August 7, 2000

Texans take hugs and hope to Romania's lonely orphans
___By Russ Dilday
___Buckner News Service
___TARGU MURES, Romania--As she walked among the baby cribs, Jeanne Law softly cradled a sleeping child in one arm while stroking the hair of another infant who was crying.
___"The lives of these children don't have a happy ending at this point," Law said.
___But that is something Law and a team of women from First Baptist Church of Lubbock hoped to change

NANCY NEAL of First Baptist Church of Lubbock, hugs an infant of the Leauganul Orphanage in Targu Mures, Romania. She was among 15 women from the Lubbock church who traveled to Romania simply to hold and hug orphans. (Photo by Russ Dilday)

with love and prayer during a recent visit to a Romanian orphanage.
___Moving in and out around the cribs, Law prayed softly for each child by name, asking God's blessing. For many of the infants, it was the first time anyone had prayed for them.
___In a country mired in desperate economic conditions and lacking resources, orphans have been thought of as outcasts. Orphan children in Romania receive only the most basic care and sparse attention during the crucial early years of life.
___Law, president of Texas Woman's Missionary Union, participated in a mission trip last month with 14 fellow church members sponsored by Buckner Orphan Care International, the international missions, evangelism and humanitarian aid arm of Buckner Baptist Benevolences. Buckner is well-known in Targu Mures and the surrounding county for its humanitarian aid in the county's orphanages and its evangelistic camps for children from those orphanages through Fundatia Buckner, the Romanian national branch of Buckner.
___The group worked each day in the Leaganul Orphanage in Targu Mures, caring for children ages birth through 7 years and praying for the safety, health and protection of each. The needs of the children varied, from healthy newborns whose parents cannot afford to care for them to special needs children with severe learning or physical disabilities. Leaganul is one of seven orphanages in Mures County, which reportedly has an orphan population of 10,000.
___Chronic understaffing in Romanian orphanages often results in caregivers only being able to give children the necessities, such as food and a change of clothing. Law found herself at times surrounded by children crying for attention--and love--from their cribs. It was a sight she said she never would forget as a mother and grandmother.
___It also was the reason she became a volunteer.
___"I have four children and nine grandchildren, and I know what it means

LLWLYN WALKER, member of First Baptist Church of Lubbock, give personal attention to young children in a Romanian orphanage. (Photos by Russ Dilday/Buckner)

to hold a baby," she said. "I know what to do when they cry, and I know how to love on them. The idea of these children not having any of the opportunities that mine have had is the thing that got me here."
___Law, who is completing a four-year term as Texas WMU president, said the trip "will forever change how I talk to others about missions.
___"There are many people who feel they are not equipped to do mission work because they feel they can't teach or they don't feel adequate to witness, but they don't make a female who doesn't know how to hold and love a baby," she said. "They can do this.
___"Missions is anything we can do that takes the love of Jesus Christ to those who do not know him," she asserted. "These children will not know in a week or two that we have been here, but God knows we have been here and held them and prayed for them.
___"Missions is touching the rest of the world with Jesus Christ, and that's what we're doing."
___The trip also "broadened my understanding and scope of the needs of the world--that there are people all over the world just like we are but who are deprived of the possibilities we have. I will share more that the children of the world need an advocate."
___She'll also change how she prays.
___"When I hear people speak of the children of the world, I will see these little ones," she explained. "I'll pray for them the rest of my life."



Send this story to a friend

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!