This past Christmas, Bakersfield College American Sign Language instructor DeAnn Sampley invaded Romania with a team of nine BC students, and they came armed, Sampley said, with over 800 wrapped presents and a desire to brighten Christmas for some of Romania’s impoverished orphans.
“They (the orphans) thought they had gone to Disneyland,” Sampley said, speaking of her team’s reception by the orphans, many of whom were abandoned and abused orphans. “They were excited to see American visitors,” she said.
Along with Christmas presents, Sampley said her team, including three deaf studies students, dispensed diapers, rash medicine, prayer and an ASL rendition of “Santa Claus is coming to town.”
Sampley and her team spent three hours at one orphanage changing the diapers of 16 babies. The team served six orphanages, as well as a deaf school, Sampley said. At one point, they traveled 10 hours from Romania’s capital, Bucharest, to a children’s hospital in Arad, and Sampley said the team relished the beauty of Romania’s alps along the way. Furthermore, the long trip, Sampley said, did not diminish the joy the students experienced serving the needy children.
Last Christmas marked 15 years of Sampley and her team going to many of Romania’s approximately 680 orphanages. She said that despite the staggering poverty still in Romania “things have improved there,” including programs for working mothers. However, the poverty of Romania is still appalling and “the country still has the communist mindset,” Sampley said.
A worn replica of the blue, yellow and red Romanian flag Sampley acquired in 1989 hangs in her office, and a conspicuous hole lies in the middle of the relic where the communist sickle once was. The triumph over the communist dictator in Romania may have been realized, but the war to end Eastern European horrific poverty never ends, Sampley said.
“Just to see the poverty in Eastern Europe is shocking,” Sampley said.
Sampley’s college friend Joni Eareckson Tada, a Christian artist and paraplegic, opened the doors for Americans to minister to the Romanian people. After the revolution in Romania that freed the country from a dictator’s grip, in 1991, Tada was invited into the country by the Romanian parliament, and this diplomatic act proved to be the means and the inspiration by which future ministers were able to gain entrance into this country.
“Romania was closed to Americans at this time,” Sampley said.
Tada’s successful entry into Romania inspired Sampley to co-found the international ministry, Children to Love, in 1993.
“I just have a love for Romanian orphans,” Sampley said. Sampley adopted a Romanian boy in 1992.
Sampley said her intense love for Romania is shared by her church, Bakersfield’s Laurelglen Bible Church. Laurelglen sends its own separate ministerial team to Romania , and it is affiliated with the a sister church in Arad in western Romania.
Sampley said Laurelglen Bible hosted a pancake breakfast as well as other fundraising events to assist her team’s efforts. Sampley’s students each raised $2, 000 a piece as well. Sampley said the students felt that the efforts they applied were worth it, because, like Sampley, the team loved the experience of meeting Romanian people.
BC students wishing to experience different cultures and people have a chance to go on a 10-day Italian tour through Educational Tours and led by BC art professor Nancy Magner. Magner says her group will be leaving the first of June. The trip includes sights in Rome, Florence and Venice. Students will see the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Cistine Chapel, as well as the Uffizi Art Museum in Florence.
Magner also intends to show students sights not included on the regular tour. This will include lesser-known but picturesque churches that may feature Bernini paintings. Students over 23 years old must pay $2,384, and students under 23 pay $2,069. The payment must be made in full 90 days before departure, Magner said.
Magner said her daughter was born in Italy, which partially accounts for her interest in Italy. However, more than anything, her love of art and teaching inspires her to travel to Italy, she said.