One of the biggest takeaways for me on the Race, outside of having my identity as a daughter of the King firmly rooted and established in my heart, was that I have a voice that is both powerful and carries authority. And it is coupled with a deep conviction to live out Proverbs 31:8-9: “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth and judge righteously. Defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Over the last year, the Lord has been calling me out of hiding and calling me out of silence. And I believe that He is calling me to use my voice to fight against oppression and injustice. To open my mouth and speak up for those whose voices have been stripped away. For those who have lost the will to fight for themselves. That is the Lord’s call on my life and I believe that He is calling me to Beauty from Ashes Ministries to begin living that out.
Before this year, I’d never really had a heart for women. In fact, after spending four years attending a women’s college, I was quite sick of hearing people talk about women’s right and fighting against women’s oppression. My time at Simmons only helped to fuel the compassion that the Lord had given me for men.
For five or more years, my heart had been for men, particularly those in prison and those who struggle with substance abuse and addiction. I didn’t identify with women. I couldn’t bring myself to. To have my heart break for a woman and the injustice I’d seen and witnessed in this world meant that I would also have to acknowledge the injustice that took place in my own life and I couldn’t do that because I needed to maintain the delusion that I was “fine.”
It wasn’t until Malaysia that it occurred to me that I never referred to myself as a woman. Even at the age of 24, I’d still never really fully embraced womanhood. The thought of it made me uncomfortable. It made me feel overly vulnerable. In my head, to be a woman was to be a target. To be a woman put me a risk of being violated. And my biggest fear was being violated. And this fear kept me from living in the freedom God created me to live in.
But during the month I spent in Cambodia, the Lord asked me what I would say if I were standing in front a group of men and women who were in prison. I said that I would tell them that they are worth so much more. That they were created for more. That they were designed for more. That they were made for freedom. Radical, life-altering, liberating freedom. The kind of freedom that sets others free. That more than anything, I desire for their hearts to be set free.
That is my desire for my own heart as well and what I hope to acquire by interning at BFA. My desire is to spend another year being discipled and working in an environment where the truth about my worth and my value will continue to be ingrained in my own heart and where I will be pushed to deeper levels of freedom in Christ. In doing so, my prayer is that the Lord would use me, my story, and my voice to pour into the lives of the women I get to meet over the next year and that they would encounter the God of the universe who desperately longs to fulfill the promises of Isaiah 61 in their lives.
If you would like to be a part of this journey and join in on the fight to rescue women from the sex trade, please check out My Campaign and pray about what God wants your role to be.
