Baraq Ministries, Adrian’s Story…

July 1st, 2007

Baraq Ministries - Established 1989 - A charity with a big heart for outreach work in Romania. It’s new project to fulfill the goal of building their first childrens home (one of many) ‘The House of Rahab’. A sanctuary for the maimed, desperate, street-children of that country.

The charity is also looking to then provide and support a community center and a school, both of which will be ‘The John Johnson Center’. Dedicated in loving memory, of a much loved friend and co-worker of the charity, John Johnson.

Adrian Guest who heads the charity, tells his story:

Hi, my name is Adrian Guest and I want to explain a little about…

HOW IT ALL BEGAN…

In 1989, I watched the International news on the T.V. as we saw the historic fall of communism and the horrors that where left behind from this evil regime. Especially the children in Romania! Living in state run homes, they were used like cattle just bred to be slave labour in factories when they were old enough.

The conditions of the homes was barbaric, children tied to their beds, in dark rooms and left to lie in their own urine and mess for weeks on end.

One group of children had a deformity. The backs of their heads where completely flat! This was due to the fact that they where left tied to their beds for so long that their little heads had ‘grown’ flat.

I knew I had to do something but what?

I was one person with a desire to help but no finance to do anything! So I borrowed two transit vans, went to Tesco, ASDA, anybody that would donate anything, to take to these children.

Myself and a couple of friends set out to Romania. We had to travel through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary and into Romania.

We had no idea of procedures and each border had its own problems, eventually, one week and 2,000 miles later we reached Romania. No knowledge of the language and no idea where these children’s homes where.

By the second week we where well into Romania and decided to camp and rest by a lake area called Cinz Cinz. One of the locals who could speak a little English asked why we were there, we explained and then Contessa introduced me to her brother Valentine. He spoke exceptional English and from that moment we became close friends.

We could not have done what we have done over the 14 years without the love and friendship of Contessa, Vali and his wife Anka.

So they took us to our first children’s home! I can’t describe the horrors that I saw. It is beyond belief at times how evil man can be to their fellow man. But we stayed with them for two weeks and gave them the donations and started to make a small difference to at least one group of kids.

One three year old boy called Michael clung to me for two weeks till it was time to say goodbye. With tears he begged me to take him back to England. Vali explained that it was impossible for me to take him with us, but I promised to go back. At this Michael cried even more. I asked Vali, “ Why is he crying, I had promised that I would return?” He explained that Michael had had so many promises, that when people gave their word to do something, it meant to him, that it would never happen.

So I said to Vali to tell him – “it is not just a possibility. I would return”. I was sure I would. The first English words that Michael learnt were, ‘do you promise, no possibility, are you sure?’ I said ‘I am sure’.

When I got home I started immediately making plans for the next trip, to make it bigger and better. It costs thousands of pounds for each trip, plus hunting around for donations. It is a lot of hard work and we meet problem after problem each time. People say why do you keep going back and my answer is, “because I promised a little three year old lad I would!”

We have been going for 14 years, two or three times a year and have touched many thousands of lives over the years.

But I met a different type of ‘Michael’ that is not catered for. These are the gypsy children, put out on the streets to beg. Their parents maim their own children! They will sever an arm or a leg so they get more sympathy when they are begging and all they have to look forward to is an early death, because there is nothing for them.

We have now got Official permission from the Romanian Government to take these children off the streets. They have given us our own land in Romania, which brings us to our next project…

We want to build our own children’s homes to care for these children. We still intend to keep supplying the homes that we have for the past 14 years. Plus build our, ‘first-of-many’ homes, that we will have full charge of. A place where people can adopt a child over here, through sponsorship, and go over and stay with the child they saved from the street, to become a part of their life and their progress.

Your prayers, help, and donations of money is needed to see our first home ‘The House of Rahab’ to become a reality.

Senior Pastor, Adrian Guest. Founder of Baraq Ministries Charity number:

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