I desire God's broken heart.
I pray for a way to be made.
This is where the journey gets tough. When you finally kneel down at the starting blocks, steady yourself, take a deep breath and realize this is reality. This is happening. The gun will go off at any second and you have to run. You cannot stop once you are started. There is no pause button. Once you dedicate yourself to a life....it begins to get hard. It gets painful in a deeper way than you can imagine.
Praying for the broken heart of God has been one of the most powerful and life-changing prayers I have ever prayed. And it is a prayer I desperately hope every Christian prays.
Simple sympathy is not enough to change the world. It is barely enough to cause you to pick up a phone or write a check for a good charity, much less drive you to act upon injustice.
Tuesday during worship, I broke down and wept for a girl I have spoken to for several weeks now at one of the Red Light District locations we do ministry at. She is a young Pilipino girl, only a few months younger than me, with a beautiful son back home and heart still calling out to God for her baby. She told me Monday night that prays every day for him and we rejoiced together that she is returning home this week. I asked her if she would stay there, or if she would return. With her big brown eyes turned up to me, she says, "I want to stay home. I miss my son. Maybe I can stay home this time." Minutes later, she was being escorted out of the bar with a distinguished-looking western man. My ministry partner and I grabbed her and asked her if we could pray for her before she left. "Right here?!" She laughed and agreed. We prayed a blessing and protection over her and that she would not have to come back to Hong Kong after she goes home. She smiled, have us hangs and handshakes, and with a final adjustment to her dress, she walked out of the bar with a John. I watched in pain and agony. Even though I do not know her that well, I felt as if my own sister was being taken away. There was nothing I could do to stop this terrible injustice. I had not even realized the effect it had on me, until I was in worship. I cried, and I told God, "I don't want to cry! What's wrong with me?" Gently, He spoke to me, "Ashley. It's okay to have a broken heart over this. Its okay to weep for her. I understand the emotions that are running through you right now: anger, rage, fear, sadness, mourning and grief. I understand because I have the same thoughts, the same emotions. Let yourself cry. It is okay to be broken." I prayed and cried and prayed and cried some more. By time I left the floor where I had been kneeling, my chair was covered in tears, and my face ran with mascara. But my heart, though a little tender, felt more at peace. This is my life. This is what I do.
Last night, in another Red Light District area, I was speaking with a man I had met a few months ago. I turned to my right and glanced up the streets, only to see a man I had just been introduced to not two hours ago was trying to pick up one of the girls, caressing and putting his arm around her. He was one of Chuckie's friends, an oldish man who could have been their father.
Love146 is an organization that focuses on rescuing trafficked children. This quote below is what one of the staff said after an investigation into one of the brothels the little girls were being kept.
"All these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting...to take them all away..tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her." ~Love146
What will ours be?
Isaiah 61:1/7-8
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
~*~Leave a Legacy that will Make a Difference in the World Around You.~*~
I love you Ashley and the Lord loves you, and he is leading and guiding you to his broken and chosen ones, you are to be a part of the rescue team!! I am praying for you dear one!
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