Why we started this...
I want to share with you my journey. This is my story, of heartache, of redemption and of how I chose to say yes to a relentless God.
After visiting Rwanda with Saddleback Church for the first time in July 2011, I felt God calling me to help the women and children caught in Human Trafficking, and forced into sex slavery there. I didn’t know how I was going to help but I decided to follow this calling and vowed to find a Human Trafficking organization to get involved with when I got back home. When I got back to California I started researching and found that there wasn’t a program designed to help these women and children in Rwanda. I was very confused and thought that maybe I had got God’s message wrong, so I went about my life. I kept feeling like I needed to do something, all the time. You see, God was calling me to do something, even if it meant I had to start it. I fought Him for a while because I couldn’t start something like this, not on my own. I am inadequate, and broken. Why would God want me to do something about this? A common sinner with nothing special about me, is supposed to help halfway across the world? So kicking and screaming, thinking God was crazy, I decided to at least try to see where He would take me. I chose to say yes. Yes to God, yes to the people whom He says need love, and yes to accepting whatever comes my way. I was scared but chose to jump in, with blind faith and pure trust.
I have hit many roadblocks and encountered a lot of resistance on the subject of Human Trafficking in Rwanda. Some days are filled with constant reminders of my own humanness, my own raw emotions and my insufficient abilities. But most days are filled with compassion and mercy toward those who are alone, scared and in need of our help. I know God loves these women, just as much as He loves me, and I feel responsible. Responsible to do God’s work, to allow Him to change me and to change others around me. I have seen so many people’s lives changed in the short time since this program started. I can’t wait to see what God will do next. I want to see how God will use me every day. I want to learn and grow every day. I want to help, even if it means just one life is changed.
My desire is to make a way for others to help, for others to care for the women and children of Rwanda caught in the sex slave trade. I want others to know what I have seen and experienced and invite them to do the same. On so many occasions we discuss how people need our help, how the world is getting worse every day, and we just sit and talk about it. I want to do something. I want to give others an opportunity to do something too. I am in awe when I think about how God can do anything in this world on His own, but that He chooses to use me to help Him accomplish something, is absolutely amazing!
September 2011
After visiting Rwanda with Saddleback Church for the first time in July 2011, I felt God calling me to help the women and children caught in Human Trafficking, and forced into sex slavery there. I didn’t know how I was going to help but I decided to follow this calling and vowed to find a Human Trafficking organization to get involved with when I got back home. When I got back to California I started researching and found that there wasn’t a program designed to help these women and children in Rwanda. I was very confused and thought that maybe I had got God’s message wrong, so I went about my life. I kept feeling like I needed to do something, all the time. You see, God was calling me to do something, even if it meant I had to start it. I fought Him for a while because I couldn’t start something like this, not on my own. I am inadequate, and broken. Why would God want me to do something about this? A common sinner with nothing special about me, is supposed to help halfway across the world? So kicking and screaming, thinking God was crazy, I decided to at least try to see where He would take me. I chose to say yes. Yes to God, yes to the people whom He says need love, and yes to accepting whatever comes my way. I was scared but chose to jump in, with blind faith and pure trust.
I have hit many roadblocks and encountered a lot of resistance on the subject of Human Trafficking in Rwanda. Some days are filled with constant reminders of my own humanness, my own raw emotions and my insufficient abilities. But most days are filled with compassion and mercy toward those who are alone, scared and in need of our help. I know God loves these women, just as much as He loves me, and I feel responsible. Responsible to do God’s work, to allow Him to change me and to change others around me. I have seen so many people’s lives changed in the short time since this program started. I can’t wait to see what God will do next. I want to see how God will use me every day. I want to learn and grow every day. I want to help, even if it means just one life is changed.
My desire is to make a way for others to help, for others to care for the women and children of Rwanda caught in the sex slave trade. I want others to know what I have seen and experienced and invite them to do the same. On so many occasions we discuss how people need our help, how the world is getting worse every day, and we just sit and talk about it. I want to do something. I want to give others an opportunity to do something too. I am in awe when I think about how God can do anything in this world on His own, but that He chooses to use me to help Him accomplish something, is absolutely amazing!
September 2011
