BondServant
News
February 2003
A Newsletter by the Anton
Osoinach Family...
Hopes
for Others
Arad, România
osoinach@xnet.ro
We are
currently in our sixth week of snow. This has been a
record-breaking year for snow in Arad. Fifty years have passed
since this much snow has fallen. At one point there was close to 1½
feet of snow on the ground. After three weeks it began to melt,
but before it had finished melting, it began snowing again.
I have
heard that the Eskimos have fifty different words to describe
snow. Each word they use tells information about the type of snow.
We have not needed fifty different words, but we have had several
different kinds of snow. We have learned that
dry
snow
cannot be formed into snowballs
because it falls apart. We have seen
snow that was small,
but perfectly
formed crystals. With this snow we
could study the intricate patterns that God has formed. We have
had very wet big flakes
that seem to explode breaking apart
when they hit us, going in many different directions. We have had
snow that seemed to come down in slow
motion.
“Just
as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed
in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity
of
God who makes all things.”
Eccl
11:5
This
has been a new experience for us and we have enjoyed our time in
the snow and the opportunity to marvel at a new aspect of God’s
wonderful creation. The weather has slowed us a bit.
Anne and the children are pushing ahead with school, while
I still visit the nursing homes in the area. Anne keeps us all on
track, moving in the right direction and helping us to not get
overextended going in so many different directions at once.
Heidi’s Bible club has been on hold since the middle of
December as we wait for the weather to improve. Heidi still goes
to Pecica to teach in the kindergarten each Friday even though the
road can be quite an adventure on the cold snowy mornings. She has
had days when as few as five children have come because of the
cold.
Benjamin has continued to have the Gara Bible club which
meets each Saturday at five. Normally Heidi and Benjamin cross the
street to the train station and call the people there to come.
They go from room to room inviting whoever wants to come. Then
they go to the manhole cover outside and call down into it. Many
of the street people moved underground when the colder weather
arrived. It is odd to watch Benjamin and his helpers teaching the
lessons, playing the games, and singing the songs while they (and
everyone else) still wear their hats, gloves, scarves, and coats.
They put on and take off their gloves to be able to turn the pages
in the Bible or the songbook. The room temperature is much the
same as the temperature outside, but at least there is no wind.
The people who come range in age from 8 to 27 years old.
Emmy Grace is still helping with the different clubs, but
has not been out in the courtyard as much with the onset of
winter. She would be happy to be outside, but the other children
are not coming out as much as they had been. Christina (17), a
friend who lives in the next building, comes over each week and
reads the Bible with Emmy. Emmy is really learning to read very
well in Romanian.
We have been going to the café for the street people more
as a family than we had in the past. So it is no longer Heidi,
Benjamin and I who go, but Anne and Emmy Grace also go. The people
there really appreciate the attention and care. Sorin, the man who
runs the cafe, is grateful for the help because he is usually by
himself with 35 or more street people.
Anne has been such a blessing to me at the nursing
homes—especially the big one in Arad. It is so hard to get to
each of the 213 people and give them the time they would like by
myself. When Anne is there, the people are so happy to have her to
talk to. And often Anne will understand someone whom I have
trouble understanding. There are others who she can’t understand
at all, but they are often the people I understand very well. It
is funny how often that happens. I will be trying to speak to a
man or woman in one bed and
they will not be able to understand me, but the person in
the next bed will understand. So I have said it once, then the
person in the next bed will repeat what I have said adding some
word I did not get quite right, and the conversation will continue
on like that. I speak in Romanian, then one of the old people who
really understands what I am saying will say it over again for the
whole room to hear. I guess this is sort of a Romanian loudspeaker
system since I cannot seem to bring myself to yell at the people
who are hard of hearing.
In some ways this makes me think of the many different
types of snow—
one person
understands me and another understands Anne. Some of the street
people respond to Heidi, while others follow Benjamin around. Emmy
Grace goes outside in the afternoons and visits with Mrs. Leak
while she feeds the dogs and cats. We are all very similar
spending time with different people, but God has made each of us
individuals and has given each of us a different role to play in
His plan, just as He has made each of the snowflakes different
from every other snowflake.
“For
by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities
—all things have been created by Him
and for Him.”
Col 1:16
Thank
you so much for your prayers for Anne’s mom and her Uncle Herbie.
They both have had surgery and are well on their way to full
recovery.
Please
continue to pray for us to have God’s wisdom as we seek
to faithfully serve Him here in Romania.
Contact
Information
Please
go to Contact Info Page... Thank
You!
