International Projects at 1310 West Main Street, Lexington, KY 40508-2048 US - St. Mildred's Romanian Mission Powerpoint
| St. Mildred's Romanian Mission Powerpoint |
When Monica Ruscitto, a native of Romania, moved to the United States, she vowed to return to Romania to help those she had left behind. She went on her own to do so, but she realized that the need was too great and that she could not do it alone. She decided to turn to her community for help. She got together with members of her own church, St Mildred's Catholic Church in Somerset, as well as members from the First United Methodist Church there, and put together a mission program to help her own village and others like it. Since 2003, there has been a yearly mission group that has gone to Romania. The first group consisted of only four people, but now the group is usually around 20. The missionaries go to Romania in the spirit of love and Christian service. They bring food and clothing to orphans and impoverished families. They help build and improve houses and buildings in the community so that they are safe and comfortable. A large concern in Romania is the safety of the water supply, so one of the group's projects is to help dig new, sanatary wells. They teach sewing classes to high school aged women, so that they will have a job skill once they graduate. They have fixed up a poor nursing home, providing it with a stove, supplies, hens for food, and on their next trip, they plan to repaint it. They work very closely with Gulliver's orphanage, not only providing the children with necessities such as food and clothing, but really interacting with them and bringing them hope. Among their many projects is also a nondenominational Bible school that volunteers run. Under communism, Romanians were not allowed to be open about their religion. Those who did faced violent oppression. For this reason, many Romanians are still scared to talk openly about their faith. The Bible school works to teach children from an early age that it is okay to do so. Many people will ask "Why go to Romania when there are so many people in need here in Kentucky?" Missionary Tom Cate responds to this argument that here in the United States the infrastructure already exists to help those in need. There are many goods and services to which the poor in Kentucky can turn that are simply not availible in a third world country such as Romania. To view a powerpoint of pictures from the last Mission trip click here (Powerpoint may take a few minutes to download)