Mar. 13, 2007

Life In Galati

Dear friends and family,

It is already March and by the time you receive this we will have been here in Galati, Romania for about a month and a half. Everything still seems new. However, more than ever we feel that we are where we should be. We are enjoying the opportunity to be working together and to be a part of the community here.

We are plugging away at language learning. It will take several more months for us to carry on basic conversations but we are learning something new everyday. Since we live with a retired Romanian couple, Mihai and Lenuta Costin, who do not speak any English, we have had to exhaust our Romanian to understand one another. This has been a great way for us to learn Romanian.

It has truly been a joy to live with the Costin's. They are very hospitable people being very patient with us with the language. We probably sound like this to them: "Do you want this apples?" Or "can you I use the kitchen to you make dinner?" Romanian grammar is tricky. This has been a challenge for us but we are slowly learning. We take language lessons four times a week about two hours a day with Lau, who is on staff with us and also studying linguistics at the local university.

Almost every night we have the opportunity to speak with the Costins about the day, what we learned and about their lives—how many brothers and sisters they have and how it was living through communism, etc. Living with this family has been great in every way, except that we miss the freedom to invite people in to our home.

So these first few weeks we have been trying to adjust to new culture, new language, new jobs and new relationships. All of these adjustments have been hard on some days, but most days we have loved the newness of being here. Besides language learning and getting to know everyone here, we have spent much time trying to discern what our roles might be here. Robin has been working with the older teenage girls who come to the center. Lately, there have been 3 girls that come daily, and they share in times of art, sewing, singing, tutoring, sharing concerns, praying, and simply talking about issues that they face as young women. Robin has been blessed to see how these three young women have grown despite the broken homes they live in, as she is only just now learning about. She also has begun thinking about the health needs of the children here and hopes to begin with teaching some health classes with the older girls. I have been spending much time studying Romanian, playing with the children during "recess" and preparing for the Servant Team that Robin and I will be leading beginning this August. Robin and I have started to look at the applications for possible Servant Team members.

For those of you who are familiar with some of the people Robin knew from her previous time in Galati, we have reconnected with Bogdan and Doamna Carp. Bogdan is in his late 20's and has been living on the streets of Galati for many years. He is now living at his mother's home due to unexplained partial paralysis to his arms and legs. Though we pray for his healing, we are in a way thankful that this situation has prevented him from getting drugs, and we believe he has been drug free for several months now. We are hopeful that Christ will continue to heal Bogdan in all ways, and that Bogdan will be given the strength to live out the Christian life that he speaks about so often.

Doamna Carp was Robin's host mom for 4 months in 2004. Five years ago, she adopted from an orphanage a little girl, Lacramiora, who is severely mentally handicapped. At that time, Lacramiora was 5 years old, and could not walk, talk, use the toilet, or feed herself. Doamna Carp has taught her to all of these things. We have visited them several times now. Doamna Carp has been teaching us what she knows best: Romanian cooking. She only knows a few words in English, her favorite phrase being, "Hungry?" No matter how you answer the question, she is sure to be generous in filling your plate(s)! Please pray for Doamna Carp as she is experiencing multiple health problems and there are no close family members present. She is worried that she will not be able to care for Lacramiora much longer.

If you have access to internet, we encourage you to check out the Word Made Flesh website: www.wordmadeflesh.com There you will find lots of information on the community we are a part of and ways to be praying for us in Galati, Romania. And you will get a good idea of who we work with everyday. If you have email, please email us so we can put you on sour email list. Our email address is: joshandrobinfowler@yahoo.com

There are so many things on our hearts and minds that we would like to share with you if we had the time and space: living in community with like minded Christians, the Kingdom of God among the poor, the richness of the Orthodox Christian faith, the beauty of learning another language, trying to think of creative ways to help bridge ethnic and ecumenical divides and more. But we will save these for later.

Your love and prayers continue to be such a blessing to us.

With great hope,
Joshua and Robin

P.S. Below is a poem that I, Joshua, wrote.

A Reading Of Ezekiel

I tried to leave my place but again I found myself
caught in the chill of the night behind my desk, reading,
taking a trip through the Lebanese trees—making my way
through the midnight fog and cooled sand of Ezekiel's poems,
through the forgotten language of laments and prophets,
shepherds and ancient cities. This somehow made my mind
burst into flame for hours until I had to shut off the lamp
and walk to bed. Yet even while I took off my clothes and slid in
under the sheets, I inhaled the thought of a life to come
that would not only be observed but smelled and heard,
becoming more than it ever has been,
bones becoming flesh.