Live Dead: Baptisms, food, traveling, sunburns..

I can't believe it is already July. This summer has already flown by so quickly. Moldova has been great and I've tried to listen, understand and dissect every minute in this beautiful country. This past week we had a few days without electricity, met new friends from YWAM, said some good-byes, ate delicious food, drank coffee, watched movies, and enjoyed the beautiful landscape surrounding us. We spent the night at the FH on Wednesday night and they made an amazing Tajikistan-style rice dinner. It was so good! The girls, Caroline and I were watching the news after the kids had gone to bed and the news was talking about this court case. The girls had turned up the volume and were sitting very closely to the television, soaking up every word. I asked *Sophia if she could translate and tell us what they were talking about and her eyes lite up. She said that the 16 men that were in the courtroom were former traffickers and they were all being sentenced! What a glorious day and moment! The girls were clapping and smiling.
Now if you were to take a step back and look at this situation and even try to glimpse inside the minds of these girls, what would you see or feel?: Joy, sorrow, happiness, would you hear them remembering things from their past? Would you imagine them seeing their trafficker put behind bars? What a wonderful, redemptive day that will be. I was so happy that the girls saw that there is hope. That there are those people who are being put behind bars for the evil actions that they have done. I have become closer to *Sophia over the past couple of days. She helps me with my Romanian and bears with me when I don't understand something. Her smile and joy for life is beautiful. It's hard to believe that a wonderful human-being like *Sophia was torn apart, from the inside out. She struggles with sleeping at night due to nightmares. Be praying for her because just this morning she told me she didn't ge to sleep until 4:00a.m. again. Bless her heart.
Gosh, that reminds me that the goodbyes that will happen in a week are going to be so hard.

Today three girls from the Freedom Home were baptized! What a wonderful step into an even deeper relationship with Christ. It was a huge step for the girls and the love of God was written all over their faces. As the girls were talking up to the platform I thought, "Where were they a year ago? Did they even fathom that their lives could be different? That Gods love has restored hope into their lives? It brought tears to my eyes. It was a privilege to be apart of a wonderful day. We took so many pictures of the girls and their kids and everyone that works at the Home but I can't post them. Just know that their smiles are vibrant, their spirits are soaring and God is working in their lives. This picture below is where they sat when we prayed for them before we all headed outside (in the rain I might add) for them to be baptized.
I think it's neat photo. That's neat.

Caroline and I were able to travel to Odessa, Ukraine with our friend Anna. It was a blessing to have her along because she spoke Russian and Romanian. We traveled by bus at night (going through 2 passport checkpoints at 2 and 2:30a.m. in the morning) and arrived in Odessa at 5a.m. Of course nothing seemed to be open so we were able to see the city before most people were actually up. The city was so quiet... and I was desperately ready for a coffee :) The only place that was open for that kind of need was McDonalds but a cappuccino from anywhere is great at 5a.m.! The sun seemed to be at a perfect place in the sky so early in the morning and my pictures turned out much better than I thought they would. I was quite pleased. The city and Black Sea were beautiful. If you ever get to this side of the world, I recommend going to Odessa or anywhere near the Black Sea. The beaches are so cool because not only is it white sand that covers the beach but seashells that have been broken down into really small pieces. It was so cool! There were things that you would expect to see while in a Eastern European country, things you would find somewhat normal; coffee shops, old historic buildings, unique apartment buildings, the aroma of the Black Sea, tourist-y things to go to, really busy people walking really fast by you because you are walking too slow, dogs everywhere, and really fast cars that shouldn't be driving as fast as they are. Then there are the things that just aren't as normal; gypsy beggars, dead animals, brothels, men in tight speedos and old ladies with really thin bikinis. Even in all the laughter about the awkward men and women at the beach I was still reminded that Odessa is a port city. A city where trafficking is a huge problem. It had me thinking that even as I sit on the comfortable, beautiful beach there could be and were girls that were being kidnapped, drugged and/or sold to some pimp at that very moment. It killed me that I couldn't do anything about it. But you have to be careful. When you are passionate about something you cannot beat yourself up about not being able to do something at every waking moment, it's humanly impossible. Fully rely on God, be faithful in Him and know He has all things in His hands. This is what I have to remind myself after I read an article about girls who have vanished from their village or after reading a novel that was based on a true story and facts about trafficking. The statistics and stories are real but God is bigger.