The Many Zlatas Waiting For Someone To Care
She is three years old. Her father has never been part of her life. Her mother abandoned her. Every day of camp she walked across the village alone to find our team — because someone finally made her feel loved.
I’ll Care For The Many Zlatas
This is why Promise House matters. This is why we cannot slow down. This is why we need you.
Your gift helps us open the first home in Ungheni — a place of safety, love, and hope for children who have been forgotten by everyone else.
Together, we can open the doors. Together, we can bring them home.
Look at the wee girl in this photo.
Her name is Zlata. She is exactly the kind of precious soul our children at Vatra Village carry in their hearts when they go out to share the love of Jesus.
Zlata is only three years old, but already she has known more rejection, abandonment, and hardship than any child should ever have to bear. There is no word of her father. We believe he has never been part of her life. Her mother left her — abandoned her — and like countless little children across Moldova, Zlata is growing up in the emptiness of being unwanted, unseen, and forgotten.
This week, our kids are holding a camp in Zlata’s village. From the first day, she fell in love with them. Not because they had anything fancy to offer her, but because they showed her kindness. They played with her. They fed her. They sang with her. They told her stories about Jesus.
She came for the games.
She came for the food.
She came for the songs.
But I believe, more than anything, she came because someone finally made her feel loved.
As we continue to believe to finish the homes at Promise House in Ungheni, Zlata’s face has put an even greater urgency in our hearts. These homes are being prepared for little children just like her — children who have no safe place, no steady love, and no one strong enough to protect them.
Zlata lives with her grandmother, who is old and poor. Her grandmother may love her, but she has very little to give. Looking at Zlata, and hearing her story, reminds us why we must get the first home open as soon as possible.
Our prayer is to be ready by September.
This morning, Zlata showed up again. She played with her new friends, laughed through the games, and after the activities were over, the children were given fruit. That moment led to the photo at the top of this page.
Our team leader, Pavel, told me that Zlata was so hungry, she ate the watermelon — and then she ate the rind.
All of it. Nothing was left.
When the day ended, Zlata walked away and disappeared back into the darkness of a village with no streetlights. Back to the life she knows. Back to the uncertainty of tomorrow. Back to whatever her life will be as long as her grandmother is still alive.
I pray to God that very soon, we will have a place ready for Zlata — and for the many other little Zlatas waiting in loneliness, hoping someone will care enough to act.
This Week At Camp
Games, songs, cotton candy, and a hot meal — in a village where most children have never had any of it.
See Your Love In Action
My daughter Melody and her family spent the last month in Moldova, and received the container she helped send from Tennessee — camp supplies, and furnishings for the new homes in Ungheni. Every gift, every box packed, every act of obedience matters.
Before The Darkness Steals Another Child
Our prayer is to have the first Promise House home open by September. Help us be ready for Zlata, and for the many other little Zlatas still waiting.
The Orphan’s Hands is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit · EIN 47-4457291
