So we have done alot of training in the time I have been here, and part of that is doing excercises that make us aware of what the girls are going through culturally, emotionally, etc..
This one impacted me most.
List five things in life that are most important to you. List the fice things you cannot do without or that rank on your priority list. Here are mine:
1. Faith
2. Family
3. Friends
4. School
5. Security and stability
We wrote these on little cards. Then Kelsey would ome around and take one from each of us. She took security from me. Pretend one of yours is taken away. What would you do if it really was? For me, not to have security basically meant something was wrong in all the other areas of my life. I found myself trying to figure out which one I wanted her to take. Take school and education, I will lose that before the others, after that it becomes hard.
Then we got all our cards taken away.
ALL. What if you lost all the things you listed? What would you do? What would that feel like? Horrible. I honestly do not know how I could function. I probably would just shut down to be honest. It seems like too much loss. It is too much loss for anyone to handle.
Welcome to the life of a girl in prostitution and sex slavery.
She has lost everything. She has lost her family for she is all alone. Her family is her Madame and pimp. She has lost most of her faith for how could one be worthy of anything after all she has done? She has lost any real friend. Her friends are now the other girls on the street. Her competetition to beat out in order to earn more money to pay her traffickers back with. Stability and security? I do not think I have to explain why those do not exist. School? Her heart had longed for education, but education did not offer immediate payment. Who wants her intelligence? She is just body. I met one girl who had told me she wanted to be an accountant. She became excited as she told me about her love of numbers. She loved the order of them. The neat way they all fit together. Her face became downcast as she said everything changed when her family needed money. She looked up at me and asked "Its not too late is it? I can go back when I get out right?". Such a painful look with a tinge of hope, I encouraged her that she could do just that.
Most of us live off our hopes and dreams. Especially when we are young. The future is a vast and scary thing, but there is so much hope in the unknown for us. We have not lost it all. But what if we did? What would change in us? What happens to a person when everything they wanted and loved is crushed. I will tell you what happens. Something dies within them. They lose parts of themselves slowly, each time feeling like they will never get it back. They slowly lose who they are.
Another excericise we did was Kelsey had us all draw or write who we were on a piece of paper.
What would best show/describe who we were. I made my little drawing and handed it over to kelsey expecting that we would have to explain ourselves. I was proud of what I had drawn. I like to be appreciated for who I am. Dont we all? Well, instead of uplifting, she went through one by one, said something demeaning or derrogatory (to the best of her ability) about our pictures, ripped them up, and handed them back to us. I must say even though I knew this was an excercise, I could feel myslef hoping she would not get to mine. Please please pass it over. I did not want who I was torn apart or criticized.
Once again, in this act we were shown what the girls feel like. All the dreams they had, who they are, who they wanted to be, it is gone. It has been ripped up and torn to shreds. They have been shown and told they are worthless. They have been told that they are nothing more then a prostitutie. Nothing more then an object to be used. Nothing. Anything they thought they were, anything they thought they wanted, it was all gone. A fantasy that could never come true.
These excercises really impacted me.
In some small way, I could grasp the complete and utter loss that comes with sex trafficking. It makes my heart hurt, but realize how much I have. I am so glad that my God restores. Restoration. That has become my prayer for these girls. May the Lord restore all their dreams, their hopes, and their needs. May they find their hope and future in Him. May they begin to see a future, to have hope. May they know they are loved in the depths of their heart, and may they know that they are worth so much. May they find comfort in their grief. May they be able to grieve the loss of so much, but after find joy in all that God will give them. I know their lives have forever been altered, but I also know that all things work for the good. Please continue to pray.
"And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that has dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed." Joel 2:25-26
Also remeber to give thanks. Appreciate and love all that you have. Because there are those who would give anything to have just a fraction.
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."
Psalm 145:7
No comments:
Post a Comment