“Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
Amos 5:24
Dear friends,
Enclosed I hope you find a picture of my group from summer camp. Each group took a turn putting on a skit and for my group's night we acted out the story of Esther from the Bible. I was Uncle Mordecai, hence the beard! : I had a great time with this group — two of the girls I still see regularly at the Drop-in Center where they come for meals, Bible lesson and help with their homework each day.
Interestingly, our program at our Community Center has evolved into having two very different groups of children – young children and some teenagers attending school who come from poor families and whom we assist with after school tutoring, and a second group who are all street kids from ages thirteen to over twenty. These youth come from the violence and harsh reality of street life and receive a hot meal, medical treatment, art lessons, recreation, Bible lessons, singing and in general a respite from street life.
The challenge we are currently facing, and which you can pray for, is running a program at our center for two very different groups of youth. During the summer it was easier to integrate the two groups. But with the start of school, the need for a more segregated program is all the more evident.
Recently, we have seen an increase in the number of street children coming to the Center and have begun a once a week meeting just for teenage girls. This week for girl time we invited a hairdresser who came and did our hair. Another week we went to see a movie together. Pray for Catalina and Kari and I as we seek to grow closer to these girls and know how best to serve and love them. Following is a reflection I wrote after a conversation with one of them. The following are based on my knowledge of their home and family situations.
“My heart breaks as my thoughts turn to some of these girls I know who find no justice in their lives. Those who search for an exit to the hell that surrounds them by find no way out…
Violence, abuse, fighting, hating, hitting, angry shouts late into the night. Another black eye because dad hit me again, his drunken anger pouring over me. I just want to finish one more year of school and get a good job, but everything is working against me. Little sister is crying again, hiding under the blankets because the landlord has come by with a club, threatening to kill us if we don't pay the rent. I hide my face in shame, wishing dad would protect us, wishing he wasn't my dad, wishing he would stop drinking and cursing and beating us whenever he gets mad, blaming us for the hell we live in.
What future is there for me? Even if I finish school it doesn't matter. I didn't learn anything. My teacher let me pass my because she wants to get rid of me, not because I've learned anything. Last year I missed so many days of school because of my dad. I should have been expelled, but my teacher let it slide. Not because she likes me, but because she can't stand the thought of another year with me in her I can't wait to get out, anywhere far away from here. Nothing could be worse then this hell I live in.
* * *
Everybody tells me I'm so beautiful, but they don't really know me. I dye my hair a different shade of black or blond almost every month. I don't know who I am anymore. I've done things that can never be told. I've let others do to me what should never have been done. But when there is no bread to eat and my little sisters are crying? When it's freezing cold and there is no more wood for the fire? You would do the same for your little sisters and your Mom if you had to.
I never made it past the fourth grade, now it's too late to go back. There's a man who says he'll help me out and somehow I can't resist his offer. He's already working on my passport and I'll be leaving in just a few weeks. Maybe this is my chance to find a way out. I'll just work for three months and come home to my family with the money they desperately need.”
These snapshots are the shocking reality of many young women here in Romania. Teenage girls who see no hope for their future and eagerly jump at any opportunity to get out of the poverty they live in. In the last months I have come to see the danger of sex-trafficking like never before. Young women are taken to Italy or Spain with the promise of a good pay, freedom from poverty and a new start in life. But many end up in a strange land, not knowing the language and working like slaves, completely dependent on the pimp who brought them there.
I urge you to pray with me for these girls that fall into such a trap. Hopefully the portraits I painted above help to explain how young women go so far as to believing that this is a good opportunity for them.
Pray that justice will come rolling down like a river and save these precious ones who are being stolen by the devil's schemes and the evil schemes of men.
So far I know personally of only one girl who has actually left for Italy, leaving her three-year-old son behind in the care of her grandma. But there are many more who are extremely vulnerable. Pray for me and the other staff I work with that we will have wisdom and unconditional love in our relationship with these girls, knowing how to best help them and show them the love of Christ
Thank you for your unconditional love and support of me as I continue to serve Jesus among the poor in Romania.
With love,
Rachel