Roma Diary
( Extracts from my Journal )
www.BobHitching.com

We were going to a village to tell a man there that we could not buy the wood for his roof until later that week and to see if we could take Dragica's baby to the doctor. It would be a rather pleasant trip with out to much action to fray the nerves...........

Then the news came that police had arrested Dragica and her brother for using their children for begging. I agreed to go to the police station and pick them up. A fugitive thought in the form of a whisper came to my mind that maybe today would not be quite as restful as I had previously thought. We could not find them at the police station so we checked the train station. We were relieved to find Dragica, her brother, little Zelko and the baby there. Then out of nowhere came little Biserka.

Suddenly the police were on top of us. I thought I am too old for all this and then suddenly Biserka grabbed onto me and started pleading not to let the police take her back to the hospital. The reason she was in the hospital was that in the village a man had given her some pills and she had fallen down unconscious. She is 9 years old. She had climbed out to the window of the children's hospital and run away. She was hysterical crying "Bobby don't let them taker me away". Finally the police agreed that we could take her back to the Hospital and then take her home to the village. She had an open IV hook up in her arm. And so thus continued our more relaxing day.......

The hospital would not let me take Biserka home so I had to drive 30 minutes to pick up her mother. Laura stayed behind with Biserka in the hospital. There is a picture of Biserka and Laura at the hospital http://roma-diary.blogspot.com/

When I got into the village I was taken to see her mother who was laying on the bed. The whole room was covered in hundreds of flies. She lifted her shirt to show me a nine inch stab wound that had been stapled together. She had tried to commit suicide and had committed a kind of Hari Kari but did not die.

I grabbed her husband and took him back to the hospital, got Biserka and then drove back to the village. We needed a nurse or anyone more medical than me, remember by mistake I once brushed my teeth with anti itch crème for....well enough said. Natasha came walking by just as we were leaving and so we all piled into the van.....the one we should not be taking any chances with, and drove back yet again to the village.

At the village little Biserka, bless her, lay down and went straight to sleep. Natasha talked with her mother and was quite firm with her then I prayed with her that God would heal her and save her. Hundreds of flies were around her. The wound if it turns septic will kill her.

With days like this who wants to go to Disney Land........But actually the week has been great..........

Daniel and I had a very honest time together and he has now started back on the translation and he has just sent me this morning completed all 28 chapters of Acts.

Shkarije was tense but we had a marvelous time holding a meeting in which about 50 people were present. I was greeted by a woman who said, " Do you remember me? you prayed for me..... " I did remember her, Nancy and I prayed with here when her husband was murdered. We have agreed to go back and hold regular meetings in the village. We have longed to break into this village and it has happened. But the real issues now begin as this is a place where violence could easily be used against us.

We had a great meeting in Gorichan and they have agreed we can go back each week and have meetings there. The quality of young people in this village is extraordinary.

Laura has finished one set of Bible Story flash cards which we will use for the first time today...... she will try and create one more set before she leaves.

Bosilka knocked her hut down in preparation for the new house to be built. We begin on Monday. Her husband may have to go back to prison so the timing is great to get her and the children into a proper little house.

And dear Nancy, what can we say about her. She has held everything together in the home in this crazy week, been the glue in our all lives, the sounding board in the madness, the touch of gentleness in a rather unsavory world and the one who removes all kinds of otherwise dangerous materials that I may ingest and kill myself with by mistake.
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Bob and Nancy Hitching
Trnovecka ulica 2
Varaždin
Croatia 42000
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www.bobhitching.com