Raising Money for Romania

Since I was 19 years old, I have felt compelled to work in a developing nation where I could work to alleviate suffering in a meaningful way. In 2005, I experienced a significant "calling" to Romania when I joined a church team and served a Christian youth orphanage in Calarasi. We gave food to families living in a one-room hut, dirt for the floor and just a bowl for a toilet. There was nowhere for them to wash, they found it hard to find one meal a day for their family and the children just had the clothes they stood up in. We visited patients in dimly lit hospitals who shared a bed with other patients because there wasn't sufficient space. The most significant moment for me during those two weeks was when I met Marianna, 15 years old. I had just seen the dim, impersonal, uniform dormitory where she slept and I was deeply focused on our conversation and the things I'd brought with me to give to her when she went inside and brought out to me a cross-stitch that she had been working on as a gift to me. She had nothing, and what she had, she gave to me. I was overwhelmed by the gesture and overwhelmed with what I could only describe as God's love for her. I cannot explain it adequately, but this moment started a deep love and a long dream to return to Romania to live and work with people still bound by poverty and suffering. I have several informal agreements with different charities located in Romania.

~ Kristina Grace