Latest Trip update from New Zealand, written by Caitlin McAlvey, an FYM Participant. For all of you who know Brandon Benson, he is in New Zealand with Caitlin. Continue to pray for this team as they are in the front lines daily.
Up and down we walk. In and out of the streetlights we weave as we watch for the now familiar swagger of the drunken “Ladies of the Night.” They seem to hide from us, but it becomes obvious after a while that they cannot hide for long. Some welcome our simple conversation. Some run in the opposite direction across the street. Some drink in our American accents like the hidden liquor in their purses.
One such girl, Kina is her name, welcomes us with a warm hug and a kiss on the cheeck every time we see her. Not long will she talk, but the brief encounters we have with her are encouraging; letting us know our work on Hunter’s Plaza is making headway.
Every-so-often, though, do we feel fear. Maybe not complete fear. More like unease. “You’re unsafe out here.” “You don’t belong on these streets.” “You’ve better places to be.” We were constantly being told this. Listening to these words, we, or at least I, let doubt creep in for half a second; We aren’t safe. We don’t belong here. I could be in my bed right now, safe and sound asleep.
But we press on. We walk around corners and approach weary girls posing against trees, casually smoking, trying to look appealing. We stand in front of pimps who watch our every move. We make our presence and our purpose known.
As we walk home, we all become excited by sharing our stories of what had happened that night. We’re amazed by what God can do in us and through us; To be able to see these girls as wounded daughters of God…to see them as the Brides Christ wants them to be; to be able to love them the way they’ve never been loved, to show them the love they have only heard about.
God is faithful. He brings us out of our comfort zones and rewards us with friendships with the outcasts, with the ability to see the walking-wounded as Jesus sees them.
Father,
Continue breaking our hearts for what breaks yours.
