Here it is, the long overdue update, that I am excted to share! For the past three weeks my team and I have been working on a project that will benefit the girls at Transitions Global, a project that will empower the girls, introducing them to the joy of serving and providing them with service connections for sometime. This may seem like an easy task; however, there is a reason why it had not been done aready, it has been very time consuming.
This coming Saturday, we join them on their first service day, which I have been looking forward to all week. In order to prepare for this event, we spent time with the girls last Thursday for the first time, introducing them to new games they could play at future service opportunities. My prayer going into our day and time wth them, was for the girls to be filled with joy, for them to laugh, and to have fun. My prayer was that in our time together they would have the opportunity, freedom, and comfortability to just be girls, as they were robbed of this by the trauma they experienced during those years. Well, God showed up, like He loves to do, and filled our time with so much joy and love. It honestly couldn’t have gone any better. The girls laughed, screamed, giggled got involved in all the games, and allowed themselves to be goofy. They had so much fun and were such girls, that I had to remind myeslf what these young ladies had been through. It was as if their innocence and childlike joy was shinning from them. It was beautiful see. God helped us connect with the girls in a way that made them feel comfortable and free to be themselves, which was such a blessing, since we were the first short-term mission group allowed to work with this organization. I was blown away by their ability to show and express love, it was beautiful. This time with them, stirred in me so much love for each of the girls, it excited me, it made all the research worth it, it made the project more of a reality. Hearing from one girl over and over again, “Ï so happy,” made my heart smile! It still does… It is the highlight of my month!
Being a counselor, I of course loved that we included a slightly therapeutic small group game, in addition to all the other great ones. We played minefield, renamed as the trust building game, due to needing to be culturally sensitive, as Cambodia is known for its land mines. Many of you probably know of this game, but for those that do not, it involves having an area with obstacles that needs to be manuevered through. The individual has to make her way through it blindfolded, completely dependent on her partner’s verbal directions. They were excited about it, as well as their counseling staff. After playing, the group processed it with thier counselor, which was perfect. They talked through the fears they had, trust that was built, comfort zones that were challenged and pushed through, gifs that they realized they had and could apply to relationships, as well as how they grew in confidence in seeing how they can help others- for the ones that were scared of not being able to lead well. They liked it so much they want to play it again this weekend at our service day, along with several other games we introduced. Now I know this sounds simple, but think about how uncomfortable it could have been for them to be blindfolded, to feel out of control, to have to trust someone else, etc. This isn’t an easy thing for trauma survivors. They did so well though at taking care of each other and pushing through their fears, and came out of it with a deeper sense of trust for others and even themselves. It was perfect!
Another highlight, which I personally think was huge, was that the guys on our team were able to be involved. This is not very common, as Transitions Global is one of the only places here in Camboda that allows males to interact with the girls. They loved our guys, were comfortable, and seemed to feel safe. I’m so glad that they were able to see that there are solid men out there, men that view them as sisters and brides of Christ, men that want to protect them, and empower them, not hurt them…. It was awesome to see, it was perfect!
So this weekend we get to kick off our service program with the girls. This first outreach is not what we had envisioned initally with the partnering organization, but God has a better plan, of course. The girls are going to get to be girls again and have fun with other teenage girls that have come out of trafficking. They are so excited about this opportunity to socalize with others, and to share with them in the joy of just being a girl, the chance to be a child again. I have a feeling that this joy will continue, that this joy with be contagious, that I will hear again,”I so happy!”
