On the table sat a half finished puzzle, the tiny pieces strewn about in organized chaos, each ready to be given a place within the still-being-created-image. Two of my teammates were hunched over the table, trying to contribute to the ongoing project by placing one, maybe two pieces right where they needed to go. I plopped down into a chair beside them, picked up a cardboard puzzle piece, and began trying to slip it into its rightful place.
I've never really been much of a puzzle girl. If I'm being perfectly honest, I usually just get frustrated and quit. I'd rather have a dance party or go for ice cream.
As I haphazardly tried to shove my piece into places where it just didn't fit, I glanced around for the box with a picture on the front to give me a vision, something to work towards.
Nothing.
So as my teammates continued trying to improve the cause, even just by one little baby step...I up and walked away.
Here in Guatemala, my Kingdom Journeys team and I will be working primarily with women who are single mothers. In the Philippines and Thailand our work will involve spiritually supporting women women and girls (yes girls) coming out of trafficking and prostitution.
I believe that one of our greatest sins as a culture and a generation is the normalization of sex as a commodity. Girls worldwide become women in the midst of innocence, young boys are exposed to images their hearts and minds are not prepared for. The "entertainment" of Game of Thrones and 50 Shades of Gray make pornography accessible in ways that it never has been before and the sinful desires of our flesh simply cannot handle it.
Sex outside of God's design has existed for thousands of years, but I truly believe it is now destroying lives at a rate that it never has before.
But....
But God.
God's word teaches that He is our Father. He is our redeemer. He is our husband and our friend. He is a God who believes and who seeks justice. Our God loves and wants our love.
And He is a God who hopes.
And because I serve a God who hopes... I too have hope.
I have hope for freedom and restoration...I have hope for more.
With hope, I believe comes action.
For a long time, action meant everything. Every. Single. Thing.
But now I know thats not the case.
Thinking back to the puzzle sitting on the plastic patio table, just waiting to be assembled,I'm reminded of what I am doing for the next six months. My Kingdom Journeys Team is made whole by many pieces...each of us, and our ministry partners. Each prayer warrior and and each financial supporter. The women who went before us and the ones who will come after. The men who are at home cheering us on, and many many more.
It is my firm belief that we can't do it all well, but we can do our part.
When it comes to the issue of prostitution and human trafficking, we cannot be the ones preventing and rescuing. Or educating and rehabilitating, we can't all go, and we can't all fund.
But we can hold our piece if the puzzle in our hands and find just where it fits.
We can all do our part, and do it well.
Right now, in this season, Kingdom Journeys and Beauty for Ashes is the piece that I am holding, the one I'm placing in the puzzle. Eventually it will sit in it's rightful place of an increasingly completed puzzle, and I will pick up the next.
Lord help me to do my part well. Help me not to push my chair back and walk away. Place my hand where you want it to go and create the beauty that you are building.
It is my firm belief that God wants to END sex trafficking and prostitution...and He wants to use us to do it.
What's your part? What puzzle piece do you hold?
Is it funding? Is it reading and learning? Is it praying?
Maybe you are currently caught in the web of sexual sin and your hands and arms are too entangled to even begin picking up a puzzle piece.
There is hope.
He has that piece in His hands, and wants to give it to you. Cry out to Him. He is near... and you are not alone.
And just like that puzzle, we may not be able to see the whole beautiful finished creation...but He can.
And He is asking you to hope.