Lubov

The family is elite. Well-mannered, chauffeured, highly educated, traveled, multilingual, well positioned, degreed, successful.

Of course this means that he also has his retinue of mistresses, concubines, women, and the various headaches these all cause him, poor man.

It all got complicated when his older sister lost a million in a gamboling event. To save the family name it was necessary to pin that loss on another, so the least valuable, most dispensable woman was labeled. Lubov had only been with him eight years. A mother with two children back in her own country, she was diminished to this slavery to pay for their food.

At home her mother kept her reality a secret and put her son and daughter through school on the money she sent. It seemed like a necessary, temporary evil. This too would pass, and Lubov could come home and they could settle back into the village farm and afford a cow, some chickens, and seeds for onions and beets. Fresh plaster and a fixing the leaks in the roof were a good beginning, and Lubov put up  with the beatings, the constant degradation, the foreign language and culture, and the evil conniving of the other women by holding onto the hopes of caring for her own.

Then the evil was attached to her. He arranged things with excellent cunning, and left her stunned and beaten. But Lubov had one unexpected break in the storm clouds around her: her friend Olga had just found a church, and only the week before had invited her to go with her. That Sunday Lubov had felt the touch of God so gently, but firmly, that she knew where to go when her world crumbled. Within hours she was harbored in the Safe House, surrounded by love, and a chance to look at the whole picture with the help of praying friends.

Through Grace, she opened her heart and humbled herself before God, inviting Him in, and repenting of her anger, and the many steps that had led to tolerating this evil in her life. Her perspective changed, the color of the world changed, and she found courage and joy to face the court cases, the nasty threats, the lies. While he continued to strut around in his professional world without a seeming care, she chose the narrow path and entered Joy.

Tomorrow Lubov will be baptized. Last week the judge looked over his glasses at the inconsistencies in the case and indicated that he was on her side. Although she has been crushed, she is not only not destroyed, she knows now who she is in Christ. As we prayed yesterday she wept over the past, yet was full of hope for her future.