By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Judi Stewart of Marion spent five weeks in Romania this spring, providing loving care to children and young people in orphanages.

She found that the children had food and shelter but were starved for love and affection. Many of them were there because their parents were unable to provide for them.

Stewart, a 68-year-old retired schoolteacher, was part of a team that was based in Bucharest, a city of three million people. Her team served in five orphanages. They were sponsored by Heart-to-Heart International, a volunteer-driven organization that operates in 60 countries.

At a so-called baby hospital, Stewart cared for infants ranging in age from 1 month to 8 or 9 months. She found that they lay in bed for most of every day. They were fed lying down and were never given personal attention.

Stewart spent time holding the babies, feeding them, and trying to get them to sit up or stand and make eye contact.

She told the story of 8-month-old Andre whose mother came once a week to see him and gave him hugs and kisses. The woman has a job but does not earn enough to provide for herself and the child. Every week she promises Andre that someday she will take him home. Stewart said it was likely that would never happen.

In another orphanage, children ranged in age from 3 to 21. They never sat down together for a meal and often were seen with chunks of bread in their hands or consuming spoonfuls of vegetable and beef soup.

The children go to school when they get old enough. Stewart taught the older children cooking, sewing, music, and crafts.

Many times, she found herself with two or three children on her lap at once, often with their arms around her neck.

She told stories to the children through an interpreter, one sentence at a time.

Heart-to-Heart has a “team house” in Bucharest that can house 30 or more people. Volunteers come from many countries to serve in the orphanages. They pay their own way.

Stewart’s way was funded by a donation her husband, Ron, made shortly before his death in November.

“The most important thing we did was to show the babies, children, and even the staff, that they are loved and that there is a loving God who cares for them,” Stewart said.

“For me, it was a life-changing experience,” she said. “I can never view the world in the same way. We take so much for granted, and they have so little.”

Stewart said she learned a lot about the history of Romania. She said Romania, an eastern European country west of the Black Sea.

In 1989, when the Soviet Union fell, a revolution in Romania resulted in 11,000 deaths on the streets of Bucharest. Several dictators followed, keeping the people in poverty before a democratic election in 2004.

Although many people are prospering, others still are not able to provide for their children, and many are sent to orphanages.

“Whenever the Lord allows me to . . . I will go back,” she said.