wait, sleepless, until he comes back.” Beni was married and had a child, but his wife divorced him when he developed mental health problems. “I am the only one who takes care of Beni - I have to take care of my husband too – he is 86 years old now.” The family live together in one room in an old factory built in the communist era in the suburbs of the city, where Beni stays in bed all day in the corner of the room. They moved there from a remote village, hoping for a better life. Hanke, who married at 15, said, “In our village, there was nothing there. We couldn’t provide anything for our retirement. I used to work as a loader, carrying heavy loads on my back, but when the agricultural cooperatives were closed, I couldn’t find another job, and I didn’t have enough working years behind me to be entitled to a pension from the government. My husband worked in the mines, but his pension is meagre. We came to Tirana hoping that our later years would be better.” Hanke’s husband Ismali said, “I worked for 20 years as a coalminer. My father was a miner and he lost his life working underground. At that time, the state offered me my father’s job to work and provide for the family.” He stopped talking as he became lost in thought, thinking of the past.
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“You shall serve the Lord your God and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will take away sickness from among you.” Exodus 23:25
Hanke said, “Communism was bad, but capitalism is worse. We had so much hope that democracy would change our lives. But only bad things happened. The only good thing is the Soup Kitchen, and the church people here.” The Soup Kitchen run by Mission Without Borders (MWB) in Lapraka is where people living in poverty receive not only nutritious food, but the chance to become part of a community where they receive friendship, support and Christian teaching. (Top left – Hanke spending time talking with an MWB volunteer.) “I can’t imagine our lives without your support” Hanke said. “We have not only received warm meals, but care, love and warm words. That’s the reason why I accepted Jesus as my Lord. I got baptized some years ago.” Her eyes smiled, “Once we were neglected and forgotten by the state and society. But now I have a second home. I go there to eat a good meal, to talk, to study the Bible, to pray about my problems. People care for me there. Alma, the Soup Kitchen Coordinator is so lovely. She became a daughter to me. “ “I don’t feel alone. I can feed my son and myself, my husband too. So we can both be stronger and help Beni. Life is not easy, but MWB and the church bring love and care to us.” Every day, 140 vulnerable people – from the very young to the elderly – attend two Soup Kitchens in Albania. MWB and the local churches it partners with provide not just material support – but spiritual and emotional support too. As Albania continues to face chronic unemployment, high rates of emigration, and inadequate social provision, more and more people like Hanke are struggling to survive. With the help of our supporters, MWB can shine the love of Christ into the darkest of places – where hopelessness and despair would otherwise prevail.
You can help Create Communities of Love and Hope: • Please pray and ask God to bless this ministry. • Make a donation this month to support our vital community outreach in Eastern Europe. • Raise funds in your church, school or group – hold a Soup Kitchen lunch/night; bake bread, cakes, slices or biscuits to sell – fun ways to help us create community amongst the poor of Eastern Europe. • Contact our office for details of projects to support, like the Bread Oven or Soup Kitchensto feed the elderly. PO Box 7533 Silverwater NSW 1811 | 49/8 Avenue of the Americas Newington 2127 NSW Phone 02 9647 2022 Email australia@mwbi.org Website mwb.org.au