Christmas Newsletter 2005
As Christmas approaches it is time for me to look back at the activities of the last six months and to bring to you our news. I am happy to start with the Romanian Bike Ride which happened at the end of August. Our British team, two fit young medical students, James and Greg, and a strong support team of six older helpers met up with Brindusa and Titi’s group, a small select few Rehab youngsters for the first two days but boosted after this by a Landrover full to overflowing of Casa de Copii young people. The weather was perfect and the scenery magnificent, especially the Transfagarasan mountain pass. James and Greg shepherded the riders with great care and no one fell off this year. When we reached Piona Telului to stay one night with Dr Edward we saw for ourselves the devastation that the floods had caused. The road up the valley had washed away and access was only by foot or a horse and cart river challenge!
Half of the Rehab youngsters had not managed to get leave from work but they all managed to join us for our last day’s ride from Siret to Putna Monastery on Sunday. Before we left we were able to visit the land that we bought on the Botosani road. Our plan is to build houses on it for the Rehab youngsters. It is about 2 km from the centre of Siret, quite a big field, certainly big enough for two terraces of four houses each and there will be plenty of land left for the growing of crops. We have employed an architect and first there is a need to get all the services on site, such as electricity and a water supply. Safe storage will also be needed and maybe a watchman before the building starts, hopefully in the spring. We do need to seriously fund raise now as the cost of materials will be high. If you can help at all please give us a call.
We shall have no difficulty in filling empty Rehab places when our group finally move out. The Casa de Copii is still very full of needy young people all waiting to escape from their prison like home to a home that can offer them a better life in the future. We must help.
By the end of September Peter and I were on the move again, this time to Pakistan and Afghanistan. We were very happy to find our clinic was again working. After the attack on it last March it was closed for about ten weeks. Dr Farid decided to move in one family to take care of the building. The sign for the clinic has now been removed from the main road and quietly our team have again started work just twice a week at present. The clinic is a valued asset for the neighbourhood and we hope that this will help to keep it safe. They were very short of medicines when we arrived. One container had stood for almost three months in the Afghan Red Crescent Headquarters and our first job was to get this unloaded and distributed. It was not an easy task as the load had been raided and many boxes were not fit to distribute. Tempers were frayed but we managed to extract the remaining load and most hospitals received something. Fortunately our own clinic supplies and two other hospitals’ loads were intact and a crowd gathered to see us bring the medicines to our clinic. The next day Dr Nasrin had 250 patients all demanding aid and it was difficult to control the crowd. Nevertheless at the end of the clinic she was still smiling and so happy to have some medicines, food and clothes for patients. Our help is still very necessary.
For some months now we have been praying for a small truck to help us to distribute supplies and Dr Farid asked us to buy one, but money is always tight. When we went to join our missionary friends at church we were very happy to be offered back the Ford Cargo pick up truck that we purchased in 1992 to deliver a mobile clinic to Afghanistan. During the mujahidin time when we lost our house to the Wahadats at gun point we donated the truck to the International Assistance Mission, a Christian group, as we could not keep it safe. Somehow it survived the bombing and stealing of those years and also the years of the Taliban when it was locked up in the church yard. The IAM group are richer now and don’t really need this old truck. Farid has now had it fitted with a new gear box and it will be just right for the job for which we need it. For us it is like an old friend and for the two young men who were brave enough to drive it there, Mike and Mark, the news of the new gear box will be wonderful because it was always awful. They only made it as far as the northern border of Afghanistan, then the Russians decided to expel them on the day that Gorbachev fell. However they did a good job for us and Peter and I went up north to arrange to get it through the border and into Kabul.
While we were in Kabul there were several road bomb attacks killing more than ten people with each blast. However Kabul seems to be thriving and many children are in school. Almost half of the women have abandoned the bourqa and the rebuilding is proceeding at quite a pace. Peter and I spent a lot of time trying to achieve the renewal of our registration which is vital if we are to continue to work there. It is very necessary to keep our containers moving in and to keep up the fight to see them safely distributed, and it is a fight!
We spent two days in Peshawar on the way back to Karachi and all the paperwork to apply for registration of a Pakistan branch of Jacob’s Well were left with our friend and helper, Hassan Naz. We were in Karachi when the earthquake hit Northern Pakistan. Hassan told us that they were all ok in Peshawar but 300 villages in the north of their province had gone down as well as all the devastation in Kashmir. By the time we arrived home we found everybody here wanted to help. We were soon drowned in tents, duvets, blankets, food and warm clothing and it didn’t take us too long to gather some medicines also. While the first container was at sea Hassan Naz was trying to register our branch but was just shunted from one Ministry to the next and was told it would take a long time. It was necessary in the end to hand over the load to the relief commissioner for aid in North West Frontier Province and right now we are still battling to try to get this load out of Karachi’s Port Qasim. Meanwhile the second container has also arrived and is waiting. We had hoped that we would have control over distribution but now we must wait until the Pakistanis in charge in Karachi decide it can go and hope that they will allow Hassan to monitor its distribution. No doubt we shall get a bill for demurrage while it waits! I want to thank all our donors who so willingly have provided both goods and the money for transport and medicines and all our staff who have worked very hard to pack all the supplies. I hope to have better news of the distribution soon.
Next year looks like being a busy one for Jacob’s Well. With the lease agreement for the warehouse underway we are hoping to start to build office and workshop premises on the site. Rob Byass has successfully pioneered car boot sales on the site this summer and they were well supported. The old toilet block which had an asbestos ceiling has been safely removed ready for the new building to go up. We hope we can achieve this by next summer. The plans to build an Outreach Centre for the learning disabilities adults have now fallen through and we are sad about this. I try to remember always that when a path is blocked for us it is the Lord’s will and it is a new direction we must take. We must be patient and prayerful to seek his guidance for the future.
In the lead up to Christmas we shall be packing two more containers, one for Kabul and one for Bulgaria. They will both take gifts of medicines, and as much aid as we can manage to cram in as our warehouse is very full just now. They go with our love to people who really need it and I know that God cares for these people just as he cares for you and me. We wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas.
From Beryl Beynon and everyone at Jacob’s Well
The road washed away so they have to use the river!
Some of the bike riders and supporting vehicles
Tents for Pakistan earthquake victims ready to leave in the container behind. Given by Toll Gavel Guides.