Desperate for Hope

Have you ever known what it is like to be truly tired? I mean soul tired; to feel vulnerable and exposed. So tired that you desire nothing more than to shut yourself in a room and hide under the covers for days? Can you imagine being this tired and yet not getting a solitary moment to yourself? Women all over the world experience this on a daily basis.

Meet a young woman named Kyla. Kyla was freed from human sex trafficking and is currently in a program recovering from a forced heroin addiction (more on forced addiction in a future post). She states that she is speaking out in order to help other women who are trapped. She remembers having to service 30 to 60+ men each day. Kyla is happy to be free, and yet her eyes are void of hope. She lacks true freedom; a real and vibrant hope that only God can offer. She has been beaten, abused, looked down on, abandoned and forgotten. She wears a cloak of shame as if it is were made just for her. She has never been able to hear a loving Father say, “When you look to me you will be radiant; no shadow of shame will darken your face” (Ps. 34:5).

This is where Blazing Hope Ranch comes in. This is how we are different. Each woman deserves to be treated with the dignity and respect that she possesses as a beautiful creation of a compassionate God. We will love her through her distrust and anger, questions and pain. Many women coming into our program will not trust our kindness, and why should they? Kindness is not something they received often and typically when they did it was entangled with sexual expectation. Blazing Hope offers women an opportunity to come face to face with Jesus Christ through our actions, words, and relationship.

I think of Jesus standing with the broken woman at the well. And of others like Rahab and Zacchaeus. What these individuals have in common is a willingness to give up what they knew. They were willing to step out in faith and grab hold of the hope that something better was waiting past the guilt and the shame. God loved them where they were and knew that being in His presence would change them. Likewise, the ranch loves these women where they are while showing (through word and deed) the love, comfort, and peace that only God can provide.

Where do women go once they have been rescued from a life of sex trafficking? How do they find true freedom in order to be the woman God has designed them to be? At the foot of the cross. His sacrifice shines blazing hope into a hurting world. The cross stands waiting for them. It waits for you too. Where do you go when the pain and struggles of life wear you down? The cross is the only place where we can all truly find rest for our tired souls.