Mardie: Kathy Bousquet, from Scarborough, Ontario, joined us in Bucharest for the month of April. She had been an integral part of our PAOC mission and the Bucharest International Church ministry, so, after more than seven years, it was great to have her working with the team once again.

Kathy and I co-taught a seminar for the BIC ladies. I tackled some of those misrepresented Bible passages in Corinthians and Timothy that talk about women being silent in the churches and not being permitted to teach. Understanding the meaning of these texts is particularly liberating to the women raised in the many legalistic type churches, both orthodox and evangelical, in the country. The comment of one such well-educated young lady was, “I was struggling to even read a book or article written by a woman or listen to someone like Beth Moore because it had so been ingrained into me that women should be silent and not permitted to teach.” Kathy followed through with the more inspirational thoughts on our value as women in Christ and challenged women to become all that he has created us to be.

In Pitesti, Kathy prepared a session of crafts for the girls sheltered at Reaching Out, a home for victims of human trafficking. As they fan-folded colourful magazines into beautiful butterflies, they understood that their lives could also be transformed even as the caterpillar’s is. As they designed an intricate dove, they gained hope that their lives, too, could become pure and meaningful once again.