As I rounded the corner on my walk this morning, I saw her. She was one of many that I saw this morning. It is spring break this week in our town and my usually quiet, sleepy neighborhood walk has been alive with children riding bikes, boys playing army, and her. She was dressed in a pink fluffy dress and was twirling round and round in her driveway. She leaped and lunged like she was performing a dance for an unknown audience. As I got closer to her, I saw that she had a dazzling tiara on her head; you know the kind with large plastic pink stones and in her hand a scepter, also with matching pink stones. No princess is complete without matching dress, tiara and scepter! She saw me as I finally walked past her house…her stage…her private kingdom. I smiled and waved. Embarrassed that I had been a witness of her play, she shyly cocked her head, smiled and ran for her front door. I giggled and continued on my route. As I traveled, I thought that is how every little girl’s life should be. Secure, safe, so carefree that twirling around in the driveway in your princess attire is the top priority of the day.
Sadly, it is not. Many little girls and women around the world don’t know the freedom of the little girl I saw today. Their lives are anything but free. They are trapped and enslaved by those that know only how to exploit and profit off of the lives of others. In Thailand her name may be Banjit, in India, Daya, in Indonesia, Melati, in China, Jing, in America, Jenny. Their locations and names may be different but their stories are very much the same. Some are promised jobs, some are promised wealth and some are promised provision for their families. Some have no where else to turn because they have no mother or father and have to provide for themselves. They are the girls and women that are trafficked and sold into slavery in the sex trade. There is said to be 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor and forced prostitution around the world today. Human slavery on every level. Forced prostitution,"the sex trade business" generates 32 billion dollars world wide annually. It is so easy for us to read statistics and click off, isn’t it? My mind can’t wrap around such largeness, so it is easy for me to ignore until I see a face or hear a story of one little girl.
It is hard to look at. But aren’t we called to take notice, to consider the helpless, those that are poor, weak and oppressed? In the days that we were walking in Thailand, the reality of this depravity would often hit me square in the face when I was in the market and saw an older man, usually with a white face, holding the hand of a young 12 to 14 year old Thai girl. My stomach would turn and disgust would fill my thoughts. To my shame, I wish I could tell you that I rescued that little girl or that I interjected something into the situation that changed the outcome of what I witnessed…but I did not. God has kept this stirring in my heart. Like only God can do, He has orchestrated details with an upcoming trip, that if He wills, I may interject into the lives of some of the above described. The only thing that I have worth interjecting is Him. Until the time that my eyes see their faces, He has me pleading for their freedom before His throne. The prayer He has laid on my heart is Psalm 82:3-4, Oh God, vindicate the weak and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted, the tired, the trapped, the sick and the destitute. Rescue the weak, the enslaved and the needy; Deliver them, snatch them out of the hand of the wicked and those that exploit and enslave for personal gain.
These girls and women who live within the shadows of red lights need advocates; People who will stand in the gap and those who will go and take the Truth of Jesus to them. Oh that those who are defined as “Red Light Girls” would no longer be so! That God’s story would be written over their lives and they would only have one defining word attached to their names….REDEEMED!
From red lights to redemption….
A serving of my heart,
Kim
Books I have been reading:
Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd
Rid of My Disgrace by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb
God in a Brothel by Daniel Walker
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Drinking From The Saucer by Kim Day
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sandpaper
I once heard a preacher refer to people who rub us the wrong way as, “holy sandpaper”. It painted quite the word picture in my mind. Sandpaper is irritating, gritty and harsh. All adjectives that I have observed in others and in myself as well! I like LOOKING at the sandpaper, describing those things that I think are abrasive and offensive. But sandpaper is a substance that is to be used on an object to smooth out roughness. It’s my roughness that God is trying to smooth, it’s my cracks and scratches that He is sanding out of my life so that I can reflect something beautiful…His workmanship…Him!
As long as we walk around in these bodies of flesh we will have our feelings hurt, have ample opportunities for misunderstandings and the chance to be offended will exist. What we do with those opportunities is our choice. But it is so hard…isn’t it? Especially when you think you are right? There was a woman, years ago who inflicted much pain in my life by things that she said and by her actions. I remember the day the Lord revealed the depth of unforgiveness that I was harboring toward her. I think the analogy of unforgiveness being like drinking poison but hoping the other person dies from it, is correct. The poison drained from my life that day as I open-palmed the woman and my unforgiveness to the One who can redeem any person or relationship. In the last 10 months, the Lord in His sovereignty has allowed me to put hands to my forgiveness. You see, the woman was one of my grandmothers. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last summer, and since then I have had the pleasure on many days to comb her hair, put her socks on, give her medicine, cook her meals and pray with her. Thank you Grace Giver!
It is a constant perspective check isn’t it? Will I hold to my own perspective and be offended or will I ask to have the Father’s perspective? Recently I ran across a writing of Elisabeth Elliot’s on this subject, a perspective shift for sure! She writes, “Insofar as her treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience that only the Spirit of God can produce in me, she is God’s messenger. God sends her in order that He may send me running to God for help.” That’s it isn’t it? Recognize it more quickly and run more swiftly to Him, my Source, the One who pours His perfect love into my imperfect heart.
Being Sanded,
Kim
As long as we walk around in these bodies of flesh we will have our feelings hurt, have ample opportunities for misunderstandings and the chance to be offended will exist. What we do with those opportunities is our choice. But it is so hard…isn’t it? Especially when you think you are right? There was a woman, years ago who inflicted much pain in my life by things that she said and by her actions. I remember the day the Lord revealed the depth of unforgiveness that I was harboring toward her. I think the analogy of unforgiveness being like drinking poison but hoping the other person dies from it, is correct. The poison drained from my life that day as I open-palmed the woman and my unforgiveness to the One who can redeem any person or relationship. In the last 10 months, the Lord in His sovereignty has allowed me to put hands to my forgiveness. You see, the woman was one of my grandmothers. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last summer, and since then I have had the pleasure on many days to comb her hair, put her socks on, give her medicine, cook her meals and pray with her. Thank you Grace Giver!
It is a constant perspective check isn’t it? Will I hold to my own perspective and be offended or will I ask to have the Father’s perspective? Recently I ran across a writing of Elisabeth Elliot’s on this subject, a perspective shift for sure! She writes, “Insofar as her treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience that only the Spirit of God can produce in me, she is God’s messenger. God sends her in order that He may send me running to God for help.” That’s it isn’t it? Recognize it more quickly and run more swiftly to Him, my Source, the One who pours His perfect love into my imperfect heart.
Being Sanded,
Kim
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Robin Ballet
As I walked today springtime robins were dancing everywhere! They were flitting on branches of budding trees and hopping in yards of emerging green. It was like a ballet. I have always been fascinated with birds. I have very early memories of being given a salt shaker as a little girl and told to go out in the backyard and try to put salt on a crow’s tail feathers. If I accomplished this great task, the crow would let me pick it up. It never happened but it wasn’t for the lack of trying. As a mother of grown children and a grandmother, I fully realize what this exercise was all about! No guilt here though… I might use it this summer when my three-year-old grand-girl comes to visit.
Raising our children in the Ozarks gave us ample opportunity to see God’s handiwork. One year for Mother’s day, Garrett made me a large bird feeder. It was large enough for multiple birds to be on at one time. At any given moment, it was like God would paint a picture for us using colors that were only on His paint pallet, as purple, turquoise and yellow finches would land. Then Missouri blue birds sporting their blue coats and coral vests and woodpeckers with their bright red top hats would come for the fare we were serving.
Birds show up in my writing and in my home. Almost every room has a touch of them somewhere; a nest with blue eggs, a picture, and two little red birds huddled together on a dresser. My nieces have asked, “What’s all this bird stuff in your house, aunt Kim?” I’ve been called “Birdie” and likened to an old woman. That’s okay because I know….I know the picture….I know what He has told me. You see I have seen a momma hen puff herself so big you thought she would explode as she gathered her chicks under her wings for their protection and rest. So when I read words like, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge”, I see that momma hen gather her chicks so tightly you would never know they are there and I realize my Father gathers me, hides me and protects me. And, as Ruth, I am constantly learning it is only under His wings that I can seek refuge and find rest.
As God invited Jim and me into this season of seeking, I had so many questions and no answers. I had fears and insecurities. How would we live? How would we pay the bills? What if we made a mistake? What would people think? Almost immediately after surrendering to what we believed He was asking us to do, a verse came to my mind, He was speaking to my heart, for that is His work regarding His children. Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” You know when God wants to make a point, to teach, it seems like you see or hear the same thing over and over? This verse has shown up miraculously over and over in the past ten months. It has been in devotions, in sermons and written on mirrors in antique stores! Why? So that the words are no longer words written in red on a page but words that are tattooed permanently on my heart. The questions? They still come, but today as I watched my “robin ballet” I was reminded again, He has it all under control. But most of all I was reminded again, He has me covered!
Eyes to the skies….
Love,
Birdie (aka Kim)
Psalm 91, Ruth 2:13, Deuteronomy 32:11, Matthew 23:27, Matthew 6:26
The Robin and the Sparrow
Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”
~~Unknown Author
Raising our children in the Ozarks gave us ample opportunity to see God’s handiwork. One year for Mother’s day, Garrett made me a large bird feeder. It was large enough for multiple birds to be on at one time. At any given moment, it was like God would paint a picture for us using colors that were only on His paint pallet, as purple, turquoise and yellow finches would land. Then Missouri blue birds sporting their blue coats and coral vests and woodpeckers with their bright red top hats would come for the fare we were serving.
Birds show up in my writing and in my home. Almost every room has a touch of them somewhere; a nest with blue eggs, a picture, and two little red birds huddled together on a dresser. My nieces have asked, “What’s all this bird stuff in your house, aunt Kim?” I’ve been called “Birdie” and likened to an old woman. That’s okay because I know….I know the picture….I know what He has told me. You see I have seen a momma hen puff herself so big you thought she would explode as she gathered her chicks under her wings for their protection and rest. So when I read words like, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge”, I see that momma hen gather her chicks so tightly you would never know they are there and I realize my Father gathers me, hides me and protects me. And, as Ruth, I am constantly learning it is only under His wings that I can seek refuge and find rest.
As God invited Jim and me into this season of seeking, I had so many questions and no answers. I had fears and insecurities. How would we live? How would we pay the bills? What if we made a mistake? What would people think? Almost immediately after surrendering to what we believed He was asking us to do, a verse came to my mind, He was speaking to my heart, for that is His work regarding His children. Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” You know when God wants to make a point, to teach, it seems like you see or hear the same thing over and over? This verse has shown up miraculously over and over in the past ten months. It has been in devotions, in sermons and written on mirrors in antique stores! Why? So that the words are no longer words written in red on a page but words that are tattooed permanently on my heart. The questions? They still come, but today as I watched my “robin ballet” I was reminded again, He has it all under control. But most of all I was reminded again, He has me covered!
Eyes to the skies….
Love,
Birdie (aka Kim)
Psalm 91, Ruth 2:13, Deuteronomy 32:11, Matthew 23:27, Matthew 6:26
The Robin and the Sparrow
Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”
~~Unknown Author
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