When we talk about restoring a victim of trafficking considerations must include if they have something to be restored to. Do they have anywhere or anything to which they want to return? (as in the definition above  by the American Heritage Dictionary:  “an original or normal condition; placed in a former position or location”) Perhaps that 26-year-old barely remembers her early childhood because of the trauma induced by violence or abuse. Maybe they don’t ever remember being safe, loved, or cared for. What if there isn’t a family looking for them, or anyone who cares if they are alive or not? What if this child has run multiple times from the home they are returned to because the abuse isn’t known or recognized…and the child votes with their feet?

If this is the case, as it often may be, speaking about restoration to them will ring hollow. The last thing they want is to be placed in a former position or location.

Instead our goal for transition homes must be to become a place of true redemption for the survivor. A place where they are brought back from the horror of trafficking, and given ownership again of their body, soul and spirit. A place where they find freedom from shame and abuse because they are now in a secured environment that allows them a safe place to learn who they are, and to become that person at their own pace. A place where they are given gifts of peace, self worth, recognition, and value as a child of God.

In this month of Easter remembrance Christians are very familiar with the price that was paid to buy us back from the authority of satan. The devil rightfully held a claim against us when our rights were forfeited to him through man’s disobedience to God. There was a debt of sin that had to be paid to bring us each into right standing again with a perfect God. And God was willing to let His only Son be born as a man on this earth, in order to become the sacrificial lamb to give His life for ours to redeem us back to our Father. I love that John 3:16 doesn’t say that God sent His Son, but that God gave His Son. His was the most precious gift He had, and He gave it freely for each of us to know Him.

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”
(1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT)

What a gift it is to a survivor of trafficking when they are offered not only a safe bed, provision, and protection that will restore them, but also the gift of redemption to know that they no longer belong to that former identity, but are free to become whomever a loving God designed them to be. They have been bought back (redeemed) from destruction and death.

“Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”
(1 Peter 1:23b NLT)

We are grateful that Jesus paid the price for each one of us to give us new life as His free gift. Let’s freely share the Gift with others.

Pastor Jo Lembo, Director of Faith Initiatives, Shared Hope International

Our world is rocked.  Our security feels threatened.  Our emotions may be ravaged. We’ve never lived through the craziness of a pandemic before. The ground beneath our beliefs is roiling, and we seek something solid on which to stand.

If you will, please allow me to share my journey.  When things reel out of control for me: The death of my father, my rock, when I was young and in a doomed marriage; the divorce that followed the next year; life as a single mom, a blended family challenge, and recently the death of my beloved mother.   Those were the times when my heart and mind searched for the absolute truth that has been my guide since childhood.  What does God have to say? And I find comfort in His words:

Psalms 27:5 “In His shelter in the day of trouble, that’s where you’ll find me; for He hides me there in His holiness; He has smuggled me into His secret place, where I’m kept safe and secure – out of reach from all my enemies.”

Psalms 68:20 “Our God is a mighty God who saves us over and over!  For the Lord, Yahweh, rescues us from the ways of death many times”

But what does that mean when we feel threatened by very real things like COVID-19? If the God who penned the words above feels distantly removed, then what are the words of the One who lived in this world with us and experienced pain as a human being?

John 16:33 “Everything I have taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”

Indeed, we live in a real world with very real pain.

To know the strength and confidence Jesus is promising, we need only look at the circumstance wrapped around those words of great hope that He offered. The stage was set in this passage:

John 13 “Jesus knew that the night before Passover would be his last night on earth before leaving this world to return to His Father’s side…and He longed to show them the full measure of His love. So before their evening meal had begun…”

The context of Jesus’s promise of peace and confidence was just hours before He knew He was to be brutally crucified.  He knew that he would be publicly humiliated and beaten, endure hours without food or sleep, experience the denial of His own followers, and die on a cross between two common criminals.  All of that was in His conscious mind, as His fate approached. And yet His concern was to comfort His followers, even the one who would betray Him later that night.

But He had peace.  And He promised we could have that same peace.

In that moment of realization, of who He is, and how He willingly came to this earth to give Himself for me, and that He did it all so I could be confident and have peace in this world of troubles; that is when my soul finds comfort.  That is when my mind rests.  That is when I don’t need to know what tomorrow holds.  For surely He is with me and He knows trouble and pain, and He’s already paid the price for me.

And in that moment when I cannot trust my feelings, I can stand still on the Solid Rock, knowing He will be with me through whatever comes tomorrow.

Jo Lembo, Director of Faith Initiatives | Shared Hope International

(All scriptures listed are The Passion Translation Bible)