When I say sex trafficking victims, what comes to mind? The movie taken? Prostitutes? Pole dancers? Only women? One thing I have learned over this past week is that victims of sex trafficking come in all shapes, ages, and genders. This month my team and I are doing manual labor for a refuge house for victims of sex trafficking, the house is called Dunamis. On the first day of going to our ministry site we were able to meet some of the girls who are taking refuge in this house. There are 13 girls and they are young girls. This blew my mind. I was expecting them to look or be in their 20’s, but what shocked me was when they said their ages. These girls range in age from 12-17. Yes, I just said 12. THIS BROKE MY HEART.
My team and I take 4 busses to ministry, and 3 busses back. We travel 2 hours to and from ministry each day (4 hours total). We have been tasked with unloading 5,000 cinder blocks from dump trucks, making cement, digging trenches, wheelbarrowing cement down hills to create a road and setting poles in cement for the pillars of the wall. Next week we are going to be laying the cinderblocks for the wall. One of the things the Lord has been revealing to me throughout all this work is that as we are setting physical foundations in this wall, we are also laying a foundation for these girls to feel safe. Our hope is that they can one day feel safe enough to accept the love of God. WHOA, What a sweet opportunity! Just like the Lord set foundations for us to feel safe in him. We have been given the opportunity to partner with Him to help these girls who have deep trust issues feel safe physically. We are working hard doing things that in the states they have machines for. But I can do them with joy because I know the greater purpose for which all this effort is being poured out. To me, this is what it means to bring heaven to earth. We leave ministry dirty, tired and cold, but I would not have it any other way. I think that if the Lord asked me to do this for the rest of my life, I could do it because of the power in creating safe places for His kids.
Diego, our ministry host, sat us all down later in the week to cast vision into what Dunamis is hoping and praying for in the next five years. He told us that as of right now they can not actually house the girls there, the girls just come three times a week for bible study and vocational training. They have to wait until their wall is completely done and they have enough funding before they can let the girls live there. Their hope is by January to have enough funding to house three girls. This means that three girls will have a permanent home to stay in, to heal, to grow, and to become educated and empowered women. Right now the girls bounce around from government funded safe-houses until their court cases are finalized which is about 3 months time. There is no way for a girl to heal in three months from the experiences she has had. So many of them go back into slavery because they don’t believe they have any value besides what their bodies can offer. Dunamis is going to be the first permanent house in Latin America for girls to find refuge. They hope to show that it is possible to help girls heal, grow and hopefully find Christ. They will offer these girls education, vocational training, mental health resources, and a safe home for them.
If you would like to learn more about this amazing foundation or ways to support them further here is a link to their website. https://dunamisfoundation.com/
