“God will make a way”.

So often, when we talk to our ladies on outreach, they express a wish to leave the hotel in which they are working. They tell us that they are unhappy with their situation, and they know that the work they are doing is not pleasing to God. They finish by saying “But God will make a way”.

Time and time again, I find myself saying (on the outside) and screaming (on the inside) “BUT HE ALREADY HAS”! Not only did God love these ladies enough to send His only to die on a cross for them, taking punishment for all of their sins,  but he sent people across the world to walk into their room and tell them about this love. All they need do is accept it, but so often they don’t. So often it feels like our words are falling on deaf ears and nothing is ever going to change.

It’s true that these ladies' lives have been tough. I could probably bring most of you to tears by writing some of their stories here: Stories of abuse; stories of rejection; stories of incomprehensible poverty; my list could go on, and there’s so much about them I don’t even know.

Some days it makes no sense. We’re offering them so much: Freedom in Christ and support and guidance as they turn their lives around. A place where they could stay ad not have to worry about rent, food or clothes. What do they have to leave behind except a tiny dark room, and a profession, which one-day will likely take their life, whether it be through illness or something else? Who would want to stay there? Why will they not just drop everything and leave with us?

Then, on other days, I realise the enormity of what we’re asking: If a girl grows up in a family that never tell her she has any value, and then through earning money she suddenly has a role; a position of significance and importance. She is the provider for many; the answer to their problems. No wonder it’s difficult to let go! Yes, we’re telling her about the love of her almighty Father in heaven, about the value she has in his eyes, and about how He longs for her to be his daughter, but how can we expect her to understand this when she has no Earthly comparison? Our family should be our first experience of what it is to be loved and cared for. If we’ve never known this, how can we understand something so much bigger? If we’ve had to suffer so much to receive what we feel is any appreciation, why would we let go of that, for something that honestly just sounds too good to be true!?! If our life has been full of broken promises and deceit, why would we believe anything that anyone has to say about anything?

I so often wish we could just pluck our ladies out of the repulsive place in which they are living, but they have to choose. They have to first be repulsed by where they are and what they’re doing. If not, it will only draw them back. God has made a way, but it’s only them who can choose to take it.