Amazing Grace

     I won't be taking summer classes, working a part time job, or lounging around on the beach (although that option does sound very tempting). My summer will be spent in the great state of Oklahoma, working alongside 6 other summer missionaries and various staff members at a faith-based abuse shelter for women. The shelter houses women who have been domestically abused and/or sex trafficked. The other missionaries and I will be serving as house staff helping with administrative duties, cleaning, cooking, and organizing. There is so much to do around the center with approximately 30 to 40 women and children living here. For more information about the shelter and how you can donate visit: http://www.dayspringvilla.com/.

     We arrived here Wednesday, May 22 and spent the day getting acquainted with the facilities and staff. Thursday we hit the ground running and started our training. The next couple of days were pretty intense with an abundance of information about abuse and sex trafficking that made our hearts very heavy. But, it didn't truly hit home for me until the evening before I was supposed to start shadowing the staff members. On this particular occasion we received our first new guest since I had arrived. As she was getting everything in order two other missionaries and I stayed with her toddler son as he laid down to sleep. He was exhausted and scared without his mother and was quietly crying. I sat down next to him with the other two girls across from us. The three of us started to sing him Amazing Grace and he slowly stopped crying and looked at each of us with his big innocent eyes. We continued to sing and he slowly slipped his little hand into mine and it took everything in me not to break down in tears right then and there.

     The women and children we are working with have been through some of the most terrifying and horrific experiences, yet they are still able to go to church on Sundays and praise Jesus. It is amazing to see how He is working in each of their lives and I ask everyone to please lift up prayers for each and every one of them. The thing that makes DaySpring so unique is that we are faith-based and live for Jesus. I honestly don't think that anything can help truly heal these women besides Him. I am so thankful to be serving here this summer and cannot wait to share all that He is teaching me through my experience.

Until next time,
Lindsay