Honor the Lord with your wealth,
with the firstfruits of all your crops;
then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
and your vats will brim over with new wine.
Proverbs 3:9-10
Lord we ask that you protect the health of our children
and staff as the weather gets colder. Amen.
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
3 John 1:2
Lord we ask for mercy on Mia’s health as she struggles with the fracture in her inner ear. Give her the capacity to hear well and to continue serving you with her body. Give any doctors who examine her wisdom in how or if to proceed with any treatment. And if at all possible, we ask for you to heal her completely. Amen.
Open Door Medical Clinic – Bucharest
Did you know Mia’s Children has our very own medical team?
Okay, well not exactly, but we do have a special place to take the kids if they get sick or need checkups.
Drs. Linda and Milt Hanson, a US couple, run a medical mission in Bucharest called Open Door Medical Center.
From their website:
Situated in the city of Bucharest, capital of Romania, Open Door Medical Center is a full-service family medicine clinic that primarily serves low-income Romanians, gypsies, and refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Services include prenatal care and well-child care, geriatrics, and preventive care. The medical staff includes Drs. Milton and Linda Hanson, associate professors with University of Minnesota School of Medicine.
Most patients are very low-income Romanians, many of whom make less than $40 per month. The Romanian government provides no safety net medical care, and most low-income persons simply go without, but for the charity care offered at Open Door.
Refugees from Africa, and Iraqis and Iranians living in Romania also frequent Open Door Medical Center, as do some Americans and Western Europeans living in Romania.
Open Door’s two physicians are a husband and wife team. Milton and Linda Hanson are associate professors with University of Minnesota School of Medicine.They first came to Romania in 1994, learned the Romanian language, received their hard-won Romanian medical licenses, and then initiated the Open Door Medical Foundation in 1997.
For many years Mia has been able to bring the children and her own family to the center for quality, compassionate health care. What a blessing in a country with overburdened medical programs and a struggling economy.
Learn more about Open Door Medical Center and how you could get involved with their work.
(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.)
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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!
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:
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.
Mia is flying to Milan today to see a doctor about some problems with her ear that might be very complicated. She has seen numerous doctors in Romania to no avail, and now she has the chance to get a firm diagnosis through a specialist.
Our great thanks to friends from Switzerland who took it upon themselves to find a doctor and fly her to Italy!
Please pray that the doctors will know what to do and how to help her. Please also pray for Costi and Oana – Mia’s son and daughter-in-law – as they temporarily lead the mission while Mia is away.
Mia is in great spirits. She writes, “Through faith we are confident that His plan for us is beyond what we can imagine, and even through pain and suffering His glory is perfect.”
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.
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