Love in shoe boxes
After the Finnish service on Sunday 10/11, about 10 hardworking friends met to arrange useful things in shoe boxes and in the evening we were able to carry 96 beautifully wrapped gifts to our car. When we finally left, there were 125 packages in total. The gift packages were packed in large cardboard boxes and labeled by age group for girls and boys. This reminded us of a saying from a friend many years ago: “Your packages are not only full of wonderful gifts, they are also full of love!”
Each package contained warm clothes such as hand-knitted wool socks, hats, sweatpants, a stuffed animal or a game, hygiene items, school supplies and candy. Children’s bicycles were also packed in the car, four of which were delivered to a family of four in Budapest and the rest to Romania.
Angels – do they exist?
Our journey started in Budapest in a very snowy atmosphere. Luckily we left at 5am because it was 720km to our next overnight stop in Pitesti, Romania, a good 9-hour drive according to the satnav. However, the journey took longer due to weather conditions.
By the time we arrived in the city of Pitesti on Friday evening, the day had already ended. Finding a hotel turned out to be quite an adventure on that dark evening. As we turned the car around at an intersection, a piece of steel lying on the ground hit the car so hard on the right front fender that the tire protector bent over and caught on the front wheel, leaving it stuck completely. We immediately thought that we would not be able to continue our journey like this. We stood helplessly at the intersection until a car stopped behind us and a young man got out. Nervously he started to insult us for being foreigners. We explained to him that there was a problem with our car and we could not continue our journey and asked for a repair shop. We also told him that we could not find a hotel. The man’s attitude now changed completely. He called the hotel and agreed to help us. Less than five minutes later, the hotel owner arrived. He inspected the damaged car and said: “No problem – I will make a temporary repair by tomorrow morning and it will not cost you anything”. We followed him a short distance to the hotel, where he reassured us: “Don’t worry, I’ll fix the car and you can go to sleep in peace.” And so we did. When we woke up at 5 a.m., we found that the plastic part had been successfully repaired and was no longer rubbing against the tire! We never met the hotel owner again, but experience has shown us that angels do exist, and this time they appeared to us in the form of these two helpful men.
The destination, the village of Teleorman, is in sight
The drive from Pitesti to the destination was 120 km and should take two hours according to the satnav. We relied on the fastest route shown by the satnav, which was via the motorway to Bucharest. When we reached the junction where we were supposed to turn right, we saw that the junction was just being built. The map on the new satnav was already so up to date that it assumed the existence of this junction. This meant dozens of extra kilometers for us, because the nearest highway junction was far away. When we finally arrived at the cultural center in the village of Teleorman 10 minutes before the agreed time of 9 a.m., we breathed a sigh of relief! The gifts had arrived safely!
Our Romanian friend Janina, who coordinated the distribution of the gifts with her team, came to meet us and hurriedly carried the large boxes into the cultural center. In the hall, about 100 excited children were waiting for their gifts, and the whole village had become aware of this event. Janina introduced us to those present and Hannu was able to say a few words. Before the distribution of the gifts, Hannu blessed the children and young people with the Aaronic blessing, which Janina translated into Romanian. Each child was individually invited to pick up their own package. The donors and recipients were delighted.
After the distribution of the gifts, we were invited to lunch with a family. The girl from this family also received a bicycle. The family’s hospitality was touching. We were served traditional Romanian csorba (chicken soup) as a starter, fried chicken legs with potatoes and pickled vegetables as a main course and pumpkin pie for dessert. All ingredients are home-grown.
The return journey was sunny and we drove from Teleorman partly along the Serbian border to Budapest, where we spent the night. This section of the journey covered 760 km.
Anne & Hannu
(December 2024)