Texts, phone calls, emails and FB messages poured in yesterday – all of you worried about me. I feel loved. 😉 Thank you…and know that I am FINE. I am MORE than fine. I am RENEWED. 🙂 Going through the Refiner’s Fire is not fun, easy or pleasant but it is worth it to shed the ugly.
I have wanted to do this Spotlight post all week so I think it is good to do it for the weekend. Give everyone a chance to take the time to read this woman’s incredible story and how God called her out of the ashes to renew young women who have been involved in human trafficking. I pray as you read through this one woman’s call and mission that you will open yourself up to hear the call God has written in your heart.
An Interview with Emily Fitchpatrick, Founder of On Eagle’s Wings Ministries and director of Hope House, a U.S. safehome for victims of child sex trafficking and exploitation. Emily gives some good advice for churches and helps us understand the difficult issues involved with this kind of ministry.
When and how did you first learn about human trafficking?
Emily: In 2008 I started On Eagles Wings Ministries, a vision that the Lord had given me 5 years prior. We started as a strip club outreach program. It was through the club outreach and a missions trip to Thailand to conduct outreach in the red light district with a ministry there that I started to learn more about this issue. It was also through one of our partners, Shared Hope International, that I learned that it was happening here in the U.S. in our own backyards.
What led you to begin On Eagles Wings Ministry?
Emily: I was saved when I was 22 (12 years ago) and God did a huge work in my life. I was an alcoholic and drug user. Growing up with divorced parents and not having my dad around much, I feel like I was looking for love in all the wrong places. One thing I have learned the past several years of working with our girls is how important the father role is in a young girl’s life and when she misses out on a healthy father/daughter relationship, it can be detrimental to her self esteem. For me, it led me to want the attention of men and I was hurt many times in that process of seeking love. When I met Christ and started to walk in relationship with Him, I found exactly what I had been searching for all along! He pulled me out of a dark pit and changed my life – set me free.
A few months after I was saved, I was driving and was coming up on a scenic overlook. I felt the holy spirit prompt me to pull over there. I got out of my car and sit on a large rock overlooking the mountains and started reading my Bible, praying, and writing in my journal. I wrote down On Eagles Wings Ministries – Healing Hearts and Changing Lives. I looked at the paper and immediately thought to myself “What is that?!!” The Lord spoke to me – “It’s your ministry.” I had to laugh. The thoughts of me having a ministry with my past at that time sounded crazy! I did not tell anyone, I just tucked it away in my heart. Several weeks later my mom called me and said she was driving by that same overlook and that the Lord had told her to pull over. She went to the same rock and sat and she said all she could do was cry and pray for me! I told her about On Eagles Wings and what had happened to me in that very spot. We both laughed. Like myself, she thought it was crazy that I would have a ministry. I love that God takes our broken pieces, past hurts and pains, and turns them around and uses them for His glory. That is exactly what He did in my life.
Fast forward five years, I am married, have 2 small children and was working for the Billy Graham Ministry. One morning in my devotion time before work I heard the Lord speak to me that it was time to start On Eagles Wings. At this point, I had thought the Lord had forgotten about the day at the overlook that He spoke that to me and even doubted – did I hear Him correctly? However, His word will not return void!! That morning before work I knew without a shadow of a doubt that On Eagles Wings was something special God had for me and it was not because of anything special I had done, I am a sinner saved by grace and walk in His mercy daily, but it was because I was willing to be obedient. That obedience has led me every step of the way and He has held my hand through this entire process. It has been through obedience and taking huge leaps of faith that I have seen God do miraculous things in and through this ministry.
How is this related to Hope House?
Emily: My journey in starting and incorporating OEW as a non-profit and strip club outreach ministry led me to the next step of opening our first shelter. As I mentioned, I had been doing research on the issue of sex trafficking as it pertained to U.S. girls. The Lord spoke to me about a shelter called Hope House but I was thinking it would be a recovery home for women coming out of jails. I read a devotion one morning that changed my way of thinking. It said “Your vision is incomplete, you need my hope.” Immediately I knew God had something planned for this Hope House and I needed to stand still and wait on Him to reveal those plans to me. While still working for the Billy Graham Ministry I learned of a missions trip to Thailand to work with a ministry that did bar outreach to the clubs in the red light district. I felt like I needed to go on this trip. My job and husband said it would be good for me to go. It was a 10 day trip and I was a little afraid because I had never been out of the country before and I am a mom and I was leaving my husband and two small children for 10 days.
The day before I was to turn in my deposit and application I decided to go to a park and walk/pray to make sure I was doing the right thing. One of my Board members told me that he felt me going to Thailand was much more about what God was going to do when I returned than what I would do there. As I was walking around that park praying I was literally asking God for a sign. I was desperate to hear from Him about this Thailand trip. I did not want to do anything out of His will for me. As I was walking and praying, two young men walked by me and I heard the Lord say “Go pray with them.” It made no sense to me and I really did not want to do it. My heart was beating out of my chest and I knew that I could not leave that park without doing what God said. They had sit down at a picnic table so I walked over and introduced myself and told them I was a Christian and really felt I needed to come over and pray with them. One of the guys said “Well sit down, it’s probably me.” He started sharing with me his story and some issues he was going through. As he was speaking I realized he was Asian. I asked him where he was from and he told me Thailand. I started laughing. He asked me if I had ever been there before? I told him no but I was thinking about going. He asked me what I wanted to do there and as I began to share with him about the missions trip and sex trafficking in Bangkok I could see tears rolling down his cheeks. He said to me “I was adopted. My mom was a prostitute in Bangkok. She dropped me off in a trashcan at an Air Force base in Thailand where I was later adopted by a military man from the U.S. and he married a Thai woman and they brought me to the states.” He went on to share with me that his adopted parents tell him his mother was a whore when he would ask about her. He said he has always wondered who she was, what she was like and he encouraged me that day to not be afraid.
He told me “If you don’t go on this trip for anyone else, you do it for me.” WOW! We could not believe God connected us that day in the park as I was praying for a sign if I was to go to Thailand or not. God really showed up that day and I knew I was to go! Coming back from that trip I finally knew what the Hope House was to be…a home for teen girls that had been prostituted in the U.S.
What kinds of initial concerns/ obstacles did you need to address/overcome in beginning this ministry?
Emily: After coming back from Thailand I knew that we were to open a home here in the states for U.S. victims. As I begin to tell people that, they thought I was crazy. For one…people did not think there was such a thing as domestic victims and they also did now know why we needed a home for something that did not exist (in their minds). Thankfully, there has been much more awareness surrounding this issue lately. When we first started pursuing opening a home for domestic minors, the only people we could find who understood this issue was Shared Hope International – who is now one of our partners. From the beginning, Shared Hope was so supportive. They helped us as we started the process of opening our first shelter.
How do you balance the tension between sharing honestly about the trauma survivors endure and protecting their dignity?
Emily: We do not share anything that would come back to hurt one of our girls. We do share stories in general when we are speaking about the issue, but we never use names or locations. Our girls come to the Hope Houses from all over the U.S. and our number one priority is their safety.
What’s your perspective on the relationship between the need to address human trafficking domestically and internationally?
Emily: I personally feel that “the church” views missions as something that can only take place outside of the U.S. I feel that everyone on our staff is doing missions work right here. I am passionate about helping our girls being exploited right here in our own backyards.
Can you provide a bit of info on work you did to assess the need for a safehome in your area?
Emily: We do not accept local girls into our program because of safety risks. We have worked with local girls (girls from North Carolina) but do not bring them to the house. In trying to determine who we would serve in our first safehome (domestic victims vs. international victims), we realized that we had to pick one thing and do it well. You are looking at two different demographics, two different types of clients. For us, we prayed and felt God was giving us such a burden for domestic minors. We started with that…U.S. girls under 18. We now have a home for girls over 18 as well. But, we feel called to work with domestic victims.
What kinds of relationships do you have with local anti-trafficking organizations?
Emily: Networking is key. We rely heavily on our community for support. We take our girls off property to counseling, doctors appointments, group outings, recreation, etc. We work closely with other anti-trafficking organizations to receive referrals and to discuss situations, best practices, and share ideas. We value our relationships with other like-minded organizations. We also tithe 10% of our monthly donations to organizations, like us, serving victims.
If you could say one thing to the reader with regards to human trafficking, what would it be?
Emily: Don’t be afraid to jump in to this issue. There are so many girls who need positive role models. There are so many girls who need advocates – people to go to bat for them, walk alongside of them, be there for them in a non-judgmental, loving way. I have seen such success in our program but it’s mostly because of the trusting relationships our girls are able to form with our volunteers (other Christ-followers). I would encourage anyone to pray and ask God what He may have them to do. Besides helping victims directly, there are other ways people can get involved in this fight. Prevention and awareness are two other much needed ways people can plug into the anti-trafficking movement.
Emily Fitchpatrick – Founder of On Eagle’s Wings Ministries and director of The Hope House
To learn more about both ministries please visit www.oewm.net and www.hopehousenc.com
Thank you Emily for your service and dedication to His call!
Blessings
Shannon