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Three days ago, I signed a statement promising I wouldn't tell anyone the location of a certain house.
My friend and I used a GPS to guide us to this safe place, and I’ve spent days using my heart to guide me back.
The place we visited housed girls involved in sex trafficking. We dropped off items others donated through a party with a purpose, but we didn’t leave gifts lining the wish lists of most teens. Nope, we left deodorant, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, and metallic wishes.
During this short visit, my eyes soaked up bits of life in this secret house: a small clothing area in a garage for girls who arrived without extra clothes, a Christmas tree with sparkling ornaments, delicate presents wrapped with bows, walls filled with art.
But the one item from this home that stood out to me the most was an over-sized trampoline. It stood alone outside as a quiet reminder that the girls who lived in this home were still kids, kids who liked to jump.
The trampoline made me wonder about living in secret and at what point one would decide to let go of some of life’s horrors and go jump, free of burdens and the much-too-heavy-weight stacked on tiny shoulders.
I think people associate hope with different objects: newborn babies, an orange sunrise, and blinking stars, but from now on, when I see a trampoline, I will remember these girls, and I will think of hope.
Question for you: What picture or mental snapshot from life reminds you of hope?
Linking with Jen.
20 comments:
this was heavy and sweet all at the same time, amy. i can only imagine all the feelings it brought out in you.
for me, the most recent snapshot of hope is my sister-in-law's headstone. for the dates of her birth and death, he wrote the words "born", and then "ascended." ascended. wraps hope right around my heart again, just like her entire life did. really, really beautiful of him to help us all think about her death in this way.
so blessed by your sharing this day and hope you had a fantastic Christmas!
steph
I am so glad you were able to minister to these girls in what they needed and boy when you see this it makes one realize kids want and should be kids. Love this again Miss Amy!
This is awesome. I cannot believe this problem is as huge as it is. Unbelievably heartbreaking, but you've reminded us all that we can make a difference. Inspirational, as always :)
Wow Amy, you find so many ways to serve and share with your online community. This sounds like a wonderful home to girls who really need it, I've just read through their website and I think it's great. I'll be sure to bookmark this for future donations. Thanks so much for continuing to share.
My heart aches at the thought of what these girls have endured. How precious that you ministered to them through things as simple to us as a bar of soap. To feel clean again, really clean...a gift only Jesus can give them (and us). Praising God right now for you and for those who have rescued these girls. May they find hope in many places in the months to come.
Daisies. Momma's favorite flower. And I KNOW she is in Heaven! Everytime I see a daisy, I am hopeful.
And the sweet faces of second graders- many of whom just need a smile from their teacher to feel love and hope.
Amy, what a beautiful post. I could see God healing their broken hearts and giving their legs back the youthful vitality necessary to just go jump.
I'm pondering and praying as I read this what I need to do to just jump myself!
Oh Amy, I can't help thinking that when you and your friends walked through that door to reach those girls, you enlarge their vision of hope.
This deeply touches my heart as all proceeds from my children's book (see the sidebar of my blog)will go to help children caught in the web of trafficking.
GOD bless Hope House and all who work to rescue these dear souls.
totally.crying.now.
Beautiful post. I will think of those girls every time I see carefree children enjoying a trampoline. May those girls one day experience that same carefree joy. Blessings! (Renee @http://reneeannsmith.com/)
A trampoline...for the little girls.
What a powerful post, a powerful image. And my image of hope? It would have to be sunflowers -- they always point to the light.
this week, i tasted hope when thinking on the dirty, lowly stable as the place were Jesus chose to come first. he wants to come, be right in the center of my messes and in the ugly chaos i feel these days.
Thank you for the sweet words on my blog today.
What a great post this is!! (We are donating a portion of our January sales to help a local sex trafficking organization...)
Amy, thank you for this vision of Hope. I wouldn't have thought that, but it's so true. My vision of hope is that of my autistic son who for the first time when to the "tippy top" of the MacDonald's play structure and then saying "Me not afraid!" Hope and the possibilities that still exist.
Awesomeness, as usual.
Wow, Amy. I will never look at a trampoline in the same way again. When I walk in the early morning as the sun is just peaking over the mountains, I am reminded that anything is possible. My hopes for the future are attainable.
My heart is aching, it needed to. Thank you again!
Wow - we really are unaware of the pain all around us sometimes, aren't we? Glad you had this experience and having read your thoughts, I will probably look at trampolines in a different way now, too.
I love this post and have had it starred for a comment for days now. This is an issue I'm very passionate about and I'm always glad to see more people helping to bring light to it. Hard to imagine that it goes on in our "back yard"... but it does.
And imagine, these *little* girls... and a trampoline.
Thank you.
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