How can I possibly convey what we experienced today - what I experienced today?
Dark...
Dust...
Dirt...
...a bead...
Clayton unlocked the gate to Rahab's House and I stepped inside. I have been living and breathing Rahab's House for months now. From the time the project was first proposed I knew it was something I wanted to do - something I wanted to be involved in. For months now I've thought about the many girls who were viciously abused here. I've thought about the girls who have been rescued and have a chance at a real life and I've thought about the girls who have not be rescued and just moved to another brothel in SvayPak or another village. For months now I'd been preparing for this moment wondering what I would feel - wondering what it might do to me...
I stepped inside and put my bag down and took out my flashlight and began walking through the building stepping into each of the 10 cubicals. I looked at the walls and the space. I looked at many drawings and words I'd seen in photographs. I recognized so much.
So how did I feel?
I expected to feel devistated with the pain of the place washing over me like waves...but it didn't happen. I went into each of the rooms and I stopped and I prayed. The overwhelming thing I felt was our Lord proclaiming, "This is Now MY place." I wasn't devistated rather I felt joy and a sence of God's Kingdom breaking into the evil of Svay Pak.
Clayton led us in devotions that matched very much what I was thinking and feeling...then it was time...time to break down the walls...time to begin to remove all that represented the evil this place was. I had hoped to take the first swings of the hammer to the wall but there were two women there - Helen Sworn from Chab Dai Coalition (Christian organizations committed to ending sexual abuse and trafficking) and Krista from IJM (International Justice Mission), the organization that worked to close down this brothel. I was my joy to watch as these two women who have done so much took the first swings at the wall.
Then it was my turn...each swing of the hammer broke away something of the old evil - both figeratively and literally. The walls are hard - they are made of brick but the brick is covered in a cement plaster that is as hard as rock. It took many swings of the hammers by many people but finally the first wall was down and more light came farther into the building - more light broke into Rahab's House.
One after another walls started to come down. The debris was carted away where the locals scavenged it all.
As I was chipping away at the last bits of a wall something caught me eye...it was a bead...a small plastic gold bead...the kind a child has on a child's braclet. I held the bead in my gloved hand and just looked at it thinking about the little girl it belonged to. Was she one of the ones rescued? I do not know but that bead was a reminder to me of the very real people - children - who suffered there.
But they won't suffer there any more.
We didn't get as much done as we'd hoped because the walls are so much harder than we expected but as each wall came down more and more light broke in.
What a team this is. God chose well with each one bringing their own abilities and passion, their own reasons for wanting to do this and pouring everything they are into the work. I am so proud of this team and so proud to be a part of it. And I am so thankful that the Lord has given us this privilage and honour.
Dark...becoming lighter
Dust...what is left of the old evil being taken down
Dirt...all over us from head to toe because doing God's work often means getting dirty
...a bead...a child
God is Good!
Dark...
Dust...
Dirt...
...a bead...
Clayton unlocked the gate to Rahab's House and I stepped inside. I have been living and breathing Rahab's House for months now. From the time the project was first proposed I knew it was something I wanted to do - something I wanted to be involved in. For months now I've thought about the many girls who were viciously abused here. I've thought about the girls who have been rescued and have a chance at a real life and I've thought about the girls who have not be rescued and just moved to another brothel in SvayPak or another village. For months now I'd been preparing for this moment wondering what I would feel - wondering what it might do to me...
I stepped inside and put my bag down and took out my flashlight and began walking through the building stepping into each of the 10 cubicals. I looked at the walls and the space. I looked at many drawings and words I'd seen in photographs. I recognized so much.
So how did I feel?
I expected to feel devistated with the pain of the place washing over me like waves...but it didn't happen. I went into each of the rooms and I stopped and I prayed. The overwhelming thing I felt was our Lord proclaiming, "This is Now MY place." I wasn't devistated rather I felt joy and a sence of God's Kingdom breaking into the evil of Svay Pak.
Clayton led us in devotions that matched very much what I was thinking and feeling...then it was time...time to break down the walls...time to begin to remove all that represented the evil this place was. I had hoped to take the first swings of the hammer to the wall but there were two women there - Helen Sworn from Chab Dai Coalition (Christian organizations committed to ending sexual abuse and trafficking) and Krista from IJM (International Justice Mission), the organization that worked to close down this brothel. I was my joy to watch as these two women who have done so much took the first swings at the wall.
Then it was my turn...each swing of the hammer broke away something of the old evil - both figeratively and literally. The walls are hard - they are made of brick but the brick is covered in a cement plaster that is as hard as rock. It took many swings of the hammers by many people but finally the first wall was down and more light came farther into the building - more light broke into Rahab's House.
One after another walls started to come down. The debris was carted away where the locals scavenged it all.
As I was chipping away at the last bits of a wall something caught me eye...it was a bead...a small plastic gold bead...the kind a child has on a child's braclet. I held the bead in my gloved hand and just looked at it thinking about the little girl it belonged to. Was she one of the ones rescued? I do not know but that bead was a reminder to me of the very real people - children - who suffered there.
But they won't suffer there any more.
We didn't get as much done as we'd hoped because the walls are so much harder than we expected but as each wall came down more and more light broke in.
What a team this is. God chose well with each one bringing their own abilities and passion, their own reasons for wanting to do this and pouring everything they are into the work. I am so proud of this team and so proud to be a part of it. And I am so thankful that the Lord has given us this privilage and honour.
Dark...becoming lighter
Dust...what is left of the old evil being taken down
Dirt...all over us from head to toe because doing God's work often means getting dirty
...a bead...a child
God is Good!
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