I met a teenage girl, who was born with eyesight but eventually became blind due to an eye condition. There was money for the doctor but her father drank it away. She is a follower of Christ now, the only one in her family to make that decision at this point, and has a beautiful singing voice.

I met a young mother, married and with her first child at thirteen. She says that life is better where she is now, although she lives with her young husband, his parents, and his seven siblings in the midst of poverty. There is alcohol abuse and domestic violence in her new home, however, this situation is preferable to life before her marriage where she lived with her grandparents and an abusive uncle.

The children were loving and curious. Their mothers were hospitable and gracious. All of them were illiterate. They willingly opened their homes and shared with us what they had.

These beautiful women and their children have found their way into my prayers since my return to Canada at the beginning of October. I may have left Romania physically but its people remain in my heart.