Trafficking Shelter

We had the privilege of visiting a women's shelter dedicated to helping trafficked women in Bucharest. It is the only one who takes in women for long term housing and training in the country. The director is a loving, tough-as-nails woman of experience. She has a team of attorneys who shepherd the legal cases through to sentencing for the traffickers. The stories are as horrific as you can imagine. The result is a woman who may not be able to look in your eye. A result of "transactional love" is that she can't imagine someone (or God) loving her just because she is a child of God. 

The team at the shelter really act as parents: teaching them how to cook, clean, and parents their own children. They must learn how to treat their belongings since they haven't had much. They need to treat the other women with kindness and respect. Some leave and don't return, claiming there are too many rules. Some stay for two years.

We were thanked profusely for help that the Church gave, but certainly nothing we had done personally. On the way out, Paul told the director something we learned from Dallas Jenkins who created "The Chosen." You don't need to feed the 5,000. You just need to provide the loaves and the fishes.