OK, they say that confession is good for the soul. Enough time has past that I can now speak about it.

So here I go……….we lost Lauren.

Oh, not permanently. She is doing great…her normal, strong-willed, two-year-old self. But a few weeks ago, Lauren stepped onto our dingy elevator. The doors had opened, she jumped in, and they slammed shut, quick as a wink. Lauren wasn’t heavy enough to prevent the doors from closing, and she didn’t know enough to stay on and ride it back down! And off she went, on a ride none of us care to remember.

By the time we figured out what happened we had to start running stairs…and stairs…and stairs. I ran 12 flights of stairs in record time, yelling her name. We didn’t know where she would step out. We didn’t know if she would wander to an opening in the stairwell. We didn’t know who would see her. This was definitely a parent’s nightmare.

After running up and down twice, I stopped next to the elevator and could hear her voice. Some people from a floor above had found her and were bringing her down, a floor at a time, looking for her parents. But those ten minutes felt like an eternity.

Why do I share this? Because this experience reminds me of TRUST. Every day, every hour, I need to trust God with these kids of mine. The unexpected can happen so quickly. Elissa falling off a slide, hitting her head, and loses those 10 seconds of memory. What if it had been worse? Natalie runs like a three-year-old. What about the dangers?

Yet I sit tonight in my living room, knowing I need to trust. These worries aren’t limited to Moldova. In reality, if I thought of the things I did as a child, I would be terrified! It is still hard to believe I did not cause my mom to have a heart attack!

I trust Him for our safety…our health…our lives. I trust Him for our support…for the churches here…for the opportunity to be a witness. I trust…and worry…and trust…

In God we trust. And tonight, I do.

Your missionaries to Moldova,

Andy Raatz

PS: The advantage? Now we get great exercise! The kids refuse to take the elevator…so we walk the stairs now!