I love to walk on water.
In the north. In the winter. On three feet of ice.
I don’t like the thrill of jumping out of the boat when the water is still liquid, and the waves are roaring, and the wind is howling, and the water is over my head.
Yet that is exactly where we feel we are walking right now. WW We feel like we are in over our heads as we purchase a home for women who have been trafficked. Nancy wrote some of her thoughts after a recent fact-finding trip to India where she looked at established ministries to trafficked women. She wrote:
The most amazing time of the trip for me was Monday. We went to a home for girls who were trafficked in prostitution. They were all teenagers and had worked in the business 6 months to 2 years. What they experienced to be broken is horrifying, but those stories didn’t make me cry. I have read so much about the horrors of trafficking that these things aren’t new. What amazed me though was the hope in that home, the joy on faces and their love for the Lord. We had a time of devotions with them and at the end they said they had heard that we were starting a home in Moldova and they had been praying for me ever since. They had me stand in the middle of the room and they gathered around me to pray, interceding for me, the future home and the lives of Moldovan trafficked girls. That made me cry.
Visiting the ministries and holding the little children, showed me the hope that Christ can bring in the midst of such devastation. Many of the shelters are for the children of the prostitutes. The children are often forced to sleep under the cots that the women use. Many of the mothers drug their children so they don’t wake up to this during the night. But Teen Challenge Bombay is taking these girls out (and boys too) and giving them a home and a hope. The girls know they won’t face the same fate as their mothers when they are early teens and they are learning to trust and love Jesus. What hope!
So I came home, knowing that we will give and bring hope to many lives of Moldovan women. That is exciting. We are ready to buy a house that is for sale and finish it. The house we have located costs about $85,000. We have most of it, but are short about $20,000. If anyone wants to help with part of that, you can write me about how you can help. It has walls, roof and electricity and will still take about another $100,000 to finish it. But it is a great place and we are excited to get started with it.
Fear and Trembling. Those emotions still come in steps of faith. But the excitement of knowing where God has directed help us see beyond the waves and water.
Thanks for praying.
Stepping out in Moldova
Andy and Nancy Raatz
PS: If you are interested in helping, please send your tax-deductible gift to AGWM, 1445 Boonville Ave. , Springfield , MO 65802 , with Acct. #2477537, Project 6976 in the memo. You can also donate online at https://secure1.ag.org/contributions/detail.cfm?LedgerID=5D4C4FBA-0E7E-492B-90D6-C0022C0C40E1 .
Also check out our ever-changing website, www.harvestmoldova.org ; or http://raatz.blogs.com ; or Nancy ’s prayer blog at http://raatzmoldova.blogspot.com for more information.