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REPORTS FROM THE FIELD
Margaret
Biddulph - Praise
Letter May 2008 - Tileagd
Perhaps it was ten years ago, when
Aurica was a teenager, Corniţa, Violeta’s
mum, (these are the special people who do all the sewing up of the
women’s work on Sheila’s mum’s trusty sewing machine), used to take
Aurica and Viorica to her Pentecostal church on Sundays. For Corniţa,
this would have been a hard time because her
husband, alcoholic and violent, was sick. He died a short time
later. But Corniţa was faithful and became their friend.
Seven years ago Smiles began working in the Gypsy village.
Three years ago I began to work with Smiles – writing an alphabet in
Ciuari and then stories and some bible verses. I was teaching small
groups to read in their own language. I also began to teach some
women to embroider flowers for greeting cards and to counter the lie
that “We can do nothing.”
Aurica was not one of the first sewers,
nor part of the first group of readers but, somehow, very quietly,
she grew into the key person for me in the village.
Aurica’s embroidery onto vintage hemp, woven in Romanian homes
in the Communist period on hand looms is the most beautiful of all the
women’s work. Her work includes cushion covers, book covers, specs
cases, serviette rings and place mats and has taken commissions for
curtains and table cloths.
Two years ago Aurica was one of five Gypsies from the Tileagd
Gypsy community to be baptised in our church. Being a Christian has
meant that she has wanted to read her Romanian bible but also wants to
read in her own language. She is the one who has made the greatest
progress in reading and the one who will sometimes very slowly but
very surely read in the church.
Chris Calow, from Chesterfield, believes
God wants him to set up a “Vision Project,” testing, diagnosing and
distributing spectacles to the poor and to the Gypsies. He needs a
practitioner to “read” lenses donated to him and eventually to make
lenses.
His practitioner will be Aurica!
 Look
at the photo.
This is the woman who was unemployable because of her lame leg. This
is the woman who couldn’t write or read a single letter or number.
This is the woman who had no future. Now she can earn a basic salary
with her embroidery and has the potential of future employment in the
Vision Project. Now she can read and write. Now she can use this
sophisticated computer and check her results mathematically.
Now she has a future and a hope because of Jesus!
This is her story because
of His story!
Every time I look at this photograph I feel thrilled and I
hope you are too. Thank you for your commitment and for the
difference that it is making
Love to you all - Margaret
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