I won’t lie: I had great expectations for my month in India.
If you didn’t read my previous post about why I decided to come on this trip, you should take a few minutes and do that.
For almost two years, I’ve been waiting to go to India. To see what God had for me there. What I would learn. How I would grow. I even wondered if that might be my calling, to spend my life pouring into the women of the red light districts in Kolkata or Mumbai.
This past month has definitely been the most difficult of the trip so far, for lots of reasons, but I loved the places we were able to volunteer. I had the opportunity to serve at Mother Teresa’s House for the Dying, and I spent four days each week working with women who’ve chosen to leave the sex industry.
The faces of those beautiful ladies will remain in my heart forever. They are heroines, full of grace and courage, and they join together each day in a place that provides a glimmer of hope in what seems like a very dark city. The presence of these women has made me a better person and changed me for good.
But the more time I spent in India, the more I found myself longing for home.
The more I realized that my heart truly breaks for my sisters and brothers in Wichita, Kansas.
I wrestled with the thoughts welling up inside me: “Really, God? You brought me to Asia so You could send me back to Wichita for the rest of my life?”
Several of my friends have heard from the Lord and made decisions to move to Cambodia, Thailand, and India as a result of this trip, so at first, being called to Kansas felt pretty lame.
But you know what? Human trafficking is a very real issue in Wichita. Over the past few months even, awareness of the problem is continually increasing. Articles in the Eagle have featured 13-year-old girls forced into prostitution, along with the pimps and Johns who take advantage of them.
Yeah, it is hard to believe that things like that are happening in my own backyard. The place I’ve grown up and consider home. The area where I’d consider settling down and raising a family. Goodness gracious, I don’t want my daughter to live each day in danger of being kidnapped and taken to a destination city like Atlanta.
Which is why we have to do something about it.
I’m excited for our final month of ministry in the United States, and I’m looking forward to coming home so I can figure out where I fit in the network of organizations that are springing up and stepping out against human trafficking in Wichita.
25 days…
