Heart Change, Sex Trafficking, Going to Thailand

In December I sat across the table from a friend by the name of Noah. I was sitting there as a staff member from Resonate, and he was talking to me about Thailand, and having a passion for helping girls who have been in bondage. Girls who are living a life of modern day slavery. Girls who are sex slaves.

I listen to him talk, got excited about the possibility of Resonate sending a team of people to work with these women, to help with after care and other needs they have over there.

I went home, to Texas and prayed fervently for this trip, prayed God would give Noah direction in where to go specifically, that God would open doors for this trip to become a reality.

As I prayed things in my own life and heart were beginning to change and beginning to long for something more.

I have a friend name Molly. Every Thursday I sit on the opposite side of the table from her and we talk. We discuss life, heart breaks, loves, God and how we are to live in this world. Not just get by but LIVE in the Image of God.

For Molly this looks like being aware of how Gods heart breaks for the hurting people in this world.

Me and Molly have been friends for two years now, and for two years I've listen to her love for Jesus grow as her love for the people in the world grows. I have watched as she has helped the campus here learn more about the conditions of the world we live. I am sure at times this has been hard, because as we sit at a table together my heart rarely would break, tears would never fall and at times I did not understand why you would want to know these things.

My life was find, living in the unknowing. Living in the disbelief.

Last year Molly taught me about Fair trade coffee.

This year Molly taught me about Slavery.

This past week was abolition week at WSU and UofI. Resonate took part in a three week sermon series over slavery, and the fact that we are all made in the image of God.

During week two Molly and many others hosted two events, a discussion and a movie about starting a new culture. A culture where abolishing slavery is not just something that happened years ago but needs to happen NOW.

I sat across the table from Molly and for months prior to this week listen to her talk about this idea. I would walk away from our time together and cry. Cry tears of change and tears of hope. I would walk away from our time and ask how God does this apply to me, how does this new knowledge change my life.

All the time i was praying this God kept bring back to mind my friend Noah and the trip he was planning.

During the last two weeks or well two months, my faith has been shaken, my heart has started to understand lines like...

do what you love to undo what you hate
I don't want to wear someone else's despair, or eat someone else's tragedy.
Justice is what love looks like in public

I have gotten to fall in love with a God that says...

we are all made in the image of God and so when people are hurting others, they are hurting me

I have found the word LIVE, to mean something in my life. I have the word CHANGE, to mean something in my life. I have found the word GO, to mean something in my life.

So here I am

LIVING, CHANGING, GOING

Living in a world were I know what is going on, not just getting through the days trying to stay in the dark.

Changing how I see people. Seeing people who are made in the image of God, means loving better, forgiving easier and holding tighter to the fact we all deserve someone to fight for us.

Going to Thailand. For eight weeks this summer I will be living in the changed life God is calling me to in Bangkok Thailand. Being love and hope to girls who maybe have never heard or felt those words.

Ah, who knows whats going on?

Well, to catch up on whats going on in my life would be a challenge. For to be honest I do not think I really know what has happened in my life in the last few weeks.

But i do know what has happen in the last few days, so we will start there!

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to talk to some women in their 20s about knowing God deeper and ways to live where we can tell a better story with a lives. Tell a story that leads people to the feet of the cross.

While talking a said things like...what are the 4 areas that define your life? How do you glorify God in those 4 areas?

I told the story of the the women at the well, read about her running leaving everything she brought to Jesus at his feet, turning away and being changed because of her time with him. She spoke to the people in her town, she spoke with passion and allowed others to see the change in her life, she told a story that showed them love and grace!

The story she told we all get to tell everyday, we daily get to catch a glance of the love of God and then allow that love to spill into the lives of the people near us, the people who give us coffee, the people who work in the commons, the people that we claim we love.

As I talked I learned, and I learned I tried to set into motion some changes that need to occur in my own heart.

This moment, or well hour, showed me so much about my own life, and about my own, heart, and my own story I am telling!

So what story are you telling with your life?