Team work

I just arrived home from a day at the Home of Hope. Tuesday is always staff meeting. What a great team of women God has blessed us with to work with the women who come into our home!

After staff meeting I learned the story of one of our women in the home. I don't often ask, but today I needed some details. The story that unfolded was still sketchy. Leah* worked at a cafe. The cafe is known to be a place the recruits girls to waitress here and then finds them "jobs" abroad. Leah was 17 and a good looking man brought her flowers, pledged his love and got her false documents. They went to Dubai.

Two months later she came back--deported.

A few months after that she was trafficked again, different man, same place.

And then again she was trafficked. This time to a different country. This time by a woman she knew.

And we wonder why would a woman go back knowing what had happened the first time? A simple answer is that there was nothing for her to live for here. A bigger answer has to do with pain and shame.

Leah* has severe psychological problems as do most of the women in our home. And it's no wonder.

The part of the story we have not yet truly heard is the abuse, the pain, the torture. We know it was there, but it remains buried deep inside. At times it comes out in explosive unexplained behavior. We wonder why they can't just be normal.

Until God heals them, they can't.

And this is why I'm so grateful for the team we have. They are wonderful. They live and work among the women, stopping fights, getting yelled at, continuing to show love. They teach lessons. They cook together. They help with their children. But it is never easy.

Almost weekly I tell them that this is God's work. We don't have it all figured out, but God is showing us bit by bit how to do this work. And right now we are God's hand extended to the women in our home, to help bring healing to their broken, shattered lives.

Please remember our staff in prayer--the director, the social worker, the night staff, the cook, the administrator, the psychologist. Pray that God fills them with wisdom and grace and peace and truth. Pray that God helps them to be His hands of healing.