reflections on our visit to The Refuge

Have you ever met someone who just radiates from the inside?  It’s like encountering sunlight trapped inside a body but oozing out from every pore,

and you know it has to be Jesus.  

Have you ever met someone who’s past just doesn’t line up with who they are today?  Someone who has been radically healed so that the deep wounds instead of marring the finished vessel only add grace and beauty, 

and you know it has to be Jesus.  

That is what it’s like to talk to and walk with women who have been rescued from the sex industry.  That is what I loved most about our recent visit to The Refuge for Women.

I have been just one of many visitors over the years to be welcomed to the refuge with hugs.  It is the first thing each resident encounters when they enter their new home and they learn the lesson well.   “Jesus loves me this I know…” it’s a new concept for these women and one that must be often repeated and continually modeled.  Sometimes it takes longer than others - but they get it.  These staff who radically love them are only a mirror image of an enormous God who loves them infinitely more and who has been pursuing them with His love all along.    

As we got to sit in on classes, and processing, share meals and hear life stories I was blessed by what radiant and real Christians these women now are.  Their worldview is astounding.  They understand sin and forgiveness, God and mankind far better than many of the people lining our pews today.  

Sometimes we are tempted to believe that someone is unreachable.  Or when we come face to face with the horrors of the sex industry we may think these women can be rescued and even perhaps redeemed but restored?  In these moments of doubt we reveal our very small view of God.  How could the effects of sin ever be greater than His power?  

The women who graduate from the refuge are a shinning example of the transforming and healing power of the gospel.  And when God begins something - He finishes it.  Yes, He CAN completely restore these women.  The amazing thing is He has chosen us as tools to accomplish that.  

I encourage you to visit the refuge’s website and listen to some of the stories of these women from their own mouths.  May you come away encouraged by the work being done there and burdened to see many more women and girls in the sex industry reached.    

www.refugeforwomen.org 

      
~ Tabitha