O.C. Mission Brings Hope to Romanian Kids

Hope. It’s a commodity in short supply in Bucharest these days. The winter has been harsh, with abnormally low temperatures and gray skies. Last week, a group of 10,000 to 15,000 miners marched toward Bucharest from the Romanian countryside to protest the government shutdown of the mines. The last time they marched on the capital, a few years ago, there was widespread violence and several deaths. The people of the city have been on edge as they watch the news, awaiting the miners’ imminent arrival.

Also, there was a fire in one of the city sewers. It wasn’t a big fire. With all that Bucharest is going through it’s understandable that no one knew about it. But in that sewer lived four children, ages 10 to 14, and they are all dead. They are four of the “sewer kids” that our group came to Romania from Orange County to work with.

We are here in Bucharest with five adults and five youths from Community Bible Church (Assembly of God) of Fountain Valley to spend eight days working at Orasul Sperantei, a ministry started by Assemblies of God missionary Angie Thomson in 1994.

This ministry reaches out to some of the thousands of orphaned and neglected children on the streets of Bucharest. Most have made homes for themselves in the sewers, where they can escape from the subzero temperatures of the harsh winters.

To help these children, Angie Thomson opened Casa Sperantei (“House of Hope”) for 15 girls and Villa Sperantei (“Village of Hope”) for 25 boys. Both homes are filled with children who live there full time in a family-style atmosphere. In recent years, the ministry opened a rescue center where, for five days a week, they feed a nourishing meal to hundreds of children and adults still on the street.

Shortly after our arrival on Jan. 19, Debbie Ashbaugh of Huntington Beach spent a day in the rescue center helping the volunteers prepare meals. She was working alongside a Romanian girl named Anna, and they struck up a conversation. Anna still lives on the street, but comes to work in the kitchen to help feed others. “Why?” wondered Debbie. “Why would someone who has no home herself work so hard to help others?”

As Anna tells it, the rescue center reached out to her when she was a glue-sniffing addict on the street about a year ago. Center workers told her about God’s love and they showed her that love by feeding and caring for her when she was anything but lovable in most people’s eyes.

Now, she says, she loves the story of Job because she can identify with Job.

“Job lost everything,” says Anna, “but they couldn’t take away his hope. When I read about Job, and when I come to work here at the rescue center, I know that there is hope for me too. And because of that hope I know I won’t always have to live on the streets.”

The center holds a church service every Sunday night for the street kids to enjoy. On this one evening no food is served, just church. But it is the one time of the week when the center is the most crowded. In the small room where they usually feed 25 at a time, there are 50 street kids packed together to pray, sing songs of praise and hear a scriptural message.

Why do they come even when there is no food, just church?

Cornel may have said it best. Two years ago, Cornel was a glue-sniffing addict lost on the streets. Today, he works in the center, where he has painted the walls with beautiful murals.

“They gave me food, and that filled my belly for a while,” he told Marian Louis of Garden Grove. “But I couldn’t get off the streets because my heart was the same. I had to change from the inside out. That’s work that only God can do.”

Hope may be in short supply, but it is here. It is here because a handful of dedicated missionaries work long hours for no glory. They do it to show these “throwaways” that they love them and that God loves them.

We have come to tell them that we love them too. And because we love them, they know God loves them. And that gives them hope. And in a place like this a little hope goes a long way.

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On Faith is a forum for Orange County clergy and others to offer their views on religious topics of general interest. Submissions, which will be published at the discretion of The Times and are subject to editing, should be delivered to Orange County religion page editor Jack Robinson at 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Submissions also may be faxed to (714) 966-7711 or e-mailed to jack.robinson@latimes.com.