Love 146
I found an organization I have fallen in love with. It's called Love 146. It's goal is the abolition of sex trafficking and exploitation. They care for the victims of this dark industry and offer hope and healing.
I was reading on their website today and all these emotions started swelling up deep inside of me again. It brought to remembrance my desire to minister to hurting, broken woman. I get so disturbed every time I hear a story, see a picture or remember the sights I saw in India/Nepal. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am living in safe, suburban America...without the constant fear of being captured, abused, or degraded. I guess that would make me blessed and extremely privileged. But I've been given so much...and Jesus reminds us that to whom much is given, much is required.
I keep wrestling with God on what my role is to be. The needs are tremendous, and I often find myself feeling paralyzed by the overwhelming heaviness of this issue. To be honest, ever since I came back from my trip last winter...I haven't been able to find the energy, motivation, or courage to act. My friend Marcie (from OCI) came to stay with me for a couple days last month. She was really helpful in my processing of all I had experienced and learned while overseas. I came to the conclusion that it is OK that I haven't "acted" yet. Yes, there is an urgency in this matter...but how can I be of any use when I am recovering from burn-out?
So while I've been waiting, God has been doing a new thing in my heart (like He is always so good at doing)! I'm feeling more and more confident in the woman God created me to be. I feel a zest for life...the kind that only comes after a long time of waiting, changing, digesting, and "suffering" (for lack of a better word).
I'm starting to understand more what the Lord has been trying to gently speak to me ever since I returned from journeying the world. I had an epiphany the other day. I am to be a worshipper before a worker. What the Lord desires is intimacy, and a worshipful heart. I was listening to this message on line and the teacher said "True ministry flows from intimacy." That made so much sense to me. Before we can do the work of the ministry, we must be worshippers of the King! So I've been doing things these past several months that have been fostering a deeper intimacy with Christ. I didn't realize what was happening, I was just doing what I felt the Spirit was leading me to do. And I've found myself being drawn closer to His heart.
I'm excited to see where the Lord leads once again. He's been so faithful to show me each step, one step at a time. I'm continuing the process of releasing my desires, dreams, and ideas of how to serve over to the Lord and finding joy in if or how He wants to use me to serve woman (even if it looks different then I think). And of course...Intimacy comes before ministry! For now, I've been embracing a time of joy in my life that I think has been unmatched before. God's goodness has been overflowing and manifesting itself in so many colorful ways this year.
Hebrews 10:22-24 "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith...Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works."
Anyways...here is the story of LOVE 146....if you feel like walking into the reality of this tragic fate....It will leave you changed!
The number pinned to her dress was 146...
In 2002, the co-founders of Love 146 travelled to South East Asia on an exploratory trip to determine how they could serve in the fight against child sex trafficking. In one experience, there was an invitation to change the world. to transform a reality that cannot stand. Our male co-founders were taken undercover with investigators to a brothel, where they witnessed children being sold for sex. This was their experience. This is the story that changed our lives.
"...standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room. looking at little girls through a pane of glass. all of the girls wore matching red dresses. they stood, blankly watching cartoons on tv. they were vacant, shells. there was no light in their eyes, no life. to be missing this was shattering. this light has been stolen, this life has been stolen. she is raped each night. seven, ten, fifteen times each night. she is raped. she is thirteen, eleven, five-years-old. cigarette burns cover her back. scars we cannot see, cannot conceive of, cover her. everywhere. envelop her. there was one girl. one girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. number 146. she was looking beyond the glass. she was staring out at us. her piercing stare. there was still fight left in her eyes. there was still life left in her......
all of these emotions begin to wreck you. break you. it is agony. it is aching. it is grief. it is sorrow. the reaction is intuitive, instinctive. it is visceral. it releases a wailing cry inside of you. it elicits gut-level indignation. it is unbearable.…
i remember wanting to break through the glass. to take her away from that place, to juggle as many of them as I could into my arms. to take all of them away. wanting to break through the glass. to tell her to keep fighting. to tell her that we were coming for her…"
To break through the glass would have been to react instead of respond. it would only have postponed their suffering. a temporary and immediate solution cannot address this crisis, this emergency. the reality is dark, it is global. the numbers overwhelming. the words of those who have survived, we cannot forget.
"I was in that brothel for 3 years and for 2 of them I never saw the sun. They never let me out. I was in a little room and there was no window.I was only eight and my sister was four when we were sold into the brothel."
It was in Thailand, where our co-founders encountered child 146, that our work began. Our projects have since expanded to Cambodia, the Philippines, India and soon Sri Lanka. The countries within which we work are among the predominant centers of the child sex trafficking and slavery industry. The governments of these countries consistently fail to comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Thailand is widely recognized as a hub of sex tourism; Cambodia is without a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, legislation has been in the drafting process for the last 7 years; The Philippines saw only one conviction of a trafficker in the past year; India is home to 2 million child sex workers between the ages of 5 and 15, it is estimated that an additional 500,000 children are forced into the sex industry each year.
The story of Love146 needs an end.
I was reading on their website today and all these emotions started swelling up deep inside of me again. It brought to remembrance my desire to minister to hurting, broken woman. I get so disturbed every time I hear a story, see a picture or remember the sights I saw in India/Nepal. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am living in safe, suburban America...without the constant fear of being captured, abused, or degraded. I guess that would make me blessed and extremely privileged. But I've been given so much...and Jesus reminds us that to whom much is given, much is required.
I keep wrestling with God on what my role is to be. The needs are tremendous, and I often find myself feeling paralyzed by the overwhelming heaviness of this issue. To be honest, ever since I came back from my trip last winter...I haven't been able to find the energy, motivation, or courage to act. My friend Marcie (from OCI) came to stay with me for a couple days last month. She was really helpful in my processing of all I had experienced and learned while overseas. I came to the conclusion that it is OK that I haven't "acted" yet. Yes, there is an urgency in this matter...but how can I be of any use when I am recovering from burn-out?
So while I've been waiting, God has been doing a new thing in my heart (like He is always so good at doing)! I'm feeling more and more confident in the woman God created me to be. I feel a zest for life...the kind that only comes after a long time of waiting, changing, digesting, and "suffering" (for lack of a better word).
I'm starting to understand more what the Lord has been trying to gently speak to me ever since I returned from journeying the world. I had an epiphany the other day. I am to be a worshipper before a worker. What the Lord desires is intimacy, and a worshipful heart. I was listening to this message on line and the teacher said "True ministry flows from intimacy." That made so much sense to me. Before we can do the work of the ministry, we must be worshippers of the King! So I've been doing things these past several months that have been fostering a deeper intimacy with Christ. I didn't realize what was happening, I was just doing what I felt the Spirit was leading me to do. And I've found myself being drawn closer to His heart.
I'm excited to see where the Lord leads once again. He's been so faithful to show me each step, one step at a time. I'm continuing the process of releasing my desires, dreams, and ideas of how to serve over to the Lord and finding joy in if or how He wants to use me to serve woman (even if it looks different then I think). And of course...Intimacy comes before ministry! For now, I've been embracing a time of joy in my life that I think has been unmatched before. God's goodness has been overflowing and manifesting itself in so many colorful ways this year.
Hebrews 10:22-24 "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith...Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works."
Anyways...here is the story of LOVE 146....if you feel like walking into the reality of this tragic fate....It will leave you changed!
The number pinned to her dress was 146...
In 2002, the co-founders of Love 146 travelled to South East Asia on an exploratory trip to determine how they could serve in the fight against child sex trafficking. In one experience, there was an invitation to change the world. to transform a reality that cannot stand. Our male co-founders were taken undercover with investigators to a brothel, where they witnessed children being sold for sex. This was their experience. This is the story that changed our lives.
"...standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room. looking at little girls through a pane of glass. all of the girls wore matching red dresses. they stood, blankly watching cartoons on tv. they were vacant, shells. there was no light in their eyes, no life. to be missing this was shattering. this light has been stolen, this life has been stolen. she is raped each night. seven, ten, fifteen times each night. she is raped. she is thirteen, eleven, five-years-old. cigarette burns cover her back. scars we cannot see, cannot conceive of, cover her. everywhere. envelop her. there was one girl. one girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. number 146. she was looking beyond the glass. she was staring out at us. her piercing stare. there was still fight left in her eyes. there was still life left in her......
all of these emotions begin to wreck you. break you. it is agony. it is aching. it is grief. it is sorrow. the reaction is intuitive, instinctive. it is visceral. it releases a wailing cry inside of you. it elicits gut-level indignation. it is unbearable.…
i remember wanting to break through the glass. to take her away from that place, to juggle as many of them as I could into my arms. to take all of them away. wanting to break through the glass. to tell her to keep fighting. to tell her that we were coming for her…"
To break through the glass would have been to react instead of respond. it would only have postponed their suffering. a temporary and immediate solution cannot address this crisis, this emergency. the reality is dark, it is global. the numbers overwhelming. the words of those who have survived, we cannot forget.
"I was in that brothel for 3 years and for 2 of them I never saw the sun. They never let me out. I was in a little room and there was no window.I was only eight and my sister was four when we were sold into the brothel."
It was in Thailand, where our co-founders encountered child 146, that our work began. Our projects have since expanded to Cambodia, the Philippines, India and soon Sri Lanka. The countries within which we work are among the predominant centers of the child sex trafficking and slavery industry. The governments of these countries consistently fail to comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Thailand is widely recognized as a hub of sex tourism; Cambodia is without a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, legislation has been in the drafting process for the last 7 years; The Philippines saw only one conviction of a trafficker in the past year; India is home to 2 million child sex workers between the ages of 5 and 15, it is estimated that an additional 500,000 children are forced into the sex industry each year.
The story of Love146 needs an end.
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