wfn.org | Iowa couple aids Kosovo refugees

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 7, 1999 News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71B{190}

NOTE: Editors may want to use this report with UMNS story #191.

By George Wylie*

DES MOINES, Iowa (UMNS) -- Jim and Mary Pat Rosman-Bakehouse of Sumner,
Iowa, were in New York City when the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia began.  

They were headed for Albania, where a 3-year-old girl they were adopting was
waiting for them. They planned to spend a few weeks in Albania because of
the paperwork, then head for Greece and finally back home with their new
daughter, Vera.
    
Some of their friends and family tried to talk the couple out of continuing
into that part of the world. However, the Rosman-Bakehouses, who attend
Sumner United Methodist Church, felt God would see them safely through. And
they and their two children back home, Amie, 12, and Nathan, 11, had planned
and waited for little Vera too long to turn back now.

By the time the adoption proceedings were completed, hundreds of thousands
of refugees were streaming out of Kosovo and into neighboring Albania. Many
were suffering from malnutrition, exhaustion and a host of illnesses and
injuries.

The Rosman-Bakehouses had been working with Bethany Christian Services
during the adoption process. Besides assisting in international adoptions,
the agency also provides relief workers and supplies during crises. Bethany
has 30 people in Albania providing help to the refugees.
    
A doctor at Vera's orphanage in the Korca area was trying to help the
refugees, and that was all the couple needed to see before getting involved
themselves. Mary Pat herself is a medical doctor, with a family practice
back home, and Jim is a stay-at-home father.
     
In e-mail messages to their pastor, the Rev. John Battern, the
Rosman-Bakehouses describe vividly what the refugees have been through. The
messages were sent from Tirana, the Albanian capital.

April 2: "One woman at the District Hospital told of how the men, women, and
children in her village were lined up outside the houses, with the men lined
up across from [the rest]. The Serbs robbed them of the money, jewelry, and
other valuables. Then they held a gun to the head of the men, one by one,
and asked the family, 'Do you have 5,000?' When the family answered, 'You
have just taken everything we have,' then the Serbs would shoot the man in
the head and go on down the line doing the same thing!

"The woman who told this is in the hospital and is almost inconsolable, and
might die from the hardship of the trip. If she dies, she will leave 3
orphans behind!"

April 3: "By Monday, there will be 100 plastic tents filled with refugee
families on the hill across from the orphanage! I will do what I can to help
with sanitation and distributing water and food! My heart really goes out to
these people. The refuges we are seeing are not ignorant peasants! They are
doctors, lawyers, accountants, and engineers! Kosovo was the most modern
area of Yugoslavia, and the Albanians were the most modern of its people.
They were the professionals of Kosovo society, both the middle and upper
classes, and now they are reduced to the clothes on their backs, NO FOOD, NO
MONEY, AND NO HOME!!!"

April 5: "Mary Pat and I and the Bethany staff went to the main processing
center to see if there was anything that we could do to help. We also had
some supplies to deliver. It was decided that the best place for the
supplies was at the actual camp, but they looked like they could use the
extra help, so I stayed behind at the processing center, while the rest of
the group went on to the camp. They did need my help! I became part of
'transport.' With a handful of others, we kept the distribution tables
loaded with bread and water. And when new truckloads arrived, we unloaded
them and took them to the supply room. In addition, we loaded a bus full of
cots to be taken to the camps."

In spite of the demands on their time and the extra work they volunteered to
do, the Rosman-Bakehouses eked out time to spend with Vera, whom they
describe as a cute little girl with brown eyes and dark hair.

The couple plan to bring Vera to Iowa by early May, but their work for the
refugees will probably continue. They e-mailed: "When we return home, we
hope to collect supplies that can be of use here. The majority of people
here seem to have next to nothing, but they make better use of it that you
could believe!"

# # #

*Wylie is communications director of the United Methodist Church's Iowa
Conference.

______________
United Methodist News Service
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