The Lord placed this little girl on the hearts of many soon after we departed Romania. I've been meaning to write a blog about her circumstances, but received this message in my email this morning and thought Dutzi and Britta have articulated her story perfectly. I did get permission to share her story with you all. Florina was one of my favourite little girls in Romania. She always greeted me with a hug and a smile.
After leaving Romania, I grappled with two "missed chances" to fight against human trafficking. A dear, wise friend, Hannah Bashor, reminded me that there are so many ways to work against trafficking. There's a theory that compares trafficking with a pipeline that I'll explain more in my next blog. Hearing Florina's story soon thereafter gave validity to the "pipeline" theory.
This is the story of Florina and her Aunt Clara. May God alone receive the glory.
Written by Britta Palmquist and Dutzi
(Florina, left, and a friend from Razboieni)
Before any one from Living Hope church of Pitesti met Clara, they met Florina. Florina is a beautiful, skinny, dark-skinned ten-year-old. She’s full of energy – when we play games, she cheers for her team by jumping up and down with her skinny arms raised above her head and shouting. She’s smart – she quickly learned how to behave at our program, and she did well in English lessons with me. She’s so sweet – it didn’t take long for all of us to notice! And she’s a kid from Razboieni – she’s dirt poor, and sometimes she swears and fights and breaks rules. She loves hugs and climbing trees and winning.
Florina came to our program one Sunday last fall. She loved it. She told Clara, her aunt and caretaker, that it was wonderful and that she wanted to go again. But Clara wasn’t so sure. She had heard rumors about us around the neighborhood, that we were teaching the kids bad things or even hurting them. She couldn’t let Florina into the hands of people who want to harm her, not again.
So Clara herself came to the kindergarten in Razboieni. She spoke with Cristi, and he told her who he was and what we were doing. She told him she hated God. She told him God took all her loved ones. She told Cristi she had experienced more pain than he could imagine. And her story began to come out.
Years ago, Clara got a job in Italy. She cared for the house of an elderly man. He was very kind to her, and she lived well. She had no family of herown, but was very close to her sister, Mihaela, and niece, Florina. She called them on the phone every day at 12:10 p.m.
One day, after Clara had been in Italy three years, Mihaela called during Clara’s lunch break, as usual. But this time they didn’t just chat and reminisce as usual. Mihaela told Clara she needed to come home to Pitesti. “You need to come home because I am dying,” she said.
Mihaela had had breast cancer for five years, and had never gotten treatment. Her husband had died long ago, before Florina was born. She and Florina lived off a small amount of money from the government and most of Clara’s wages. She had lived with the cancer for years. Now, it seemed it would take her life.
Clara found a better solution than returning home to say goodbye to her sister. Instead, she brought Mihaela and Florina to Italy. Through a series of connections and relations, Clara got Mihaela a consultation with the best cancer doctor in the region. She was put in the hospital under Clara’s name, and because of Italy’s medical system, it didn’t cost a penny. After two months, Mihaela was in surgery. It lasted six hours, and the doctors found 27 tumors. After the surgery, the doctor told Clara she could live another year.
The cancer was still advanced. It spread to other parts of Mihaela’s body. She was placed in a recovery center for three months. During all this time, Clara was unable to work, but her boss kept paying her. He said she and Mihaela and Florina “brought him back to life.” He continued to care for them after they left the recovery center. He bought clothes for Florina, and brought her to the park with his grandkids. Even with Mihaela’s deteriorating health, the family knew some peace.
One sunny Saturday, Clara and Florina were in the kitchen, washing dishes. Suddenly, armed men broke in and pointed their guns and shouted at them. And they took Florina away. Clara, unable to do anything else, sunk to the floor, feeling the worst she’d ever felt in her life.
For one month she didn’t hear or see anything about Florina.
She was desperate. She had some money, so she hired a private detective. She gave almost all her money, and soon feared she’d wasted it because he gave her no phone number and never signed any papers. She thought that, on top of everything, he’d disappeared with her money. So she contacted the embassy. But the detective was a good man. He found Florina, and immediately brought the information to the embassy, and they investigated.
Florina had been brought to what was supposedly an orphanage. There were just seven or eight other children. The women who ran it were dressed like nuns, but were actually prostitutes. The children were forced to beg on the streets. They were treated very harshly and abused in many ways. As Clara recounts the story, she simply says she doesn’t want to think about what Florina went through. And she moves the story forward.
A woman from the embassy took charge of the case. She found out Florina was about to be sold for 70,000 Euros. She could have been sent anywhere around the world; she could have been lost forever. They sent the police to the “orphanage.” The police arrested the “nuns” and rescued the children. The woman brought Florina and Clara back to her own home for a few days, but told Clara they couldn’t stay. They weren’t safe. After all, they had helped dismantle the “orphanage.” The kidnappers could return.
After a tense week, Clara found tickets for Florina, Mihaela, and herself back to Romania. The woman took them to the airport and made sure Children’s Protection would help them when they arrived in Bucharest. Clara didn’t have a single leu. They couldn’t afford even a slice of bread. After a week, Mihaela’s morphine ran out. Because she couldn’t afford a bribe, it took three painful weeks and a lot of papers for any Romanian hospital to recognize her need. And, exactly one year after the doctor had said, Mihaela died.
Clara and Florina returned to Razboieni, traumatized, grief-stricken, and desperately poor. Before long, Clara went into a diabetic coma and had two heart attacks.
Clara hated God then. She laid in bed and thought about nothing. Her chest hurt. She couldn’t breathe. She lost 50 kilos. She thought, I’ve lived a good life. I’m a good person. I’ve never done anything really bad. I’ve loved and sought the best for my family. Why should this be happening to me? She cursed God.
And life went on. Florina grew. Clara made sure she never went hungry, even if that meant that Clara didn’t eat. Some days she just had her insulin and no food. Clara was unable to work. She receives a meager 170 lei ($45.00)/month pension from the government. She had to fight for a year to gain custody of Florina. She takes a bag of pills every day.
She was depressed mind and soul. And she was so angry. She was always ready to curse someone or fight. And in the middle of this grinding darkness, Florina came bounding home from a non-Orthodox church program in a kindergarten in the ghetto, full of joy.
She had found something, something precious. A treasure. She didn’t know what exactly, or why it was so precious. Something in her was drawn to it. Clara was worried because of the rumors, but she could see that Florina had found something important to her. So she came to investigate.
She stood in the back and watched suspiciously as we sang and danced with the kids. There were American visitors saying hi to the kids and taking pictures and talking to each other – and to the leaders! – in English.
What was going on? Florina pointed out Cristi. He was singing in the front, and smiling, and running all over the place. He looked so young. And Clara looked around at the kids – laughing, playing. But they were mostly Gypsies, and mostly from the ghetto; she wasn’t sure if she wanted Florina mixing with this crowd. It was all so strange.
Clara didn’t know what to think, but she was very suspicious. She saw how much fun the kids were having. She saw how different all the leaders were; for one thing, they’re all young. She saw how the leaders interacted with the kids. She was afraid to believe it, but it looked like they really cared about the kids. And she heard the words Cristi spoke and couldn’t help being moved by them.
So she kept coming. She’d found the treasure, too. But what was it, exactly? It was something light, bright. Deep in depression, Clara had stumbled across this undefined but solid hope. There was just something different about what happened at that kindergarten. People living more beautifully than anything she’d seen before. She wondered if their joy could be hers.
After some weeks, Clara wanted to try church and see how it is. At the time, there was a man pursuing her. He heard she was interested in church and he started making plans for her to join his. He came to bring her on a Sunday, but she didn’t have a good enough dress. He told her it would be better for her and Florina to stay home. A few days later, he offered to buy her a dress so she could come to his church. He also took the initiative of scheduling her baptism. He told her about how she would need to act.
She was not encouraged by this. This was not the hope she had glimpsed. She declined the man’s offer.
Instead, she spoke with Cristi. She told him her story and how she wanted to change her religion. He told her it’s not about religion; what’s important is being close to God. The following Sunday morning, she and Florina joined the fellowship at Living Hope. And here she again tasted that rich joy and love she’d seen at the program in Razboieni. She was moved by the Word and by the way people treated each other. And no one pressured her to live they way they did.
Clara and Florina kept coming. She also joined the women’s Bible study. And things began to change. Not her circumstances; she still has no money and poor health. She’s still depressed. But she’s finding hope in God.
And she can see herself changing already. Before she was always so angry. Now, she’s amazed by how peaceful she can be. She told us a story. Some kids in the neighborhood had been hurting Florina. Clara’s first impulse was to confront their mother, Cristina, and fight with her. Then, one morning Clara woke up and had peace from God that she could handle the situation another way. So she filed a complaint with the police. But the police didn’t help. Cristina had already spoken with them and told them about how she had helped Clara in the past. So the police wouldn’t get involved. Again, Clara was tempted to yell at them and to fight Cristina, who, in fact, had never done anything good for Clara. But Clara just let it go, and allowed the police to think that, and rested in God.
In the past, Clara was also very anxious. Some days she could afford food and other days she couldn’t. She was very protective of Florina. Her life is so stressful, and it overwhelmed her. Now she has more peace. She gave us an example. Today, she had three lei. She used 2 lei for bread. She knows that tomorrow she won’t have enough for bread. In the past, she would panic. Now, she has peace in God. She trusts his provision.
Clara tells us she knows she isn’t completely changed, but that she’s amazed by how far she’s come. And she credits it all to God.
Her situation is still precarious. She and Florina could be evicted any day. She still wonders why God let her suffer so much. But she’s convinced that if she draws near to God, her problems won’t disappear, but she’ll be okay.
Who knows what God will do next! It’s been a few months now that they’ve been coming. We have loved getting to know them and spending time with them. They are precious!
(Clara became the first baptism from Razboieni)
(Clara, Florina, and the Living Hope Family)
