Being Hope...

I once told my sister-in-law that I was ok with not being around people. She said, “Really?” But you seem to love being around people.” And it got me thinking, “Why do I do what I do?” Honestly it’s not in my human nature to always want to listen to people and their problems or problem-solve their issues or extend my hand to help. I would much rather sit at home and watch a good movie or read a good book. Though this is my nature there is something I have come to recently truly start to understand. Every day I am more drawn to become like Christ who spent time loving people and not choosing who and when to love. All that I am and all that I do is not in my natural human drive, but because of the life I have in God I desire to be a truth seeker, and take the truth to people in such a way that is attractive to them. I love because He loves me at my worst; I show compassion because of His unconditional compassion for me. I hope for the hopeless because of the hope I have in Him.

"Let's Get Ready to Rumble!"...

"I'm tired of being loved for one hour at a time."-This was spoken by a women who has recently come to New Friends New Life in search for hope.

UNFORTUNATELY this is exactly what is going to be going on A LOT more in Dallas this weekend...It's all about the NBS All-Stars game. When huge sporting events hit the big cities traffickers, pimps, and club owners all know this is where the money's at. One club in Dallas spoke about how they are bringing in more girls this weekend due to the influx of customers they will be expecting in the clubs, massage parlors, hotel rooms, escort services, etc.

It is estimated about 20,0000 women and girls will be brought to this city and this does not include the ones who already live here who have booked hotel rooms themselves or their pimp have booked it.

We don't think about this when we go to a sporting event. All we think about is how well the economy will do due to hotels, restaurants, souvenirs, etc.

This weekend Dallas will do well for itself with the game in town-BUT at what cost?

The "IT" factor...

People often ask me what is “IT” that leaves a women to leave the business and find a place like New Friends New Life? What is the “IT” factor? I believe it’s the same “IT” factor with all of us. Here is my food for thought…
The population I encounter on ad daily basis is women who have been thrown into an addiction or choose an addiction as an escape. I hear about so much sexual and other types of abuse in this lifestyle that it kills me when people talk like these women chose this way. No one chooses to be abused, raped, beaten, and verbal degraded, which is happening. (Check out Melissa Farley for research). Their stories are stories of starting into the world of addiction in order to numb themselves from the reality they face on the streets or in the clubs. So the “it” factor…I think it goes back to the words of Jesus...
“Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6)
Getting well at the well is key. Sure Jesus could of healed the man, sure asked a “duh” question in his mind, but he presents the question TO the man because he knew if they man himself did not want to heal there was no point in helping because he would of just gone back to his old lifestyle—of excuses and sitting.
I am no different than these women. There are times in my life I choose to not get well with the selfish addictions on my life. I want to sit where I am and do my own thing. I chose to make not the best choices, I chose the choices that help only for the moment but not in the long run, I choose choices that are based on my roller coaster emotions. These women’s stories are inspiring to me.
Somewhere along their life’s journey they said I CHOOSE another way. They left all that knew, old friends, drugs/alcohol, easy money and start down a road of healing. They WANTED to get well. I encounter all people who tell me about their lifestyles all the time. It could be a woman from the streets, a friend, or a family member, but all share stories of addictions and habits. If we don’t even want to get well changing one’s life is a “moo” point. (As in there is no point in moving forward)
I heard this analogy the other day…If you feel you are a terrible driver, you’ve got a choice to keep being that bad driver or you give it over to another driver and allow them to do what you cannot. Keep driving bad or choose another way…
So today’s table talk is who is your driver? If something is not working in your life what choice are you going to make? BUT let’s start with the first question…Do WE WANT to get well?

Go Blind!

“I will lead the blind by a road they do not know; by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.”-Isaiah 42:16

This week one of the women I work with stated this, “We work in a ministry that does not allow us to hide and is all about bringing women out of the hiding they know too well.”

So much can change from the day to the night. The light to the dark. The same street will look completely different depending on the time of day you are there. It’s true the night life finds its way on the streets in Dallas and there is one main strip where one can find all the “gentlemen’s clubs” but by day you would drive down the street like it’s any other street. The women I work with have spent many a night on the unlit streets, dark alleys, and unknown hotel rooms. They have been in hiding, but New Friends New Life allows none of the women who walk through those doors no matter what her background is to hide and learn to “become.”
One of the staff women who know firsthand that lifestyle can testify to the dark memories of long ago. She said, “It’s the memories that can keep you sober.” She remembers the dark nights when she didn’t know where her clothes were, the address she was at, or who she had been with that night. Like the majority of the women, there were years of hiding behind drugs, alcohol and turning tricks not knowing how to become the women God has destined for all us to become.
I have been thinking about the darkness and going through life blind. Often times we think this are bad. I mean after all how fun is it to truly stumble and bump into things in the dark? Or going through life blinded feeling as though you might miss out on something exciting? There are those risks when we choose to live life like this, but Isaiah talks about in our blindness we will be guided on paths and turn the darkness before us in to light. What catches my eye in this verse is it’s by nothing by my own doing that I will see the light or know where I am headed, it’s all God. Yet so many times I think I am in the light but I am in my own darkness whether it is pride, shame, self-doubt or the desire to control my life. What if we all CHOSE the darkness over the light we saw in the moment and CHOSE to be blindfolded—I wonder in our blindness and darkness would we see more than we could of trying to live in our own light??

Maybe we find ourselves at a time when we are hiding. But God is asking you to continue on the journey blindfolded and in the dark and he’s got the rest, stay sober from all the things you are not willing to surrender. And friends I am praying that in living this way He will take us all too incredible heights, and sights we could only see in this fashion of blindfolded and darkness. He does not want to see us hiding he wants to take us to a world where we see as he sees-HOW SWEET would that be??

She ran...He SAW

“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me…”-Gen. 16:13

NOTE: Hagar is the only one in the Bible who gives a name to God. I find it striking that she is a woman and also the name she gives me...so profound...

Genesis talks of a young slave woman who was seen only as an object to reproduce and nothing more. Her owners, Sari and Abraham saw themselves as upstanding citizens and viewed Hagar as someone who was beneath them, just as we do today when we see a human who is in a position of being objectified.

We forget they have a story; they have a reason for being in the place they find themselves. We stop trying to see them as someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, someone who has a name.

Hagar fled from her home feeling unseen and abandoned. She had been kicked out from the only home she has known feeling as though she was at fault, a criminal according to the family she served. But as she sat in the desert, in her most critical time God saw her and she was known.
My hope is that as we finish this year we would see not only these women who have a “past” but all people whom we casually dismiss as people who have names and they have journeyed from somewhere to be where they are now.
God saw Hagar and she knew she was seen despite the way she was treated by those who should have treated her well.
At New Friends New Life I am SEEING each woman has a name, each woman is a daughter, and each one is a jewel in her Creator’s eye.

“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert…And he said to her, “where have you come from and where are you going?”-Gen. 7-8
When we start to SEE these women as victims we can give mothers and their children a chance to live as a family. Hagar went into the remotest of places looking for a way to escape. Her life was out of control not knowing what to do or where to go, so she hid.
God asks her a question, “Where have you been and where are you going?” He wanted to engage this woman and treat her as a human being. First of all he FOUND her. It didn’t matter how far she got God still found her in her troubles. Not only that, but he wants to know about her and love her in the midst of her troubles.
The questions are valid, because in order for Hagar to know who she is and how God SEES her she’s got to be honest in where she has been and how she wants to change her life.
The women at New Friends New Life have been victimized since they were young but they have to choose change their path. However, there have to be people along the path to help them SEE their worth and walk with them as they choose to be different.
There is hope for them, for me, for you, God sees us, finds us, and wants to walk with us through our circumstances.

The Victim...

When we start to SEE these women as victims we can give mothers and their children their lives back and start to live as a family. As one child says, “I have three years my mother is in my life, three years of birthdays and three Christmases where we were together. Three years of her encouraging I in my school work and helping my brothers and I understand the importance of making better decisions.
We have had three years of a mother present, involved and striving to do what was best for all of us. I have three years of not worrying about where we might end up and who would take care of us. Three years of a good place to live, a church to attend, reliable transportation, a mother with a plan and support we never dreamed of.

The Dark Side...

300,000 children are trafficked in the U.S. by Americans-from "Playground"

This is a blog that may be hard to digest at the table...

"Promise a girl heaven and she will follow you to hell?" This was a quote that was spoken by a pimp in one of the Dallas papers. It is this phrase that truly gives the essence of a Pimp's mindset. Many people feel that Prostitution is a when two adults have consented to sex, so what's the big deal??
The big deal is that most of the time these are children and have no ability to consent. Average age of a child in the sex industry is 12-14 years of age. These children are lured or kidnapped and then threatened to stay with the pimp. He is controlling in much the same way a person does in an abusive relationship. There is the break down to emotional abuse, then dehumanize them and then isolate them from the society. They are given drugs to numb the pain and hurt and also to make them do more sexual acts. It's a silent war that rages every day that American has yet to fully acknowledge is happening in our backyard. When will American start spending more of their money domestic human trafficking instead of defense??
I'm not making this stuff up friends, I have heard stories of women being raped by family members and sold to make money for the family, or thrown out on the street with no money and no shelter.
"It's going to take a village" is what I hard someone say at a conference this week talking about this issue. I would have to agree its going to take people from the lobbying to the out in the streets helping them recover their lives. I'm not sure if this will ever be completely gone, but one thing I do know as Mother Teresa said, "If you can't feed 100 people than just feed one."

"He reached down from on high and took hold of me;he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy,from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place;he rescued me because he delighted in me." (2 Samuel 22:18-20)

Think back in the ways God has rescued you from the darkness you found yourself, the times you went your own way. God brought you out of those and so we need to remember He rescued us, we are to remember who we were, and now it's our duty to rescue those we see daily getting thrown to the waste side.