It’s a beautiful night. A canopy of stars light up the dark black sky and the sweet breeze, smelling of a mixture of coconut and wild flowers, refreshes me from the sticky heat.
Mmmm I’m home.
Our beautiful Kenyan house is unusually quiet for this hour. After a busy day of family fun field trips, (pic of some of us above) our Bella House girls now sit around their desks in the living room finishing up homework for the manic Monday that waits them in the morning.
Is this really my life? The other missionaries and myself just had this talk. What!? We literally get to go into brothels, find the worst situations and rescue them into our beautiful family. Several months after taking in our first girl, a young woman trafficked from Nairobi; it’s amazing to see the transformation that’s almost unrecognizable from when we first met.
“I’m taking snow [ice] in my water because Sandra is taking snow. I will do what she does,” she boasts at the dinner table. Oh how good it is to finally be back after months of furlough!
Not that the transition didn’t come with its drama… I still can’t believe how much I traveled in the last two months. Thank you to everyone for being so amazing and hosting me and supporting me and partnering with the dream to shut down brothels. We have a house of girls who thank you as well. :)
Their process amazes me. Both their growth and also the constant stories from their past. The more we learn the tales of their little lives, the more we cherish their laughter and every hug that we hold onto for just a few seconds extra.
Snuggled up with one of our girls, this precious one asks me every time we’re alone: “Why did you start this home? What made you come? Why, why did you pick me?” This girl has had more abuse then I can comprehend but her smile now says it all and I think to myself : “You! I came because Jesus is here. And if he is who we say he is, this passionately obsessed God who is the very nature of love and goodness… It’s easy to give it all away and see transformation.” So to her question, it makes me think: “How could I stay away??” Oh to move as heirs of a big God.
This year is ridiculously exciting. Our family loves the process of growth with various projects and businesses and teams here on the coast! Our holistic model “Prevention. Intervention and Rescue” to shut down brothels has been so fun to develop! Sometimes, though my days are filled with long hours and often way too many rape stories, but in the midst of it all I feel I’m just along for the ride as the ease of life is so beautiful how it all unfolds!!
Presently I’m with my growing team in Mtwapa, Kenya and will move at the end of the month back to Congo! We’re so excited about life there as well!
In short, my little schedule:
January-USA /Kenya
February- DRC
March- Kenya
April- Kenya/DRC
May- DRC/Kenya/USA (for a super dear friend’s wedding)
I’ll be sitting down and sending out a real newsletter, maybe when life slows for a second. Until then… This is my first blog back, trying to get into the swing of it again! And I’ll continue to unravel the everyday living of a “normal life” between war zones and brothels in weekly blogs to come. (Normal AKA: Living happy, passionately and doing exactly what you were created to do. Stopping for the poor and tackling the impossible all the while. Course.) I plan to be back and forth a lot this year, focusing more and more on overseeing and delegating projects to the on sight project managers and directors rising up! To follow more of that process—check out our project site: www.justicerising.org . It gives a few more daily stories from other team members and an overview of what we do! :)
So until inspiration strikes again! …