EVENIMENTE
14
ROMANIAN TIMES
When my mom hears bad news from anywhere, she always poses the same
question: “How much longer will God endure this miserable world?” And the older I
get, the more bad news I stumble upon. I’m sure that is no news to anyone who opens
a newspaper, turns on the T.V. , or simply lives in this world. Personally I have many
questions for God, but I believe He has already answered this one. There is a story in
the Bible of Abraham pleading with God for Sodom and Gomorrah. God wants to
destroy these places when Abraham asks him a very important question, “Will you
indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” he asks and pleads with God until
He says, “For the sake of ten {righteous people] I will not destroy it.” The story has a
tragic end when these “righteous” people are not to be found. (Genesis 18). Our story
has not ended yet, which can only mean one thing.
I met Matia Simion about a month ago. A boy of three, then, with pleading
eyes and an endearing smile, in spite of his deformity, with a big fear of needles. I
can still hear him plead with his mom, “Mommy, they won’t poke me with the needle
today, will they” as we drove to the hospital for his surgery. You see, Matia was born
with a form of mouth cancer which by the time it was detected, his tumor had grown
as big as his head and his cancer rapidly spreading. I’m not here to talk about his
mother’s desperate search for someone to treat him in the hospitals of Romania or
about the doctors reassuring her that it is just his tooth coming out when she first noticed
something strange in her infant’s mouth. Neither do I want to focus on the inhumanity
she experienced, or the fight she gave to save her child’s life. Matia is not the first to be
failed by the Romanian medical system and how many mothers did not put up just as
much fight for their child to no avail? I can’t answer the question of why God permits
certain things, or why He chooses to save some and not others, but I can tell you that
God found some righteous people in this world.
Marilena Simion, Matia’s mother was at the end of herself when the doctors in
Romania told her there is nothing they can do for her beloved third child.When she had
run out of her own resources, a pastor by the name of Nelu Maiora proposed that she
solicit help from those overseas. She did not know anyone inAmerica nor did she have
the kind of money it would take to bring Matia in the Promised Land. Yet, this same
pastor happened to have the contact information of aman by the name ofAdrian Petrisor
whose brother happened to be studying to become an oral surgeon. When Adrian read
Matia’s story, he was moved and simply asked his brother, Dr. Daniel Petrisor, to take
a look and possibly give some advice at least. Daniel in turn took the story to a much
respected professor of his who in turn said, “Let’s fix this kid.”
That was over three years ago. What followed was the conglomeration of
some righteous people who were willing to lend a helping hand. There was the man
Dragi români de pe Coasta de Vest a SUA,
În câteva zile, pe 31 august, sărbătorim împreună, pentru prima oară, Ziua
LimbiiRomâne. Cuaceastăocaziedoresc săvămulțumescpentrucă, fiinddeparte
de țara-mamă, ați păstrat vie limba română în comunitățile dumneavoastră
.
Efortul pe care l-ați făcut este cu atât mai important cu cât mulți dintre dumneavoastră
s-au stabilit în SUAcând limba română nu era încă o limbă oficială a Uniunii Europene
și era privită ca o limbă de răspândire locală. Limba română este acum, din nou, acolo
unde îi este locul, alături de surorile sale din familia limbilor latine, și este limbă oficială
a Uniunii Europene, ca urmare a aderării României la UE în 2007.
Împreună, în aceste zile vomavea, în toate cele 11 state din Circumscripția Consulatului
General al României la Los Angeles, numeroase activități culturale și aș dori ca
mesajul meu să ajungă la fiecare dintre dumneavoastră. Vreau să știți că sunt alături de
dumneavoastră șicărecunoștințanoastrăseîndreaptăcătretoate familiileșicomunitățile
religioase din care faceți parte. De asemenea, transmit un gând de mulțumire preoților
Ziua Limbii Române - Mesajul Consulului General al României,
domnul Eugen Chivu
“I will spare the whole place for their sake”
și pastorilor din comunitățile românești pentru că au ținut permanent vie limba română
în serviciul religios din fiecare Biserică.
Limba română nu mai este astăzi doar o limbă vorbită în interiorul unor granițe perfect
delimitate sau, sporadic, în comunități mici de pe mapamond. Ea aparține deja unor
comunități mari de români din Uniunea Europeană, în Spania, Italia, Franța și Marea
Britanie, care au dus cu ei limba română acolo unde s-au așezat, ca parte a existenței lor
zilnice. Între comunitățile de români de pe mapamond, comunitatea din SUA rămâne
una dintre cele mai vechi și încercate și, de aceea, efortul pe care dumneavoastră l-ați
făcut este unul extrem de valoros pentru România.
Declarată, prin Legea 53/2013, Ziua Limbii Române este sărbătorită pe 31 august atât
în România cat și în Republica Moldova, ca un semn al unității noastre lingvistice, care
ne aduce mereu aminte că, dincolo de Prut, se află tot frați de-ai noștri. De aceea vreau
să le mulțumesc și celor din comunitățile de români veniți aici din Republica Moldova,
care au transmis, mai departe, copiilor lor limba română ca limbă maternă.
În calitatea mea de Consul General al României, ca reprezentant al țării în care toți
avem rădăcini adânci, știu că nu veți abandona niciodată demersul de a promova limba
română și că o veți transmite mai departe copiilor și nepoților dumneavoastră.
Totodată, un prilej de mândrie pentru noi toți românii de pe Coasta de Vest a SUA,
indiferent de unde suntem, este acela că, la unele dintre cele mai prestigioase universități
din lume, UCLA și Arizona State University, există și catedre sau secții de Limba
română cu rezultate excepționale, care au atras mulți studenți străini doritori să intre
în marea familie a vorbitorilor de limbă română. Lor li se adaugă, evident, tot mai
numeroși studenți și doctoranzi români ce studiază la Standford, Berkeley, Caltech și alte
universități prestigioase de pe Coasta de Vest a SUA, tineri ce reprezintă o componentă
de bază a noilor elite intelectuale românești.
Vă transmit tuturor, cu acest prilej, cele mai bune gânduri, și sper că pentru noi toți
românii, ziua de 31 august va fi una în care mândria de a fi român în SUA va fi dublată
de bucuria că cei de acasă nu au uitat nicio clipă că dumneavoastră sunteți mesagerii
lor în lume.
Eugen Chivu
Consulul General al României la Los Angeles
who received the email and was moved, Adrian Petrisor, who invested time, money, and
offered up his home to bring the little one and his mother to the States. There was Dr.
Daniel Petrisor who gave his time and his hard earned skills to changeMatia’s life. There
was the professor in Louisiana who did the same along with the hospital there. There
was another doctor in Romania who offered as much help as he could with his limited
resources along with another one in Hungry. There was St. Vincent Hospital in Portland
with doctors and nurses who took care of Matia as if he was their own. There was a small
Romanian church in Beaverton who offered up some funds and helping hands and many
other people who contributed to making Matia better. Some did more than others, but all
had one thing in common, the desire to help with the knowledge that it is in God’s will
to love our neighbor.
Today Matia has a new face. Dr. Daniel Petrisor and a team of skilled doctors
performed a very successful facial reconstruction surgery on Wednesday August 21,
2013, one day after his 4th birthday, at St Vincent Hospital all pro-bono. Matia can talk
and eat and is healing at a miraculous pace. Just the other day Dr. Petrisor mentioned
how stunned the team of doctors are at his speedy recovery and how it is hard to explain
it all medically.
By: Aniela Hutanu
I did not focus on the story itself or on the many people who contributed to
Matia’s new face specifically. I did not mention any one person or institution more than
the other because this story is not about Matia or his mom or the people who helped.
This story is about God finding ten righteous people and what is righteousness if not
loving your neighbor, doing good to those in need, and standing up for the weak. So
next time you want to save the world, do something for someone in need, think about
being righteous and take example from those who understand this principal. Next time
you wonder why there is so much misery in this world, ameliorate it by doing good and
adding to the number of righteous people so that God in his infinite mercy can look down
and say, “I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Matia’s face AFTER
Matia’s face BEFORE
***