prayer update...

Remember The Escapee from May?? (if not, here's my 'riveting' story about her... http://hhorsch.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html) GOOD NEWS! She is doing so well! She is still in the shelter away from Athens but she plans to go back to Romania where we've connected her with people she can stay with until she figures out her next steps. She regularly goes to church, she looks healthier and she wants to end up helping people in prostitution! She wrote a heartfelt 6 page long letter back to her friend still working in the brothel explaining how her life has changed and begging the friend to grasp the life ring Nea Zoi is tossing her. Please pray for The Escapee (who actually has a better name than that!) as she transitions home....the conditions that motivated her to come to Greece in the first place will still be there.

"Alice" is a bubbly, outgoing girl from Romania. She is still working in the brothels, a job she does to profit the boyfriend who brought her here. But she has a great relationship with two of our volunteers and they meet weekly in our office to talk, laugh and pray together. When you talk with her you wouldn't know she lives in such a dreary cycle! She is very talkative and giggly...just seems like other young girls her age. She is the friend left-behind that received the long letter from "The Escapee" imploring her to make positive changes. But at this time Alice doesn't seem ready, or even motivated, to risk the change. Please pray that our conversations with her will ignite a vision for a better future.

"Vanessa" is a sweet girl I met in March from Nigeria. She is one of the few girls that I have personally made a real connection with during our short visits on the street. We've been on a few walks together where she has shared her story of coming to Greece to support her family, pay off a debt her Dad incurred and earn back the deeds to her family's house. She knows this isn't an ideal life, but she just doesn't see any other way to make money.

Lately she's been so different, more reserved, cautious, even jumpy! I've been calling to try to set up a meeting but she's always sleeping or working. Last wk I called her at 3:00pm and she was in a cab on the way home from work (she went to the streets the day before at 6:00pm!!) and she was going home to shower and head straight BACK to work!! Ugh....no sleep in over 32 hours!...for THAT job!! ugh.

Obviously, "Vanessa" could use prayers for rest, for another way, and for whatever specific problem has so changed my friend's countenance.

Then there's "Emme" from Nigeria. She came in to the office this wk because she is pregnant and needed our help finding a doctor. Annette took her for blood tests and indeed she is still pregnant even after taking a whole bunch, I mean 40, FORTY, 4 - 0, pills to try to eliminate the pregnancy. (They weren't abortion pills...just pills for some other ailment with a warning on the bottle that said not to take if pregnant!!) Now that she realizes she is still pregnant, she's not sure she wants an abortion and may want to keep the baby. (...but is the baby ok??)

Emme seemed taken aback when we explained that the people who brought her here and charged her € 50,000 for her glamorous life in prostitution did something illegal and that the anti-trafficking police force could help her escape and keep her safe. Please pray for young Emme as she tries to make decisions about her life and that of her baby's.

Last week as we met more girls, heard more stories and took more tea into the darkest streets this song kept going through my mind...

"Jesus, name above all names, Beautiful Savior, Glorious Lord
Emmanuel, God is with us, Blessed Redeemer, Living Word"

Maybe it seems outta place on those filthy streets...but actually that IS my hope. He is there on the street with me and then with the girls long after I leave. And He CAN REDEEM (aka reclaim, reinstate, restore, win back) even the darkest of lives.