I have a young friend in Moldova who is in trouble. She was raised at the Internat 2 orphanage, is about 19 years old and lives with her mother and grandfather in a bare bones apartment. She works, her mom works as a custodian and her grandfather receives a meager government pension.
Amongst the three of them, they have enough money to buy food and that’s it. They have not been able to afford their rent for over a year, and now they have been given a year to come up with $3,000 or face eviction.
My friend knows enough English to email me this brief message: “To me it is very difficult!”
Why did this family wait so long to seek a solution?, you might ask. It’s a valid question. My hunch is that they either imagined something better would eventually come their way or they just hoped their delinquency had somehow gone unnoticed. And now their year of grace will expire about the time the next bitter Moldovan winter blows in….there is never a good time to be homeless, but without help, this is a death sentence.
My friend grew up and graduated before we established our sponsorship program in Moldova. A sponsor probably would have learned of this situation sooner and been much more proactive in notifying us to intervene. And, although we have a graduate sponsorship now that could make a difference, she is no longer at our summer camps and is even more anonymous than before.
Regardless, JMI is working on her behalf now. She needs help, but just as importantly, she needs guidance in setting goals and planning her future. There are options this family has not explored and our staff is walking through those with them.
JMI Sponsorships are about so much more than financial support. More than any other organization I know, what we offer is a personal ministry. And when all is said and done, the warm and fuzzy feelings of church attendance, what we know and how we worship will pale in comparison to what we did for those who struggled to say and be heard: “To me it is very difficult!”
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