DT Romania - Blog entries:

Meetings, meetings and more meetings!  We kicked off the day with a visit to the vice-president of the Bihor (area) council. In a refurbished office, with plush seats and three impressive flags dominating one corner of the room, we enjoyed a warm welcome and a hot cup of coffee. Whilst Mr Traian Bodea has only recently taken up his position, Sorin had already been able to meet with him and brief him about our work. So after handshakes and brief introductions, he expressed his support for what we are doing and wants to help us in whatever way he can. He told us that there is local government funding available for such projects as ours and he has offered to help us put in an application. We plan to do this in the next week and we can pray that if this is right before the Lord then our application will be successful. We also talked together about our need for a suitable building and whilst there is nothing available right now, Mr Bodea said that he will keep us in mind and let us know if anything comes up. We thank the Lord for this new contact.

We then went along the road and into the prison to meet with our key contacts there and what we thought might only be an hour or so, became four hours of discussion and sharing. Good job there is flexibility in our programme! A lot has changed in the last six months with some staff retiring and others taking up new positions. Some of these changes have happened in the department that oversees our work, but we trust the Lord to enable us to develop good working relationships. We were met but several of our staff-friends who greeted us warmly. We praise the Lord for such good friendships. The reception room has had a lick of paint, with new furniture and a stone effect wall covering. Very smart. The office for the psychological and re-integration programmes has moved. In past years it has been part of the administrative wing of the prison, but now it has been re-located to the other side of the compound. Having left all our possessions in a metal locker we went through security and then across the prison yards with cell blocks rising up on all sides. Prisoners look down to see who is coming through with occasional calls of one sort or another (!) depending on who is walking across their yard.  We then took a left turn along the vehicular access and through two more sets of big locked metal gates until we were right by the rear entrance. Here we took a sharp right into what in effect is an enclosed 'outside' metal fire-escape. Up we climbed, higher and higher, round and round, each step echoing with that metal clunk until we reached the very top floor. Going through a fire door we entered another world of a newly painted corridors, bright lights and smart clean floors. Along the corridor is a large selection of framed photos of people and events linked with the department. They are hung in chronological order and the staff were quick to point out photos of Andy taken over the years. We managed to count at least five.

We were welcomed into the new office - a long 'loft conversion' type room. We met a new staff worker and then talked, ate breadsticks and drank coffee. Our Path of Life Mentoring programme is being prepared for accreditation by the central administration in Bucharest. This involves a lot of time in writing up each of our sessions and we are very grateful to Florica Dudas for doing this on our behalf. We discussed the necessary safeguards that will need to be in place to make sure that the spiritual dimension is not lost as this is a crucial aspect of the programme. We hope to have this all done by the end of the year ready for accreditation by Bucharest in January. If this happens, then the Path of Life programme will be printed as a booklet and can be run in other prisons by groups of Christians that we will need to train as mentors and teachers. This is an exciting prospect but one that needs the Lord's blessing.

Our day finished with a meeting of the Path of Life Core Team. One of our main needs for the work is to have a prayer coordinator. We are well aware that we are in a spiritual battle and the support of prayer partners is crucial, so we need someone to organise this area of our ministry. After we prayed together the name of an individual was mentioned and it seems that they would be well suited to help us in this way. So we will be asking them in the next day or two. Please pray that they will say yes!

On that note, thank you for your prayers. Tomorrow afternoon Andy will be speaking at the Gypsy Youth conference. Please pray for a good response to the gospel of Christ.