We’re Building a New Grace House!

About 14 years ago, I began to see that orphan kids in Moldova were the most vulnerable to human traffickers, survival crimes and suicide at about 16 or 17 years of age. Not coincidently, that is when their time in the orphanage dorms and boarding schools came to an end.

All at once, they were forced out onto the streets or into the impoverished homes of relatives with no money, no viable support network, no marketable skills, no experience in making their own decisions and no hope. Basically, their life in the orphanage merely delayed the inevitable and potentially horrific fate.

I can still remember the blank expressions on the faces of girls who, five days away from discharge, couldn’t tell me where they would be living or how they would survive.  As I imagined the bleak futures of kids I had come to know and love, the idea began to emerge in my mind of a transitional living home; a safe haven for girls to live, experience the love of a family, get a higher education and receive the life skills they had missed as a child.

By the grace of God and the phenomenal generosity of Americans, Grace House was born. And not too much later, Boys2Leaders also became a reality.

But houses are not homes. Our National Director, Alina, put together a staff of faithful, patient and committed people who, along with the love and blessing of our wonderful sponsors, began to mold capable, Christ-honoring young people.  As a group, they have far exceeded anything I could ever imagine.

We continue to tweak and perfect our model and we always will, but its value has now been tested and proven.  We are shattering the anecdotal evidence that 70% of discharged social orphan girls will be prostituted and 70% of boys incarcerated. And in its place, we are watching the power of love heal unimaginable wounds and set feet firmly upon solid ground.

Now it is time to build upon that success.  Now it is time to give even more dispossessed children their shot in life.  Now it is time to join with our Jesus who wants to break every chain that binds the fatherless and raise up an army of joyful believers in the so-called “unhappiest place on earth.”  It is time to acquire another house in Moldova – another GRACE HOUSE – and redeem it for the use and glory of God!

In all humility, I’m asking everyone who knows our story to search your own hearts – and consider how you can help…NOW!  Our kids need champions. They need all of us to do something extraordinarily selfless with the blessings we enjoy.

Will you pray over this opportunity to help us purchase a refuge for the least of the least?

And until the end of August we have a generous donor who will match every gift, dollar for dollar, up to the first $50,000 given. So why not give now?