Adevarul

On Monday, January 25, 2010, a Galati newpaper, Adevarul, published an article on prostitution in Galati County. Lau Archip translated it for me so that I could post it a few places.

You’ll find that Galati County, then, is the leader in human trafficking (especially prostitution) in Europe. This is an alarming statistic, especially in relation to the children and families we live and serve among. Please pray for them and for us as we strive each day to point them in the direction of the Kingdom.

FYI: Galati is the city we live in, as well as a county here in the eastern Romanian section we live in that is referred to as Moldova (not the country, though!)

Galati, Leader in the exportation of Prostitutes
Statistic: Galati County is first in Romania for trafficking human beings. A girl is sold for between 2500 and 5000 Euro.
In 2009, 780 cases of human trafficking were discovered in Romania, according to the National Agency Against Human Traffic.

For the first time since the 1989 Revolution, Galati is the leading county in the trafficking of human beings, with 60 persons trafficked in last 12 months, 8% of the national total. More than 95% are women who are placed on the prostitution market in the western European countries. We are talking, of course, only about the discovered transactions, which represent a very small part of the mega sex business.

Moldova dominates the prostitution market

Galati is ahead of other counties from Moldova: Iasi, Bacau and Botosani, who led in trafficking cases in previous years. Iasi has 51 cases, Botosani – 48, and Bacau – 39. More than this, Bacau (the leader in 2007) had been overtaken by Maramures, where, in 2009, 43 women were sold into prostitution in the West.

In the counties nearby, the situation is better. In Buzau there were only 3 cases, in Braila – 19, in Focsani – 17. In the counties from Ardeal and Banat the numbers are lower, indicating either that the police are doing well their preventive job, or that the girls are more difficult to be approached.
On the other hand, the police from Galati believe that here they have more cases discovered, showing that they did their job. “We discovered 60 cases, compared with 5-6 in most of the counties, which shows that we did our job well,” declared Cristina Tatulici, spokeswoman of the Galati Police.

Almost as alarming as these statistics, are the tactics used to gain the right to approach girls for trafficking. Gangs, especially the clans Taranii and Lazarii , are fighting with swords in discotheques in villages in Galati, in order to be the first to approach girls under 18 for prostitution abroad. The girls are enticed with two- three hundred Euro, and then sold to traffickers from western Europe for sums between 2500 and 5000 Euro. The average sum is 3000 Euro.

First in Europe for exporting live meat

The prostitutes from Romania prefer to leave for the countries from western Europe, where they earn more, and where they don't have to pay the fines imposed by Romanian law, relates The Times. The publication quotes a study that Romania became the main exporter for prostitution in the EU. So, one in eight foreign prostitutes in Europe come from Romania.

Another funny chocolate saying...

It says:
Remember the feeling of lying down on the fresh, green grass?

These chocolates had a little hazelnut in each one...perhaps this was what evoked the feeling of fresh green grass?



And, in case you're wondering, I do in fact have another chocolate saying for future use!

Things my husband says that make me laugh...

It's been awhile since my last installment of "Things my husband says that make me laugh..." and I think this one was worth the wait:

"There were good things about Ceascescu (former leader of communist Romania. He 'ruled' for almost 30 years I think) like he was against the Russians. But, he did make us learn Russian- probably so we could invade."
(insert here me laughing and picking up my notebook so I could write down his quote).
"Oh no! Don't put it on the blog! Russian/Romanian relations are already tense!"

p.s. I in no way meant to infer that my husband has not made me laugh since my last installment of "Things my husband says that make me laugh..." I have simply failed to stay up dated on all the things Bela says that are funny. In fact, there are so many that it is quite overwhelming and to post them all here would leave no other space or time for writing or posting anything else. And then you, dear reader, would perhaps grow cool to his humor, and to my blog. It's best to savor his humor in small doses and grow a fine appreciation for it. That way, when you see him in person, you'll count his funny-ness all the more precious.

Writers Musings...the blog

It's not my blog, but the one I've written about before. She's giving away more books and so I'm advertising the site HERE (click on here) so I can get an extra entry into the contest. I think the blog is worth a looksie...and she has another blog with good advice for aspiring writers.

Well, the weather outside is...

still snowing!
I grew up in Southern California, for goodness sake! I keep wondering where my snow day is! This is more winter than I've ever had, even with the better part of 10 years spent in the northwest.
Here are some more pictures...
Please remember the kids we work with. Many of them don't have heat in their homes, or they live in abandoned buildings and tents. This is hard weather for them...please pray that they'll be warm.

snow snow snow

I woke up this morning, stumbled to the kitchen to put the water on for some tea, glanced out the window and to my delight, it had snowed. And, it's still snowing! Here are some pictures of our frosting laden yard at the center! And, it's supposed to snow all week! You can imagine that Bela is a very happy guy with visions of snow boarding dancing in his head!

First, Unclinch Your Fists

This is a chapter from Henri Nouwen's book 'With Open Hands.' I thought I'd share it here because I really love it.

Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched. Why would you really want to do that? Perhaps you would let the other cross your inner threshold to see something or to touch something, but to allow the other into that place where your most intimate life is shaped—that is dangerous and calls for defense.
The resistance to praying is like the resistance of tightly clenched fists. This image shows a tension, a desire to cling tightly to yourself, a greediness which betrays fear. A story about an elderly woman brought to a psychiatric center exemplifies this attitude. She was wild, swinging at everything in sight, and frightening everyone so much that the doctors had to take everything away from her. But there was one small coin which she gripped in her fist and would not give up. In fact, it took two people to pry open that clenched hand. It was as though she would lose her very self along with the coin. If they deprived her of that last possession, she would have nothing more and be nothing more. That was her fear.


When you are invited to pray, you are asked to open your tightly clenched fist and give up your last coin. But who wants to do that? A first prayer, therefore, is often a painful prayer because you discover you don’t want to let go. You hold fast to what is familiar, even if you aren’t proud of it. You find yourself saying: "That’s just how it is with me. I would like it to be different, but it can’t be now. That’s just the way it is and this is the way I’ll have to leave it." Once you talk like that, you’ve already given up believing that your life might be otherwise. You’ve already let the hope for a new life float by. Since you wouldn’t dare to put a question mark after a bit of your own experience with all its attachments, you have wrapped yourself up in the destiny of facts. You feel it is safer to cling to a sorry past than to trust in a new future. So you fill your hands with small, clammy coins which you don’t want to surrender.

You still feel bitter because people weren’t grateful for something you gave them: you still feel jealous of those who are better paid than you are; you still want to take revenge on someone who didn’t respect you; you are still disappointed that you’ve received no letter, still angry because someone didn’t smile when you walked by. You live through it, you live along with it as though it doesn’t really bother you...until the moment when you want to pray. Then everything returns: the bitterness, the hate, the jealousy, the disappointment, and the desire for revenge. But these feelings are not just there; you clutch them in your hands as if they were treasures you don’t want to let go. You sit wallowing in all that old sourness as if you couldn’t do without them, as if, in giving them up, you would lose your very self.



Detachment is often understood as letting loose of what is attractive. But it sometimes also requires letting go of what is repulsive. You can indeed become attached to dark forces such as resentment and hatred. As long as you seek retaliation, you cling to your own past. Sometimes it seems as though you might lose yourself along with your revenge and hate—so you stand there with balled-up fists, closed to the other who wants to heal you.
When you want to pray, then, the first question is: How do I open my closed hands? Certainly not by violence. Nor by a forced decision. Perhaps you can find your way to prayer by carefully listening to the words the angel spoke to Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds, and the women at the tomb: "Don’t be afraid." Don’t be afraid of the One who wants to enter your most intimate space and invite you to let go of what you are clinging to so anxiously. Don’t be afraid to show the clammy coin which will buy so little anyway. Don’t be afraid to offer your hate, bitterness, and disappointment to the One who is love and only love. Even if you know you have little to show, don’t be afraid to let it be seen.
Often you will catch yourself wanting to receive your loving God by putting on a semblance of beauty, by holding back everything dirty and spoiled, by clearing just a little path that looks proper. But that is a fearful response—forced and artificial. Such a response exhausts you and turns your prayer into torment.


Each time you dare to let go and to surrender one of those many fears, your hand opens a little and your palms spread out in a gesture of receiving. You must be patient, of course, very patient until your hands are completely open.

It is a long spiritual journey of trust, for behind each fist another one is hiding, and sometimes the process seems endless. Much has happened in your life to make all those fists and at any hour of the day or night you might find yourself clenching your fists again out of fear.



Maybe someone will say to you, "You have to forgive yourself." But that isn’t possible. What is possible is to open your hands without fear, so that the One who loves you can blow your sins away. Then the coins you considered indispensable for your life prove to be little more than light dust which a soft breeze will whirl away, leaving only a grin or a chuckle behind. Then you feel a bit of new freedom and praying becomes a joy, a spontaneous reaction to the world and the people around you. Praying then becomes effortless, inspired and lively, or peaceful and quiet. When you recognize the festive and the still moments as moments of prayer, then you gradually realize that to pray is to live.



Dear God,

I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!

Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?

Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?

Please help me to gradually open my hands

and to discover that I am not what I own,

but what you want to give me.

And what you want to give me is love—

unconditional, everlasting love.

Amen.