As I sat looking out the window of the bus, tears streamed down my face. I waved goodbye, knowing full well that I would most likely never see these women or their children again, and my heart ached. I wasn’t ready to leave them, but as with all things in life, there is always an end. It was time.
I never predicted how much I would come to love these women shunned by society and rejected by their own families. Yet throughout just three weeks of living with these former sex slaves, I felt as though I would do anything for each of them to experience the love of the Father washing over them and healing every inch of their hearts. I will never understand the hardships they’ve endured. I will never understand what it’s like to be sold by my family at twelve years old. I will never understand what it’s like to have a husband give my body to another in exchange for a loaf of bread. I will never understand what it’s like to be carrying the baby of one who has taken advantage of me in every way possible. Yet I know that because of the blood of Jesus, these women have been washed clean and are now a part of my heavenly family.
As our team stayed up packing until 2 a.m. the night before our departure, I began to recognize the significance of the gift God had given me. I began to realize that these women would forever have a place in my heart and my memory. Their hearts had been broken and abused time and time again, and yet they were still standing with heads held high. They were persevering through much trial and clinging onto whatever hope they had left. And through all that, they were teaching me.
I assume these feelings were much similar to the ones that compelled Susan (not her real name) to come back for these women. As an American woman of privilege, Susan had only heard of the hardships and realities of the sex industry of India. After actually meeting some of these women forced to live as mere sex slaves, she knew she couldn’t turn her back on them. Although it seemed a much bigger task than she was able to complete, Susan knew that God was bigger than all of her dreams and continued to pursue this dream He had placed in her heart.
Through much struggle and many roadblocks (and many more details!), Susan was in time able to establish a home and safe haven for these women. This home is one where lives are being transformed by the love of Jesus Christ! It is a home where the broken find healing and the abandoned find refuge!
I imagine that as Susan first drove away from the women she found on the streets, her heart was broken. I imagine that she drove away with tears streaming down her face as her heart longed to reach out to them in love. I imagine that she felt helpless and small, but because she placed her faith in a great God, she was able to return and offer them the hope He had given her.
Because of the love of God placed inside and spilling out of this one woman, lives are daily being changed and light is being brought to a very dark corner of the world. It was through her brokenness that Susan was moved to a point of action. And it’s through the brokenness I am seeing all over the world and now experiencing in my heart that God is moving me to take action.
