NEWBOLD BAPTIST CHURCH WEB SITE

I’ve been hunting round for my scraper and de-icer this week as the first signs of winter have frozen themselves onto my car window screen.  It’s the time of year when we crank up the heating and dig out the scarf and gloves, but winter took on a whole new meaning to me when I met the residents in Cecechi in Arad, Romania.  

You see Cecechi is a slum, where men, women and children live in conditions that I had only previously seen on the news.  Families with children and grandparents live in a one roomed mud hut with corrugated metal roofs if they’re lucky.  There are no windows and is often no door, just a wide open gap, so keeping out the bitter cold in temperatures of down to -35 is pretty impossible.

Networks, Romania is a Christian charity.  The charity volunteers have worked to build relationships and understanding in Cecechi for some time; trying to unravel some of the many complex problems of abject poverty.  To keep a fire going in the winter as a vital heat source requires wood, wood that suddenly becomes in scarce supply once the frost, ice and snow set in.  People are desperate and will burn anything to stay warm.  

Each year at the beginning of winter, the congregation at Newbold donate enough money to keep 20 families in enough wood for the whole winter.  We know Networks will distribute wood to the families who need it most.  We remember those families by keeping cinnamon sticks in our homes.  Every time we smell or see the sticks, we think of and pray for those families living on the edge this winter.

For more information on all activities that Networks do in Romania, see their website: www.networks.org.ro 

Ruth