1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.
2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. the power to determine action without restraint.
Last night as we arrived at the Freedom Home, there was a sense of peace. The girls and the children were outside in the backyard playing on the new swingset that had been put in only a few short weeks ago. There was laughing, chattering and smiles galore. The girls have loved that swingset since it was put in. (Some very nice church in America funded the project, well worth it and so needed!) There have been countless times when I look out the window and see the mothers swinging on the "big-girl" swing, with no children around. It is as if they quietly tip-toed outside just so that they could get a quick drink of freedom. The girls will swing as high as they can, with no fear. It is exhilarating to imagine that with every swing pain and despair will go away and joy and freedom will enter in these girls lives. This morning, as I was making a cup of coffee, I looked out the kitchen window and saw one of the girls outside on the swing (with no child in sight ;)). She was singing loud and swinging high...all with her eyes closed. In that instant I thought "These beautiful women could find this swingset to be a place where they could feel their freedom. Where they could sing joyous songs of praise, swing high, and feel the Moldovan breeze...all with their eyes closed." Do you remember doing that as a child? I sure do. The breeze flowing through your hair made you feel invincible, like you had the whole world at your finger tips and nothing was stopping you. I prayed in that moment that the women at the Freedom Home would feel that. Even when the hardest moments arise, that they would feel that they are invincible, worthy of a second try at life and absolutely precious to the Lord.
"I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
Psalm 16: 7-11
