Beauty. Youth. Joy. Love. Patience. Hope.
Meet Verica.
Verica is a 20 year old mother of 5. Two of the children are her own, one of which
is 2 and the other 7 months. The other
three children are her boyfriend’s brother and sisters. Verica lives in a house in a village directly
outside the town of Cantemir. Her house
only has one room that has all of the glass in the windows and a door on
it. Only one enclosed room in the entire
house. Her boyfriend is 18 and works in
a different village and is not around very often. When he is around, he’s usually drunk or
sleeping with other women. Pastor keeps
trying to get the boyfriend to marry Verica, but he is unwilling. The boyfriend actually runs away when he sees
Pastor coming.
Verica grew up in an abusive household. No wonder she wanted out as soon as
possible. She had a father who left her
when she was very young. She had an
alcoholic mother that would lock in her a room for days at a time. I wonder how old she was when her mother
finally kicked her out of the house. 14?
16? Maybe Verica just ran whenever she
felt she could care for herself. I’m not
sure. I wonder when she met her
boyfriend. She has two children with him
and takes care of his siblings as her own children so they must have met many
years ago. She has no one to help her
with her boyfriend. Besides she probably
doesn’t know any different. She’s never
seen what a functional, healthy relationship looks like so why would she know
that she deserves better.
The thing that gets me about Verica is there is no “my life
is so horrible� syndrome. She doesn’t
get down on herself or her circumstances.
Every time you see her she has a bright, beautiful smile on her
face. She’s so hungry for God. She walks her 5 children one hour to church
every Sunday. You can tell she knows
there’s more, and she wants it. She’ll
do whatever it takes to get it. Jess and
I had the opportunity to go visit her in her house with Pastor Boris. We were able to share our testimonies with
her and tell her about the love of Jesus.
She was so grateful and held onto every word as we spoke. Before we left we asked for any prayer
requests, and she said: that she would know more about Jesus and would have a
deeper relationship with him, that her boyfriend would come to know Jesus, and
that the winter wouldn’t be too cold so she could keep her and her children
warm. That’s all she asked for. She didn’t ask for us to pray that she would
have food and clothes for her and the children. She wants Jesus first and then
a little warmth. She trusts God will
provide everything she needs. He has
until this point.
This
makes me think about when I was 20. It
was just four short years ago. My life
was so different than hers. My life will
always be drastically different than hers.
It makes me examine my own life, not just physically but
spiritually. I had/have selfish prayer
requests. I wanted more “stuff�. I wanted to get through college so I could
get a good job so I could make lots of money.
Disgusting. Why her? Why not me?
Verica’s heart is so beautiful and pure.
Verica is just beautiful. You can
see joy written over her at all times.
You can see the love of God within her that’s bursting out as she cares
for and loves her family dearly. I know
God has more for her. Pray that He
reveals it to her soon.
