Helping Survivors of Human Trafficking

By Gina Grate Pottenger
Republished from Where Worlds Meet Year 12, Issue 3, March 2015
Also published in NCN News

Bucharest, Romania – “Betty” Chirila says that when she was growing up with an alcoholic and abusive father, she didn’t feel secure; she didn’t feel love. Fortunately, when she was 18, a young man she knew invited her to church. What if a different guy had invited her somewhere else? To his house, maybe? To meet a “friend”?

What if that guy sniffed out vulnerability and took advantage? And then he sold her to a pimp, tricking her into human trafficking, a trap from which she could not escape?

That didn’t happen.

Instead, although she identified herself as an atheist, she accepted the invitation to visit the Church of the Nazarene where everyone was cheerful and the youth group welcomed her with open arms. After attending regularly for a while, she accepted Christ in a youth camp and began singing in the church’s worship team. She went on to college, earned a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree in psychology.

Now, as a psychologist at the Open Door, an emergency shelter for human trafficking survivors in Bucharest, Betty can empathize with the girls who come there to escape the hopeless black hole of sexual slavery. Like them, she remembers a childhood without the nurturing, safe feelings of being loved by one’s family. Although her life took a different course, the women and girls can sense her compassion informed by experience.

She was invited to join the staff by Monica, the Nazarene who founded the nonprofit shelter. The young man, Simi, who initially invited her to church, is an administrator at the shelter.

It’s the most fulfilling work Betty could have imagined. “[The women are] not confident in themselves and that’s one of the things that made them vulnerable for trafficking,” she says. “When they start to feel that they’re loved and when you start to give them attention, they are starting to open themselves like a flower, like a tulip.”

Betty has worked with about 30 survivors over the course of her time at Open Door. Normally there is only space for a handful to live at the shelter at any one time. The government brings the rescued survivors to the shelter, where Monica’s team takes over in caring for them and providing rehabilitative activities, such as teaching them to cook, manage money, shop and clean house.

She also helps them work out a plan to finish high school if they didn’t graduate, as well as to find companies who will interview and potentially hire them for jobs. The intent is to shape in the women a new healthy self-awareness and teach them to interact in healthy ways with others, as they become independent and re-enter society.

“They have no idea how to live, how to cook or clean or how to wash their clothes,” she says. “They depend on people. We’re trying to teach them how to live by themselves. It’s pretty difficult because many of them got used to a negative lifestyle; it’s pretty hard for them to adjust to a positive lifestyle.”

The shelter houses each woman for about 18 months, but cases are assessed individually, and women can stay longer if the staff evaluates that they need more time. The shelter also offers nonresidential assistance to minors, currently working with 16 children.

After having been involved so closely with redemptive work among trafficking survivors, Betty is frustrated that she perceives many Christians are still blind to the staggering reach of human trafficking.

Teanna Sunberg, missionary in Hungary, reported in an Engage magazine article:

According to the International Labour Organization’s June 2012 Press Release, Central Europe and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) Fields have the highest number of trafficking victims per thousand inhabitants globally. These two parts of Europe account for 7 percent of the global trafficking market. In other words, 1.6 million people from Romania and the Eastern European neighborhood are trapped in forced labour situations today, according to an article (http://goo.gl/b81rwp)

“If we would have God’s eyes, we will see things the way God sees them,” Betty says. “You can close your eyes in front of reality. That doesn’t make the problem disappear. That makes you ignorant. Right now I don’t want to do anything else. If you can change a life, then you can say you accomplished the mission of the Lord. They need me. I hope one day we will get more people involved.”


Ask God to bless Betty and her ministry among women and children who have been enslaved and are now free; pray that the survivors would find complete healing and rest in Jesus’ arms, and for Betty to have strength for the work.

Nazarene Seal & Logo in Romanian

The seal of the Church of the Nazarene:

The logo of the Church of the Nazarene:

These files are also accessible at whdl.org.

EuNC: One School, Many Nations

Since the school opened in 1965, European Nazarene College has been preparing and educating leaders in the Church of the Nazarene. For many years, students came to the campus from all over Europe to take classes in English. In recent years, however, the model has been changed; students now remain in their home countries where they can take classes in their native languages while remaining involved in work and ministry.

There are over a dozen Romanian students currently taking classes through EuNC's Romania Learning Center.

The following video was recently produced by EuNC to illustrate how it is one school in many nations.

Christmas parcels a token of love in Sighişoara

Republished from the Eurasia Region's "Snapshots"

"Thank you so much for this Christmas parcel – but thank you even more for you!" Juliana, sitting on the edge of her bed in her one-room apartment, smiles at us. "I will pray for you – you are more precious than this present!" She indicates the brown package balanced on top of a drawer which she knows contains a number of good things: coffee, chocolate, hand lotion and a variety of other food and hygiene items that she would never be able to afford with her meager pension. Then she points at the Helping Hands employees that visited her two years ago. "I remember you, and I've been praying for you ever since you came! This package you bring, it's from Jesus Christ. May God bless you!"

Juliana is one of a few dozen elderly people that the Sighişoara-based Veritas foundation, which grew out of Nazarene ministry in Romania, ministers to. Some attend "elderly clubs" that meet in different locations across the town several times each week. Others, like Juliana, are too frail to go to club meetings and are regularly visited by Veritas staff who bring them lunch every second day, spend time with them, arrange doctor visits, listen to their stories. It is a simple ministry, but makes an enormous difference for these people who are neglected by society, lonely and in need. Every sign of love and care is accepted with an overwhelming gratitude: like the Christmas parcels, that every member of the elderly clubs and house-bound elderly connected with the Veritas foundation receives: a token of love at Christmas.

For many years now, Helping Hands Germany has been sending Christmas parcels to Eastern Europe. The parcels contain food and hygiene items and are given to people connected with Nazarene ministries in Vidrare, Bulgaria, and surrounding villages, as well as Bucharest and Sighişoara, Ţigmandru, Viscri and Buneşti in Romania. This year, the "Christmas shipment" included 864 Christmas parcels that had been packed by individuals, families and groups all over Germany. Two Helping Hands employees and three volunteers were able to travel to Romania in December to join the distribution.

Many of the recipients in Bulgaria and Romania are elderly people who survive on a very small pension and can often barely afford essential food items or fuel for heating. But there are also many needy families with children who are grateful to receive a parcel with good things to cheer up their Christmas celebration. Some of these live in a Roma community at the outskirts of Sighişoara, where we visit after we have taken leave of the elderly.

When we arrive, we are immediately surrounded by children asking for their picture to be taken, grabbing hands, dancing through the muddy street. A few of them are holding tiles to their ears and talk excitedly – imitation smart phones: poverty is creative. It is almost dark and the abject poverty and poor sanitation in the community is not as visible as during the day. A young couple walks past – the girl, clearly pregnant, looks as if she is about eleven years old.

We knock on doors, evade dogs, hand out parcels and watch worry dissolve into joy as people accept this gift of love at Christmas. It is astonishing to see what happiness can be found in places that, seeing them, make us want to weep. We visit a family who, two years ago, was in despair about a parent's near-fatal injury. Today, only laughing faces meet us in this home, and the little sad-faced girl we remember from before is now a beaming whirlwind of Christmas cheer. As we turn to leave, we can see her taking the parcel into her arms, dancing with it in a circle and laughing happily. It is a simple ministry – just a brown package with food and hygiene articles. But for the people who receive the Christmas parcels, they make an enormous difference: the difference between being forgotten and being loved.

2014 TNU Social Justice Conference Speaker: Monica Boseff

Trevecca Nazarene University held its second annual Mobilizing the Church for Social Justice conference in September. Among its speakers was Monica Boseff, director of the Open Door shelter for survivors of human trafficking, located in Bucharest, Romania.

In the video below, Monica shares the story of Open Door.


2014 TNU Social Justice Conference Speaker: Monica Boseff from Church of the Nazarene on Vimeo.

Netherlands Mission Team Goes to Romania

A mission team from the Netherlands traveled to
Romania to support Nazarene churches there

By Jenny Ward
Eurasia Region Communications 

Reprinted from Where Worlds Meet, December 2014

The Church of the Nazarene in the Netherlands sent a Work & Witness team to Sighişoara, Romania, from 11 to 26 October. This team consisted of 19 people, ranging in age from 30 to 63, from eight different Nazarene churches throughout the Netherlands. Rolf Noordhof, who attends the Church of the Nazarene in Amersfoort, led the trip.

This was Noordhof’s fourth trip to Sighişoara, having led a youth organization to Romania 10 years ago. Upon meeting the Nazarene Church he then returned half a year later and then in 2007 he brought 44 computers to Sighişoara as the church continued to develop.

They traveled to Sighişoara with three main goals in mind. The first was to help rebuild the church so it can serve as a multifunctional location complete with a youth room and large kitchen to prepare meals for the elderly.

“Relu Cristurean, [the pastor of the Sighişoara church,] has big dreams about using the building for outreach so that the church can grow again…they want to renew youth in Sighişoara,” said Noordhof.

In the past the church was filled with over 20 youth members, but in Romania many young students leave to study elsewhere, sometimes even leaving the country. Relu and the pastoral team hope they can restore the building and create a place where the youth in Sighişoara will be able to spend time again.

The second goal was to visit the elderly several times a week. The elderly members of the mission team enjoyed meeting with the elderly of Sighişoara. “To talk, to pray, and to encourage them…that was a splendid time for them,” said Noordhof.

The third goal was to reach out to the children at the Church of the Nazarene in Tigmandru, a nearby village. There were about 30 to 40 children and Noordhof and his team visited them six times during their stay.

“We went for a short Bible story, to sing with them, play a little guitar, I brought my clarinet, and we shared small gifts with them.”

As the team worked together throughout the 15-day trip, they realized they were also forming a strong bond. “Although the team was very different in ages, in skills, everyone found a place and worked very well together,” said Noordhof. “Some team members said they’ve never felt so accepted and like they belonged to a group than this week. Now that’s remarkable.”

Roberta Bustin, a volunteer missionary in Romania, thanked Noordhoff and his team for their visit. They helped the Church of the Nazarene in Sighişoara feel connected to the international church and provided encouragement to the pastoral team as they continue to develop the church building.

‘Called and Capable’ Women Gather in Romania

More than 80 women leaders from over a dozen nations
gathered in Romania to learn, debate and encourage
one another in ministry

By Gina Grate Pottenger
Eurasia Region Communications
Reprinted from Where Worlds Meet, December 2014

Eighty-two women from more than 15 different countries formed a large circle at the perimeter of the room on the final night of the Called and Capable Conference in Sighisoara, Romania, and passed broken bread and a glass of juice from one pair of hands to another.

The women took turns serving communion to one another, an act of solidarity with women leaders in many parts of the Eurasia Region who are not allowed to serve communion because they are women.

The significance of the moment was not lost on Olga Druzhinina, who is a pastor in Volgograd, Russia. “It seems like we’re all united in Christ; whether we’re women or men we’re all allowed to share our gifts in Christ. Unity was the main feeling. We were united in one Spirit and I was able to feel the Spirit there.”

The Called and Capable Conference was envisioned as a time to gather women in ministry from across the Eurasia Region for training, debate, encouragement and relationship-building. Lay leaders and ordained women were present. It was not limited to Nazarenes, as women were also invited from Free Methodist and Wesleyan Holiness churches and the Salvation Army.

“It was more than a women’s retreat; it was meant to be very much addressing the issues that we work with in our ministries as well as just the issues that directly affect women or people who are working with women,” said Louise Kenyon, a lecturer at Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, UK, who helped to plan the event.

There were eight workshops which ranged in topic from human trafficking to church planting, from spiritual pathways to ethical finance. Each day also included morning devotions and prayers, evening worship services, trips to visit local ministry projects, and small group outings. Dr. Paul Tarrant, of Glasgow, Scotland, was present as a medical consultant to conduct health checks for any women who requested them.

For Rev. Dheerender Bhola, pastor of the Dua ka Ghar Church of the Nazarene in Delhi, India, it was her first time to travel outside India, but the conference was a worthwhile reason.

“The conference meant a great deal to me,” she wrote. “I have learned so many things to improve my ministry through these workshops. I had the amazing privilege to hear so many testimonies and great works of various ministries. I could see the bold and transformative leadership there. It is an unforgettable experience.”

Being together, coming from different nations and cultures, allowed for the women to learn from one another and in turn find encouragement in their own ministries. Druzhinina attended the church planting workshop, led by Annemarie Snijders and Zhana Georgiva, both church planters in the Netherlands and Bulgaria, respectively. Druzhinina said the women presented honestly the challenges and struggles they’ve encountered in planting and leading churches. She realized that challenges she has experienced or observed in Russia are not unique to her culture or even to her own ministry, but are common experiences for any church planting effort, and may be faced by other women in ministry as well.

Kenyon said that listening to the stories of specific ministry challenges in other cultures on the Eurasia Region, she realized that those challenges have parallels in other cultures, even if they are expressed in different ways.

Annemarie Snijders enjoyed being surrounded by other women leaders on the ministry journey with her. “For years I’ve been the only [ordained woman] in the Netherlands District. So it’s very encouraging to meet other people who are ordained and who struggle with some of the same issues,” Snijders said.

Please pray for the women leaders--laity and ordained--across the Eurasia Region, that they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit and find unwavering support for their ministry.