Since being in the Philippines, I’ve experienced so much in such a short amount of time. We are working for Jeff Long and his family, who partners with Kids International Ministries (as I was saying in my previous blog) and Jeff has without a doubt given us not just a few ministry options, but a PLETHORA of ministry options. When deciding to do the World Race I knew I would have to “die to my rights” and with that, die to my ability to have a choice in anything I do. Well, this month the Lord gave me the gift of following my passions and going where my heart aches most. One of the things my heart breaks for the most out of all the injustices in this fallen world is women in prostitution. There are so many things that I want to share with them and so many things I have learned on my walk with the Lord that I want to pour into them. A lot of these things I have learned the past six months on my journey with the World Race…
The World Race is all about speaking life (Romans 12:14) into other and breaking generational curses (Deuteronomy 5:9 and 24:16) that we have be bound to by sin in our families. I didn’t realize how powerful both of those things were until this last July in Georgia at Training Camp with my squad. I realized there were so many things I needed deliverance from and many word curses that had been spoken over me that have created bondage from spirits of insecurity, spirits of inadequacy, spirits of depression. Praise the Lord, those bonds have been broken through deliverance from God the Father, community of brothers and sisters in Christ and the healing power of the Holy Spirit. I didn’t realize how effective and powerful our words our until the World Race. The freedom I have experienced from this is one that I have had the opportunity to share with the world and God’s children all around me. Women that are bound by both word curses and generational curses are women in prostitution. They have been called “useless” and “whores” their entire lives and no one has ever told them they matter. What’s worse is a lot of times the mother who is a prostitute will grow to old to solicit herself out to customers so she will turn “the business” of soliciting sex over to her daughter(s) to bring in the family income. All I want to do is speak life into these women and break the curses their mother’s have made and their families have been previously bound by.
After hearing Jeff say that there were ministry opportunities in just about any area we would want to volunteer with, I approached him about the possibility of working with prostituted women. He is a man of many connects and ministry friends and with his help and the help of my social worker friend, Reah, I was able to spend time at Samaritana Ministries, a ministry dedicated to transforming and empowering women in and coming out of prostitution. Samaritana just celebrated their 18th anniversary of doing ministry in Manilla. They have weekly outreaches to women currently in prostitution, they do counseling for women making the shift out of prostitution and they run a center that teaches classes, life skills, jewelry making, and spa work (massages, hair, nails, etc). They also have nights of fellowship, worship and Bible studies. It’s a ministry that you can see the Lord is strongly present and the fruits of Samaritana’s ministry are extremely abundant.
this is the beautiful stained glass at Samaritana’s Ministry Center (John chapter 4 story)
