After six weeks of travel, many amazing stories and 2,000 pictures later I come home to sort things out. How do I possibly condense my trip onto a couple of pages? First and foremost, God is good - hands down! Returning from my trip I know that now more than ever. When we first arrived in South Africa, expectations were high. I was ready to see human trafficking come tumbling down, tons of people saved, and personally be transformed forever. Looking back all I can do is thank Jesus for everything He did and stand in awe of His goodness. “God is faithful in all He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the Earth is full of His unfailing love.” (Psalm 33:4-5).
Our first destination was Bloemfontein. We had been traveling for days. It was late, freezing cold, and not how I wanted to spend our first night out in ministry. But God always has a better plan and reveals His greatness in our weakness. We went out that night with a local ministry. We started by worshipping in the streets and then we went out to the bars. The girl I was partnered up with, a local who had a passion for the women, was bold and had street smarts to say the least. A big group of us were walking back for the night and saw a girl sitting all alone in the dark. One by one our group passed her by. From the back I kept watching to see if anyone was going to stop and talk to her, but when no one did. I thought to myself, “Well, I guess if they thought we should have talked to her, they would have stopped.” Right then my partner ran after her. When she returned she was livid at all of us for not stopping. What she said next I will never forget, “How could you not stop...why would you pass even one girl by?” This shook me deep in my spirit and it became the foundation for the rest of my trip.
A few nights later, while waiting at the airport for our last member, I noticed a young woman mopping the floor and felt compelled to go and speak with her. I was nervous to talk to her by myself so I easily convinced myself not to approach her. Immediately the words, “Why would you pass even one girl by?” resonated inside my head. I suddenly found myself standing in front of her and we began to make small talk. The conversation floundered so I awkwardly asked her if she would like prayer. She initially said no but then asked me to meet her in a few minutes. As we sat down to talk her story unraveled quickly having been bound up by fear until that moment. She had AIDS and was pregnant. She had told no one and had prayed to God asking Him to please send her someone she could talk to. We talked and prayed together. My heart was gripped with God’s answer to her prayer – me. I realized that even when I feel incompetent and have nothing to say, God is the one at work, doing everything. We just have to put one foot in front of the other and open our mouth. It would have been worth my whole trip to South Africa just for her.
During the next four weeks we witnessed many girls rescued and placed into safe houses, prayed and partnered with numerous local ministries, and experienced God’s protection in several dodgy situations. Time and again I saw how prayer was by far our greatest strategy against human trafficking. A few months ago one of our team members had a dream about being taken into a brothel. While prayer walking in South Africa she came across the exact building that she had seen in her dream! We began intensely praying around the area and for whatever was going on inside. A few days later on the front page of the local newspaper, that same building had been raided! Thirty-five girls, who had been trafficked, were rescued. The man in charge was arrested and 100,000 blank passports and visas were confiscated! My faith was instantly strengthened and the power of prayer became a reality.
I found that as you serve other people you always become transformed in the process. I faced many fears, grew in boldness, solidified my foundations in who God is, and found deeper clarity and vision for my own life. The more I am sent out into other countries to minister to others, the more I come home to America with a bigger heart for the people I am surrounded with daily. There are people everywhere I look that are broken, abandoned, and lonely that are waiting for us to speak life over them, give them a simple smile or a cup of cold water. “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these of Mine, you did for Me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Thank you so much again for all of your prayers and support! I will be praying for you continually that the Father’s blessing, love, and revelation would overflow on your heart and life!
