Bread of Life is Home

  At the Bread of Life Home in Brosteni, Romania, we encourage the children to remain in contact with their families or relatives if it does not threaten their safety. A few times a year, we allow some of the children to visit relatives for a few days during school breaks. In many state institutions, the children find their life dreadful and look forward to the day they can move out. It is always a joy to see the excitement in the children’s eyes as they return to the BOL home.

Sadly the option of visiting with relatives is not possible for all of our children. We have a significant number of them who do not have family they can visit. Sadness fills their past, and it is better for them if they do not go back to those places. Many of them have not visited anyone outside the BOL Home in years.

It is heartbreaking when these little ones say I will go home to visit during the school break. Recently I was surrounded by Bety, Ionut, and Alex. They looked at me smiling and told me they would go home for a visit when school is out. I looked at their little faces and forced myself to smile, but I was hurting inside because I knew this would not happen.

What gives me hope is to see that even though they never visit anyone, they still wake up every morning with a smile on their face, and they are happy to be at the BOL Home. For these children, this has become their home.

This summer, we decided to do something special for the children who have nowhere to visit. For the last 18 months, due to Covid restrictions, our children were pretty much confined to the BOL Home. But now, we pray and trust God that things will be better. So we want to cultivate the family feeling for our children and take them to visit the Youth Transition Program in Bucharest this summer. It is a 7-hour drive from Brosteni to Bucharest, which will allow them to see part of Romania and see where their older brothers and sisters live. We will take them to the local church and plan some activities with them in Bucharest. It is also a good opportunity for the youth to serve the little children as a family does.

We are blessed to see that the BOL has become “the home” where children are happy to stay and live their life, as a family.

  Alin Panican