Bucharest

Short Term Service Trips with Mia’s Children

 in Ministry  tagged Bucharest / children / ministry / Romania / service by

Did you know Mia’s Children accepts short-term missions teams and individuals who want to help?

With the new building, we are able to accept groups more formally to work with the students on a short-term basis.

Projects might include:

  • teaching art, music, language or other subjects
  • taking the children out for activities like sports
  • helping to fix up and/or clean the Mia’s Children headquarters
  • leading Bible studies and/or group meetings
  • meeting individually with students and possibly their families
  • other work projects as Mia determines

All projects would be under the direction of Mia and the Romanian staff. Because of logistical challenges like housing, size, translation, and funding, we can’t accept every group that wants to visit, but we are happy to work with you as we and the Romanian team are able.

Contact us for more information.

Wolf Children

 in Abuse / Boys / Bucharest / Education / Family / Health / Home / Hope / Orphans / poverty  tagged abuse / Bucharest / children / education / health / home / hope / ministry / orphans / poverty / refuge / Romania by

(The following update from Bucharest tells the story of two new members from the “wolf group” of children –  arrivals at the mission who Mia and the rest of the association have very courageously taken in. Please consider their plight in your prayers this week. They represent exactly why Mia’s Children exists.)

◊ ◊ ◊

In times of concerns and social, economical, moral crises when people are so much focused on their own drama, trying to find answers to so many questions, God is giving us grace, prosperity, meeting His promises for us: “Don’t be afraid, I am with you !”

And He is!

Romania is going crazy through all this: the school system, the medical care, the social policy and not only these, are not covering the real life and the results are a disaster. More kids are abandoning school, all types of viruses are going around, and there are no medicines, no money, no proper education in school–the society seems that it is asleep.

But in spite of this, the Lord is giving us a special vision to redeem, to rebuild, to refill the precious spirits and hearts of those who are brought into our work. That’s why we accepted two more children, coming from” the wolf group”, Bogdan and Emi. At the age of 8 they look like 4-year olds, mal-nutitioned. Wild an scary as they lived for months and months in a place where they imitated the way beasts are walking and speaking.

It’s incredible how children can survive with no love, no care in this moment in the society and how they can try to survive, having refuge among animals, who became a kind of family for them. The first days they were speaking in strange language, imitating the sounds of animals. And it required great courage for Costi and Oana to bring them inside the group, to clean out their lice, to try to calm them and cut their wild hair, and to give them the first bath….the words are too poor, sometimes ….

It is tremendous to see how hard it has been for them, and also for the group, to all of us to change their habits. The kids are trying to adjust their new life, including the new boys. We notice the great progress the two boys are making in one month: they started to love to play with other children, to speak, to listen and respect simple rules, to take baths, to stay dressed.

They still are rocking back and forth and sucking their thumbs, and they want to be taken in your arms as babies, emitting different sounds that have no meaning for us. They started to love to be hugged and touched, and looking at the rest of the group, they want to start to write. Emi drew his first tiny house and gave it to Mia, telling her how much he loves her. He also hangs on Oana’s feet, and we discovered that one of his legs is shorter than the other. Please pray for these children and us to continue to improve their lives.

All of this is possible because God loves each of us so much, because of each of you who are praying, giving, trusting, helping to design a vision for a better tomorrow. This can be a way for a better society, an answer for a safer world, where love and peace and understanding and supporting can take place and help human beings to live in harmony with God and each other, rebuilding the moral fiber of God’s creation.

Thank you for your faithfulness and dedication, for your supporting Mia’s Children!

Update on Mia

 in Health / Mia / Prayer  tagged Bucharest / health / Mia's Children / ministry / prayer by

Please continue to pray for Mia. She has returned from Italy and is doing fine. The trip went safely and was informative, but now she will need further testing and possibly more medical attention later.

We’re sorry we can’t give more details but we want to wait until we know with more certainty what is afflicting her and what will need to be done.

In the meantime, we ask for your prayers in three ways:

  • For Mia to be encouraged and sustained through this process.
  • For Mia’s health to be restored in the coming days.
  • That God would grant strength and wisdom to Costi, Oana, and the rest of the staff and volunteers at Mia’s Children who have been helping Mia shoulder the burden in the past few weeks.

Thank you for your support! If you would like to send a message to Mia or to Mia’s Children and want to make sure it gets to them, just leave a message in the comments and we’ll pass it along.

Protect Mia’s Children from Fire

 in Fundraiser / Home  tagged Bucharest / fire / fundraising / Mia's Children / Romania / safety by

Our winter newsletter is on its way, and in it we’ve included pictures of the new headquarters, along with a few remaining needs for the building.

Many needs have already been met by volunteers in Romania and donors in the United States. One particularly large end-of-year gift went to cover 40 sets of dishes and a video monitoring system for the building!

One of the biggest needs still unmet is a set of fire alarms/smoke detectors. The building is so big that we need 10! Including installation, the cost comes to $700.

Will you consider giving to this effort? We are praying for seven $100 gifts, ten $70 gifts, or twenty $35 gifts. On our right sidebar we’ve added a fundraising thermometer that we’ll keep updated as together we reach this goal!

Christmas Reflections

 in Uncategorized  tagged Bucharest / children / Christmas / Jesus / mystery / Romania by

This season we glorify a God who allowed himself to be born into poverty and sadness so that we could have eternal home.

Jesus spent his childhood years first in a barn, then in a foreign country fleeing violence and terror. He learned a trade, but spent most of his ministry homeless. How many of Romania’s children can relate to such a life?

And here we celebrate his humble birth and infancy only days after Mia and all of Mia’s Children move into a permanent home, warm and safe.

Thank you for your love and support, for your prayers, time and many gifts. Some of you have been a part of this work since Mia first arrived in the United States 12 years ago, and some of you have become involved recently but are deeply invested. We are so grateful.

This Christmas, we wish you all of the joy Christ offers and a deepened awe at the mystery of a God who would be born into the slums in order to save slum-dwellers. Surely he came to save Romania’s children.

Merry Christmas.

Mia’s Children Foundation, USA

House Progress

 in Uncategorized  tagged Bucharest / charity / children / Christmas / construction / ministry / Romania by

Mia and some of the children, ready to move!

We’re making progress!

Mia says that the house is now finished on the outside and they are beginning work on the inside!

In fact, they are hoping to move everyone in around the middle of December so that they can be in their new home for Christmas.

In order to move in fully, Mia and the rest need an incredible amount of furniture and other supplies, including:

  • tools for kitchen
  • plates
  • blankets
  • sheets
  • carpets
  • bedroom furniture
  • living room furniture
  • shelving
  • tables
  • desks
  • sofa

Fortunately they already have help securing an oven and washing machine.

If you would like to help cover some of these costs, please contact us or make a donation! We will have a lot of options to give this holiday season, and we hope that you will keep Mia in your prayers and consider the new house in your Christmas gift plans!

Below we include some thoughts from Mia on the new home:

May our Lord be with you in all His glory!

The house it’s finished outside and soon will be inside!!! It’s incredible! God is so, so good!!!

The kids  are so happy. They just wait to be in the new place, not because they don’t like here, but because that will be the place where they’ll continue to grow, a stable home!!!

Well, I hardly can imagine that we’ll be in such a huge home!!!

I remember when Joan asked me to dream big!!! 12 years ago, I even didn’t know to dream!!!

Day by day Lord taught me to dream and you helped me to dream and fulfill the dream!!! I pray for stable place for the kids 12 years!!! Look where we are!!!! I’m so, so grateful for all what we received all these years what we had learn! It’s a story of life, of faith, of walking with Lord, learning to dream, reaching people at the Truth for the glory of God.

It’s awesome !!!

Please, help us to purchase some furniture for the rooms, carpets, plates, blankets, everything would be possible.

The owner of the place would like to be finished everything before Christmas and the kids to sleep inside starting with the 17th of December!!!! So, we need to move fast!!!

All our love and thanks, a lot of miss for you!

Blessings from Oana and Costy
Mia and all

“He’s Unlimited!”

 in Education / God / Health / Prayer  tagged Bucharest / children / cooking / Germany / God / health / medicine / ministry / physical therapy / Romania by

Petre (Peter) about 10 years ago

Petre (Peter) now, on his way to study cooking in Germany

Mia sends along this update:

Peter is in Germany and he sends you all his love. He works hard to find new things for his work, cooking.

The kids are great. They study hard, work hard. Some of the kids have coldness, but it’s normal for this period of time. Mario went to the hospital again, but right now he’s out of danger, praise the Lord!

The new building it’s finished outside and mostly inside. The owner ordered also bunk-beds for 32 children, wardrobe for all the kids. We’ll have to purches many items basic necessary for the new place. God is so, so good! He’s unlimited!

We should also pray for Mia’s health. She is in physical therapy for her spine and is seeking out some medical opinions on how to proceed.

What’s that? You hadn’t heard about our NEW BUILDING? Perhaps that’s because you’re not on our mailing list. To sign up, just contact us and we will send you our latest newsletter to get you caught up.

Mia’s Children and Human Trafficking in Romania

 in Abuse / addiction / Bible / Boys / Girls / God / Hope / poverty  tagged Bucharest / crime / God / human rights / human trafficking / poverty / Romania by

When girls live life out on the street, what risks do they face?

Along with well known threats like drugs and alcohol, crime, physical abuse and health problems, girls out on the street are at high risk of being trafficked.

Human trafficking generally occurs when someone – usually a female or a child or both – is forced into the sex trade by a person able to manipulate them through physical force or some other means of coercion. It happens all over the world, even in American cities. In Romania, generational poverty, high crime rates and government corruption mean even less protection for vulnerable girls than in many other countries.

The New York Times recently published a profile about one woman’s work to help human trafficking victims in Romania. Her organization offers a safe place for these young girls to recover.

After reading the girls’ stories, a question comes to mind: What is the solution to this crime’s high demand? How can we keep it from happening in the first place?

At Mia’s Children, we believe that stopping the demand for human trafficking in Romania has to begin with change from the inside out.

Criminals can always find their way around laws, and desperation from poverty makes them more willing to do terrible things for cash. What Romania needs is a heart change that helps traffickers and victims alike recognize their need for God. He is the only one who can defeat evil, who can break generational sin and save victims of oppression.

Mia’s Children works with boys and young men to help them know early on that they are loved, forgiven, and special in God’s sight. Thanks to Costel’s hard work in training up young men, we now have older leaders who can give the younger boys a Biblical understanding of right and wrong and teach them how to respect their elders and peers.

This task can be very difficult – boys sometimes arrive at our door having been trained to behave violently, especially against women  – but we have found that a little love goes a long way. And in the end we get to see Romanians who could have fallen into very dangerous lifestyles become Romanians who serve God and honor women.

Enough men like that, and we could see human trafficking end in Romania for good.

 

Ministering to the Roma

 in Abuse / addiction / Hope / Ministry / Orphanage / poverty / Racism / Roma people  tagged Bucharest / Ceausescu / children / Europe / gypsies / human rights / ministry / racism / Roma / Romania by

Recently journalists around the world have reported an increased resentment in Europe toward the Roma population. Italy, France and other countries are shutting down camps where the Roma populations live, and are making it harder for them to remain in their current countries.

Mia’s Children has been ministering to the Roma people since the association’s inception. Also known as gypsies, they have a long history in Romania and still settle in villages across the country and around Bucharest.

The Roma are the most impoverished and marginalized people group in Romania, and arguably in much of Europe. Speaking a different language and living a different lifestyle, they stand out in any country and have trouble assimilating. Their poverty has often bred other related problems like crime, violence, and abuse.

Some of our Roma children live in this village on the outskirts of Bucharest

Many of the young people who come to Mia’s Children are Roma. They live in villages on the outside of town and come from families in desperate poverty. In an attempt to bring in more money, many of the children have previously worked in street crime. Others found food in trash heaps.  This is certainly not the situation for every Roma child, but it is also not uncommon in Romania.

The parents struggle with substance abuse and violence. Some have too many children to look after them all, and end up putting one or two in an orphanage. Many of these extreme hardships and patterns of brokenness are worsened and perpetuated by racism from non-Roma.

We have found through the years the power of reaching Roma children. Being so at risk of human trafficking, drug crime, gang violence, and domestic abuse, they are in need of almost every possible provision. Food, education, medical attention, skills training, counseling and spiritual guidance all play a part in helping Roma children to become healthy members of Romanian society.

We meet most of our contacts at the association through referrals from other children and their families. Many of the Roma children are actually related.

Often the families are so grateful for the chance to see their children eat, play, go to school and thrive in their work that they spend extra time at the organization, talking with Mia, learning, and helping when they can.

Even so, the cycle of poverty and desperation among the Roma people in Bucharest is difficult to break, especially in adults who have seen a lot of brokenness.

But there is hope for melting even the hardest heart: parents are transformed, as we have been transformed, by watching their children changed in how they see themselves – as Roma yes, and as Romanians, as successful students and workers, as children of God.

Pray for Mia

 in Health / Ministry / Prayer  tagged Bucharest / children / Mia's Children / prayer by

Please pray for Mia Scarlat as she battles some health problems right now that might be serious. She has recently gone in for some tests and is waiting for results.

We expect to have more details very soon and will keep you posted.

  • Please pray that God will grant Mia health and allow her to continue her work with the children in Bucharest.
  • Pray that she will get much-needed rest and be free of worry as she waits on God to reveal His plan.
  • Pray for wise and discerning doctors.
  • Pray for Costel as he supports his wife even while struggling with his own health.
  • And pray for the children, that God will encourage them and give them peace.

Thank you for joining with us in supporting Mia.

Mia’s Children