My Heros

Our work at Freedom Home wouldn't happen if it were not for the amazing staff who run the home.  From the director and social worker to the ladies who rotate staying nights, we have an amazing staff.  

A few weeks ago I left the home remembering the time it was my job to make sure who stayed over the weekend.  I always needed to make sure someone would be there during the day if a staff member needed to go somewhere.  And now I don't even think about it.  They take care of it all.

But what I do think about is the mental health and well being of the staff.  I think about how they are growing.  I think about how they are being challenged.  I think about how they bear up under some really challenging working conditions. 

The conditions are challenging because traumatized women are not always nice to work with.  That puts it mildly. 

Some days there is a lot of screaming.
They've all been threatened in one way or another.
They've all be accused of crazy things.
They've all been told their Christianity isn't real.

But it is.  They are the hands of Christ in this work. They are the ones who carry the bulk of the load and work endlessly because they believe that Christ can bring healing and wholeness in the lives of these women. 

Please pray for our staff today.  They are 8 amazing women who give of themselves because they love to see the change Christ can bring in a life.  When the change doesn't come they can also get discouraged.  They live needing to fight compassion fatigue and burnout. 

Please pray for their strength. 

They are Elena D, Oxana, Elena G, Ana, Tanya, Victoria, Nadia and Olga. 

These women are my heros.

Please remember these wonderful women in prayer as you remember the work at Freedom Home.

And please pray as we still need a full-time cook and counselor.  

Bumped and Bruised

Most often I blog to present the needs at Freedom Home.  Through the stories of our girls in the home, I ask you to pray.

Today I will tell my story. 

I don't often ask for prayer for myself.  I know many pray for me anyway.  I'm so grateful for those prayers.

Yesterday morning I had a meeting in the center of the city with a young Moldovan friend.  I left that meeting to go to another.  Usually I have a car to drive, but yesterday I did not.  I went into the city with public transportation.  There are buses, which I never take because they don't come out to where we live, and there are large vans which are easy to catch anywhere in the city.  The vans allow about 12 people to sit and the rest stand, holding on to rails. 

My trip into the city proved uneventful.  The calm driver didn't honk at anyone.  He didn't speed around anyone.   And I arrived late at my appointment.  That is how it goes in Moldova.

Leaving that restaurant, I caught another mini-bus to head to a lunch meeting.  Two blocks later I thought, "this is the angriest driver I have ever seen."   He honked continuously, stopped and yelled at a driver in a car, and yelled at every person who got into the van for one thing or another. 

And then as we raced to a major intersection, I stood holding on about half-way back and watched a man step into the street and in front of the van.  THUD.  The impact was hard and fast.   I could see the man knew he was going to be hit, but that is the last I saw because the impact threw me.  Somehow, I know by God's grace, I spun around, landing on my backside and another person landed on top of me.  I thought I would go through the windshield.  Instead I sat nicely in front of the dashboard.   My first thought when the person got off of me was, "Wow, nothing hurts.  I wasn't hurt. Wow.  I'm not hurt."  I saw the door handle on my left, opened to door, and I got out to walk away.  

I won't describe the stupidity of what the driver was doing to try to revive the man lying on the street.  As I collected myself, I knew that the man lay dying and there was nothing anyone could do. 

I walked the mile to my next appointment.

When I arrived at lunch I felt soreness on the left side of my face.  When lunch was over, I felt soreness on the right side of my body.

The rest of the day I felt a mixture of emotions and wanted to cry for what I'd gone through, for the senseless loss of that man's life, for all the people in Moldova that have never had the chance to hear that Jesus is the hope for their life.   The emotions were tumbling about within me.

I do write this today partly to process all that happened.

I do not write this to ask for your sympathy.

Daily we deal with dangerous situations like this.   We usually don't even know how God has protected our lives.  Yesterday I knew that God's hand was upon me. 

Each day my daughters take this form of public transportation to go school
Our team, our Freedom Home staff, everyone we know take public transportation.
And it isn't always safe.

So as you pray for Moldova, and the work we are doing, please pray for our safety, for the safety our daughters, our team, our staff.

Pray for the young man's family who lost his life yesterday.
Pray for driver who I'm sure today is in jail for manslaughter. 
Pray for a healing in my body and emotions from this experience.

I'm sore today.  I don't know why I experienced this, but I know that God was with me.  He keeps me each day.

Blessings to you.