Straight from the Heart

Remember Me

A good friend of mine Michelle Wegner asked me to send her this link again.  After I watched it and shed more tears..I decided to repost it. 

Will I Even Remember Their Faces?

   
 
See these faces: at fifteen, if not adopted, they’ll be released out into the world on their own, with no family, no birth certificate, no passport or connection to anyone. These girls can go to a government run dormitory and be raped the first night or be released and become part of the hundreds of thousands of people living in the streets, sewers, parks and abandoned buildings throughout the city of Odessa. If they are lucky.

This is not fiction. These girls will more than likely become human chattelthat will be sold and traded like cattle and in many instances now when these individuals lose their capacity to earn money they are discarded and in the worst case scenarios they are murdered and their organs are sold on the black market. Shocked...you should be! 

The sex trafficking trade is ballooning not just in Odessa but all over the world. Yes it happens in Canada too...so don't kid yourselves. Our own orphans, the homeless youth who live in our own city of Halifax, are just as vulnerable.

Odessa grew rich in the 19th century by exporting Russian grain. These days one of its main trades is in flesh. The city is a collecting hub for women from across the former Soviet Union who, unbeknown to them, have been snared by traffickers. This is an issue not just for orphans. These traffickers will advertise jobs in the paper or apartments for rent and when answered by girls they will typically get drugged, kidnapped and moved into another country. From Odessa and elsewhere in Ukraine they are conveyed west to Europe and east to Russia, or south to Turkey and the Middle East. Twice a week ferries from Istanbul bring back those, often ill and pregnant, who have been deported by the Turks.The orphans are uneducated and unable to work because they have no identity because they have no birth certificate...they are ghost children.

I read this in Anne Jackson's blog post today:

"Not knowing how to escape, being violated and told they’re worthless, and that nobody cares, they see no hope — no reason to escape."

It is no wonder that many of these girls, in light of the potential of their lives, will just commit suicide.

But they do have hope. They have a God who loves them.  They have a hope in Jesus Christ. The hope of the world is the local church. You and me mobilized in the name of Jesus Christ.  Church my church - StoneRidge Fellowship- Odessa is one of our cities.  

Anne's blog reminded me of something:

"A year from now, I wonder if I’ll even remember their faces – glowing brightly with youth and what I could only imagine is hope.

Or will I also forget as they disappear into a system of the worst kind of crime and suffering?"

 
  
 

This June it will be two years since I was in Odessa and saw these children...Look at their faces..I want to remember their faces. I want to remember them.  I believe with all my heart as a church we can help them.   I want to be used somehow and someway by God to change this. Please print these pictures and put them somewhere that when you see them you will remember that they matter.  THEY MATTER! Yes I'm yelling this. They matter to God. As a church I am convinced that somehow we will be used to make a difference in this city. I'm expecting it. I'm eagerly anticipating it. I will be praying praying praying that God will open the door to make a difference. Please pray with me for these children. Let's be the hands and feet of Christ as we were instructed to be.

"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans..."Isaiah 1:17

 

Home At Last!

(Photo Michelle Wegner) 

What great news I have to share with you...If you recall I did a story on a family in Indiana who has been trying for years to bring home their adopted daughter from Russia.  Anya was a baby when they first were proposed her for adoption and they have spent literally 6 years fighting to bring their daughter home.  Praying through each disappointment and heartbreak...working through the months they had to stay in Siberia to put her documents in order and all of it worth it to have the daughter God intended for them.  It is a story of trust, perseverance and proof that God's plans don't always unfold as we would have them but He has a plan and those plans can cause us pain, and doubts but hallelujah thank you that He has a plan.  Welcome Home Anya from your Canadian friends...We are praising God and to Him be all the glory! As a side note of God's perfect timing..Anya arrived home on the 7th and the Russian gov't the next day is suspending all adoptions to the US because of the young boy who was sent back to Russia unattended after his adopted parents decided they didn't want him any more. How amazing that they can now have their girl home. You can follow the journey on Anya's Blog for more info.