At our last Loudoun HTTF meeting, we shared reports
and began to talk about our next action step. During the discussion Amanda spoke
up and said we needed to be mindful of being good stewards of what God has given
to us.
At that point, we stopped and spent the rest of
our time in prayer that the Holy Spirit led us to God's will, to be good
stewards of what He has given us.
My personal impressions from that prayer session
were: be hands and feet, be good stewards, allow God to open doors.
Here were the immediate results:
Networking
In our time: we were asked to create a “Round
Table”. To bring together non-profits working with human trafficking, social
workers, law enforcement, shelters and others to a “round table” to discuss how
to approach the problem of human trafficking in our area. The planning was a
dismal failure. Why? Because in retrospect that idea wasn't in God's planning
& timing for US.
In God's time: His plan was for someone
else to create the network in our northern Virginia area. Someone who had more
clout and was paid to do the work. We were invited to attend a Northern Virginia
Human Trafficking Forum. When the forum plenary session started we all looked at
each other and went “Wow!”. It was almost exactly what was envisioned for the
“Round Table”.
Note to self: For me personally,
it was a defining moment. A reminder that we may even see the vision, but we
need to let God tell us when to move. We didn't need to do the work, we simply
needed to show up and be the...
...Hands and feet Through out the day, there were several
conversations with various organizations that had needs for hands and feet
(people). Several requests were specifically for people of faith. Some of these
specific requests were:
we need counselors
we need hotline workerswe need people to hold hands
we need families to mentor survivors
we need supplies to fill the houses and rooms of the survivors
we want to work together with others
Gee whiz, guess
what? We have hands and feet (people) that want to serve. This is that
opportunity (open doors) to be good stewards of people that God has connected us
with other the last year.
Our perceived needs: We have been needing
some simple cold, hard facts that human trafficking does exists in Northern
Virginia as ammunition for naysayers we are running into. When we entered the
forum, in our folders was a hand out from the U.S. District Attorneys office. It
was 6 pages of convictions over the last year of human trafficking cases:
domestic, labor and sex trafficking.
In conclusion, my recommendations for our team: we
are going to be spending a lot more time in prayer. Allowing God to led us and
only move when we are sure it's a door that God is opening.
