Hope is bigger than anger.

I am going to share with you a video that was shown to me and a group of women this weekend.  I am going to go ahead and assume some of the feelings you may have after you watch this particular one, and the next few I will share, but I'm not going to type those words until after the video.  I do want you to ponder the same questions I was asked to think on while watching this video the first time.
What do you see?
What do you hear?
What do you feel?


(89 Victims of Human Trafficking Rescued (Covert Footage) from The Exodus Road on Vimeo.)

I was intrigued at the beginning of this video when I first watched it.  I was curious about what this would look like.  My adrenaline sent my heart into slight palpitations, then my hands began to sweat a little and I started wondering what was going to happen? What was this going to look like? I got a lot angrier during this short, less than 5 minute, video than I have been in a long time.  I cried but it wasn't a sobbing cry or an ugly cry. And y'all, I ugly cried a LOT at Allume this weekend. This cry allowed me to shed tears of hope. God put it on my heart during this video not to focus on the part that made me angry but to see Him working through this. The fact that there is even a video like this.  That there is a group of people who have been called to set people free because they have been set free themselves just resonated throughout the entire last minutes of this video for me. So, y'all, get angry.  Get fire breathing, ugly cry angry, but then let it go. Choose to seek the hope from this story. Then, I challenge you to do something.

Over the next few days and weeks I will be giving you the opportunity to respond to this challenge.  I have some ideas and ways you can help raise awareness and support.  Right now, I just want this to sit with you for a day or two.  I want you to pray about it and search your heart and listen and seek if God is calling you to be a part of this.  If you have questions before then you can shoot me an e-mail or go to their website, The Exodus Road.  Until then, allow yourself to feel those emotions but don't let them overwhelm you.  Allow yourself to choose hope because hope is so much greater than anger.

Introduction to The Exodus Road and Freeset

This weekend I went to Allume.  My amazing friend Jessica was the catalyst that helped it all happen but that is a story for another time.  This weekend blew me away.  If you caught any of my tweets or instagram pictures you might have caught a theme among them.  God broke me this weekend.  God broke me BUT then He set me free. Many emotions and feelings have overcome my body that I still need a little time to process and hash all of that out in words so I ask for a little grace in the down time.

While I am processing the new burdens and convictions in my life I want to share one of them with you.  I was given the opportunity to learn and work with two incredible organizations this weekend.  The Exodus Road and Freeset.  These organizations have made it their mission to set individuals shackled by the sex trade free.  The Exodus Road goes in and basically does the work of a top notch SWAT team.  Freeset gives those individuals a safe place (i.e. shelter, job/trade, safety, JESUS) after the shackles have been jerked from the wall.  Now, these two organizations do not currently work together currently but they are doing equally good work.  I am going to show you two videos; one from each organization.  After watching these videos I ask you to process them.  Process how they make you feel.  Process if the Lord has laid it on your heart to help me support these organizations.  Over the next few weeks I will be introducing you to products (hello, giveaways), videos, and other ways you can get involved in supporting these organizations.  And just before you think I am going to just ask and ask for money, you are wrong.  Support isn't always in a monetary form.

FreeSet Video

The Exodus Road Video

1 down. 2 to go.

We made it.  Today is the last day of class for my first semester of grad school.  It's a pretty amazing feeling but one I couldn't have come to on my own.  I have truly been blessed with a beyond supportive support system.  The people I've been blessed with have given selflessly to my journey.  To the journey my family is taking.  I have never walked more than a few steps this summer without somebody by my side, encouraging me, praying for me, hugging me, or reading over my papers!  I feel a sense of accomplishment but I cannot claim it in its entirety.  Josh has been so supportive over the last few months, he's stepped up to the plate as husband, provider, daddy and occasionally mommy.  Knowing he was in my corner and holding me up when I got weak gave me strength this entire semester.  The Lord truly blessed me with an amazing man.  My sweet girls, even though they don't know it, have given me the fire to fight through the complaining, the days where I wanted to do nothing, and the overall feeling of ignorance.  They constantly remind me of how far I've been able to come, how strong the Lord has made me and how much stronger I am today than even three years ago.  They are both always ready with a smile or a kiss or a laugh and a constant reminder that "I am Mama Bear! Hear me roar!".  My parents have always been supportive of me but they have gone above and beyond by not only supporting me but supporting my husband and my children.  They have truly proven that you never stop providing for your children.  This would be so much harder without them and their support and their love for our children.  Josh's parents have been equally loving on our sweet girls.  Any opportunity they have to gather our girls up in their arms they willingly take, even if it might be at an inconvenient time.  My girls have never been an inconvenience to either set of grandparents and I will be forever grateful.  Our church community has surround us, with love, support and prayers.  Constant prayers.  I know, that on a daily basis, somebody in our community group and our church is praying for me.  For the journey our family is on.  For my husband.  For my girls.  We've got amazing friends and family scattered all over the world and I know that in those in between moments where somebody from Exodus isn't praying for our family that those special people are.  God is so good.
This next semester is going to be pretty intense but it won't be a sprint it will be a marathon.  I am still a little apprehensive about what the course load seems to be but with a support system like the one I've been blessed with, I'm sure the breakdowns and freak outs I am sure to have will only happen every two weeks instead of every week or every day.