The Many Zlatas Waiting for Someone to Care
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 bear. There is no word of her father. Her mother left her. Like countless little children across Moldova, Zlata is growing up in the emptiness of being unwanted, unseen, and forgotten. She lives with her grandmother, who is old and poor and has very little to give.
This week our kids held a camp in Zlata’s village, and from the first day she fell in love with them — not because they had anything fancy to offer, but because they showed her kindness. They played with her. They fed her. They sang with her. They told her stories about Jesus. And every day this tiny girl got up and walked through the village to find our team again. She came for the games, the food, the songs — but more than anything, I believe she came because someone finally made her feel loved.
This morning Zlata showed up again. She played, laughed through the games, and afterward the children were given fruit. Our team leader, Pavel, told me she was so hungry she ate the watermelon — and then she ate the rind. All of it. Nothing was left. When the day ended, she walked away and disappeared back into a village with no streetlights, back to the uncertainty of tomorrow.
As we believe God 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. Our prayer is to be ready by September.
This is why Promise House matters. This is why we cannot slow down. This is why we need you.
Your prayers, your giving, and your partnership are helping us build more than houses — a place of safety, love, and hope for children forgotten by everyone else. My daughter Melody and her family have just spent a month in Moldova, and while there Melody received the container she helped send from Tennessee — supplies for the summer camps and for the new homes in Ungheni. Every gift, every box packed, is now touching lives. Together, we can open the doors before the darkness steals another child.
