Hospital chaplains met in Cluj, Romania

A historical event took place in Cluj (Kolozsvár), Romania where for the first time Hungarian speaking hospital chaplains met from a number of countries in the Carpathian-valley (Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia). The dire situation of the health system is often the subject of many discussions these days. Is there a place in the system where there is room and time for a quiet moment? Thanks be to God that even in the midst of suffering His Word can give hope and comfort both to patient and to carer. The theme of the conference was the inter-cultural nature of caring. What does it mean? The speakers of the conference described the various ideas that exist about the relationship between sin and suffering. The caring person soon discovers his or her total inability to comfort or to give satisfying answers to deep and searching questions. We can meet the suffering person but only God can act and bring comfort through His Word and Spirit. Pál Balánky e.g. spoke on the fundamental values of roma culture that were of high importance in the caring for gipsy patients. Not just the "What?" but also the "How?" came to the surface as to how to speak those words we think appropriate in a given situation next to the bed of a patient as Christ's ambassadors in an inter-cultural context where the patients come from a wide variety of cultural background.
The wonderful surprise of the event was the arrival of a full load of Bibles. Mrs Erzsébet Magyar, leader of the Mission Centre of the Hungarian Reformed Church together with Ottó Pecsuk, General Secretary of the Hungarian Bible Society brought 500 Bibles to present the special delivery to the ministry of Hungarian speaking hospital mission. In those moments prior to the distribution of Bibles the people there were reminded of the power of the Word of God that can give new birth, give hope and encouragement and in a real way to smooth suffering and provide strength to carry it.