I cannot believe that it has only been three days since we started working at Dallas, the gypsy village on the outskirts of Cluj-Napoca. So much has happened in this short time.
We started out on Monday morning by demolishing the small two roomed house (or I should actually say shack) of the family that we are building a new home for this week. It was incredibly small – you could almost not stand upright inside.
Soon layers upon layers of walling, flooring, and roofing came down as we slowly took their home apart, taking care to cause minimal damage to what we were demolishing so that certain pieces could be reused by the community, either for building, or firewood, or some other use unknown to us for we could see little other use for the trash we were working with. Pretty much like some people would see these people.
By the time we left on Monday night, the shack was down and a pile of wood rose one and a half metres into the air. But the new house’s foundation pillars and floor were in place, and I was grateful that we had not encountered any of the creatures that live in the walls of these shacks that Bert, the missionary, had warned us about.
The family of the shack we had torn down had stacked all their worldly belongings in a small open piece of ground just opposite from their now non-existent home. They had arranged to stay with a neighbour –father, mother, and three girls. With most homes already packed to capacity, I wasn’t sure where they would sleep, so I was not surprised when we came to work on the house on Tuesday, to find some of the children sleeping on the new house’s floor, not worried that a floor was all their house was comprised of at that moment. Perhaps there was no space at the neighbour’s house, but perhaps the children just couldn’t wait for their new home.
As Tuesday wore on, the father of the house slowly started to get more comfortable joining the volunteer workers in building on his own home. By Wednesday he had become an active part of the project and one could visibly see the pride he felt in their new two roomed home that was being built for his family.
And by day three, we had begun to know who his family were - three beautiful daughters, one in her teens, the other two aged around 6 and 8.
It has been incredible to see the difference just three days can make and I can’t wait for Friday to see them moving into their new home.
Sometimes you look at the situation in Dallas and it is easy to get discouraged and wonder what on earth you are doing there –the task seems so enormous. But it’s like the story of the little girl throwing starfish back into the sea … for a few it makes a difference. And for this one family it will make a world of difference.
Contemplating my purpose here …
Marion
James 1v27: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
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