Holly Gallagher

Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lack diligence, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. Romans 12:9-12

Today was another full day in Moldova! We started out the day by doing some teaching in the public schools. Our team of eight broke into three teams and went to three separate schools. Our team went to a Russian high school. We had wonderful Moldovan hosts, Sergiu and Ecaterina (our interpreter). For those of you who have heard me speak, and know my Slllooooooow doooown story, you can imagine that Ecaterina had her work cut out for her keeping up with my fast speaking pace! Michael Vinson, Vice President of Children’s Hope Chest was on our team. We spoke to four different classes for about 45 minutes in each class. We shared with them about our families, our lives and about American culture. We then had the opportunity for them to share with us about what they like about their culture. It was great to listen to them talk about the importance of their relationships and their traditions.
For lunch, we went to La Placinta, a great Moldovan restaurant. I would love to tell you what I ordered, except I don’t remember it’s name! It was some kind of lasagna type dish only instead of noodles it had a pancake and chicken in it. It was great! Serving sizes are very generous here as you can tell from Michael’s photo below.

Next we were back to the urban center to work with the program “Way to Success.” This is a prevention program that works with the students to help influence and shape this generation of Moldovans. We also learned about a magazine that is published for Moldovan teens called “Escape”. It is a wonderful magazine with many articles that are relevant to the Moldovan teen culture. Our interpreter, Ecaterina, is the editor of the magazine. It was fun to see her in her work environment!

After dinner we returned back to our hotel, did some preparations for events for tomorrow, and then had a little time to myself to try to process some things. I’m not certain one can “process” human trafficking. I guess in many ways it is futile to try to make sense of such evil. And yet awareness of this terrible tragedy is so important to be able to work towards solutions and prevention. Beginning of Life ministries is doing a great job of keeping up to the ever changing face of Human trafficking.
The Lord has been so sweet and so near to me during my quiet time tonight. I have heard Him speak during the reading of His Word tonight. I have heard Him speak in His still small voice during sweet sacred times of prayer. I have heard Him speak through the encouraging notes that dear friends sent with me to read, I have heard Him speak as I recall conversations with our Moldova team and with the staff at Beginning of Life ministries, I have heard Him speak through many sweet texts and messages. I have experienced His incredible peace through your faithful prayers! And I have seen him in the eyes of the sweet girls of Moldova.
Thank you for your faithful prayers! Please keep it up!!!

Wow!!! What a FULL day we have had. There is so much to process. The morning started with learning the history of Moldova and how the country has gotten to the state that it is in. This is a crucial piece in understanding how sex trafficking has gotten so out of control here. Vladimir shared such startling and disturbing statistics with us and painted the picture of the many challenges Moldova faces. Even with all of its struggles and challenges, Vladimir is full of hope and confidence of all that God will do here.
Next we went to the urban center, which focuses on empowering youth for better future They have so many great programs here and I will write a future blog focusing on the programs that happen the urban center.
After lunch we went to the House of Change which is the rehabilitation center for the victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. We will be interacting with the girls from that house on Friday.
Next we were on to the Dream House. The Dream House is a prevention Center for at risk girls ages 14 to 17. We had the blessing of being able to talk with and interact with the girls. Their beautiful picture is above. Some of these girls are orphans, having lost both parents. Other girls might be social orphans, where they come from a single-parent family and that parent is out of the country working. The parent may be gone for years without seeing their child and the child is living on their own. This obviously puts them at risk for human trafficking. I was overwhelmed with emotion while at the dream house, thinking of the girls and what their lives would be like if they didn’t have this place to live. I am so thankful for Beginning of Life ministries and all they are doing in Moldova. Their mission is to

restore God’s original intent for his creation, simultaneously transforming people physically and spiritually and integrating them into society.

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We had the opportunity to share with the girls that they are dearly loved by God that they are worthy because of His great love for them. Please pray for these precious daughters of the Most High King. Pray that they begin to know and understand how dearly loved they are and embrace the Gospel message.

Tomorrow we are off to teach in the public schools. Our team will be breaking into three separate teams My team will be going to a Russian speaking school. We will meet with four different classes and have 45 minutes which each class. I'm excited! They are very interested in the American culture. Please pray for God's words to be spoken clearly through each of us.

I have so much more to say, but my eyelids are getting a little heavy. I think the time change is beginning to catch up with me! I can't put into words how much I appreciate all of your prayers! Thank you for approaching the throne of grace on our behalf! Please pray for the precious children of Moldova.

We have arrived at Chisinau, Moldova! We are so thankful to be on the ground, our plane landed in very dense fog after circling the airport for an hour and a half! The entire plane burst into cheers and clapping when the pilot safely landed us. Praise God! There was a whole a lot of praying going on! We were greeted at the airport by our host Vladimir. He is great! The team is also real blessing! I feel like we’ve known each other for a long time already. My friend Jenni took the above picture at a coffee shop in the Istanbul airport.

So I’m attempting to write this blog from my phone! Those of you that know me will find this hilarious as I am quite technologically challenged with both the phone and the blogging. The blog site said quick and easy set up in five minutes. That was two weeks ago and it took me that long to finally get it figured out! I’m not much better with my “smart phone” , which is of course smarter than I am. My phone calls people that I don’t mean to, texts people cryptic messages, autoCorrect’s most things that I type into some hilarious meaning that I never intended. You get the picture. this is kind of a challenge for me. The other night I was at our evening church service. The room was in low lighting to set the worshipful mood. All of a sudden my phone decided to go into flashlight mode! You need to understand, I can’t turn the flashlight on my phone if I want to! So there we were in this beautiful dark worshipful settings and my flashlight is shining all over the room! I tried to sit on it, cover it up, do all kinds of things to block the light but it didn’t seem to do any good! Finally my sweet friend Emily turned off the flashlight for me.

Light is a beautiful thing, how it penetrates the darkness. That is one of my prayers for this week. That the light of Jesus Christ shines so brightly through our team. That every word and deed are done for His glory. That His light penetrates. Praying for ears that listen with His compassion, eyes that see the things that He sees, hugs that extend the love of Jesus Christ. Praying that he uses us to be that flashlight this week! I read in my Bible study this week that “To act in Jesus’s name is to act for Him and his cause and to depend completely on His power”. We certainly are completely dependent on His power! Praise God!

Tomorrow will be a very full day. I hope to post tomorrow night and tell you some of the amazing things God is doing in Moldova. Thanks so much for the prayers, keep it up! Blessings to you!!