Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Rescue Arts

It is so important for the women who come into our home to find a place of healing in their lives. There are many avenues to have that happen. It doesn't just happen automatically because they come into the home, but happens because they are led there. We are in the process of helping the staff understand how to lead the women to healing.

Often that healing has to start in the lives of the staff. They have to be released from the things holding them back to be able to bring healing to the lives of others.

My friend Rebecca is here this week and the next two days she will be doing a training with the Freedom Home staff on therapy through the arts. Pray for an anointing on Rebecca as she teaches.

Please pray for that this training will sink deep into the lives of the staff here. Pray that they will find healing from the pain of the past in their lives so that they can help to bring healing into the lives of the women in the home.

There are also a few women who will be there who are trying to figure out if they want to be involved in this ministry at a great level. Please pray that God will call those that need to be called to this ministry.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Holding up Your arms

Yesterday I listened to a sermon podcast by Pastor Rod Loy at North Little Rock First (www.firstnlr.com). He talked about the Bible story where Joshua, the young man, is fighting, and Moses, the old man, is praying with his contemporaries holding up his arms. When Moses' arms are up, they are winning the battle. When the arms are down, they are losing the battle.

The idea behind this sermon was not about praying for missionaries, although that would have been awesome! It was about praying for our young people and our children in our churches--an incredible application.

But, as I listened to the story of Joshua and Moses, I thought about those of you who read my blog and pray for the work we are doing.

We are here and we are able to do what we do because of those who come behind us in prayer and finances. Your arms "stay up" in prayer for the women and staff of Freedom Home.

We don't have an major donor committing to $10,000 a month. But we have people who give $50 a month. We have churches wanting to do 5K runs with the entry fees going to our work. We have churches and individuals that commit to a bit at a time.

We don't have a major platform to get the word out. I don't have a department to do the creative websites, brochures, and videos.

But I have a blog, and we have people committed to pray.

Yesterday we celebrated Naomi's* birthday. She turned 23. I'm not sure the last time anyone celebrated her just being alive. She showed no emotion at the party, except one small smile. All her emotion is dead, except the sadness that shows from her eyes each day.

I pray for Naomi that a year from now, we will see joy and peace on her face. That next year, as we celebrate her life, we will see that Christ is transforming her into someone new.

Please pray also for her 11 month old daughter, Lexie. The baby has been malnourished and has rickets. We already see more color in her little cheeks, but we pray for God's complete healing for her small body and bones.

Thanks for coming alongside the staff, the women and myself at Freedom Home with your prayers.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Taking the Land Part Two

There is an adage in church work that sometimes you have to lose some to gain more. I believe that has been true at Freedom Home. I'm learning that as we take the land, sometimes we have to let some things go.

I'd like to believe that every woman who comes to us will be changed, but this doesn't happen. Some cannot break the chains holding them in bondage. A few weeks ago one woman had planned and worked for weeks to leave the home. She was getting a "job" with those that formerly trafficked her. She did everything she needed to do. And then they wouldn't take her.

We practiced intervention in her life for four hours a few days after she had been told that she couldn't go work at this restaurant (which fronts the trafficking). All that we said that day fell to deaf ears and late in the afternoon we had to force her to leave the home.

That may be shocking to some reading this, but she was so unstable. Workers have already quit because of the abuse she threw on them daily. She could be totally up and then fall to the lowest depths. The depths brought a meanness of character that hurt all around her. So finally she was told she must either live within the rules of the home or leave.

She left.

Since the day she left we have taken in three women. Two last week. One this week. We are nearly to capacity. One had been in the works for the past two or three months, but one thing after another delayed her entrance to the home.

I really believe the home wasn't safe for these very vulnerable ones who have come these past two weeks. The departure of the one, has made the home safe again and filled with peace.

This is a hard thing.

Please pray for the new women. Pray for the one we took a few days ago who is extremely vulnerable. She needs healing in body, mind and spirit.

One resident who came to us a few months ago, came from a good family. Her perpetrator was caught and put in prison. Her parents thought that it would be safe for her to come home a few weeks ago, and she went. This week the man bought himself out of jail and the safety of her home is crushed. She comes back to us today.

Now more than ever, I ask you to pray for safety for the home, the workers, the residents, the staff and their families. It is a time when God is going to do good things in the lives of these women. We ask God's hand of protection, healing and safety on us in these days.

We know that God has gone before us in every step of the way in establishing this ministry to Victims of Trafficking. Please pray that God continues to guide us as we take the land.

One other prayer request today is that our counselor became our director last September, and we desperately need a Christian counselor. We have two wonderful young Christian women who have been doing part-time volunteer work at the home this summer as counselors. We'd love if one of them would feel God's calling to commit to the work full-time.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Freedom Home

We have given a new name to the Project Rescue home in Moldova.

We are now Freedom Home.

Why the new name? Moldova is a very small country, and there are already several Home of Hopes, Hope Houses and other ministries with names very close. We needed to set ourselves apart.

So we began to pray about it, asking God to give us something that was right for us in this place.

An issue begin to emerge (or had always been there, but was staring us in the face at this point). Women would come to the house and after about a month, they would begin to complain saying that life here was prison because they couldn't go where they wanted, with whomever they wanted, and do whatever they wanted.

They didn't understand true freedom.

We began to talk to them about the truth of Scripture, "So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." (John 8:36) Still the concept remained elusive.

What we want and envision in the lives of the women is so much more than hope. We want them to have hope, but more than this, we want them to have freedom.

Freedom that brings joy.
Freedom that brings peace.
Freedom that brings hope.
Freedom that brings rest.

We want them to understand that true freedom is not physical. It is not where they are and what they can do, but true freedom comes when Christ Jesus sets them free from the pain of the past.

So with the new name we have an opportunity to begin talking about freedom to them as soon as they enter. We can talk to them about freedom in Christ and help them to understand why we have rules in the home. We can talk to them that we exist not just for a home for a time for them, but so that they can find true freedom for life.

Will you pray that the women of Freedom Home will find true freedom in their lives?

Friday, July 09, 2010

I'm often asked how we find the women who are in our home. We have networked and built relationships with several different organizations that deal with the legal aspects of women who are trafficked. They are the agencies that the government calls when a trafficked woman needs to be repatriated or stand trial against a trafficker. These agencies know the women need further help. They then call us.

This week two different agencies called us. Two different women. Two different backgrounds. Both trafficked to Russia. Both needing healing in their lives. Both need to find a new path to new beginnings.

I've been especially moved in the last day concerning the girl that came into the home on Thursday. She's 21, and she's from a Christian home. The family is large, and she went to Russia looking for work. She went last fall and had legitimate work for three months. This time when she returned, she was forced into prostitution.

We've dealt with a lot of girls who have had baggage from the time they were born. Now we have a girl who was raised in a loving Christian home and her life also took a terrible turn.

Please pray for Naomi. I really don't know her background at this point. I do know that she came to the home with a beautiful 10 month old daughter. Pray that she finds peace, safety and healing.

Pray also for Emily. She comes in knowing who God is, but is most likely questioning God in her life at this point. Pray for God's healing and peace in her life.