Amy's decision

A few weeks ago I wrote of the wonderful birthday party we had for Amy*. This past weekend Amy wanted to go visit an aunt in her home village and we allowed her. She was supposed to be back on Saturday evening, but returned on Tuesday by noon.

She came back wanting to get married.

Her cousin had convinced her that a certain man was right for her.

She met him for an hour on Saturday.

Yes, my mind screams "re-trafficking".

Amy was sold first by her mother for labor trafficking. She was forced to beg daily on the streets of Moscow. When she didn't bring enough rubles back in the evening, her holders raped her. She has a beautiful two year old daughter from one of those rapes.

Amy is attending cooking school and learning to cook, but she isn't the brightest girl in the home. It is obvious that years of physical abuse as a child took its toll on her learning capacity.

And so she is still vulnerable to the words of a cousin claiming to have her best interest in mind.

We know that God says, "I plan to prosper you, not to harm you. I plan to give you a hope and a future."

Please pray intently for Amy in the next few days and weeks. We know that she can learn to cook. We hope to place her with a church family in a village when she leaves the home. But right now, she doesn't see how life can be any better. She doesn't have hope. She isn't sure she wants to parent her daughter.

Please pray that the bondage would be broken in her life. Pray that God will heal her emotions. Pray that he will give her the love and ability to parent her sweet little girl.

Pray that the cousin would stop calling and that Amy will have the ability to refuse the offers.

And once again, pray for Andy & I and pray for our staff as we try to talk to her about hope and good decision making.

Team work

I just arrived home from a day at the Home of Hope. Tuesday is always staff meeting. What a great team of women God has blessed us with to work with the women who come into our home!

After staff meeting I learned the story of one of our women in the home. I don't often ask, but today I needed some details. The story that unfolded was still sketchy. Leah* worked at a cafe. The cafe is known to be a place the recruits girls to waitress here and then finds them "jobs" abroad. Leah was 17 and a good looking man brought her flowers, pledged his love and got her false documents. They went to Dubai.

Two months later she came back--deported.

A few months after that she was trafficked again, different man, same place.

And then again she was trafficked. This time to a different country. This time by a woman she knew.

And we wonder why would a woman go back knowing what had happened the first time? A simple answer is that there was nothing for her to live for here. A bigger answer has to do with pain and shame.

Leah* has severe psychological problems as do most of the women in our home. And it's no wonder.

The part of the story we have not yet truly heard is the abuse, the pain, the torture. We know it was there, but it remains buried deep inside. At times it comes out in explosive unexplained behavior. We wonder why they can't just be normal.

Until God heals them, they can't.

And this is why I'm so grateful for the team we have. They are wonderful. They live and work among the women, stopping fights, getting yelled at, continuing to show love. They teach lessons. They cook together. They help with their children. But it is never easy.

Almost weekly I tell them that this is God's work. We don't have it all figured out, but God is showing us bit by bit how to do this work. And right now we are God's hand extended to the women in our home, to help bring healing to their broken, shattered lives.

Please remember our staff in prayer--the director, the social worker, the night staff, the cook, the administrator, the psychologist. Pray that God fills them with wisdom and grace and peace and truth. Pray that God helps them to be His hands of healing.

Things that pull

Working with Victims of Trafficking creates a working culture where we feel like there are days we are changing lives and days when we are making no progress at all. It seems we make progress with a woman and then something pulls her back.

A boyfriend she has left calls again.
An aunt finds her someone to marry.
A grandma thinks she'd be better off at in her village, but she has no ability to withstand anything or anyone.
An untamed heart thinks freedom comes with no rules.

We deal with these issues almost daily. And we press on.

But there are days when everyone is discouraged. How can we work another day, bringing hope and life, but seeing little progress.

And we start a new day once again.

Today, please pray for our workers. Pray for our director. Pray that they all can see the hope and that they can see what God will do in the lives of these women, even when they cannot see.

Pray also for Amy*--her aunt is trying to convince her that she'd be better off married to some man from her village. This is not safe for her or her child.

Pray for Anika* who is underage and we are working still to legally bring her back to the home.

Pray for Ali* whose boyfriend that she ended with in December, is trying to call her back.

Pray for Leah* whose baby will soon be born. Her hormones and emotions are up and down daily. Pray for strength for her and a safe delivery for her small one.

Pray for Nelli* who is struggling daily with being in the home. Pray that her heart settles and she finds her hope in Christ.

Pray also for little Anastasia, who is in the hospital with pneumonia. She is 5 and in the hospital. Pray for a rapid healing for her.

Pray for our all women in the home that they would see that true freedom comes when it is Christ setting them free.

Celebrating the precious

We've been home from vacation not quite two days. We jumped right back into life, feeling fully refreshed. It is good to be home.

At the Home of Hope we value celebration. Most of our girls have never had a birthday party. Celebrating birthdays says, "You are special. We are glad you were born. We are glad for your life in our lives."

I love Moldovan birthday celebrations. It starts by everyone gathering and presenting their gift to the birthday girl. The gift isn't given alone. It is given with words of affirmation. Poems are read that mean something about that person. People write of the love and care and concern they feel to the one being celebrated. Then the gifts are put up, and food is served. Later cakes and candies are eaten. Finally the gifts are opened one by one.

Yesterday we celebrated Amy's* life. She is sweet and quiet and gentle. She smiled and she cried. We all cried. A life that was sold and broken, was told that she is valued abundantly.

There are always challenges at the Home. Girls get nervous and want to leave. They fight with one another. They fight with the staff. They don't like what they are feeling and they want to run from those feelings to the old things that satisfied.

But it is so good to have days to set aside all those issues and focus especially on one, and celebrate her life. I'm so very thankful for Amy.

Amy came to our home after being trafficked for forced begging on the streets of a major European city. Her holders regularly raped her and so a child was born to her.

I look at how God is redeeming her life. How her small daughter smiles and laughs and lives the life of a normal child.

Often as I'm driving in our city, I see those who beg on our streets, holding small children in their arms to elicit more sympathy. And I think that could be Amy and her sweet little daughter, but God rescued them and lifted them out from that life. They are precious to Him. They are precious to me.

This week, pray for Amy and her complete healing from the pain of brokenness. She is going to school to learn to cook. Pray that she learns well. Pray for God's hand of protection on her little daughter. Pray that God will continue to speak His life and word into their hearts and lives.

Sculpting

We are on vacation in Italy, staying with friends who live just out of Naples. It is an amazing break for our family. We've had such a great time with the girls touring Pompeii and Rome.

While in Rome we saw all the sites that tourists see. St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican has a statue call Pieta. It is a large carving of Mary holding Jesus after he has died. Michelangelo carved this sometime in his spare time between designing St. Peter's, painting the Sistine chapel ceiling and carving the statue of Moses that sits in another church. He was a busy man.

Somehow he chiseled this out of a piece of marble. The detail of the folds of Mary's garments are amazing. The size of this statue is amazing.

I'm not one to normally do such things, but I bought a small, cheap replica of this. I want it as a reminder and a picture of what God is doing in my life, in your life, and in the lives of the workers and residents at the Home of Hope. Especially the residents at the Home of Hope.

Our women come in like that big piece of marble. There is no form, no life to them at all. And then God begins to chip away at the marble of their lives. He doesn't take the chisel and expect the masterpiece to appear with one big "whack". Like Michelangelo and all his masterpieces, it comes with patience, gently chipping away a bit at a time. And then something amazing appears.

This is why our commitment to each woman who comes to us is long-term. They need time for God to do the work in their lives. They need time in the safety of our home to find God's healing for their souls.

They often can't what God is doing, that they are making any progress, that something beautiful is emerging. They can't see what they are becoming. They get discouraged and wonder if they should turn back. But somehow, as Michelangelo had the ability to see what could be in a hunk of rock or in the expanse of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, God can see that the finished product in the hand of the Master will be beautiful.

On this Easter weekend, please pray for God's continued work in the lives of the women at the Home of Hope in Moldova. We know God is creating masterpieces in each of their lives. Pray that this Easter is amazing for them and that in it, they can see God's hand in their lives.