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.