Along with teaching English, Amos works with a group of people to bring love and hope to victims of sexual exploitation in North Africa. In this piece Amos reflects on the darkness that inevitably comes with this work and paints a picture of the difference that God’s light brings.
Walking, walking, walking. Waiting for God to move. Thinking and pondering, where is the Hope? Singing and crying, where is the freedom? Walking, walking, walking.
What began as walking around this wasteland of darkness and talking to our Father, has transformed into a myriad of beauty that displays the Father’s glory. Sometimes the darkest situations are simply that: very dark. Full of the hopeless, destitute, abused, and powerless. Need I go on? Stop. Jesus is. With Jesus the hopeless have hope, and the abused have healing, and the powerless have life. Jesus is. Jesus is the beauty in this wasteland – and now it’s a garden.
“Someone is trying to steal their humanity so we bring humanity to them.”
Now instead of walking around this garden, we are living in it. Jesus is and so we live. We live by hanging out and enjoying life with these lost victims of sexual exploitation. We talk and enjoy life with them and know their names and they know ours. We fellowship with them and hear their stories. We cry and pray with them. Someone is trying to steal their humanity so we bring humanity to them. We live and speak. She asks us, where is it? Where can my family and I be safe? The simple words: God loves you; Jesus loves you, invite them to the banquet table of honor and safety.
This garden is a place of meeting. We long and hope that they meet Jesus. As we drink tea together or eat couscous. As twenty of us gather around one dish sharing love and deliciousness. As we look into pain-filled eyes crying to be met. As we sit with them long past sunset, laughing with them and growing in unity. As we live with them – as family, for that is what they call us and we accept. As we see dark figures hovering and luring them into their cars, and their torturous and tortured hearts. As we see Jesus holding and caring for our family. The wasteland, the garden. We look around so glad to be in this place of meeting, because Jesus Is.
Please pray for Amos and those he partners with as they navigate a very complicated social issue with no easy solutions. Ask that they can practically be God’s hands and feet, and effectively share truth that will set these victims free.