Chris is in Moldova, Eastern Europe for a few months, helping set up an agricultural project and micro-enterprise credit union.This week he has been part of a team involved in rescuing three teenage girls from the streets of a Moldovan village. Here are his words…
Running wild and unloved and unwanted, at least by their society. Three of them; one disease ravaged by syphilis, one hiding from an alcoholic stepfather who is trying to sell her to the sex trade, all of them riddled with lice and living on the street.
God’s heart is bleeding for these teenage girls. To Him, they are as precious as rubies.
This is a real situation. These girls are desperate for a long term, loving, nurturing family environment, a safe house, a gateway to a better future. Just this week a group of people have taken these girls under their wing and thus is born LIFEGATE Moldova.
Combining God’s resources of passionate believers of Jesus Christ on the front line and some emergency funds from ORA International, hope is on its way. Long term living accommodation is being sourced in this village at this very moment for six to seven girls. And a loving couple is moving into a God given ministry, rescuing these girls and others from a dark past.
What is the story behind all of this?
How can this happen you say?
It is a story that can be told many times all over in the poorest country in Eastern Europe. Moldova is a country of immense beauty and potential.However, the Internats [orphanages] are being closed down, often literally casting children onto the streets. These children are uneducated, unloved, unwanted and abused, so they easily become victim to the predators of the sex slave trade.
Now is the time for the world to seek justice for these vulnerable children. That is our mandate. Together with people on the front line and our resources we can make a difference. Let us partner and stop this crime. Let’s rescue these children and give them a fighting chance. We cannot conceive in our minds what these children have been through and are going through. Only God can. But we can be instruments of His JUSTICE. We need to make a difference and provide what these children lack. HOPE.
There is so much more to this story but now is the time for us to be a part of the next chapter of Lifegate, a strategy for rescuing children, especially girls, from the trafficking of the sex trade or worse.
Remember Jonah? He was the little boy that arrived on the Luku Yesuni base last year with a badly burnt arm. He had fallen into the fire and then his mother had covered the wound in rabbit skin (an old cultural tradition).
Well, in March 2011, Jan Barker was visiting the ORA Uganda team and came across Jonah - what a difference 6 months can make! We are so happy that Kim was able to treat Jonah (with the help of some valuable advice back in NZ) and now Jonah's arm is healed and he is happy!
Do you want meaning in the work you do? Are you passionate about helping to change the lives of children and their communities who are affected by poverty, disease and exploitation?
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