My version of New Year’s resolutions is a list of goals and desires that I want to see accomplished in the new year. Not resolutions and promises, but desires that I hope to see accomplished by God’s grace. I spend time in prayer and ask Him to show me what He wants. Internally where no one sees and externally which affect my family and ministry. This year is no exception. There are specific goals that I will attempt to accomplish by His grace. A few can’t be written for all the world to see, but here are most of them (not necessarily in the order of importance):
1. Read & study the weekly Torah readings.
2. Read through the New Testament once a month for a total of 12 times this year. This is the plan I am using: YouVersion.com.
3. Write a blog post at least once a week, preferably twice a week.
4. Continue studying French and Hebrew.
5. Learn to knit.
6. Begin to do prayer walks around the Brussels red light district.
7. Purchase a camera and learn to take quality photos. (Anyone have a good, inexpensive camera suggestion?)
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One of my favorite websites and one of the leading organizations affecting sex trafficking all over the world is Exodus Cry. Every month they choose a city to highlight and to raise awareness of the sex trafficking epidemic in that particular area. The city in focus this month is Jerusalem. This subject is close to my heart, not only because of the horror of sex trafficking, but because of my intense love for Jerusalem. Brothel owning and pimping is illegal in Israel, but prostitution is legal. The population of Israel is over 7.5 million and every month there are 1 million purchases of illicit sex in the nation. Those are huge numbers. Over 80% of women in prostitution in Israel are trafficking victims. They can be bought with no penalties or prosecution.
Orit Zuaretz, a member of the Knesset in Jerusalem, has been used of God to spotlight this problem within the Knesset and also the United Nations. This month the Israeli Minister of Justice, Ya’akov Ne’eman, is considering sending a bill written by MK Zuaretz to the Knesset to be voted on. If it is passed, clients would be penalized for purchasing victims as well as educated about what they are actually participating in globally. It would be a huge blow against sex trafficking in Israel. MK Zuaretz is actively trying to raise awareness in Israel concerning this problem in her country. Recently, in a Tel Aviv shopping mall, shoppers were faced with a living reminder of what it all means. Here is the story in the HaAretz newspaper. (HaAretz is one of the two main news organizations in Israel).
If this is an issue you feel strongly about, go to this website where you can voice your support of this bill to cabinet members. And please pray for the Members of the Knesset that they would understand the importance of this bill, and that they would choose God’s law making holiness a standard in their government. Pray that the awareness of sex trafficking in Israel would increase greatly not just in Israel but globally.
This is about real people who are trapped into being bought and traded for sex, children included. This breaks my heart. I can’t imagine what it does to God’s heart.
Yesterday Gary and I traveled to Antwerp to join in the celebration of the completion of the Breaking Chains Ministry Center in the Red Light District. What a day! If you have ever transformed a house from utter devastation and ruin to a beautiful, cozy home, you know some of the feelings we had last Saturday as we surveyed the transformation with approximately fifty friends of the ministry. When the apartment was rented just a few months ago, it was, in my opinion, uninhabitable. I can’t begin to tell you the filth and disrepair it contained. We found several dead mice, which explained the stench. There were holes in doors, floors and walls. The bathroom was scary. Every room was pretty disgusting. These pictures don’t do it justice.
Living room - at least 4 layers of wallpaper!
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Today I started thinking about all the people who have come through the Ninth Hour Missions Base in the last couple of months. Then my thoughts went to the BCN ministry center apartment in the red light district of a neighboring city. It is an old apartment that is in desperate need of renovation, updating and cleaning. The vision is that it will be a safe place to invite the prostitutes to so they can learn English or French or computer skills or anything they need.
We have had two different teams work on the apartment in the past month. They have been such a blessing to us.
This is what the apartment looked like the first time I saw it:
Shawn, Drue, and April (women I minister with)
Classroom before the carpet was pulled up & walls redone
Lovely bathroom (dead mouse behind the door)
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My grandchildren are used to me telling them that they are precious. I’ve said it regularly to them since they were born. They are precious to me but most of all to Jesus. Nothing can ever change that. It doesn’t matter what they do or don’t do. They are still precious and valuable. If they lie, if they disobey, if they throw a fit, or if they make the best grades possible and become president of the United States. It doesn’t matter. They are still just as precious.
I have found myself giving this message to the women in the windows. Almost every week I get a chance to tell at least one woman that she is precious and valuable to me and to God. One of the ladies on our team brought some special gifts yesterday to give to some of the women. She has a friend that’s a baker, and he made some beautiful chocolate candies. The chocolate looked like a cookie and on the top were two brightly-colored sugar flowers and a little white fondant sign that said, “Because you are precious…”. Well, when I saw them I almost lost it. I had to hold back the tears. To see in writing what I had been saying was just so touching. There were only about 20-25 pieces individually wrapped, so I prayed that God would show me who needed to hear those words. Quite a few of the women don’t speak English, so I wanted the recipients to be able to read and understand the words. I shouldn’t be amazed any more about how God answers prayer, but every single woman who I went up to yesterday could speak and read English. They knew what “precious” meant. I was able to tell them again how precious they are. Every one of them was so grateful and their faces lit up when they saw the candy message.
I was able to get my foot in the door (literally and figuratively!) with two women in particular yesterday. I got their names and now I can pray for them specifically. Because of security reasons for them, I don’t want to publish their names, but please pray for R from Romania and A from Albania. (That’s pretty funny that their initials are the same as their country. I just realized that!) Pray that they will still be there next week, and that I can get the door open a little wider.
Yesterday in the district was a breakthrough day in another way also.
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