Today is Day 2 of the 31 Day Blogging Challenge!

I am sharing a beautiful testimony of deliverance from one of our Latvian young people. I know you will be touched by this story because, unfortunately, this practice that almost took Egija, is alive and well around the world. Feel free to share it with others, you never know who may need to hear it!

Egija Gulbe left the Latvian countryside to find a job in the capitol city of Riga. It is the pattern of many Latvians after high school. Riga’s population is just under 700,000, but the entire country of Latvia is just two million. So you can see that the majority flock to Riga to find work.

Egija had a grant to study cosmetology and could also live at the school. Once she arrived, she discovered things were not as wonderful as promised. The living conditions were, as she put it, “a little bit scary”. She also still needed a job and soon found one as a nanny.

She was thrilled because she loves children! She has a younger brother and sister so she knew that would be a perfect fit. The family she would be living with had only one son who was about seven years old. The mother worked in Scotland and travelled frequently, the father worked in Latvia.

Unfortunately, in a short time Egija noticed things were a little unusual and she was unsettled in the home. One day her employer said to pack her bags because they needed to take a quick trip to Norway. Egija was concerned, but if it was part of her job to take care of the little boy, then she was to follow.

When they arrived at the airport, Egija became very worried. He told her to sit still and he would be back in 15 minutes. It was then that he took Egija’s residency papers and work permits and revealed to her what was happening:

Egija was being SOLD into the human trafficking slave market!

Her heart pounding, the blood rushing to her head, the room spinning, she knew she had to get away. She waited a long time until she was sure he was out of sight, grabbed her bag and ran out of the airport as quickly as she could.

She hopped on the tram and the only place she could think to go was to our apartment. When she showed up at my door almost two years ago, sobbing hysterically, trying to convey to us in broken English what had happened; my mother’s heart was breaking for her. You read of such things and see them on the news, but this was real life.

She had already been to the “policija”; they had basically laughed at her.

This is all too common in this part of the world and there is not much that can be done about it. But for Egija, the damage was deep. She had to have help to restore all of the documents that had been stolen from her. Thankfully we had legal help on our missions team!

But even more than that, she needed God. He provided the healing she needed to get her back on her feet.

Fast forward to 2013. When I came back to Riga this time, I had not seen Egija for almost 17 months. The spiritual change is amazing. She has grown and blossomed in the Lord! He has healed her mind and restored her soul.  She is reaching out and ministering to others and she is taking the things that the enemy meant for harm to her and turning them around and making them stepping stones in her relationship with God. “But as for you, ye thought evil against me: but God meant it unto good…” Genesis 50:20.

Hope and Healing.

Egija has experienced so much of both of these in her short life time.

What trials or tests have come your way that maybe you thought could destroy you?

How can you turn those into a testimony?!

Have you been delivered from something that only God could have stepped in and done?

Share with us your words, your triumphs, your witness of His power in your life!

There is Hope and Healing for you today…be encouraged and know that Jesus is waiting to fill that void and bring deliverance and peace to your situation.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.

For more posts on our current trip to Latvia you can read about it here, here and here!

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