Hopeless. Dejected. Alone.

That’s how many of the boys and girls feel when they first come to Stella’s Voice. They have suffered abandonment, rejection, and fear.

Winter in Moldova is beautiful. Snow is regular and welcome in Eastern Europe, and for a season, the landscape is blanketed with a serenity and purity otherwise lost amid the worn and tired remains of a former Soviet-dominated state.

Ten. It's the first milestone in counting, isn't it?! Ten fingers, ten toes. It's almost as if we're built to count to ten! It's also one of the first things we try when we're learning new languages . . . one, two, three . . . uno, dos, tres . . .

This is a bittersweet time of year in Moldova. With the end of the school year comes celebration as the mature girls and boys from Stella’s Voice near graduation. For some, we’ll help find employment and housing as they begin independent lives, and others will launch out to pursue other plans.

I recently watched a disturbing online video about human trafficking, but what appalled me most were the comments some people posted. With vile profanity, they cursed Christian groups for “converting people,”...