Why do you do what you do? I get asked this a lot but this time instead of being on the receiving end I was asking the question to a woman who, in my opinion, was Christ personified before me.
“I was in the sex slave trade in the 70’s before they even had a name for it,” said Cheryl. Her story begins at the delicate young age of 13 1/2. As she told me bits of her story I pictured myself at 13 1/2 drinking and sneaking out. My flesh pricked as I realized how easily it would have been for me to be swept up into the same horror as Cheryl.
Cheryl was 15 when she managed to escape from under the control of her ‘owner’. Even then restoration was decades away. The life she knew in captivity was now embedded in her way of life. Drugs to survive the day, prostituting to scrape by for the necessities of living. She physically escaped the person that brought her into hell but she was still imprisoned through dependency and the internal and spiritual scars of shame, un-worth and anger.
When we met for lunch yesterday she said she got validation from God that there was something He had in mind for the two of us in our collaboration of ministries. She watched one of my videos and when I spoke about the moment I was face down on the floor and cried out to God “Take my life or do something with it!” she felt goosebumps cover her body for she too had cried out the very same prayer.
Almost a decade ago she was at death’s door “on the fence” as she put it, just one pill more and she’d fall off into oblivion. Then she caught a glimpse of death in the mirror and that was her turning point when she cried out to God to do something with her life. She stopped everything and began working at women’s shelters that helped women who had been abused and in similar situations such as hers and eventually she found her place in helping young women at safe houses who have come out of sex trafficking.
But life is a journey that we take in God’s time and He prepares us along the way. After years of sobriety and learning the political system and all that God needed her to know for her ‘mission’ she was invited to attend church with a friend. She had been going to church and praying to God but on this particular day the pastor seemed to have a message just for her. He looked directly at her and said (paraphrased by my memory) “God has a plan for you and He will give you want you need.”
Along the way He had been giving her ideas, a vision of restorative recovery for women coming out of trafficking and now she knew it was time to put it all into His hands and see what happened.
Day by day. That’s all she needs and in living day by day with what God gives her and who has come across her path she has obtained a house for the soon to be shelter. Every little bit that she has received God has given to her as it was needed. Not more, not less. Oh how I relate! 🙂
This beautiful woman before me was not only sharing her story but validating mine and together we believe God has a plan to RESTORE the lives of these women. Hopeful Hearts Ministry and Serenity Ranch are still in prayer and actively working on our collaboration of what exactly these women need from Hopeful Hearts and what that entails but it is an exciting endeavor!
For now Serenity Ranch needs to find its way to completion and Hopeful Hearts has to find the funds to be certified in certain areas to help. Please pray for the both of us! You can find out more about The Mission at Serenity Ranch here.
UPDATE ON NEAL
I want to thank all of you for your prayers. Our trip to Napa, CA was exactly what the both of us needed. And maybe it was the wine during the day but we went to bed every night by 9pm! We rested and we relaxed. The steroids didn’t alter his mood which was a blessing. However, now that he is on the pill form it has made it a little difficult but he is truly amazing and holding his own. Please continue to pray that this helps regain his full strength in his legs.
Blessings
Shannon