My life changed one day when I was minding my own business on the elliptical machine at the gym. I was reading through some chick magazines when I came across an article about little girls in Nepal. I had spent a month in Nepal while in college and had fallen in love with the people and the country. I remember telling my dad that I could see myself dying there someday. That season overseas instilled in me a love for the poor, developing nations and mission work in general. My husband and I were now youth leaders and had taken our youth group to Mexico with Extreme Mission in efforts to provide a similar experience for them.
As I read through the article I learned that there were little girls being stolen from extremely poor remote villages, promised a great job in the city, and then sold into brothels where they were kept as sexual slaves. These girls were being raped for profit up to 30 times a day. Some of these girls were as young as 5. What?? Wait a minute WHAT?? “This can’t be true!” I stared at the article, the girls faces – they looked so much like the little girls I had worked with in the orphanages. “How can this be true?” But in my heart I knew that it was. I cried. I sobbed. Right there on the elliptical machine. My heart was broken. My life changed that day.
Have you ever wished you didn’t feel things so deeply? Have you thought, “Maybe if I weren’t so emotional?” We wonder why we can cry over a Hallmark commercial. But we do. We are women and God created us this way. He made us moms and grandmothers. He gave us the mother bear instinct that can rip the enemy to shreds while allowing our child to sleep peacefully on our shoulder!
Did you know that one Christian woman in the 1800’s brought an end to the brothels of the logging and mining camps in Wisconsin and Michigan? Have you hear about the twelve Christian wives and moms came together in the early 1920’s to help end the lynching of African-Americans? It was the Christians in Rome that took it upon themselves to rescue newborns routinely abandoned in the city dumps. [bctt tweet=”Women have been equipped with compassion and righteous anger throughout history.” quote=”We have been equipped with compassion and righteous anger throughout history.”] It’s so interesting to hear some of the major leaders against injustice today as they share that it was their wives that brought the issues to their attention. When we see what Rick Warren’s church has done with the P.E.A.C.E. plan, we see that God first spoke to Kay Warren about the issues. God first breaks our hearts, then gives us words to speak to those around us, then gives us strategies to work together for healing! It is exciting to live in a time that we can once again stand up, with our local church and lovers of Jesus worldwide and say, “this is not ok!”
I remember going home and telling my husband about this great evil. Though we were unsure of how it would all come together, we both knew that our life would be spent doing all that was in our power to make this stop! We knew we had no money, no connections and no training to deal with these issues. What could we possibly do? As we prayed we were reminded of the story of the loaves and fish. The boy offered a couple pieces of bread and some fish to feed 5000 people. Yeah right! There are 14,000 people trafficked into the US every year as slaves and over 1 million trafficked each year worldwide how can we stop that? But He did feed the 5000. Jesus did a miracle! He is still doing miracles. He is breaking in right now!
As my husband and I continued to pray, we asked that God would take what little was in our hands and use it for His glory. We asked that He would show us how to be a part of ending this modern day slavery. We both felt like I should not contact the organization that was listed in the article. While the organization was doing good work to remove the children from the hell they were experiencing, we knew that only Jesus could restore their souls. They had to have the in-breaking healing power of Jesus Christ in addition to the in-breaking of the justice system! So we waited, but not for long. Within a week I was introduced to a group called Justice For Children International. They run a non-profit that helps to establish safe-homes for the girls rescued from the brothels. They were believers that were bringing the hope of Jesus along with the hands-on work of “loosing the chains”! This began my journey into the world of CSE, Child Sexual Exploitation. JFCI introduced me to books and other individuals and organizations that would help me understand what the Bible says about injustice and what our role is, as Christians, in this fight. As dialogue began with many of our youth, fellow youth pastors and senior leaders, we began to explore what our plan of action should be.
To look at the awareness and action that is spreading globally in regards to these issues thrills me to the core. Even this spring of 2007 many Vineyard churches, Bert Waggoner, Tri Robinson, Non-governmental organizations, Vineyard Missions and missionaries from around the globe will gather at the Anaheim Vineyard for a conference for children at risk. This conference is an attempt to equip churches, organizations and individuals for ministry to children-at-risk around the world. What a blessing to see the unity building around this event. Gone are the days of pointing fingers at who is not doing what. The issues are too big and too urgent to let Satan use that trap against these children. Instead we are seeing people from all backgrounds saying “Here, I have a few fish in my hand” and someone else saying “Hey, I have a few loaves.” In some cases the fish is time, sometimes it is expertise, and many times the loaves are passion, influence or prayers. God is mobilizing His army of housewives, pastors, young people and grandmothers; each giving what is in their hand to live out the mandate of Micah 6:8.
“He has showed you, Oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Last week I was at the East Coast Region youth retreat recruiting for the Vineyard College of Mission. Mike Turrigiano and his wife Char, pastors of the North Brooklyn Vineyard were the main speakers. Mike was telling the Vineyard DNA stories about his days with John Wimber and Lonnie Frisbee. As the next generation Vineyard, what a gift to have someone telling us our “family stories” and commissioning us to go forward with the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the phrases that Mike spoke prophetically over the crew of young people was “taking up your sword of love”. This phrase keeps resounding in my spirit. Our sword, our main battle tool, the greatest agent for change available to each of us is love. It’s not an army of justice seekers going out in anger, pride, or even human strategy but a broken army of Jesus lover, crying out for change in our communities, and in the brothels around the globe. A humble army with their arms outstretched, as Jesus’ were, to the disenfranchised in our communities, to the young women who have been deceived by the abortion industry, to the 17 million AIDS orphans across the world and to our husbands and children. An army willing to go into the trenches and pull others out!
Some days my fish is to pray for the children in the brothels as I push my little girls on their swing set. Some days my piece is to sign a petition to my senator asking them to address these issues. Other days my piece is to take my 5 month old blue eyed baby into the dance club in the Philippines in order to connect with the prostitutes there. Every day I have something to give to the cause of justice. Everyday Jesus takes the pathetic loaves and fish in my hands and He multiplies them like crazy!!
More Lord!!
