This particular trip has required much forethought in the travel arrangements. We began with an eleven hour flight to Paris, four hour layover there, then followed by a three hour flight to Bucharest. We arrived just in time to meet with the missionary couple, the Dodges, Dr. Grecu, and his colleague, Dr. Alexandra and a resident student. That meeting lasted only 30 minutes, but was very effective in planning details for the upcoming project in September. Dr. Alexandra spent January, February, March in SLC doing an observership at the Moran Eye Center in Corneal procedures. Dad helped to facilitate this opportunity for her. She is very excited to have our next project for Romania focus on Cornea issues. On Friday morning, we met Dr. Alexandra at Regina Maria clinic for the homeless where she showed us their equipment and we discussed what to bring in September. We also had a good meeting with Dr. Raed Arafat who is in the ministry of health and a champion for the work the Church is doing in Romania. His background is Palestinian, but he has done very well for Romania in helping their country with emergency medicine, and preparedness. It is so interesting to see the good relationships with government officials which each humanitarian couple continues to foster as the turnovers occur with new couples every 18 months.
The history of Romania is full of very tragic and horrific events as is so common among third world countries. The Romanians are still trying to recover from the post WWII communist oppression. This monument in front of the government building depicts the heart of the executed communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu which occurred on this spot in the picture on December 25, 1989. The apartment building depicts the housing which was built when Ceausescu relocated many people to Bucharest to work on his economically disasterous projects. It is estimated that 2,000,000 people were direct victims of communist era repression. This church was moved to this location in order to build the People's Palace and create Ceausescu's "little Paris" in Bucharest. These ambitious projects helped to plunge the country into economic chaos and starvation. So when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the timing was right for the revolution.
This is a picture of the People's Palace from our Hotel. We are standing on the balcony of the Palace with the mini "Champs Elysee" or Paris Main Street in the background. The Palace is used for Parliament meetings currently. The fountains of the steet are in total dis-repair.
We enjoyed our time with the Dodges, Martin and Charlotte very much. The church is growing slowly and losing members due to many young Romanians leaving the country to find better pay and employment. Joining the European Union has allowed freedom of movement for citizens. The Dodges are doing much good in futhering the humanitarian goals of the church in providing Christlike service to those in Romania, and in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ out of obscurity.
Village museum in Romania. Very interesting about life in 1700-1900.
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