“What are you reading?”
Irina, sitting outside the home for the elderly in Dumbrava, Romania, responded in a language I don’t understand. As an avid reader, I was drawn to this woman with an open book on her lap.
But Irina couldn’t see to read her book. She could only make out some of the photographs.
We ruled out cataracts, and a caregiver confirmed that Irina had tried, with no success, all the reading glasses I had brought previously. It seemed that Irina simply needed prescription eyeglasses.
Easier said than done.
Even if Irina had the means, there are no optometrists for miles and miles.
My word-lover’s heart broke. I was determined to get glasses for Irina so she could read her precious book!
God’s answer came in the form of an I-See Sight Enhancement Kit. We held fundraisers targeting the $950 needed to purchase the kit. Generous donors quickly gave $700. A woman at a church in Virginia was so moved when I told Irina’s story that she gave the remaining $250.
Four months later I returned to Dumbrava as a part of my work as an advocate/missionary with Elder Orphan Care. Irina was in bed. When she saw me, she pulled the covers back to reveal the same book I had seen in August.
“Hold on, Irina! You'll have glasses in April! Hold on!”
On April 8, 2013, exactly eight months to the day I first met Irina, our team used the innovative I-See eye chart (with hand symbols, not letters) and a lens ladder to perform her eye exam. There were smiles and tears as Irina’s new glasses were adjusted to her face.
And then the moment of truth: “Irina, where’s your book? Read to us!”
I couldn’t believe my ears when her words were translated: “I gave it away.”
There was no other reading material in the room. But then I remembered a book in my backpack. My friend Gail, who does mission work in neighboring Hungary, had given it to me the week before I came to Romania.
“I don’t know if you’d have any use for this,” she said. “It’s in Hungarian. The title translates ‘You are Precious.’”
“You never know,” I remember saying.
I pulled the book from my bag, “It’s in Hungarian, but it’s the only book we have.”
That’s when our Romanian translator spoke the most beautiful words ever: “Irina is Hungarian.”
And with that, Irina took the book from me, gently touched the cover, opened it, and read the copyright information!
Then she turned to the first page and began reading, reading the truth, the truth that she is precious. So precious that God provided not only eyeglasses, but a book to read in her own language.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and the blind that they can see again” (Luke 4:18).
Kim serves as a missionary/advocate for homeless elderly in Romania through Elder Orphan Care. She brags on God at her Wow Dee Wow! blog. Kim prays that her brief stories recounting God's amazing ways will inspire and challenge you to brag on God, too!
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Lydia opened the refrigerator door and took out a jar.
“Here,” she said, handing it to me, “I want you to have this too.”
It was a fitting, and not surprising, conclusion to a wonderful day with my Romanian friends, Lydia and Peter, and her parents Ioan and Floare.
I’m grateful to our common friend who knows about my work with homeless elderly in Romania and thought I’d want to meet Lydia, who also lives in North Carolina, just 30 minutes away.
At first Lydia and I just exchanged emails and she read my Elder Orphan Care blog. But even before we met face to face, she and her husband began making donations to EOC. Eventually we scheduled time for coffee and Lydia asked about other ways she could help. During my next visit she filled my car so full of needed items for the elderly I could barely see to drive.
Last fall my friend Janna decided she wanted to treat our mission-trip team to a Romanian meal, so she asked me to contact Lydia to see if there’s a grocery store in Charlotte that carries Romanian food.
Lydia responded with the requested information, but then she did what I have come to expect from my Romanian friends, both there and here.
She invited us to her home. She said her mother could teach us how to make sarmali (cabbage rolls). She insisted they would buy the ingredients, we’d fix the rolls, then share a meal together.
And so it went. Floare smiled and motioned “this much” of each ingredient. Lydia translated as needed. Amazing aromas began to fill the kitchen. When the rolls were ready to boil, Lydia said we had time to visit the grocery store we’d asked about initially.
In the European aisle at the International Mart, Lydia pointed to a large sausage and said it was especially delicious. She suggested we buy it to serve with our team meal. I looked at the price tag and determined it was out of my budget. But after I checked out with the few items I bought, Lydia handed the sausage to me. She had purchased it as a gift for our team.
Back at her home we feasted on the cabbage rolls. Hours after we arrived, we left smiling, stomachs and souls full.
Because Lydia and her family are so generous and hospitable, our mission team enjoyed a delicious Romanian meal. It would have been far easier for Lydia to simply give me the address to the grocery store. Instead, all our lives were made richer because when I asked for information, I received an invitation.
“Always be eager to practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13b NLT).
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