A Helping Hand in Romania. A Word from the Priest

Day 5

Today I am cheating. I’m handing over to Nicholas Cooper, the Curate at St.Mildred’s, Tenterden, soon to be Priest-in-Charge at St. Peter and St. Paul, Saltwood near Hythe. Over to you Nicholas.

The work has been rewarding.  For most of us carpentry has been entirely new experience, for others it brings back memories of GCSE woodwork.  The following well-known prayer reminds us that Jesus prepared for his ministry as a carpenter.

Lord Jesus, Master Carpenter of Narareth, wield well your tools in the workshop of our lives.  That we who come to you rough hewn may be fashioned to a truer beauty and a greater usefulness for the glory of your name.  Amen.

As the work progresses there are rapid and visible changes at Casa Lumina as rooms are boarded, first the ceilings and then the walls.  The rough joinery and insulation are covered and the space becomes recognisable as a room which will one day accommodate someone.

However, the prayer goes on to remind us that there is a more important transformation – that of our lives.  Here the changes are slower and less dramatic.  Some of us grow impatient, recognising our failings and longing for God to create a more habitable space in our lives, both for God and for others.  That said, we must recognise that such changes are God’s work.  Slowly but surely, God his doing his work in us.  Paul writes to the Philippians, ‘I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.’ (Phil 1:6).

Nicholas Cooper and Terry Norrington

A Helping Hand in Romania. Day 4

Fellowship

My previous blogs have harped on about the Tenterden team and the North-East team. Considering the incredible friendship that is developing between us all I feel it is time to introduce the North-East team and from then on we shall all be considered as one team.

We have

Stephen Squires

Callum Squires

Adam Squires

Mark Squires

Sally Jennings

Les Cowburn

Work at Casa Lumina carried on today with the concentration being on installing the OSB boards to the ceilings, although the girls focussed on the walls. There were plenty of sore hands by the end of the day after all the hammering taking place.

The one thing that is noticeable about this part of Romania is the life style of many of the people which is like stepping back to a bygone era. So many horse and carts carrying hay plod freely alongside the road with traffic having to swerve to avoid them. There is also a noticeable contrast between the haves and have nots,with some of the poorer people living in virtual mud huts; although it is amusing how some of these have satelite dishes.

I don’t know if it is Romanian culture or the fact that life is hard for many of these people but it is hard to find a Romanian that smiles. Which is why Casa Lumina is so remarkable. The orphans show such joy and happiness now and today many of us were able to interact with them, hold hands with them and dance with them. It was certainly humbling but it brought joy to those of us priviledged to experience there eagerness to be with us, re-iterating our purpose for our visit here.

Fellowship amongst us all is amazing so this trip so far has proved to be extremely worthwhile.

I will leave with one thought. Karen likened operating a circular saw to using a sewing machine. Mmm. Can anybody explain the logic?

Terry Norrington

A Helping Hand in Romania. “The Work Begins”

Day 3. This is the day that we started to do what we came here to do: WORK.

Steve Cooper wanted us up and ready to go to work by 7.15 a.m. And we were. Before leaving Steve conducted prayers asking God to help us do our work well and also to look after our families back home.

It took about 45 minutes to travel to Casa Lumina at Comanesti. The route took us through hillsides and valleys and was of far more interest than the entire trip from Bucharest.

The Casa Lumina orphanage is an inspiring place to be around and from the first moments we could hear the voices of what are now adults and adolescence yet still with the minds of children.

The extension to the orphanage has now largely been completed on the outside but internally most of the walls and ceilings were at the framework stage with boarding still to be fitted; our job for the week.

I teamed up with three of our volunteers from the North East to finish off installing insulation to the ceilings and the rest formed themselves into teams to hang the OSB boards to the walls and ceilings. Like every new task it takes a while to establish a routine and discover the strengths and weaknesses of team members. At this point caution needs to be exercised to ensure accidents don’t occur. Unfortunately a mobile access tower collapsed whilst Jeff was on it and a corner of an OSB board caught his nose. It did cause his nose to bleed but fortunately no major damage was done.

I and my team were working in a different part of the building site, but we noticed how the hammering had speeded up by mid-morning. The rest had gotten into the flow. By the end of the day everybody had gained immense satisfaction from a good days work with every member learning some new DIY skills. It is also with great satisfaction that I can report a growing camaraderie between us all, not just from the Tenterden team members but North East members as well. The banter was truly flowing by the end of the day.

When we had first arrived at Casa Lumina the weather was overcast. It had been raining and the residence hadn’t been allowed into the play area. Towards the end of the day the sun emerged and so did the orphans. It was truly fantastic to see the joy and happiness within these young people. Only a few years ago these children had no joy or hope, living in appalling conditions with no chance of ever receiving love. Today their lives have changed; they are different people living different lives with the love and affection they crave for. This is due solely to the wonderful work conducted by Casa Lumina and Cry in the Dark. It makes us appreciate that every nail we hammer home is for the happiness of these young people.

Jeff took away one other abiding message today; “even clergy can perform tasks of labour”.

Terry Norrington

A Helping Hand in Romania. “The Joy of Knowing God”

Day 2. The joy of knowing God.

As would be expected back home, Sunday is about finding time for God and devoting time to his worship. It’s exactly the same in Romania. All bar one of the fourteen voluntary workers attended a service at the Biserica Sfanta Trieme Church in Bacau; a Free Christian church in the main city close to Casa Albert. A modern white walled church, the service was conducted on the first floor which housed a stage for the music.

The music and singing was lead by Lyviu and his wife Anna who are both directors for Cry in the Dark in Romania and ensure that the charitys’ projects are functioning and progressing smoothly. Although all lyrics were in Romanian, the music was evangelical and very infectious and this spirit remained throughout the service. Both Keith and Nicholas offered prayers which were translated into Romanian by Pastor Marion.

The crux of the service circled around the sermon conducted by Pastor Marion. The theme was “joy”. Fortunately we had translators on hand. Joy comes in many forms and the obvious form is through entertainment such as theme parks, theatres or even watching our favourite football teams winning a match. This form of joy is short lived. Some other forms of joy last longer, such as the contentment gained from marrying our partners.

Once discovered, the joy found through God will be everlasting, but in order to find this joy we need to repent our sins and seek forgiveness. When we know that forgiveness is given we remove the barriers that prevent us receiving the joy of knowing god.

This seemed to be the message delivered through the translation.

Towards the end of the service, Lyviu and Annas’ little boy, who must be about two or three years old, made an impromptu and unintroduced appearance on stage. His face and actions were one of innocence and rather poignantly demonstrated the presence of joy without barriers.

There are three messages that I gleamed from our visit to church in Romania this morning.

1. As Nicholas said in his prayers, the cross as was magnificently mounted on the wall above the stage crosses all borders, all cultures and all languages to create a fellowship between us all.

2. The joy of God is eternal once we have sought forgiveness from all our sins.

3. The last message came from the motif printed on the tee – shirt of a little boy who performed fantastically a song along with other children from the congregation. It said “Pick noses, not fights”.

Terry Norrington

A Helping Hand in Romania. Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go

Day 1. The long journey. Our mission to help the charity Cry in the Dark.

     A Helping Hand in Romania. Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go

Let’s first introduce the team. We’ll start with the ladies.

Shirley Docker – St.Mildreds

Karen Savage – St.Mildreds

 And the gents.

Nicholas Cooper – St.Mildreds

Jeff Henderson – St.mildreds

Keith Maynard – Zion Baptist

Mike Sweetman – Zion Baptist

Alan Clover – Zion Baptist

and myself, Terry Norrington – St. Mildreds

In a lot of respects the journey was uneventful. Everybody was at the meeting point;  The Vine for 6.15a.m, a few bleary eyes but plenty of enthusiasm, hope and expectation for the week ahead.

The M25 proved to be a cinch; no hold ups which was a blessing considering two closures on the previous two days.

Without exception none of us had flown from Terminal 5 at Heathrow before, so it was a new experience flying from there to Bucharest in Romania, particularly as the Multi Faith Room had been commandeered so Nicholas took over half of gate A7 to conduct prayer.

The seating arrangements on the plane meant that I was sitting in a row behind the rest of the party so I was in for a quiet flight: WRONG. Two very exhuberant ladies from Texas U.S.A. plonked themselves down next to me, there excitement fuelled no doubt by the caffeine rich iced coffee from Starbucks that they had half consumed. Actually they were extremely lovely and bubbly ladies; hygienists in the dental trade who were also on a mission to Romania, teaching the locals the benefits of dental care.

On arrival at Henri Coanda Airport, Bucharest we were met by Steve Cooper and Beth; Steve being the CEO of Cry in the Dark, the charity for which we have committed to performing our voluntary work.  Steve is a short chirpy guy, with a cheeky grin and a twinkle in his eye, but with a tremendous faith in God and a total belief in the Cry in the Dark project. At this point we we met another team of six from the North East involved in the project. With fourteen of us plus Steve and Beth it required two mini busses to cover the four hour journey to Casa Albert; the hospice and outreach centre constructed by Cry in the Dark and our hostel for the duration.

Keith eagerly jumped into the drivers seat to ferry the Tenterden crew; a challenging task considering Romanian attitudes to driving and the need to keep up with Steve driving the mini bus in front. With great credit to him, he did a sterling job and reportedly relished the challenge.

I’d like to say that the journey provided sites of fantastic scenery, but the truth is the entire journey consisted of flat, plateaued lands of fields cropped with corn and sunflower. Due in the main to the fact Romania experiences about one day of rain per month during the summer , virtually all the river beds had dried up and there were signs of grass verge fires and what looked to be a forest fire on a hillside ridge off into the distance.

Keeping dogs as pets in Romania is an expensive business; a tin of dog food can cost half a days wages to some folk. Consequently and unfortunately dogs are let loose to fend for themselves and roam the roadside, causing particular hazards for the traffic.

With one stop off at McDonalds for our evening meal, we finally reached Casa Albert at 10.00 p.m. local time (8.00p.m. B.S.T.).

A quick tour of the building and the facilities, it was then off to sleep.

Although we have our associations through the two churches, some of us were new to each other and most were only really acquainted. By the end of day one, a fellowship was already beginning to form.

Terry Norrington

A Helping Hand in Romania. “The Day Before”

I’ve just returned from a very rewarding but also a very exhausting trip from Romania. This was to work on behalf of a charity called Cry in the Dark. My next few blogs are will be exerts from my diary whilst I was there.

                            A Helping Hand in Romania “The Day Before”

Stanley Knife. Tick

Hammer. Tick

Tape Measure. Tick

The list goes on. There seems to be so much more to pack than for the usual summer holiday. Space has to be found for the odd couple of tools, bed linen and work wear. This is likely to make the suitcase heavier than normal.

Still this is going to be worth it. Tomorrow (Saturday) begins a week long venture, not only a voyage of discovery about our physical abilities and our building skills but also our emotional wherewithal. Being involved with the charity “Cry in the Dark” will no doubt be an extremely testing time for the heart strings but also a richly rewarding experience too.

Our task over the next seven days is to assist in the building of an extension to an orphanage. Casa Lumina is an orphanage in Comanesti, Romania that is home to twenty three children, all with varying degrees of learning difficulties. The orphanage remains committed to providing a home for these children as they progress into adult life. The expansion of the orphanage reflects the growing needs of the residence as they leave childhood behind.

Saturday 29.08.09 sees the departure of a team of eight from two churches in Tenterden, heading for Romania hoping to make a difference, even if it is only in some small way. The fund raising efforts across the two churches; the Zion Baptist and St. Mildreds have proved to be magnificent, producing the £1200 per person required to send out each individual.

It will be an early start for the team; 6.30a.m. It will be well into the evening before we arrive in Comanesti. A long day awaits, but in doing the lords work and developing fellowship amongst us, the adventure will be worth the effort.

Continue to follow the team through the week and see how their efforts bare fruit.

Terry Norrington

What is the Meaning of Faith? Work Smarter Not Harder

What is the meaning of faith?

It has gotten to that time of year when I take a break. I like to think it is well deserved. There is no doubt that recent months have proved extremely hectic with my internet marketing business and my involvement with the Nigerian IT Project taking up a lot of my time. This is not a complaint; I enjoy being busy provided that my time is spent productively.

The saying goes that “successful people don’t work harder, they work smarter”

It is about using our time wisely, finding the best methods to create the best results. It is also said that eighty percent of our best results come from twenty percent of our efforts. Logically therefore we need to concentrate on that twenty percent of effort and ditch the eighty percent that isn’t really giving us much in the way of reward. Think about how much time we would have if we only used one fifth of our efforts to create broadly the same results.

So how do we determine what actually is working and what is not?

This really requires us to analyse what we are doing. Much of what we do is routine. We do things without really giving it any thought. By closely looking at how we do things, monitoring it, writing our actions and results down we can start to see a picture emerging. In fact putting things to pen and paper is a wonderful tool that can paint the true picture of our lives. Whether it be about the money we spend, the food we eat or in this case the work we perform, it’s surprising what can be revealed about our lives.

Once we can see where our efforts are wasted we can do something about it and get greater benefit from our time.

My time over the next two weeks will be divided into two. The first week I will be spending with my family and whether or not I deserve this holiday, my family do.

The second week I am heading off to Romania with a team of eight people from two of the churches in Tenterden. We are going to be involved in a project set up by a charity called “Cry in the Dark”. The project is one of building an extension to an orphanage that is home to children with learning difficulties. The orphanage has been operational now for several years and the children are becoming adults. But they are adults still with learning difficulties and the charity has pledged to provide them a home for the rest of their lives. Consequently the need for larger accommodation to cater for their growing needs requires this extension to be built. The team is spending a week helping on this project doing what ever building work or labouring that is required of us.

Anybody who starts and runs a successful charity must have faith. Faith in themselves and in God that the funds will come in and the volunteers will be found to keep the project going.

In this case the faith appears to be justified.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

What is the Meaning of Faith? The Law of Attraction

What is the meaning of faith?

One of the great buzz phrases in the personal development world at the moment is “The Law of Attraction”. By developing the correct attitude we can attract to us all our wants and desires. We can draw unto us all of Gods’ abundances should we discover within ourselves the hidden ability of “The Law of Attraction”.

So what is this mysterious skill of attraction?

Many books talk about creating the right frequencies of vibration that are harmonious with what we want to attract. Abundance has a certain frequency or wavelength and we have to tune ourselves into that wavelength. This is normally done by being relaxed and viewing our world in an optimistic and positive fashion. By believing that we will have abundance, visualising it and enjoying the process of obtaining it, will ultimately result in us attracting it.

There is no doubt that being optimistic in life, facing the world every day positively brings tremendous rewards and success. Concentrating on solutions rather than the problems ends with problems being resolved rather than problems hanging about forever. Every successful person believes that they can achieve and deserves success. Consequently they get it because they have tuned themselves into to success. Whether they realise it or not they practice “The Law of Attraction”.

Do we need to understand the science behind “The Law of Attraction” in order to benefit from it?

Well probably not. Many ancient and mystical tribes use “The Law of Attraction” to survive. No doubt the wonderful instincts that the Aboriginal tribesmen of Australia seem to possess revolve around the beliefs that they have for survival. People survive terrible conditions of hardship because they believe that they will.

These folk do not understand the physics behind “The Law of Attraction” but they practice it instinctively.

Focussing on being happy will provide happiness. Conversely viewing the world negatively will bring forth negative conclusions because this is what we have set the frequency bandwidth to. We have to believe in positive results and visualise positive outcomes.

Yet isn’t this what faith is about?

Believing in God, having confidence in ourselves and our abilities and having faith that we can achieve success, is also practicing “The Law of Attraction”. Whether our faith is in God or in ourselves, it helps us to remain calm in any given situation, having the belief that positive results are the only results that are possible.

Call it “The Law of Attraction” or call it faith, it amounts to the same thing. We visual and confidently believe that that we will have the abundances that God has put on this earth for all to enjoy. And we shall receive.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington 

www.whatisthemeaningoffaith.com

What is the Meaning of Faith? Decisions, Decisions

What is the meaning of faith?

 How many of us have made bad decisions?

I would be extremely surprised if there were some hands not raised. Every one of us makes mistakes and gets decisions wrong. We should never fear making a wrong turn or following the wrong route as long as we learn from our errors. But how can we learn to make more effective decisions so that we have fewer disasters?

The seed.

Decisions are the seeds that we plant now that grows into the tree that represents everything that happens in our futures. Everything that is happening now, all the emotions we are feeling are the result of decisions made in the past. Making good and effective decisions now will shape our future and help us achieve our goals.

Clouding our judgement.

Unfortunately we put obstacles in the way when making decisions. We have to get rid of these obstacles before we can make effective decisions that can provide a happier and more fulfilled life. The influence of strong emotions is one such obstacle. Strong emotions block the path to all of the minds’ faculties. Just think of when we get angry and how our minds are cluttered with thoughts of violence, revenge and destruction. We don’t seem to have the ability to think positively and rationally. To have access to all our minds resources we need to make decisions from a position of calm.

Fear is another emotion that detracts from a clear thought process. In order to make a decision free from fear we need to develop courage. “He who dares wins”. If controlling emotions is difficult, wait until we have calmed down before making any important decisions.

The subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is far more powerful than the conscious mind. Our best decisions come from the subconscious mind. So how do we utilise this powerful part of the brain?

Sleep on a decision. Whilst asleep the subconscious mind is trying to find solutions. This is why solutions seem to pop up even though we are thinking and concentrating on something else. When we come across a problem, a signal is sent to the subconscious mind to hunt out a solution. It will look for this solution discreetly in the background whilst we are getting on with the other activities of the day.

Too much information.

One of the pitfalls of effective decision making is overkill; too much information. We often think that we need to collect every snippet of information before we make that decision. The truth is that we can probably never gather every bit of information surrounding our problem. Collect all readily available information and make a decision from there. It will be the best available choice.

Visualisation.

Visualising the outcome of our decision will help decide if it is the outcome we desire. Sit peacefully and imagine the outcome from all the possible alternative decisions. Visualisation is not recommended as the sole reason for making a particular decision but it will help support a choice.

Left, right.

Our brains are divided into the right side and the left side. The right side creates our intuition whilst the left side is for reasoning and logic. It is never a good idea to base a decision on logic or intuition. We need to learn to use both sides of our brain thus using our minds to the fullest.

What are friends for?

If we have an idea and a friend has another idea, we don’t end up with two ideas; we have a flood of ideas of which we feed of each other. Quite often this leads to brainstorming where ideas and solutions just keep rolling off of the mind; albeit some of these might appear to be ridiculous. Talking to others helps in the effective decision process as more information becomes available. Beware though, a friends perspective can be based on their own personal experiences and may not be right for us in this particular scenario. Seek their thoughts but don’t consider their ideas as necessarily being fact.

Resistance.

Resistance to a decision can come from within our selves. There is a part of us that wants to go one way, whilst the other part wants to jump in a different direction. This inner conflict prevents us from making good and proper decisions. Inner conflicts can be overcome by using an NLP technique called “parts integration”.

Fight.

If we have a bust up with a friend, we may decide never to talk to that person again. Is this a good idea?

Probably not. This decision would have been made out of anger and based on the last memory of that friend. We have to look at our friendship as a whole and the history of that person. Look at the full picture and not just at the last event. Distributing the weight accordingly will help us see the effective answer.

With peace, faith and calmness in our hearts we can make more effective decisions and less likely to trip ourselves up.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

What is the Meaning of Faith? Rich Rewards

What is the Meaning of Faith?

 

We all look upon our faith to provide us with a rich and rewarding life. Whether we believe in God, or simply have self confidence in ourselves, this faith enables us to have peace of mind, knowing that good will always manifest itself in our lives.

 

Using faith to look after ourselves, looking out for number one and number ones’ family is a natural thing to do. Most of our working day is focussed on our work which all said and done pays the bills and keeps the bank manager away from our doors. All the time more money comes our way than is going out we are satisfied. Our actions and work tasks are most likely geared to providing a service for somebody, but we get a financial reward for our efforts and in this capitalist society, that is how the world ticks.

 

Life should be much more than the every day need to balance the bank account and there are thousands if not millions of ways to enrich our lives and enjoy the abundance that God has created.

 

Using our time selflessly to help others is just one way in which we can find tremendous rewards which aren’t financial. Many times the act of giving selflessly results in an unintentional monetary gain without it ever being the intention. By giving our time, thought and effort to somebody else, we are paid back many times over.

 

On many occasions I have done stints on behalf of charity, whether it be sponsored walks, manning donation phone lines during live television and radio appeals or wearing silly costumes to raise money for a particular project. On every single occasion I have experienced tremendous satisfaction and pride that my efforts go a little way to making a difference to somebody.

 

August 29^th is approaching very fast now. Why is that date significant? It is the day that I fly to Romania as part of an eight man team from two of the churches here in Tenterden. We are helping to build an extension to an orphanage in Comanesti that is home to children with learning difficulties. I know this will be an extremely emotional trip but I am excited about it as I also know that it will be extremely rewarding.

 

Six years ago I visited Nigeria for work. I was there for a total of fifteen days yet I had more experiences in those fifteen days than in the whole of my life put together. A lot of these were precarious, yet I still have fond memories of this truly poverty stricken country.

 

Just recently I have made a few new contacts with people in Nigeria. I like to think that I am beginning to know these people and understand a little about their enduring hardship. I remember the ram shackled homes of the shanty towns in the major cities. I also recall their tremendous willingness to work in an effort to try and lift themselves above that poverty.

 

They look for and cling onto hope wherever they can. It appears that perhaps their government has provided them with some hope. By the year 2020 they want Nigeria to be the most technologically advanced country in the world. A tall order one might think, but look at how quickly and unexpectedly Japan came to the forefront of the electronic world. If we are going to have dreams we may as well make them big ones.

 

One of my friends in Nigeria also has big dreams. He wants to create an IT company to ride the wave of enthusiasm that the Nigerian government are creating. He wants to cover a wide spectrum of the IT industry and once established, expand this across the African continent. I remember Richard Branson expressing the opinion that African people can be the most entrepreneurial of people, given the opportunity. My friends’ dreams may seem extremely ambitious but I want him to succeed. With this in mind I have set up the “Nigerian IT Project”. To view this project, click onto http://www.pminded.org and head for my projects under my profile. And if this appeals to anyone, why not join up as a member and see if we can help these people achieve their dreams.

 

By selflessly helping them we can experience the joyous rewards from giving to others. Our faith in God, our faith in ourselves can be used for the betterment of others as well ourselves.

 

How fantastic is that?

 

Terry Norrington