By Andy Baker
I recently had someone ask me when I have felt most afraid in my time serving overseas. I think some of my greatest fears and times of exercising deep prayer have been on turbulent flights across the Atlantic. In all sincerity, I thin the times I should have felt fear, I have been too entrenched in the moment to allow any emotion to overcome me.
I will admit at times I was naïve in my early years in Romania. On one occasion I stopped by an orphanage where I had spent a lot of time. I was making my way to the director’s office, and I saw through the open door a group of men. I had noticed on my way in that there were several Mercedes parked outside, and I found that peculiar. As I looked more closely, I noticed one of the men had a holstered gun under his jacket, and that there was money being exchanged. I felt a tug on my arm, and one of the older girls (name withheld for privacy) was pulling me telling me to come with her quickly. She took me to a back door and told me to leave for she feared the men would kill me. I am certain that I walked into a sale that day of young ladies who would eventually be trafficked.
Several years later, I was sitting at a table having lunch with one of the young ladies from that orphanage. She had just returned from being taken abroad. She told me before she left Romania with her “future employer” that she had been offered all kinds of things to go willingly, especially a new life where she would have everything she ever dreamed to have. I sat and looked at her frail physique and it was evident to me she had been through quite an ordeal. As our conversation moved during the meal, I told her I was sorry for what had happened. I also told her that I was willing to help her in any way. It was then I found out that she was still “in the business” and she was there to recruit other girls. She begged me not to interfere in her life because she did not want harm to come to me. I remember looking at her and saying, “I love you and I want the best for you.” She looked at me with a blank expression, and she said, “what is love.?” She left that day and I did not see or hear from her for many years. A few years ago, I was told she was back in Romania and I was told where she lived. The person informed me that she was “out of her mind” and “strung out on drugs.” Unfortunately, I knew there was nothing I could personally do, and there would be no rehabilitation facility I could send her to. I felt defeated.
When I think of our world and how human trafficking is so prevalent, I often think about many young girls that I met in my early years of ministry. I know many of them ended up in the prostitution and pornography industries because it was where they could secure an income because they lacked a support system. Remember the Children has been instrumental in building family homes for twenty-five years. I like to think that these homes have provided a safe haven for many young women that could have easily ended up in the sex industry. Your partnership prevents them from this tragedy.
Today because of you, we have a young lady who will be entering university this fall. She has a new family, she knows Jesus, and she has a bright future. The tragic story of her youth where she was sold for sex by her mother is now a story that has been redeemed as she has encountered true love and a hopeful future through Remember the Children. Thank you for helping us write a new story for her life. It is our vision that every child left without a support system would have the same opportunity.