Bringing hope to Romania’s hospitals

BUCHAREST, Romania — A woman expressing thanks to the Interconfessional Bible Society in Romania (IBSR) for its hospital ministry contrasted their gift of Scriptures with the days when she had to hide her Bible in a tea caddy.

“I prayed to God not to let them find my Bible and he heard. I had hidden it in a jar of some tea and it was there that it remained hidden, so that I could keep it. God helped me at that bad time and nothing happened to me. I don’t know what would have happened if they had found it....”

Elena Dordea, a pensioner, recalled what had happened to her during the days of the hardline Communist regime when an informer betrayed her to the Security Service.

“We were not allowed to read the Bible or speak about it,” she recalled, “yet I had one in my house during the hard years of atheist Communism. I felt the support of God whenever I had a hard time. When I had a problem at my office I took the Bible to my colleagues and read something to them. But one was a Security Service informer and she gave me away.

“They came to my place and searched all over the house. I prayed to God not to let them find my Bible and he heard. I had hidden it in a jar of some tea and it was there that it remained hidden, so that I could keep it. God helped me at that bad time and nothing happened to me. I don’t know what would have happened if they had found it....”

Elena, 67, was a patient at the Elena Doamna Hospital, in Galatsi, when the IBSR presented its library with 30 copies of the Galaction Bible and 50 New Testaments. She thanked the visitors for the gifts and asked if the Society had any more large-print Scriptures for the elderly.

The distribution was one of several events around Christmas in hospitals, prisons, old people’s homes, orphanages and other institutions, which the IBSR organised with help from Opportunity 21.

Theological students performed Christmas carols and the parish priest, the Rev Ionel Rusu, offered gifts to about 200 patients. Local television, radio and newspapers reported the occasion.

“The Bibles will be used not only by patients but also by all the staff of the hospital,” said Mr Rusu. “They will serve as basic material for sick people.”

“I think that the presence of the Bible in a place which has as much suffering as a hospital is very necessary because God heals,” added Elena. “The doctor helps, but if you want to have a healthy body you must first have a healthy soul.

“Reading the Bible gives people special spiritual support and the conviction that God will help them. Everybody should have a copy. They would find support in it and the help they need at the crucial moments of their life.

“I welcome your activity and I admire you for organising such an event,” she told the visitors. “I congratulate you for all this and I pray that God will enable you to repeat it. You see how the patients relaxed.... you gave them a bit of light, of hope, of spiritual peace.”

The IBSR is also going to organise summer courses on biblical themes to help people in the hospital use their Scriptures effectively. Mr Rusu said the courses would be important in bringing enlightenment and a deepening of people’s faith.

“While people are suffering they feel so much more that this Word is healing,” he said. “People feel better, have more understanding, and are even able to bear their sicknesses more easily.