If I heard that phrase once over the last 5 months, I have
heard it a thousand times… I'd be in a meeting and hear "NOTHING has changed;
BUT…" Meanwhile, I would sit there and think, "That just changed EVERYTHING!"
These last few months have been some of the best and worst
times in my life. I have been blessed to be apart of a dynamic group of women
who are pursuing the heart of God and the calling that he has placed in their
lives. I have walked a hard road of leadership, brokenness, and redemption.
Relationships have been formed, strengthened and others have dwindled away. I
have gone from complete joy to falling on my face in prayer with tears steaming
down my face. These last few months have been painful and beautiful.
After much prayer, I am no longer going to India with Adventures
in Missions. I love Adventures in
Missions, the work they do, and the ministry that is happening through them but
ultimately I am being called to fulfill the calling the Lord has on my life. I
am grateful for the time (almost four years) that I have had to minister,
learn, and grow at AIM. I am thankful to have served at a place where the
kingdom of God is being made known and awakening a generation to hear the voice
of the Lord. I am also thankful that the
Lord knows my heart and is allowing me to pursue the dreams he has placed in
me.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
Although I am no longer with Adventures in Missions, that
does not mean that the calling the Lord has on my life has changed. If
anything, this whole experience the last few months has defined and rekindled
the calling on my life. It has made me stronger and I have had to fight for
what I know the Lord has called me to do. I am currently in the process of
talking with ministry contacts in Asia to discover how this whole India
ministry plant is going to mold together; how we can most effectively minister
to those effected in the Red Light Districts of Mumbai.We are praying (and I would ask you to join
us) in discerning how to partner together in ministry.
I may no longer be with Adventures in Missions but…
In an essence, NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
God is still God.
God is still good,
faithful, and everlasting.
God is still calling
me to minister in India.
"My people" are still "my people"
My covering is still
my covering.
The ministry that he
has called me to do is still the ministry he has called me to do.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support during these
last months and years. I have been blessed that you have been a part of this
journey with me. I want to invite you to continue on this journey to India by
following my new blog at:
Covering of Grace is where I will be posting all future
updates on ministry, stories about my random life, and the things of God.
If you have questions or would like to talk, please feel
free to call me or email me. If you are in the Cincinnati area, I will be home
this week and would love to have coffee/breakfast/ lunch/ dinner with you!
The World Race is a ministry of Adventures In Missions (AIM)
and together we celebrated the sending of our 90,000th missionary
this year. AIM has a long history of sending out passionate men and women
called to some of the darkest places in the world to bring the resurrection
power of Jesus.
As missionaries, we need people to stand behind us,
encourage us, pray for us, and financially support us. As a missionary, I am
called to GO. I believe that we are all called to GO but that looks different
for different folks; for me personally, I know that God has called me to
continue to FOLLOW Him to Gainesville, GA and then move forward to INDIA in
Spring 2012.
We are launching the World Race India Initiative in October
2011. We will have 6 months of training and preparations in Gainesville, GA and
then Spring 2012 we will be moving to Mumbai, India to minister to those held
in brothels and forced into the sex industry. Read more here…
For what God calls us
to, he will provide.
I need provision. I need more people to come along side of
me and to invest in a ministry that is lead by the Spirit of God and supporters willing to
go wherever he calls us to go. I need people who are willing to sacrifice in
prayer for my team, the ministry, and myself. I need people to bless this
ministry financially. I need people and communities to help me spread the word
about what God is doing in the nations. I need people who will speak out boldly
about the injustice of human trafficking and to get involved in their local
communities. I need YOU.
For what God calls us
to, he will provide.
How will He PROVIDE
through YOU?
Prayer
Team: this is the foundation of my ministry. More than anything else I
need YOU to join my prayer team. I will be sending out weekly emails to my
prayer team with bullet points of how you can specifically be praying for
me and for the ministry. If YOU are interested in joining the prayer team
please contact me here.
Financial
Support: I live and survive on the donations of people like YOU. As little
as $1 or as much as $50,000 any amount you give is going towards advancing
the kingdom of God and it would not be possible without your tax-
deductible donations. You can give online or send a check to Adventures In
Missions, PO Box 534470 Atlanta, GA 30353 (make sure that my name, Laura
Meyers, is in the memo line so it is appealed to me). You can become a
monthly donor or make a one-time gift. To donate to my ministry click
here.
Fellowship:
I would love the opportunity to come and share with you, your friends and
family, or your church about what God is doing in the nations. I would
love to share real life ministry stories and photos of those who you are
impacting across the nations. To make a date, please contact me here.
Get
Involved in Your Own Area: Many of you have asked if there are anti-
trafficking organizations in your local area or how you can be involved
with the issue right where you are at, if that is you, please contact me
here and I will do my best to help you find an organization near you.
Thank YOU in advance for helping to bring the kingdom of God
here on earth as it is in heaven. If you have any questions about The World
Race, Adventures In Mission, my ministry with them, etc. please feel free to
contact me.
I look forward to seeing how God provides and from hearing
from you soon! Blessings!
The World Race has always been deeply passionate about Human
Trafficking.And, as most of you
know, my heart has been deeply broken for the women and children who are
victims of the sex trade in India.Through some personal relationships and many visits to India, I believe
God is calling me to India long- term.
My heart is to have this ministry founded in prayer,
worship, and the Word of God; that's life in India… and we won't survive without
it. My personal goal is to go into the brothels and minister to these women
with the long- term vision of bringing them into a safe haven so they can
receive healing, deliverance, education, and training. Personally, I'd also
love to see a place for the children of the sex workers, the street children,
and beggars to have a safe place to learn and grow up knowing Jesus and His
resurrection power. With these goals our directions and God's call as our
encouragement, a small team of passionate individuals and I will be preparing for
a long- term assignment in India as "The India Initiative." The opportunities are endless
and we are dreaming big!
India is home to millions of street
children needing safety and rehab.The caste system fuels an overwhelming number of beggars, diseased and
unemployed individuals who accept this undignified life because their culture,
quite frankly, says they must.
The India Initiative will be
developing a business strategy to come alongside other established
organizations with a strong passion for the women, children and “untouchables”
in Indian society.India needs
opportunities for employment for those that would otherwise not have it.India needs a safe place for the
victims of sex and human trafficking rings.India needs to hear the voice of God in the midst of the
other 33 million voices of other gods of the Hindu religion.
India is a harsh environment with
great need.It is a place deeply
loved by God and needs a team willing to learn how to operate in the midst of a
strong culture vastly different than the Western world. The India Initiative team is ready to start development and is scheduled
to launch in October 2011.
While my squad was in Atlanta, GA we partnered with a number
of fantastic organizations, some of them working in prevention and awareness
like Street GRACE or Not For Sale Georgia. Others are working in outreach like 4 Sarah or NightLight and, last by not least, Wellspring Living which brings restoration and hope for girls who have
been bound in the sex industry.
This evening, I sat with one of my “all women's” teams to do
phone outreach calling girls who have ads listed on Internet websites.
The goal: to share our contact
information as fast as we can so these women have the hotline number for when
they are ready to make a change or, in some cases, when they are in danger and
need a safe way out.
"Hi, my name is Laura and I am calling from a ministry
called 4Sarah. We work with women in the industry. We know how
hard and dangerous life can be so we just want to give you our number and
website so if you ever need anything or you're ever in danger you can call, we
are available 24- hours a day."
As you can imagine, we were greeted with every kind of
response imaginable, everything from thankfulness to anger, from life stories
to being cursed out because they hear a woman's voice instead of a man's. But
as hit and miss as a phone call could be, it could mean life or death for some
of these women.
“Hidden In Plain View: 2005 Mayor's Report” says that the
average age of a prostituted child is 14 years old, but girls as young as 10
and 11 have been exploited. The majority of these girls are coming from abusive
homes and run away to find comfort in the streets; however, studies show that 1
out of 3 teens will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving
home. And an outstanding 90% of runaways become part of the sex trade
industry. Last by not least, Atlanta's vice unit tracks more than 300 Web sites
for escort services, and many of them offer girls for sex.
It is a major reality check to hear the
stories and see the faces of modern- day slaves right here in our own
backyards. To find out how you can
become involved in helping to end modern- day slavery in your backyard email me or contact the Polaris Project
with local listings of anti- human trafficking resources in your state.
It's a forty-five minute train ride and eight minute walk to
get to the brothels where I would do ministry for the day. As I walked down the
street my ministry contact, a dear friend, began sharing stories of the women
that work at this particular brothel. Although I had been to the brothel once
before, there was anticipation in my spirit to see these women.
There are about 15- 20 girls at this particular brothel with
two madam's who control the area. The head madam has been there for many years
and the associate madam, the lady who is in the photo above, is 37 years old
and had been at the brothel for 28 years; that means she was 9 years old when
she was sold by her parents to the brothel. Every day the girls that work at
this brothel are sold for 300 Indian Rupees ($6.50 USD) per customer.After the girls have a customer they go
to the Madam's and give them the 300 Rupees; the Madam will keep 200 Rupees for
herself and then give 100 Rupees ($2.22 USD) back to the girl.
Our time with the girls started off as a normal day; we were
sitting on a bed that sits outside the door talking to some of the girls before
we got started with their classes for the afternoon. I was talking to one of
the younger girls when the madam walked up to me and standing about two feet
away from me says, “I know you.”Honestly, I chuckled when she said that because I knew I had never met
her in my life. After a moment's pause, she said, “You were in my dream!”
At this point I was a little bewildered but very interested
in the dream. She went on to describe:
“There
was this big battle that was going on. Everybody was at war and everyone was
fighting. Then you (Laura) appeared and there was this whiteness that
surrounded you and we (the girls at the brothel) knew it was good. When we
would come near you we were FILLED with PEACE.So, all of my girls would come to you and we would be FILLED
with PEACE and the war ended.”
The last thing that this madam told me was something to the
effect of that I was coming back “to stay” so that they “could find peace”.
I have thought about this moment with this woman every single
day since the Madam told me about the dream that she had. Needless to say, by
the end of her telling me this I was crying and just in awe of who God is. I know that the peace that she
felt is the PEACE of Jesus and
what an opportunity to share the Peace of Christ with her!
The same day, the Madam asked if she could join our classes,
and hear stories of Jesus and have prayer for herself and her family. I sat
with this madam and helped her with basic math skills as she worked on her
first count by coloring workbook page. She had never been to school and had
never done a simple coloring page before. I wish I had a picture because a
picture would be worth a thousand words of her holding up her coloring page
waiting for our approval and just to hear that she had done a good job!
How could I forget
Your face/ When all it took was just one day/ For me to see it wasn't ordinary/
I could never be the same
You took my hand
and led the way/ I didn't even know Your name/ But something happened deep
inside me/ And I knew life would have to change
So how could I go
back to life as usual?/ And how could I return to who I once was? /I just want
to take Your story to the world/ ‘Cause You have shown me what it means to love
The night that I met Na, Ma - our mutual friend- was headed
out to the store to buy her some food and to try to take care of her. I asked
Ma if I could walk and talk with her while she got food for her friend. When we
returned I asked Ma if I could see her friend and pray for her health since she
was sick; however, I was not prepared for what I was about to walk into.
Na's husband had dropped her off at the bar after she was
released from the hospital. She was deathly ill, unable to carry her own body
and lying on a mat on the floor of a 4 X6 foot room in the middle of the red
light district. After years of working in the bar, Na had contracted hepatitis,
STD's and was dying of cirrhosis of the liver.
When I arrived the floor was shaking from the music that was
being played in the bar and lights were flashing in the windows. You could hear
the sounds of the night beating and howling as I talked with Na for the first
time. She was weak but when I asked her if I could pray for her healing her
eyes had a certain twinkle and in a gentle voice she said “yes”. So, I began to
pray.
I continued to go see Na and each time I found out more and
more of her story. Na was from a village 2 hours outside of Bangkok. She had
come to Phuket to find work and instead found a man who wanted to marry her.
For many of the bar girls in Thailand they will marry a farang, an European or American visitor to Thailand, and
after their honeymoon it is not uncommon for the woman to never see her husband
again. Na is different; her farang
lives in Thailand with her. Na's farang; (now husband) owns a bar in Phuket and shortly after they were married
her husband had her working in the bar. Na desperately loved her husband and it
was very clear by the beatings of her body and the fact that he was selling her
body that he had no respect or love for her. In fact, on several occasions
while I was visiting her he would tell her to “go and die” so he could “marry
another woman who could do what he wanted since she was now useless to him.”
One day I received a call from Ma, telling me that Na was
very sick and had been asking if I would come. So, I hopped on the next bus
towards Patong to meet the ladies at the bar. When I arrived Na was lying in a
cot in the middle of the bar unable to get up and the first thing she asked us
to do was to pray with her. She then began weeping because she knew her time
was coming to an end and all she wanted was to be near someone who cared about
her.
Medically, the contacts could not take care of all of Na's
needs and with our time coming to a close in Thailand I was determined to get
Na to a safe and loving location. After talking to Na and to our ministry
contacts we decided that the best option would be to have Na go home the
village to be with her family so she could die with dignity instead of the
filth of the red light district. I left Thailand on a Saturday and Na went back
home to her village that following Tuesday.
The ministry contacts at SHE have been keeping up with Na
and while her body is still very weak and fragile she is home with her family
and surrounded in love.
My soul cries when I think about Na. She is a strong woman
who has faced a lot of adversity and brokenness in her life. Na has been
beaten, raped, defiled, held down but there is a God who's name is Jesus who
LOVES her with an everlasting love.
It is my prayer that she will continue to encounter a
living God who is love. I will continue to pray for her salvation. I will continue
to pray for her life and for her healing. I will continue to pray for her restoration.
Chau was born in Vietnam and sold by her father at age five
(5) to a “friend” who came to her village and offered to take Chau to a better
place to live. Chau was taken by this friend to Phnom Penn, Cambodia where he
intended to sell Chau to a brothel for prostitution but the plan was intercepted
with the perfect will of God and Chau ended up at our ministry location, a home
for girls who were rescued and protected from human trafficking.
During the time that I spent with Chau we laughed together.
We cried together. We shared smiles and sang songs that told stories of Jesus.
Then one- day Chau's aunt showed up to tell her that her mother had passed away
and that her father was looking for her so he could sell her (again) to a
brothel. Immediately Chau began to cry; grieving the loss of her mother and the
reality of what her father intended to do. Chau cried and cowered under the
table. The “moms” of the ministry along with her aunt tried to calm her down
and let her know that she was in a safe place where she would not be harmed.
Chau is safe. She
lives in a home with thirty other girls who share similar stories of how they,
too, came to live at the girls' home. I will never forget a simple moment that
Chau and I shared as she peeked down the stairs and I asked if she would come to
sit by me. She timidly walked towards me and then pulled a seat right beside
mine; laying her head on my shoulder, she called me “sister” and then asked me
to pray for her family.
In Luke 6: 27-28 it says, “But I say to you who hear, Love
your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and
pray for those who abuse you.” What if we all responded with the love of Christ
as Chau did? -- the world would surely be a different place!
Meredith Andrews is a Christian artist who had her heart
stolen by a Haitian child while on a mission trip after the earthquake in
Haiti. During her visit with this orphaned child, God gave her a song for him
and she called it What It Means to Love
and every time I hear it the song it takes me back into the streets of
Cambodia, the bars of Thailand, the brothels of India, and the MARTA stations
of Atlanta, Georgia.
What It Means
to Love
How could I forget
Your face/ When all it took was just one day/ For me to see it wasn't ordinary/
I could never be the same
You took my hand
and led the way/ I didn't even know Your name/ But something happened deep
inside me/ And I knew life would have to change
So how could I go
back to life as usual?/ And how could I return to who I once was? /I just want
to take Your story to the world/ ‘Cause You have shown me what it means to love
Now I no longer
live for myself/ Your words are so clear/ Help me live it loud enough/ So they
can hear
You healed the
sick, You clamed the sea/ But Your heart was for the least of these/ You came
to love the lost and broken/ Your cross has set the captive free
So how could I go
back to life as usual?/ And how could I return to who I once was?/ I just want
to take Your story to the world/ ‘Cause You have shown me what it means to love
These last five months have been more transformational than
the last few years for me. I had an incredible opportunity to serve “the least
of these” and to lead an absolutely amazing squad of committed twenty and
thirty- something year olds on the field in ministry in Cambodia, Thailand,
India, and the United States. My squad was full of passion- first and foremost
for Jesus, our One and Only, and secondly fired up and ready to see the modern day
slave trade, known as Human Trafficking, abolished. We partnered with
established ministries in each country to work with them in the prevention,
rescue, and restoration of women, men, and children who were at risk of, bound
in, or who had come out of the sex industry.
Some of the women were there “by choice” however; you soon
learn that there really was NO CHOICE involved in their decision to be in the
places that we found them.
Most people would tell you that a trafficker, someone who
will buy and sell a child or woman, is a creepy old man who has no regard for
human life. The reality is most traffickers are women who themselves were sold
into the sex trade as a child and have found, as an adult, that this as the
only way of life they know and the only way to support their own children.
POVERTY is the main trafficker.
If you take a poll, most people will say that the men who
are buying these women and children are buying them to fulfill their every
sexual desire and, while that is true in part, BROKENNESS is the real reason
these men line the alleys to purchase sex from children.They need the POWER and CONTROL that
they feel during their time with the girl to make them feel whole when all they
feel is the brokenness that is left inside of them.
In reality it is never as it seems and perspective is
everything. I have learned that in order for us to understand modern- day
slavery we have to sit in the brokenness with these victims and look with their
eyes to see what they see, to understand their life in just a fraction of their
reality. Then, the most important part of the whole process is to be still
enough to listen and hear the voice of God and be obedient to speak out His words
of love and grace. We have to walk humbly, speak softly, touch gently, show mercy,
pray continuously, expect expectantly, laugh in joy, cry beautiful (and
sometimes ugly) tears, live in grace, and be Christ to the nations.
For all of you who have gone before me, said a prayer, gave
of your time and resources, walked beside me, encouraged me, pushed me toward
greatness, called me out… THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart; my life will
never be the same.
The following stories are for you and because of you!
There are a million things that I could tell you all about...but first I'm going to start off by saying that I'm back in the States (some might know this but others... well, maybe not)! My squad arrived back in the United States almost two weeks ago for our last month of ministry here in Atlanta, GA.
As you'll see below, all of the teams are working with various organizations this month to fight human trafficking right here in our own country. Over the next few weeks I am going to be posting more about the ministries we're working with, the men, women, and children we encounter, and what the Lord is doing here in our own nation (and if we're lucky I'll post a few about my time in India).
Not For Sale's: Free2Walk
Our very own WR Human Trafficking Squad has come home to the
United States for their last month of ministry. This is the first time a
WR Squad has served in the US. They are living and working with other
organizations in Atlanta to help fight the problem of human trafficking.
This month, one of the teams is working for the Not For Sale Campaign
as they prepare for a 5K called Free2Walk. This 5K will help promote
awareness of human trafficking in Atlanta and overseas.
The Walk is actually this Saturday, April 30th in Atlanta GA. To sign up please visit the Free2Walk website. You can learn more about the Not For Sale Campaign on their website.
Please spread the word and get involved in a ministry that current WR'ers are helping with here in the US.
Is Your Life Too Small?
When God called me to go on the World Race I expected God to rock my world but never did I ever expect it to look the way it did. Today, the World Race released their new video and I'd encourage you all to watch it and re-post it to a friend who you know needs something more or something different... it could change your life... if you let it...
I may be in India but my hearts not finished with Thailand yet... my next few blogs will be wrapping up Thailand!
:: Ma's Story ::
I met Ma our first night out on Bangla Road, the same night
I met Kay. In fact, Ma and Kay work together.
Ma is "older" for a bar girl. She is 37 years old. Ma has a
beautiful smile and a gentle spirit. Ma's eyes are a beautiful deep brown and
they tell her story without even using words.
Ma has a son who is 18 years old; she sends money back home to support him and so he can go to school. She also is married to a man
from England who she has not seen since they got married five years ago; she
met him in the bar and he promised to come back.
Ma came to Phuket to earn more money for her family and when
she arrived her friend told her about this place above the bar to live at for
“free” until she could afford a place of her own; Ma agreed needing to save
money to send it home and moved in. After she moved in the bar manager told her
that she had to work in the bar to pay for living in the room above the bar…
and so the cycle begins… more and more debt to the bar owner. If she does not
get a customer to buy her for the night she not only has no place to live but
no way of supporting her family. In Ma's case, since she's older, she goes for
a lower price entangling her in the cycle more and more.
Have you ever stopped to think what you would do if you were
in Ma's situation?
What would I do if I was this woman right now, what must she
be thinking? How does she really feel about working at the bar and having her
body bought for a few dollars a night? If I were Ma, a Thai woman living here,
how would I support my family?
When I left Thailand Ma was still working in the bar and in
her eyes she had no way out. There are people that are in Thailand with the
ministry we worked with that are there full time and will continue to check in
on Ma; reminding her that when she is ready, there is another way. Today, I am
going to ask you to pray. Today I am going to ask that you would remember Ma in
your prayers. Pray that she would see that she too has a chance and she is not
too far gone. Pray for her family, that they would be richly blessed and
radically know Jesus. Pray that God would reveal himself to her in dreams and
visions and revelations on who He is. Pray that she would respond to the staff
of SHE and all fear of leaving would be gone in Jesus name. Just pray…
The night that I met Na, Ma - our mutual friend- was headed
out to the store to buy her some food and to try to take care of her. I asked
Ma if I could walk and talk with her while she got food for her friend. When we
returned I asked Ma if I could see her friend and pray for her health since she
was sick; however, I was not prepared for what I was about to walk into.
didn't even know Your name/ But something happened deep
inside me/ And I knew life would have to change
Our very own WR Human Trafficking Squad has come home to the
United States for their last month of ministry. This is the first time a
WR Squad has served in the US. They are living and working with other
organizations in Atlanta to help fight the problem of human trafficking.
This month, one of the teams is working for the Not For Sale Campaign
as they prepare for a 5K called Free2Walk. This 5K will help promote
awareness of human trafficking in Atlanta and overseas.
