Speranţă

Amazing to think we have been back for 8 days. As we travelled we drove through snow and temperatures of minus 2, for the first few days it was wet and muddy but today it feels like spring and a lot warmer. It has been great to have Jackie with us and to share our work here . I have caught up with paperwork and Jackie has helped to sort boxes and bags. we have distributed aid to families and other charities who we work in conjunction with.

As well as catching up with the families living in the Hands of Hope homes we have visited around 25 other families with food parcels some who live in a village near the Ukraine border. The village is about 10 miles away over rough roads on the way back the Pajero rescued 2 vans. First a white box van stuck in the mud then a tip up truck which had landed in a ditch!

Highlight of last week was to attend the baptism of one of the ladies who lives house built by Hands of Hope a few years ago.

Last Friday we went to our friend Liviu's church and heard the renowned speaker Alejandro Rodriguez from YWAM Argentina. A message to encourage and empower the young people in the church, He spoke in Spanish and was translated into Romanian and we understood most/some of it!

On Saturday we had 18 children in the cottage and spent a lovely 3 hours doing craft activities and playing games. Hope the weather will continue to improve so we can get the bikes and outside games out this weekend.

On Monday Jackie and I spent time at the Star of Hope Centre in Dorohoi and it was wonderful to see how much progress some of the children have made in the past 8 weeks.

The warmer and drier weather has enabled outside work to commence and the men at Cobila have been helping to improve the site by laying drainage tubes. We hope it will soon be warm enough to get planting in the garden and on the fields.

Funds were donated to buy another goat to supply milk for the families in the homes at Cobila. now all we have to do is source the goat, went to the market this morning and to another farm this afternoon but not found the right one yet. Hope to contact someone else tomorrow so watch this space. The cow at Cobila is threatened with the BBQ if she takes much longer to become prgnant! She was named "Speranta" or in English Hope, by the guy who looks after her and she has given lots of lovely milk but needs to be in calf again so this can continue.

please get in touch if you want more info about work in Romania and let us know what you think of the blog. ruth@handsofhope.org.im

3 people, 3 days, 3000kg, 3000km

Jackie, Chris & Ruth, left the Isle of Man on the Friday evening ferry and arrived in Dorohoi 3 days later. 3000km (1864miles) driven carrying a 3000kg load of aid and building supplies. Having travelled for over 27 hours we stopped for our first night in Nurnburg. Day 2 we crossed the rest of Germany, Austria and Hungary arriving at the hotel on the border around midnight. our final day was the drive across Romania. This final leg is only 361km (225 miles) and we would expect it to take us 8-9 hours of almost solid driving. On Monday it took us 10 hours as we encounted heavy snow across the mountains. we arrived about 6.30pm and spent a couple of hours unloading the car and catching up with the families at Cobila. A lovely welcome from them all. It was cold this morning around 0C, apparantly it was snowing here at the weekend, now we only have heavy rain which means mud mud and more mud. Today we have been busy showing Jackie around Dorohoi, meeting families and more unpacking & sorting clothes ready for distribution.

Leaving IOM for ROM

Well we are all packed up and ready to leave family and friends in the Isle of Man and reunion with friends in Romania. We have travelling with us Jackie and we are taking a trailer with some aid but also the first delivery of house parts for the building project this year. Thanks to James and all those who have helped putting the timber frame panels together, sorting clothes, mending bikes and loading the trailer.

We have a maximum load and the next three days will be spent trundling across Europe hoping to arrive in Dorohoi Monday evening.

Building team and a group from Living Hope Community Church will be arriving in 5 weeks, lots to do before then.

Ruth & Chris in Isle of Man

Ruth & Chris in Isle of Man! Its amazing how many people say "are you back here for a holiday". In the past 2 weeks, we have spoken about the charity to home groups, attended meetings, written newsletters, spoken at church services, sorted bags of donated clothes etc and Chris has also been working most days and trying to finish renovating our bathroom here in the evenings! Having said all that we are thoroughly enjoying our time back here, it is great to be with our family and catch up with friends.

So what else is good about being back on the Isle of Man- having the opportunity to walk the dog in the beautiful Manx countryside-50 minutes walk on Marine drive this morning! The NSC swimming pool-34 lengths in 37 minutes this morning! drinkable tap water, & the fantastic shower in our almost completed bathroom.

Please get in touch if you would like us to come and talk to you about the work in Romania. This year is going to be busy and we would love to share some of our vision with you.

Half way

Half way home and stopped for the night in Marktheidenfeld, Germany. a small hotel that we have stopped in a few times now and we received a lovely welcome from the owners. We have driven around 1000miles in the past 32 hours and on the whole a smooth run. Though Chris did have my heart in my mouth as he overtook a lorry coming down one of the Romanian mountains. Picture this lorry going round a hairpin bend, Chris cut the corner by diving down a rough track and coming out on the road below, ahead of the lorry!!!!!!!!!! Praise the Lord for our Pajero and its off road tyres!
we will be the road again in the morning, heading for Dunkirk and an evening ferry to Dover. then ferry to Isle of Man on Sunday afternoon.

Midnight in Dorohoi

Midnight in Dorohoi and we aim to be on the road for the first leg of our drive home at 7am in the morning. if all goes to plan we will cover around 550 miles tomorrow and get as far as the Austrian/Hungarian border. It will take us around 12 hours- slow going until we reach the smooth roads of the Hungarian motorways.
Today has been a mixture of administation, cleaning the apartment, packing up and visits to families. We took a couple of hours off this evening and had a lovely time of fellowship with our Romanian home group.
We will certainly miss folks here over the next few weeks, but are looking forward to being with our family and friends on the island. Noapte buna si Domnul sa va binecuventeze.

New Year

Blog writing has been slack recently. We enjoyed being home with our family on the Isle of Man over Christmas and then seeing Chris's family in Dorset. Then I had a suprise 4 days in Majorca, accompaning Chris on a business trip to Palma. Chris was busy every day but i did enjoy a little time off and enjoyed the sunshine and 17C temperature.

We had a really warm welcome back in Dorohoi from our friends and the families at Cobila. When we arrived back last weekend the snow from before Christmas had almost all melted and the ground was waterlogged, the well at Cobila tainted with surface water. The salvage pump was put to good use to pump out the well and now it is running clear again.

It has been a busy week catching up with families and also planning for the year ahead.

Tomorrow we will have all the children in the resource room for an activity afternoon and as they have an extra day off on Monday I expect we will be there then too.

Today was a day of paper work and the rounds of various offices to pay annual taxes . Nothing as easy as on line payments. Between us 7 different offices/banks today to queue in.

We pay an annual amount to have a parking space (see picture) at the back of our apartment block. So when I paid the apartment tax for rubbish collection I asked if I should pay the parking fee in the office along the corridor-as i had last year. No said the lady that office has moved to the other side of town, go there and get a ticket to say you want to renew your parking permit, then bring it back here to me and pay the amount. THEN take the receipt back across town and leave it with them, THEN go back next week to collect your parking permit! Its one way to get excercise.

The Pajero had another puncture this week, this time a screw through the tyre (bolt and nail on previous occasions). thankfully Chris was able to get it repaired with a patch for £2.50.

Snow again today and more snow and cold weather forecast for next week. This time last year it was -25C. Hope we dont see it that cold this year.