By Mihaela (Miki) Iordache, ROCK Director, Bucharest, RomaniaOn January 1, 2010, Romania's population was 21.5 million people and descending, partly because most adults think that there is no future for them or their children and so why have children? ...and partly because the ones who do bring children to life, don't have the means to raise them or give them the minimum and they end up being sick, or even die! What's bad, is that from the adult population only 5.8 million are tax payers and half of them are employed by state-run institutions with salaries paid by the budget. With less than 3 million people contributing to the economy of the country, Romania paid by the budget. With less than 3 million people contributing to the economy of the country, Romania is sinking fast, in debt and despair! If you only consider that a medium wage is somewhere around $450/month, and gas is $6/gallon which makes all other living expenses so high that most people barely make it from paycheck to paycheck just paying bills and eating less and less, you may get an image of how life in Romania is. Quality of life is on a free fall starting with June 1, 2010 when all retired people will receive 15% less money and all state employees will receive a check with 25% less than May. Child support will suffer a 15% cut as well, as if it wasn't enough that a parent will receive less with the monthly paycheck, the state decided to take away a percentage of the money a child receives. The next "solution" to get Romania out of the crisis, will be a VAT (state tax) of 24%, VAT being now 19%. The rate of mortality is three times bigger than the rate of birth... we will end up disappearing as a nation if we continue in this way.
All of this is just a signal that we will see more and more children left in hospitals, abandoned by their desperate, depressed, hopeless parents. We will see more and more people committing suicide because of their inability to cope with the sudden changes!
This is where ROCK comes in as an instrument, a God-sent utensil, to soothe the pain and give a little hope to the ones in distress, and to bring a smile to the faces of these miracles God is giving us; babies and children, human beings whose only fault is to have been born in times like this, and in a country like this! So yes, Romania is sinking, but God is rising above all inequities, all circumstances, poverty, despair, or death! He is the answer to our crisis, and His love is more obvious and more real in times like this!
ROCK manages to offer God's love, and share Jesus as the only Savior and hope to families in distress, foster children and their foster parents, and most of all, abandoned children left in the children's hospital, Victor Gomoiu Hospital. The perseverance and devotion our employees have shown to the secular world makes Jesus more real, and makes Him the only refuge and the only light in the lives of the less fortunate. (Making an invisible God, visible!) On behalf of Romanian babies and children who are part of ROCK ministries, I personally want to thank you for your dedication, for answering God's calling and for being sensitive to the needs of the ones who will be able one day to thank you in person, maybe from the position of the person in charge of the well being of Romanian abandoned children! All is possible with the Lord! And yes, you are all part of this, through prayer, physical presence, or financial help! Be blessed and bathed in His riches!
“For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills
be moved out of their places, but My love will not be
taken from you, or My agreement of peace broken,
says the Lord, who has had mercy on you.”
~ Isaiah 54:10 (NIV)
I had now idea how bad the economic conditions were for the country as a whole and thankful for the hope that ROCK is bringing to this country and to the children. Praying for God's power to move through Romania and the governmental systems to bring solutions and economic opportunity and blessing to this country in need.
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