One of the houses at the Christian-run orphanage
where Romica Hutsutsui, the President of the
Interconfessional Biible Society of Moldova, and his
wife Viorica are house parents [photo: UBS/Dag Smemo
WR414/5 MOL07DJ-385]
The couple with Serghei, Yuri, Constantin and Pavel,
some of the boys at the orphanage [MOL07DJ-405]
MOLDOVA — The Christian- run Bethel Orphanage on a pleasant seven-hectare site 20 km outside Chisinau used to be a Communist-run children’s camp. Now there are 10 large, modern family houses with spacious lawns between them. Each house has its own garden and each is the setting in which two parents with their own children live as one family with up to a dozen orphans – though visitors, at least, find it delightfully baffling trying to identify which children are which. The Interconfessional Bible Society of Moldova supplies Christian books for the children as required.
The original finance for the orphanage came from a range of sources abroad – in Switzerland, Germany, Norway and the US. The running costs, though, remain considerable. Romica Hutsutsui, the President of the Bible Society, is a teacher to the orphanage children, and he and his wife Viorica are house parents at the orphanage. He is full of amazing stories of its dependence on answers to prayer: how teams came from overseas to rebuild two of the wooden houses… how 50 tons of coal came just in time from the US to heat the place through the cold months of winter… how a much needed van was supplied thanks to a donation from Norway and so on. Orphanage with a warm heart and an entrepreneurial spirit One of the houses at the Christian-run orphanage where Romica Hutsutsui, the President of the Interconfessional Biible Society of Moldova, and his wife Viorica are house parents [photo: UBS/Dag Smemo WR414/5 MOL07DJ-385] and (inset) the couple with Serghei, Yuri, Constantin and Pavel, some of the boys at the orphanage [MOL07DJ-405] God helps those who help themselves, though, and there is also an entrepreneurial spirit about the orphanage. They raise pigs and cattle, some of the older young people work in a shoe factory on the site producing some 50 pairs of shoes per week and – the newest enterprise – it also has a bakery. To Mr Hutsutsui’s annoyance, however, this is running at less than full capacity because it has to compete with inferior-quality bread which is sold at statesubsidised prices.
(WR 414/5 - 08/09.07) [5 photos]