MONTGOMERY, Ala., Oct. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Today, thousands of girls across America will celebrate their "sweet 16." But for orphan girls in Europe's poorest nation, Moldova, there's nothing sweet about that milestone.
Photo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141022/153857
The June after their 16th birthday, orphans in that country "age out" of state-run institutions. They leave with $30, a bus ticket back to the village from which they came… and a target on their back.
"This small nation is the 'engine' of the sex trafficking machine in all of Europe, and these girls are prime targets for sex traffickers who want to trap them in modern-day slavery," explains Philip Cameron, a Scottish-born Missionary-Evangelist and author of They Call Me Dad: How God Uses the Unlikely to Save the Discarded.
Cameron is the founder of Stella's Voice (www.stellasvoice.org), which operates four orphanages in Moldova with two more nearing completion; along with Stella's House, a safe haven for young women who have aged out of the system. There, girls complete their education, learn life skills and are given a chance at a happy life. The work has even expanded into an orphan-run church.
Singularly heartwarming and heartbreaking, They Call Me Dad (HigherLife Publishing) recounts Cameron's journey from his comfortable life as an itinerant evangelist and TV preacher to unlikely hero and "father" to children on the verge of being swept up into the $32 billion trafficking industry.
"I never intended to get involved with orphans. In fact, I fought against it," Cameron admits. "I had it all—a successful ministry, a beautiful family, security. Eastern Europe was far from my mind. But in the end, turning my back was not an option."
Since 1990, he has traveled to Eastern Europe more than 100 times. His Alabama-based international ministry has helped thousands of orphan girls and boys, in Moldova and Romania.
He concludes, "Desperate children with no options, no hope, need us to do something. Saying 'yes' to them and 'yes' to God has been a breathtaking adventure that I would not change for the world."
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