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