In preparing for a lecture on the Congo at Samford University this week, I watched a Sundance movie trailer on the following link:http://thegreatestsilence.org/about.These four minutes will be enough for you to understand why MWP is making way to work inthe Congo.
One line in the video trailerrings out above all else, “Silence kills.”
As Believers our most powerful response to the brokenness of our world is to let our hearts be broken as the Alabaster Jar spent on Jesus. From this position, we will see God’s heart and know exactly what our response should be.
Let this poem be our humble prayer for the women and children, while we reach out with our hearts first, and hands and feet to follow:
I Asked for Love
I asked for Peace –
My sins arose,
And bound me close,
I could find no release.
I asked for Truth –
My doubts came in,
And with their din
They wearied all my youth.
I asked for Love –
My lovers failed,
And griefs assailed
Around, beneath, above.
I asked for Thee –
And thou didst come
To take me home
Within Thy Heart to be.
-- Dolben
Look for more info in the coming months about human trafficking in the Congoand what you can do about it.
Iana Matei from the House of Treasure and I speak every otherday or so about how the girls are healing and what their current needs are. In addition, Iana writes a weekly report filling in additional details about a day in the life on the front lines of human trafficking.
This week I am sharing an unedited version (below in red) of Iana’s report.
Before reading Iana’s report, please prepare your heart with a few words from one of my favorite authors Ken Gire. Ken explains in Reflections on Your Life,“Before we can hear God speaking through the everyday moments of our lives, our heart must be prepared to listen. Which is more art than science. At least it has been that way for me. Preparing the heart in the art of listening involves several things.
“First, there must be a sense of anticipation that God wants to speak to us and that He will speak…
“Second, there must be a humility of heart, for where we are willing to look and what we are willing to hear will largely determine how many of those moments we will catch…
“Third, there must be a responsiveness to what is heard. A willingness to follow wherever we are being led, wherever that may be.”
Direct from Iana (only the names are changed):
Natasha is doing great in school. On Tuesday we had a report from the teacher responsible for her class, and Natasha made me proud. She doesn't skip classes, she's active, and teachers like her. I pray that she will finish this year on the same key.
Philina it's like a shadow in the house. You can barely see her. Comes down to eat (and, boy, does she eat!), watches TV for a while, and goes up. She is so skinny, and small, and quiet. Still difficult to connect with her. We talk, but I feel her fear beneath the surface. I feel like giving her a big hug, but I am afraid that will scare her even more. I have to wait.
On Thursday we went to Iash, because Michele wanted to file a complain with the police, against traffickers. It took her half a day to write the two pages, and I anticipated that, but the rest of the day, we spent driving back and forward the street where the traffickers live, and Michele was unable to point us the house. I didn't anticipated that! At home she was so sure she knows the house (she was kept there before departure), she can identify him, she knows his full name, everything. She went blank, and panicked. On Thursday, I understood the meaning of " blank". Was pointless. We came back, and may be I will talk to her about this some time later. but can’t pressure her now. slowly I go.
On Friday, we got a new girl, Bella, 16 from another city. At this moment I can't be sure about what she wants, she is very street wise, and lies a lot.
While in Iash, the police officer asked my help in an other case, and now we are working on bringing this girl home. Julia, 20, suffers from schizophrenia II, and she was taken to Italy, brutally beaten, raped, and exploited for two weeks, before she was helped by a customer. She is now into a mental hospital in Bologna, Italy, and I talked to the doctor. Julia didn't processed yet the trauma of the trafficking period, and they are afraid to send her home alone, because she can "reverse" the travel experience, and react. Julia's father is willing to go pick her up, and than we'll see what we can do for her. Today, the doctor was waiting for the pregnancy test result. They suspect she might be pregnant too.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I lay in bed, very sick. Now I am better, but down emotionally, because the pastor at my church is rejecting to help spiritually support me and the girls. That hurts. I know God is near me, I can feel His presence, He is my comfort, but still hurts. It takes time, I think. For the last two weeks I was a non-smoker, but today I smoked one. I guess I felt lonely.
A very big hug for you,
Iana
A big hug and kiss for you, too, Iana! We love you and will not just read your words, but pray for God’s help and determine our proper response, my friend!
First I want to thank you so much for the support you have been sending for The House of Treasure in Romania. We still have a long way to go; but as the word has gottenout, your response has been excellent.
Secondly, I want to share a recent story to help you see inside a day in the life of Iana.
Natasha had been tricked by a girlfriend to go to Greece for what she thought was going to be a fun vacation. Once in Greece, the friend told Natasha she was sending her on a blind date with another friend, a handsome man. The blind date was a trafficker.
Natasha was raped and beaten many times a day by many different men during several weeks of “conditioning” and forced to take drugs. The traffickers often give the girls drugs so that they become addicted and won’t attempt to escape for fear of how to get their next fix. Their tactic succeeded with Natasha for four years.
Her traffickers knew the risk of Natasha trying to escape was minimal so they took her out of the closed brothel and made her walk the streets. She was given a quota of how much money she had to make in any given day, or suffer severe consequences. One evening in early August, Natasha was hustling on the street when she was arrested for prostitution. Once in the police station, she told the officers her story. A part of her story was that she knew exactly where the traffickers lived and worked, and she could identify them.
Natasha was fortunate. She was picked up by anhonest policeman versus one of the many who are complicit in the trafficking. Iana helped to facilitate Natasha’s return to Romaniaand received her in The House of Treasure.
A date was set for Natasha to ID the traffickers in late October. Two days before the court date, Natasha ran away from The House of Treasure. Iana went to the police, and together, they found Natasha high on drugs and prostituting herself in a local hotel. Instead of being angry with her, Iana was wise enough to understand that Natasha did what she did out of the deep scars of what she had endured and fear of facing her traffickers again. Iana was able to love and guide Natasha back to where she needed to be, both emotionally and physically.
On court ID day, Natasha did her job well, and the police have all the information they need for a firm prosecution. However, the tension is not over for Natasha, nor Iana.
As Iana and Natasha left the court house with their driver, two men pulled up beside their car and tried to grab them. Natasha and Iana jumped into the car, where they were chased at high speed for several miles. Natasha clung to Iana in the back seat, re-living the many attacks she had enduredand feared were imminent once again.
Praise God! They lost the pursuing car.
Iana and I spent a couple of hours on the phone processing the events, and making plans of protection for the future. She asked me to ask you to pray for her and the girls’ security and that the location of their home remains hidden. I reminded her of the time in 2 Kings when God blinded the Syrians to where Elisha was leading them in order to save His people! Iana and I cried and prayed together for a long while before she finally felt release and was able to go to sleep.
Please hold Iana and the girls close in your prayers, and continue to support the great things God is doing through her!
We have introduced our Character In Service (CIS) program to you once before, but it is developing so beautifully I thought you’d be delighted to track it!
Whitney Terry (Project Coordinator) and Victor Duang Deng (Sudanese Consul) have done a remarkable job this school year. Through many different schools or churches, thousands of elementary school children are learning how their character impacts the world!
Together, Whitney and Victor help children in our own community to learn about and bring relief to orphans around the world. CIS not only teaches though, it gives the children hands-on practical outlets for building character so that children begin to understand choices they make not only affect those around them, but can change the world!
Last week, I wrote about the driving forces behind human trafficking. I attempted to explain that greed and corruption drive human trafficking far more than what most people commonly think – lust.
Most of the responses I received about this were to inform me that if we just dealt with the lust---meaning the “User”---then, corruption would have nothing to feed on. Therefore, I want to go a bit deeper with the thought. Please keep thinking, considering, writing – it is good for us to be so engaged in finding root causes and our appropriate response!
One of the problems is, as has already been articulated by much sharper minds than mine, you cannot legislate morality. You can make laws against using a prostitute; but in the end, if the government creating and enforcing that legislation is corrupt and driven by greed, then your laws are simply a shroud. In countries like Romania, these shrouds often fool outsiders into thinking the government is doing everything it can to protect the innocent. In fact, in these situations, they simply conceal the corruption and protect those who greedily profit from the oppression of the voiceless.
As an example, when Milton and I were in Romania recently, we spent a significant amount of time with a 10-year-old orphan named Gabriel. Most all of you are familiar with Little John from Sudan (http://www.makewaypartners.org/testimony009.html). In many ways, Gabriel is our “Little John” of Romania.
He likes to be called Gabby. His father died when he was five years old of a disease Gabby did not know. Soon after, the electricity and heat in their tiny apartment was cut off because his mother could not pay the bills. There is no program to help widows or the impoverished in Romania, so Gabby’s mother began to beg on the street, carrying Gabby’s baby sister in a bundle with her. It was a frigid winter. Gabby’s little sister caught a cold. Gabby’s mother had no money for medicine, and their apartment was so cold that even when she brought her baby inside, she could not warm her child. Gabby’s little sister died at home with him and his mother.
After her baby’s death, Gabby’s mother would not leave their apartment. So, Gabby became the “bread winner” of the house and started begging on the streets. One night, Gabby came into the dark apartment---where even all of their candles were exhausted---and called for his mother in the darkness. She did not answer. Gabby began to feel his way around the furniture, along the kitchen counter, down the hall, and finally into the bathroom. Gabby stumbled on his mother in a heap on the bathroom floor. She had lost all hope and took her own life.
Gabby was kicked out of his apartment since his only income was a few Lei (Romanian currency) or a piece or two of bread from passersby on the street taking pity on a poor beggar boy. The Romanian government closed all orphanages because the EU did not accept their substandard conditions. Gabby tried to stay in one of the Children’s Centers the government opened in their place. He was abused by the workers because he had no relative to pay “fees” to care for him. After he was beaten so severely by older boys who did have money to pay the “care givers,” he left the center.
Gabby has lived alone on the streets of Bucharest since fleeing the Children’s Center. I asked Gabby if he slept down in the sewers when it grew very cold and the snow piled high. Gabriel was emphatic, “NO! That is where many bad things happen -- Drugs. The Takers. And other horrible things. When the snow is high, I try to stay warm in doorways. Sometimes I sneak into foyers of apartments until they kick me out.”
Milton and I were working to place Gabby in the right and safe shelter, but he had heard stories of people “disappearing” after accepting promises of help – “The Takers.” He got scared and ran away before we could show him we were different.
We lost Gabby. It all happened so fast that it left me stunned. The relentless corruption, evil profit and complacency this child, Gabriel, had faced at such a tender age convinced him that we must be too good to be true. We had spent several days with him---grown so close to helping him---yet so far. Milton and I searched everywhere we could think. We went back to the restaurant where we first met him begging outside its doors, asked the waiters who knew him, but no one had seen him. He simply disappeared.
While losing Gabriel breaks my heart, it also fuels a fire in the same broken place to be the presence amidst the corruption---the light in the darkness that God calls the Church, His Body, to be --- the Gate Stormers busting through Hell’s walls to snatch away the ones at whom the flames lick and scourge.
As an example, when Milton and I were in Romania recently, we spent a significant amount of time with a 10-year-old orphan named Gabriel. Most all of you are familiar with Little John from Sudan (
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