seeking a goat

Last week a friend of ours here asked us to come over because she wanted to talk to us about a phone call she had got the night before.  She said he had received a call about her husband’s brother’s family.   Apparently, her husband as 8 brothers and I think he is the only one that is a Christian.  Many of the other siblings have real problems including problems with the law and alcoholism.  Our friend had learned that the brother has taken off and left his wife and three kids ages 9, 2 and 9 months.  She talked about how they were really poor and he was not working and now he left and they are all alone without someone to take care of them.  We decided we wanted to go visit them and bring them some items.  The talked about the best way to help the family.  The wife attends church and is a Christian, but I guess the husband that ran away does not attend and always says I will Sunday, but when Sunday comes he will not go.  Our friend teared up talking about how blessed she is to have what she has.  Last fall all her chickens died and she said she believes it was because she did not give enough to people in need last year.  She is very generous. 

 Eli suggested we buy them some chickens so they could get eggs frequently and have some meat occasionally.  Then next suggestion was to buy them a goat so they could have milk for the kids.  The next step was finding chickens or a goat.  Our friend knew someone who sells chickens for a good price, but they live about 45 minutes away.  We decided to look for a goat.  The family lives near a hill and forest and the goat could graze for most of its food.  You see lots of shepherds in Romania year round with their herds in the grassy fields.  We made plans to go visit the family in two days and started collecting items to bring.  Our friend called her husband who works on farm in another town and asks him to ask about a goat while she called and asked everyone she knew that has goats if we could buy one.  We found one person who would sell us all of his herd, around 15, but not just one.   The morning we were going to go we still had not found a goat.  Our friend had talked to someone who lives in the same town as the family and they had a goat that was not yet producing milk that they would sell.  We left this as an option and headed to another nearby town that has a large farmer’s market type sale with animals to look.  When we got there we quickly found out that we had came on the wrong day.  There was no sale that morning so we headed back to Babadag and asked a couple other neighbors if they would sell one of their goats.  I guess this is the birthing period of the goats, and they are easy to care for so no one wanted to sell one.   Who knew that in a county full of goats it would be so hard to buy one.  We decided we would just buy the young goat in the town; eventually it will produce milk.    

We loaded the car with clothes, canned and bought foods, school supplies, blankets, flour, a chicken that our friend gave them and a bag of corn for the goat.  We got lost very shortly in the town looking for the house, but soon found it.  It was a two-room house with no electricity or indoor water.  Only about 50% of people in Romania have indoor plumbing I’ve heard.   The husband was there so I guess he come back.  We unloaded the car and when we got in the house I think the first thing our friend asked him was, “why don’t you go to church?” Romanians are very direct.  We played with the kids a bit then headed to get the goat.  The person selling the goat lived about 2 blocks away so it was a quick walk over.  The family selling the goat was a Christian family with probably 5 young cute kids.  We stayed and talked with them a bit then paid for the goat and left.   Back at the house we stayed for probably an hour playing, talking and encouraging the family.  Our friend talked to them about reading the Bible and the importance of getting a job and caring for the family.  The oldest boy is in second grade and has not learned to read yet.  I guess he does not always go to school for different reasons. 

We were happy to help out this family and hope to continue to visit them, helping and encouraging them as needed.   We pray for God to also show us more families that we can help out.