Five Minutes With Silviu Pop

So many times in history we read of ordinary people who do extraordinary things. It can be very exhilarating to discover the modest roots of these many great enterprises. The flip side, we often don't know whether a big dream or vision will come to pass for certain because there is always risk involved and we really cannot see tomorrow very well. One thing we do know is that he who tries nothing achieves exactly that.

For this reason I am always impressed by people who are passionate about their dreams, especially when it comes to making sacrifices to help make others' lives better. These are people who do not link risks to the cost, but to the potential rewards.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the fund raising dinner we went to for Romanian Hope Springs Eternal. I did a quick follow up interview with

ennyman: How old are you, Silviu?
Silviu: I just turned 29 on July 16th.

enny: How did you and Tirzah meet?

Silviu: We met through a common friend attending Grace Baptist Church in Dublin Ireland. The church had an active young adult group that we were both involved in. I was in Ireland working and Tirzah was in Ireland completing her Veterinary degree.

enny: Why is music such a part of your lives?

Silviu: I used to sing Romanian Folk music as a child. My teacher, Florica Bradu, is a famous folk music singer in Oradea. I also sang in the Romanian church in a youth group. I coordinated 2 groups while I was in "high school". Our singing group traveled around Romania on mission trips from the bottom of the Black Sea to the top of the Carpathian Mountains..

Tirzah started playing trombone in 6th grade as they didn’t want her in the choir. Her music career took off during her senior year in High School when she was involved in Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble at East High School. She continued to play while attending UMD and her trombone went with her to Ireland.

enny: Why are there so many orphans in Romania?
Silviu: Ceausescu Nicolaie had a rule enforced demanding every women to have at least 5 children in order to increase the population of Romania. He didn’t worry about how the families would feed and support their children. A lot of the families when they found they couldn’t support their kids they would leave them in blankets in the garbage, in boxes by the garbage containers or by the apartment building doors. These homeless children were put in orphanages. Romania is still struggling economically thus children are still being put into orphanages.

enny: What is the biggest need of the ministry at this time?
Silviu: We are at the very start of raising money so that we can fix up the facility in order to have our first camp with children from the orphanage next summer. We need to raise around $50,000 in order to have the facility usable.

enny: Are gifts to your ministry tax deductible? What's the easiest way to send support?
Silviu: We are working on our Federal Tax ID in the next few months we should have it. The easiest way to send support would be checks written to Romanian Hope Springs International or PayPal on our (soon to be available) web site. Artists can send art to our address for silent auction at or dinner events. Thank you for interviewing us and coming to our dinner. We really enjoyed the blog and sent out the website to a number of other people. Most of the artwork was sold which was very exciting.

For more information contact romanianhopesprings@yahoo.com

To all you dreamers and world-changers, today is a good day to move your dream one step further toward reality.