Romanian Orphan Ministries' Blog

God’s Salvation Vs. Traumatized Orphan

The harshness of the lives some of our orphans have led is sometimes mind boggling. But the horrors they have endured are no match for God’s incredible love and salvation. 

I have written recently about a new addition to our Beauty from Ashes Center for Orphan Girls, Sarmanca. Through tears Sarmanca opened up to our house mother, Eva, and told her about how her husband let his new group of “friends” use her in perverse ways and how he would rent her out for money! 

We were floored and disgusted. 

Eva prayed with her and all Sarmanca could say was, “I want to be clean, can I ever be clean?” 

After we posted a video on our Facebook page about Sarmanca’s life, our director, Andreea, sent it to the members of her church. They felt very burdened to do something for Sarmanca. The whole church began praying for her. 

Sunday, Sarmanca went to church with Andreea and she prayed to accept Christ into her life! She is passionate about reading her Bible and praying. She wants to be baptized as soon as possible! 

God has made her clean! Her past is no match for His salvation. 

The road to recovery will not be easy. Already she has faced many hurdles. But the spiritual journey has started. Please pray for her and her new life in Christ!

Babies and Spiritual Growth

Comfort. Don’t lie. You know you like it. You know you want it. We all seek after it, consciously or not. 

Change. Growth. These are things that require effort. They require struggle. Hardships. Suffering. 

I am on the cusp of becoming a father for the first time. Now, mind you, for the last eight years I have been a father to an untold number of orphans here in Romania. 

If you told me today that tomorrow I would be responsible for twenty more orphans – that I would be their father, would have to provide for them, instruct them, protect them – I would be ok. It wouldn’t be anything all that new for me. 

But the thought of this one little, tiny baby – who should be here any day now – is enough to shatter my little world. It’s scary. What do I do with her? I don’t know anything about babies. Hardened, damaged orphans…ok, I can handle that. A fragile little baby…this will require change, growth, struggle. 

Now, don’t get me wrong; I will rise to the occasion, as hundreds of millions of fathers have before me. But this experience has brought to light my reticence to change and grow. 

But it is precisely change and growth that God demands. Our sanctification is His concern. Because He loves us, He cannot leave us in our harmful, sinful condition. He must continue to purify us daily and make us into the likeness of His Son. Otherwise, He wouldn’t be a loving Father. 

God is calling us to follow Him. He is calling us to allow Him to purify us, to sanctify us. 

Many times, we are just too comfortable to hear.

A Rough Life, Indeed

So we have welcomed a new girl, Sarmanca, at our Beauty from Ashes Home for Orphan Girls and I’d like to tell you a little bit about her. 

Sarmanca grew up in one of the worst orphanages around, Cighid. Many of the orphans there died from mistreatment and neglect. As a teenager she came to Oradea to stay at a private foundation. 

Soon after, she was married to a young man who also grew up with her at Cighid. Their marriage has not been a bed of roses. 

Sarmanca decided to go to Italy to work for a friend. She was beaten, maltreated, and not paid a single dime. 

Back in Romania, her husband got in with a new crowd of friends. He wanted to go live with them. Sarmanca did not agree to this. According to her, these new friends use drugs, have perverse sexual relationships among themselves, have beaten Sarmanca (she has wounds on her face), and are involved in rape and human trafficking. 

Some of our girls saw Sarmanca at church on Sunday and told her to talk to us. She was living on the streets, sleeping in cars or at a homeless shelter at night, having been effectively abandoned by her husband. 

We immediately wanted to help her. However, I wanted to talk to her husband. There are usually two sides to every story. I told Sarmanca to tell him to come by. I did not want to house another man’s wife without at least talking to him. But he has no phone. He doesn’t work. He spends all day long with his new “friends”. 

Yesterday I told Sarmanca to go tell him that we want to speak with him. She told me that she is afraid to go over to these people’s apartment. She is afraid of being beaten (again), raped, or trafficked to God knows where. 

However, in talking and interacting with Sarmanca you wouldn’t know all these things about her. She expresses a real desire to draw close to the Lord, after falling away from Him. This morning I found her reading the Bible. 

She is smart and perfectly capable of learning a trade, working, and getting along in Romanian society. 

I fear we will have problems with her husband in the future. I imagine at some point either he will want her back or she will want to go to him. Maybe we can help them. Maybe not. 

But God has brought her to us and we have accepted her. We would ask for your prayers as we begin to minister to her.

Update on Mandinita

About three weeks ago I blogged about one of our girls at the Beauty from Ashes Center, Mandinita. Mandinita comes from a gypsy village about an hour’s drive from Oradea. The only place she can go to high school is here in Oradea and so we accepted her at our center. 

The wall of her family’s house fell down and her mother was forced to go to France to work to make enough money to fix it. Unfortunately this has meant that Mandinita has had to abandon her schooling and go back to the village to take care of her three nephews and nieces. Her elder sister’s irresponsible lives have left Mandinita and her mother with the task of raising the out-of-wedlock children instead of abandoning them to the state, as many gypsies do. An honorable decision. 

We were hoping that Mandinita could at least come to Oradea one day a week in order to keep up with her school work and the home schooling we were doing with her at the center. 

For about two weeks we didn’t hear too much from her. A couple of days ago she came by to get her stuff. Her mother is taking the whole family – nieces, nephews, and irresponsible sisters – to France to work. 

It’s hard to know what I would do in her place. An educated gypsy is still something of a novelty. Poverty is a way of life. Practical concerns come before “luxuries” like going to school. I would want my child educated. Mandinita has finished up to the eighth grade – I think her mother considers her fairly well educated. 

The bottom line is that we have lost one of our girls. Her schooling has stopped. She has been uprooted and taken to “greener” pastures in France. Mandinita does not want to go. I tried to make light of it and told her that she better know some French when she comes back. 

It is situations like these that produce so many abandoned children in Romania. Around 80% come from gypsy homes. Instead of judging her mother’s decision I have decided to applaud the decision to work to take care of her own family instead of seeking the easy way out by doing what everybody else is doing – abandoning their children. 

I should also mention that Mandinita’s mother goes to church. The real solution to stopping the orphan problem in Romania is the salvation of the individual. 

God’s servants do not abandon their children to the state.

ROM’s Volunteers of the Month!

In this post I would like to present our Volunteers of the Month. This month we have chosen Sam and Manuela Tranca. Sam and Manuela (Mony) are Romanians who have been living in the United States for a long time. 

So why have we named Sam and Mony our volunteers of the month? We are a small organization and getting the message out about what is going on in Romania is very hard, especially when we must be in Romania most of the time! 

Sam and Mony have introduced us to their pastor and that has led to a relationship with many in the church. The church had us one Sunday morning to present a little bit about our ministry. They also very graciously let us sell the Christmas cards that the girls at our Beauty from Ashes Center made. 

Sam began a once a month ping-pong night with a group of guys. He called it “ping-pong for orphans” and the group began to collect donations. Last fall we had a large get-together at their house with the whole ping-pong crowd and were able to share more about what we are doing in Romania. 

Because of these and many other acts of sacrifice on their part we are very blessed to name them our “Volunteers of the Month!” God has seen their heart for the orphans in Romania and has rewarded the work of their hands. Literally hundreds of people now know about the suffering of Romania’s orphans because of their actions. 

Volunteers are the backbone of our organization. Without them we would in no way be able to function! Their contributions are irreplaceable. There are many important volunteers whom God has brought to us and next month we will highlight another one…maybe it will be you!

Life in Romania

This is a continuation of a series of posts detailing a typical day in Romania at our Beauty from Ashes Center for Orphan Girls.  

3:00 p.m. – It’s school time! This is not the girl’s favorite activity. School for them in the orphanages was a joke. There was no one to make sure that they had done their homework or help them if they didn’t understand something. Teachers would pass them off from one grade to the next. Cheating in Romania is rampant, accepted, and even encouraged by some teachers. 

How can one survive in society without a basic education? The answer is: it’s not real easy. In fact, it’s almost impossible for the orphans to get along in their own society, partly because of a lack of education. 

And so we home school the girls at the center. Now, mind you, this is just something we do here. It is not recognized by the Romanian government (God forbid!). We have identified their weak areas and created a program to help them get up to speed. 

If you were to ask the girls what is the hardest part of our program they would say our home schooling. Andreea, whom I introduced you to in our last post, is in charge of this part of the program. In the first phase the girls learn (very) basic math (adding, subtracting, etc.), basic Romanian grammar (composing, reading, etc.), and Bible. 

All but one of our girls are in the second phase and take Math, Romanian, English, Geography, and Science. They have one subject every day. They have homework, daily quizzes, monthly tests, and final exams. Their grades are kept and posted weekly. 

Andreea has worked wonders with the girls in Math, Romanian and English. I take care of Bible, Geography and Science. It has been a pleasure to see the girls, even if it is hard, begin to take an interest in the subject matter and learn it well. A week ago they all got straight A’s on their Asian geography quiz and we all enjoyed seeing their excitement and satisfaction. 

The girl’s “official” schooling will be the subject of a future post. By creating a base of basic knowledge we are giving the girls a chance to do things they never thought were possible! Many have gotten their G.E.D.’s and some have gone on to college! 

To be continued…

ROM Prayer Day – February

ROM Prayer Day Supporters, 

Once a month we send out these email prayer letters asking you to pray for a specific request. This month’s request comes a little early, because tomorrow is an important day! 

Tomorrow we have a meeting with a local, Christian senator. Those of you familiar with Romanian politics will know that having Evangelical Christians in government is not such a common occurrence. This senator has done a lot for the different non-profit groups and churches in our area. He really seems to have a heart to effect change in his community. 

Recently, Romania and the European Union have been actively working to assist orphans and Roma (Gypsy) groups in Romania. Thousands of orphans are “aging-out” of the orphanages and are being dumped into Romanian society – completely incapable of surviving there. 

There are no easy answers for these young people and the government is struggling to come up with solutions. As those of you who have followed us for awhile already know, this group of orphans is exactly who we minister to! 

Up to this point, ROM has been supported by individuals, churches, and businesses. We have never received any funding from the U.S. or Romanian government. However, there are many aid dollars available to groups who work with orphans and Roma, which we do. 

We will be talking to the senator about the possibility of receiving funding to help us build and expand our Beauty from Ashes Center. Currently we rent a house where Diana, my wife, and I live with orphans who have “aged-out”. 

We have no idea what will come of our discussion but we have dreamed for several years of having our own land and building a Center from scratch. Many people have been praying about this for a long time and we would ask that you also pray alongside with us that God’s will would be done in this situation. 

Thank you so much for your prayers every month! Please don’t forget to follow us on our Facebook page. 

God bless,

Corey Burba

Life in Romania

This is a continuation of a series of posts detailing a typical day in Romania at our Beauty from Ashes Center for Orphan Girls. In our last post I introduced you to Andreea…  

2:00 p.m. – After another hour or two of work I come downstairs again. This usually involves conversations with Andreea about the other aspects of running our ministry. These are the unglamorous aspects. Everyone wants to read about orphans getting saved or being fed, educated, and housed. Not everyone really wants to know what is necessary to make those things happen! 

Running a non-profit is not easy. We run two. Plus we now have a small greeting card business. All of this requires many hours dedicated to fundraising, communications with sponsors, strict bookkeeping, and a plethora of little details like salaries, rent, collaborations with other non-profits, etc. 

In the United States I am responsible for all of these things. But without Susan Ruby, our hardest working volunteer (she’s also my mother!), everything would come crashing down in about two days. She takes care of all the bookkeeping, banking, and mailings back home. A good portion of my time is in making sure everything is running correctly back home. 

In Romania, Andreea takes care of most of our office work. She pays the bills. She deals with the Romanian government. She distributes salaries. This work necessitates a close communication between myself and Susan and myself and Andreea. 

I am also responsible for all decisions regarding donations and what they are to be used for, based on our annual budget which our Board of Directors must vote on. We have never met budget in a given year so I must prioritize and decide where the money will go. We hold several board meetings a year when I am back in America. I submit monthly reports to the Board and am in communication with them through email at all times. 

We have strived to run our two non-profits professionally and responsibly so that those who would donate to us could do so with the utmost confidence that their sacrifice will be put to the best use possible. To achieve this goal, all of these little, unglamorous details must be attended to daily! 

…to be continued

Life in Romania

This is a continuation of a series of posts detailing a typical day in Romania at our Beauty from Ashes Center for Orphan Girls. In our last post I described how our orphan girls work at a small greeting card business we have recently started …  

12:15 p.m. – It’s lunch time and I am hungry! Whenever I come downstairs from my office I am sure to be met by a myriad of voices pulling me one way or another. I don’t mind. It’s actually quite nice and an advantage of working at home. I am able to spend time with the girls, the staff, and my wife! Most of the time we’re just one big happy family. 

I have written about Eva, our housemother, and Diana, who heads up our card making, in previous posts. By now Andreea has arrived. Andreea (pictured to the right with Mandinita) is our Beauty from Ashes Director, Office Manager, Psychologist, and a whole lot more all rolled into one! The girls are thrilled to see her and jump up to greet her almost every day. 

To be honest, I am glad to see her also because there is usually a lot of work to be done! On Mondays we have staff meeting. Here we read the Bible, pray, go over problems, discuss the girls, and strategize about future plans. 

I have gotten better at delegating in recent years and I usually delegate to Andreea. She then delegates to those under her. Over time we have created a system that works very fluidly and efficiently. Andreea’s input has contributed significantly to this. I’ll write a little bit more about Andreea’s work day in the next post. 

As I eat lunch I observe the greeting card making process and see how we can improve efficiency. I help the girls with their homework. I field questions from all sides. I interact with everyone, trying to encourage and correct when it’s necessary. 

1:00 p.m. – Back upstairs for more work! 

To be continued…

A Little Girl Named Kathryn

I know a little girl named Kathryn. Kathryn comes from a very interesting family. She has two brothers, one adopted from Romania, and a sister. She lives in New Jersey, right across the river from Philadelphia. 

Kathryn is home schooled. I have had the privilege of staying with Kathryn’s family several times over the years and seeing what this term, “home schooling”, means up close and personal. 

I liked what I saw! I thought that it would be perfect for our orphans who are way behind educationally. I saw the opportunity for us to craft a whole educational system for them to help them recover all the lost years of their past. 

I came to Romania and did just that. The home schooling of our orphans occupies a significant amount of our time and energy. 

But Kathryn couldn’t have known all this when I was staying with her and her family. Her parents couldn’t have known all this when they decided to home school their children. They were not modeling something especially for me. They were just living their normal lives! I just happened to be there to see it. 

And so it is with us all. Our lives are constantly on display for others. We do not live in a bubble. Everything that we do affects others. If we choose to act poorly then we contribute negatively to others by being bad examples and influences. If we choose to act uprightly, then we contribute positively. 

Our actions have repercussions, for good or evil. No one can sin and then say, “But I wasn’t hurting anyone”. Sin does hurt others. 

I observed positive things from Kathryn’s family and was influenced by them. Now orphans are benefiting from their example…and neither she nor her family are  even aware of it! 

Someone is always watching you and observing your actions. Are you helping him through your lifestyle or harming him? 

Little things count. I am sure Kathryn would have never thought that doing her homework would help orphans in Romania.