Dear friends...thank you again for bearing with me as I process everything that we experienced in Moldova...sometimes...it is important for me to take a little detour and think about the road that led us here.  Now I will continue on with our Mission trip story...
On the bottom floor of the orphanage at Cupcui, you will find the office, the cafeteria (that always smells DIVINE!), and 5 small apartments.  PCM is using these 5 small apartments to make a BIG difference in the lives of young mothers...with varying stories...PCM is offering them a Hand Up...Here is one of their stories (no names will be used).  While my menial writing skills can never truly convey all the torment and pain this poor girl experienced...The story is graphic...

One mother, was a victim of sex trafficking.
 At the age of 18, she was sold by her boyfriend into sex slavery in Turkey.  She was kidnapped by her trafficker and taken to a desolate Turkish hotel full of other young women who had been taken as hostages to an industry that is vile and ever growing... 
They were all held...against their wills.
 When this young girl begged her enslaver for release, he beat her and told her that he paid $3500 for her and unless she could pay him back, she belonged to him.  Penniless, she begged for mercy and cried to her captor that she was a virgin.  Instead of a poor, beaten, and broken young girl, the captor saw a business opportunity.  He sold her virginity, her childhood, her innocence to the highest bidder. 

After the loss of her innocence, she cried everyday in her room with the other young girls.  She was used by vile men 5-15 times a day.  She never was allowed out of the hotel...and had no way of leaving that horrible place.  She made friends with some of the employees of that dreadful hotel...and one day...someone saw a way to help.  One of the young men came to her as he was taking out the trash and said...if you leave with me RIGHT NOW...I can help you.  That young man saved her life...he smuggled her from the hotel and helped her find her way back to Moldova...Once she was in Moldova, she found out she was pregnant...and with all that was in her past...she found herself with no where to go...THANKFULLY...she heard about PCM and Providence Orphanage and went there to find help.   PCM and all the amazing people at the orphanage took her in.  In March she had her baby (who is well loved by ALL the people at Providence). 

While she has a safe place to live, that darkness continues to lurk in the shadows of her mind.  How can you escape painful memories of sexual slavery?  Prayer...Pray for this sweet girl...she needs it EVERYDAY!!!  Pray for physical, emotional and spiritual healing...She constantly struggles with self-worth...The evil in the world would like to see this poor woman defeated!  But, I will have none of that!  Every day while we were at Providence, I hugged that precious girl and said to her "Te Iubesc!" - I love you! and "Dumnezeu Te Iubeste!"  God Loves you! 
  My team mate Heather, was particularly moved by the stories of these young mothers.  She ministered to them every day.  She doted on them and loved on them.  Everyday I would catch Heather sneaking away and just holding and hugging on one of the mothers and telling them "Te Iubesc!" over and over...and she would wrap them in her arms like a mother (Heather is too young to be a mother to these girls)...

You know what?...during our week in Moldova...Heather was neither His Hands nor His Feet....She was His arms....for holding.

Heather and Chris loving on one of the babies

Heather with one of the moms (not from the story)