Even those in the twilight of their lives are hard pressed to remember a winter like this. By all accounts, it seemed as though we would have a mild winter season, since as late as the first week of January there was still no snow on the ground. Nature itself seemed to confirm that winter had forgotten to arrive, as trees began to bloom, and the temperature was warm enough wherein a light coat would suffice for the outdoors.

Some who had not prepared for winter were thankful for the lack of snow, while others shrugged their shoulders and began to murmur that perhaps this whole thing about climate change and global warming wasn't really a crock after all.

While distributing blankets and firewood in the rural areas, there were even those who quipped that they would likely leave the blanket in its wrapping, and have enough firewood for an entire year since it did not seem that winter would come, and if something likened to it did arrive, it would be a mild and docile version of winters past.  

Rather than cold or snow the lack of precipitation was foremost on people's minds since due to a dry summer and an even dryer autumn, wells throughout the country were running low or drying up altogether. Wells are the primary source of water for those living in rural areas, and when a well in a village dries up it's not merely an inconvenience but an outright tragedy.

Preoccupied with lack of water, believing that if it hadn't snowed by now it likely wouldn't snow at all, most people were caught wholly unaware and wholly unprepared for what descended upon the nation of Romania with a ferocity unseen in the last seventy years.

The suddenness with which the cold descended and snow began to fall was perhaps the most unnerving aspect, at least in the beginning. Within a matter of hours, temperatures went from the low 50's to below freezing, reaching -22 degrees over the course of the first night of snow storms.

Because the storms came on so suddenly there were countless people stranded on the roads, blizzard conditions making traffic impossible. The first night, four people froze to death in their cars, entombed in ice and snow, only to be found days later by army and gendarme personnel traveling the closed roads in heavy duty trucks looking for stranded motorists.

The second day of the storm the snows ceased for a brief while only to give way to freezing rain, which encased vehicles in ice, and turned every street into a makeshift ice skating rink. Emergency response units were instantly overwhelmed by calls from individuals suffering from twisted ankles, broken limbs, fractured skulls and scores of other injuries associated with slipping on the ice as they attempted to make their way to work, or the local grocery store.

By the third day, the sheer scope of the storm became clear, and the trepidation among the population only grew upon realizing it blanketed the entire country from north to south and east to west. Those that were able began to stock up on supplies, and since the roads were already closed to any kind of traffic the stores ran out of food within a matter of hours. The breakdown in distribution has already led to price gouging by unscrupulous individuals, a loaf of stale bread selling for ten times what it sold for just a week ago. 

Unrelenting snowfall coupled with winds upwards of sixty miles per hour created massive snow banks, covering many homes in rural areas up to their chimneys. Countless individuals were forced to tunnel their way out of their own homes, through windows, to keep from suffocating in their own adobes.

Due to the snow drifts caused by the high winds, many traveling by train were also stuck in the middle of nowhere as the tracks, covered by snow mounds made passage impossible. The stories of those stuck on trains for upwards of fifty hours, having long since run out of water or food are numerous and heartbreaking. Although their location was known, there was no way of getting to them, and all they could do was huddle together, hope, pray and wait for someone to come and save them.

It has been a week since the storms began, and although it has finally, and mercifully stopped snowing many roads are still closed, tens of thousands of people are still without power, and countless souls, especially in the rural areas are still isolated and left to fend for themselves.

This storm has already claimed fifty seven lives in Romania, and a staggering five hundred lives throughout Europe. As officials begin to make their way into the villages however, this number is expected to rise exponentially.

As I write these lines, it is noon, and the temperature is still well below freezing. The stores in many regions of the country are yet to be resupplied, the snows have yet to be cleared from many of the roads, and meteorologists are warning that a new wave of snowfall and plummeting temperatures are on the horizon.

Thankfully as yet, the Hand of Help Orphanage has not lost power, we have enough food on hand to keep the children fed for at least three weeks, and our heating system is faring well even under the strain of the unprecedented cold.

I ask that you remember us in your prayers as we continue to do what we can, from distributing what food we can spare from our own reserves, delivering clothes, blankets and firewood to those homes that are still accessible, and offering shelter from the storm to those who have no place to go.

It is in times such as these that the children of God must shine all the more, reaching out to the hurting, being the heart and hands of Christ, and tirelessly being about the work they have been called to do. Thank you for standing with us.

 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

 

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1 Kings 4:1, "A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, 'Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.'"

Before I begin to share what God has put on my heart today, let me first say that the following is not a teaching on increase, prosperity, or hundred fold returns. No, I have not gone over to the dark side, nor will I now, when the biscuit wheels have fallen off the prosperity gravy train begin to teach something that is evidently and without doubt a selfish, hedonistic gospel, antithetical to the gospel of Christ.

With everything going on in the world today, even I found it odd that God would put a message on my heart not having to do with wars or rumors of war, not having to do with a world on the brink, but rather having to do with the most fundamentally important aspect of our existence as human beings, namely family.

Throughout the world and especially in America the family is under attack. The attacks being leveled against the family are systematic, methodical, ongoing, and vicious. The enemy is well aware that if he can enslave the minds and hearts of the young, the future is his, and he is pulling out all the stops, calling in all his reserves, mounting one final siege in the hopes that he can win not only the battle but the war itself.

Although I have no children of my own yet, I can sympathize with every parent, with every mother and father who are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with everything the world is throwing at their children. As I said, I have no children of my own, but we are raising eighty five of them in the hand of help orphanage, and we are confronted with the same obstacles, the same setbacks, the same frustrations and the same hardships as every parent that desires to raise their children in the fear of the Lord in our day and age.

As I was reading the aforementioned scripture this morning, I realized it had far more to do with the love of a mother for her sons, than it ever did about increase or supernatural multiplication of oil in a jar.

As I began to meditate on this singular verse, I realized there are lessons every parent can learn from this bereft mother, who cried out to the man of God not for herself, not for her own wellbeing, but for her sons.

I submit to you that this mother, just as any mother who is a mother more than in name only would, pled for the wellbeing of her children with more passion and pathos than she would have for herself. She did not begin to tell the man of God how difficult it had been raising two sons after her husband's passing, she did not complain about how she didn't have time for herself anymore, she cried out for her children because the creditor to whom she owed a debt she could not pay was coming to take her sons into slavery.

Although separated by millennia this mother's reaction to the reality that soon her sons would be taken into bondage has something to teach us that is far more profound than the fact that the vessels were filled with oil.

The first lesson every parent must learn from this widow woman's reaction, is that interceding for your children is by far more profitable than screaming at your children.

In speaking to our staff here in Romania, we came to the conclusion that we spend far more time on our knees praying for the children that we have under our care, than we do for ourselves.

Pray for your children, intercede for them, even if they have strayed, even if they have wandered, even if they are in rebellion. God hears every prayer that you pray, he sees every tear that you shed, and in due season He will intervene and begin to work in their lives.

The second lesson every parent must learn from this widow woman's reaction is that when raising children being proactive is a necessity. The woman did not wait for her creditor to come and take her sons into slavery, she did not wait until they were already slaves, she cried out to the man of God before this took place, before it was too late.

Be proactive in your children's lives! Rather than having to scramble to put out a fire, make certain that the fire never gets started in the first place. I realize it's difficult to keep up with what children are doing nowadays, I realize saying we should be proactive and preemptive is easier than the doing of it, but we have no choice in the matter, because the enemy doesn't seem to be tiring, or losing his appetite when it comes to seeing the destruction of the family.

Tragically there are parents today enslaving their children with their own hands. The very notion of parenting has been perverted to such an extent, that it has been redefined to mean that it's more important to be your child's friend than it is to be their parent and their authority figure.

'Well, we let our little one do whatever he wants, we let our little one have whatever he wants, we let our little one watch whatever he wants, because we don't want him growing up thinking ill of us.'

It's these same parents, with this attitude of indulgence who ten or fifteen years down the line weep bitter tears at seeing their 'little one' become a shell of a man, corrupt of mind and heart, and in bondage to the enemy.

I realize the following will not be popular for some, but for the sake of your child's future, be the parent, be the authority figure, be the head of your family. Whenever you see your child doing something he ought not to be doing, whenever you see your child watching something he ought not to be watching, and think to overlook it for the sake of maintaining the peace, just remember there is no worse slave master in the entire world than the devil.

The third lesson every parent must learn from this widow woman's reaction, is to identify the danger to your child, and do all that you can to protect them from it. The woman rightly identified the danger to her sons, the danger being that they were to be made slaves by a creditor to whom she owed money. She also did all that she could to protect them, crying out to the man of God as a last resort, hoping that he could somehow help.

Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.