Gold in the gaps
Lack of sleep has sent me to the sofa. The night is pitch dark and silent. Slowly and soundless, I pick up a book. Trying not to cause the silence to cease. Maximising the sleepless moment by reading truth and taking in a special moment.
Ten minutes go by and I decide that it is time again to try falling asleep. A 50 kroner note lies on the table and I pick it up to use it as a book mark in the book.
As I stand up from the couch to go to bed, my 50 kroner note bookmark falls out and lands and gets stuck in the couch gap. As it landed there, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about gold & gaps.
Gaps rarely feel golden... It seems hard and rare to find "50 kroner notes" in our gaps. Whether it's a gap of finances, relationships or meaning in our lives, a gap seems to scream for our attention! "Hey, look at this! This is not enough, you are not enough, this is empty, not developed, not yet filled...."
In gaps and cracks, things can get stuck and dirt can easily snuck in. It can do so in a physical gap and it can do so in an emotional or spiritual one too. It is like the natural and the spiritual in life never fail to reveal something about 'each other'.
When I experience a gap, I know I am vulnerable to attack. I need to have guards up to protect my gap from making my mindset muddy!
But gold can also be found in the gaps if we pay attention. It could have been easy to miss the 50 kroner in my sofa gap!
Gold & gaps are probably more intertwined than I might have realized.
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Japanese artists literally repair broken things with gold in their art tradition kintsugi. The idea that broken things and adversity can make something and someone more beautiful is actually mind-blowing. It makes pottery and people alike into stunning, unique masterpieces.
In the gaps and cracks, there are beautiful treasures to look for.
Beautiful treasures of patient endurance and reminding ourselves of promises like these:
"Even the strong and wealthy grow weak and hungry, but those who passionately pursue the Lord will never lack any good thing." Psalms 34,10 TPT.
"The lovers of God will have more than enough" Prov.13,25 TPT.
God is remaking us into a people invincible. (Micah 4,13 MSG) A people incapable of being conquered, defeated or subdued! A people that is ever transformed in the Potter's hands, ever filled with His abundance in our gaps.
Therefore, endure in the gap. Be patient with yourself in the gap. It is working well-formed maturity in you. Fill the gaps with His word and friends' empowering truth over you.
It is not as it seems. His power is made perfect in our weakness. You will bend but not break.
Dare to believe, there is gold in the gaps.
Heaven is near & Jesus of abundance is here.
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Dip your toe in the water
Me. Myself. I. Words that normally would equal selfish to me! But I think there is actually more than one side to these words! They might have gotten too bad of a rap.
This post is some thoughts on how it can be easy to neglect ourselves in the name of selflessness! Thus avoid all that has to do with self so we can be selfless people, living for others. I know at least this lie has lived inside of me!
But I want to learn from Jesus who is the perfect example of being truly connected to His true identity as the Son of God. In order for me to walk in His footsteps and look like Him more and more, I realise how okay it is to know myself - strengths and weaknesses - so that I can be loved and embraced, with flaws and all.
It is also great to be self-aware (without being consumed by self-consciousness) so I can see parts of me I have orphaned, parts that still need the healing touch of Christ, and also to the rejoice over the parts of my self that Jesus' love has transformed.
Me, myself and I are therefore not to be shameful words which need to be avoided in the pursuit of being selfless! I think Augustine had a good point when he wrote in Confessions:
“How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self?”
My own self is what needs to be honestly engaged in my relationship with God and others. Otherwise the relationship is just hypocrisy. Without engaging my own - at times - selfish, fleshly self, I live without wholeheartedness, not fully alive and just numb. A way I have lived but refuse to live anymore.
Instead I am waking up and rising up to the challenge of becoming aware of where numbness creeps into my life.
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'Cause to live from the inside out, wholeheartedly, I need to be curious about the movements of my heart. My heart from where life flows. It is all about emotionally healthy spirituality. It's about truth and understanding. Of myself and others.
As I have begun dipping my toe in the water - into the depths of my own soul - I have found help in different tools.
First of all, community with fellow believers and seeing myself reflected in the pages of the bible, that's a no-brainer!
But tools like the Enneagram and Meyers Briggs (Use whatever tool you trust and unlock something in your heart) have also had impact on my ability to get aware of my own blind spots.
Used wisely, tools like these are not to put myself in a box but rather to help me break out of them. They can truly help turn blind spots into sweet spots. In cooperation with the Holy Spirit, they can serve as ways to get curious...
They can reveal how I go about a problem and why I go about a problem like I do.
What's my go-to defense mechanism?
What makes me tick?
What am I hiding behind?
We need to be willing to observe our resistance to reality and our attachment to our old self. It is all about taking off the old to lay hold of the new life Jesus has for us.
"We have to be whole to be wholehearted, and reclaim and reconnect with the parts of ourselves we have orphaned." (Brene Brown)
It is so sad to think about how we orphan parts of ourselves!
I have orphaned myself at times because I have been terrified of being a separate self, an individual who must assert myself against others. I would often rather melt and merge into someone else or quietly follow my idyllic daydreams. This default to hide is not awesome. Also, I can easily feel over responsible for others and under responsible for myself.
Therefore I have to be aware of this pattern that when orphaned turn into numbing out and people pleasing where I unconsciously communicate, "Sorry for taking up space! Sorry for breathing!"
Thankfully, I do not have to stay this way!
When I begin to have a grace culture for my own heart, everything has permission to rise to the surface! Also all the nasty stuff! When light invades in to the dark corners of my soul, I can then - and first then - fruitfully light up the darkness around me. Therefore we should not fear digging deep!
We do not look inside to be introspective or to overanalyse ourselves to pieces. That will just turn out to be super overwhelming! We cannot fix or heal ourselves. Instead, we engage the Spirit to do His work in us.
Step by step, little by little, I trust our love will overflow more and more, and that we will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. (Phil 1,9 NLT)
Getting to know ourselves that we might know God is the discipleship work of a lifetime!
So - dive in.
Explore.
Go ahead and dip a toe in the water! YOU are important.
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I love the word victory. 'Cause who really loves defeat and struggle? I think everyone enjoys winning!
The dictionary defines victory among other things as the overcoming of an enemy, the achievement of mastery or success in a struggle or endeavor against odds or difficulties.
Time to unpack
I want to enter the new year light. I want to enter the new year NEW. Therefore, it is time to unpack.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2. Cor.5,17 NIV)
When I started dating my boyfriend, this verse was pivotal in how we wanted to build and shape our relationship. We were aware that we both had baggage we brought into each other's lives and we knew this truth was something we wanted to cling to. The old has gone, the new is here.
We do not want any of us to be defined by our pasts. BUT in reality there is stuff of emotional baggage to unpack before the new can enter and be enjoyed to the full. This becomes so obvious in a relationship!
What we personally experience is that the conflicts arising in our relationship rarely has much to do with the real situation in front of us. It makes sense with these facts I've heard that normally a conflict is only 10 % about the current situation. 90 % of the conflict arises because of past emotions and fears in a similar situation.
The past can easily have power over us if we do not intentionally help each other unpack it.
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A suitcase that needs unpacking was lately revealed to me. It was a suitcase I dragged along that caused recurring conflict in our relationship.
Thankfully, God helped me see differently. Clearly. So that I do not keep punishing the one in front of me for the mistakes made by the one behind me.
Holy Spirit showed me how I am still carrying a suitcase of emotional baggage because of past betrayal. A betrayal that led to hurt, pain, fear, anger, jealousy, doubt & distrust.
Ugly, I know.
I know too though that I’m not alone in this.
Everyone comes with baggage.
Therefore, we resolved early on in our relationship to be courageous and to not fear the shadowy side of the past that every one of us carries.
A part of being courageous is to own our own journey and the wounds it has caused. Another part of being courageous is to be willing to “feel it to heal it.”
It takes courage to do so but it is necessary if we want to live and stand firm in the new life that has already been purchased for us. It is necessary to be courageous in these ways when we want to refuse to let shadows of our past hold our futures hostage.
Do yourself a favor and read Graham Cooke’s stuff full of revelation!! I love this quote from ”Provision & Partnership”:
"The place of struggle is always the place of your breakthrough, but the first thing that has to be broken through in a struggle is you.
It's your mindset, it's your willingness to trust, your willingness to believe the Lord, and your willingness to step into a miracle."
Yes. Struggle - past - present - future - can become birthing ground for miracles when we choose not to let our past define, destroy, deter or defeat us. We can let it refine us and move on and leave it behind us.
Our baggage isn't too heavy for Jesus! With him our past does not have to make us bitter. It can make us better.
New days, new beginnings & new chances await us. New new new. Our Father makes ALL things new.
Jesus is with us. Love goes before us. Therefore, I'll choose trust for the new year! To not trust will just make me miserable anyway!
Let’s pack light for 2016 and keep pressing forward. (Phil 3,13)
Future, I’m so ready for ya.
"Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.
The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!
All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other." (2 Cor 5,17 MSG)
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When passion arose
People have asked me how I got this passion to reach out to sex trafficked women in Copenhagen. So here goes; a tiny glimpse into my thoughts on passion and purpose...
Theologian Frederich Buechner describes the place God calls us to as a place where our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. In this fusion, passion arises. At least that's my experience.
In 2012, I was exposed to a place in the world aching for truth and light to prevail over the darkness reigning there. Red Light District in Phuket, Thailand is a dark, ugly place. Filled with prostitutes, pimps, abuse, lust, perversion and manipulation. It is literally the devil's playground. A playground that makes sin look fun, satisfying and glamorous. It's so distorted.
Strangely, it was a joyful place for me because I came alive. Alive to the love and redemption of Jesus. Alive to how God could use a broken woman like me. Alive to the lost and the broken around me. Alive to my gifts and talents. Alive to my calling. I found something I could do forever. Serve and love and shine my light where it was really needed. All for the cause of Christ.
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By the grace of God, I didn't forget what I had experienced when I returned to Denmark. I knew I could never again say I didn’t’ know sex trafficking happened in my lifetime. Suddenly I knew prostitutes by name. I was their friend in whom they trusted. I was changed forever.
So back home, I actively waited and committed my future to Jesus. I built up my faith in the Word, worship, community and prayer. I prayed that doors would open for me to serve prostitutes in Copenhagen but I was willing to serve wherever.
10 months later, Night Light Café was launched (April 2013) and I committed myself to serve from the outset. Such a prayer answer! Now, I am leading the place together with two other amazing women. (Night Light Café is a place that seeks to place value upon womanhood. We meet sex trafficked women at Istedgade with dignity and spiritual care three nights a week.)
Passion is so important. Lack of passion is actually fatal. Passion spurs us onward. Passion makes us want to go the extra mile. Passion makes people want to follow. Many of us can do great things without having the right reasons behind why we are doing so. A person doing heroic things out of duty does not inspire. It shines through at one point what is fuelling us. Is our right doing producing good or bitter fruit?
Passion is not something we muster up but something we receive by walking closely with God. As we do walk with Him, He is transforming our hearts to be passionate about what He is passionate about. And God is passionate about people!
Godly passions come naturally when we truly see how passionate He is about us. He is FOR us! He is jealous for us to belong to Him and to make us into His beautiful likeness. His passion involves strong emotions too.
"How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?" (Psalm 79:5 ESV)
God is jealous to take everything away that is hindering us from intimacy with Him.
We are not saved to live numb lives enslaved to fleshly passions. We are saved to immerse ourselves in an even greater passion than our fleshly passions, namely a passion for the name of Jesus to be made famous in the earth.
We can never become too passionate about Jesus. I'm so happy that Jesus was passionate enough about me that He would go to the cross!
Evangelist John Wesley's famous quote is too good not to post: "Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn."
Feelings only will not sustain passion. Ongoing obedience will.
I pray we will experience how passionate God is about us. And I pray for God's refining fire in our lives that will make us more like Him and replace old, fleshly passions with brand new, godly passions.
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A garden of celebration
Okay, so life is really good right now. I am blessed beyond measure and overwhelmed by God’s goodness and care for me. He has truly led me to a steady, nourishing place relationally, spiritually and emotionally.
It can scare me as well though that life is SO good. Because what now? Does it mean that God has moved on and is busy with only His children that are really struggling hard? That I am forgotten? Left to myself?
A half year ago, the ministry I am a part of, was challenging and growing me. It was a stretch to lead a volunteer team and pray and lead devotionals for prostitutes at night.
Now the same tasks and responsibilities do not demand as much energy from me anymore. Things have just become easy. I am still grateful to serve there and God is still moving. But I am sometimes bored because what stretched me before, has become a comfort zone now.
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There is definitely a danger in being comfortable and content. The danger of just going through the motions and not involving God in what I am doing. Guilt and condemnation can easily creep in because are you not you supposed to always be out of your comfort zone? And is it not supposed to always feel new and exciting when you do something as meaningful as reaching out to the prostitutes in your city?
In my restlessness and longing for more, JESUS met me afresh with His comforting peace. He reassured me about where I am in life right now and told me to just keep abiding in Him. To keep pressing in and keep on keeping on. He is not far from me even though I am in a comfortable spot right now.
He revealed to me how He is like a Gardener going through His garden, that is my life. He enjoys looking upon what He has sown there, how it has grown into flowers, and how He Himself has made dry spots into a well-watered garden. Like a Gardener watches over his garden in each season, God's gaze is ever towards me. I am the garden He rests in and tends by pruning, cultivating and producing fruit. He fills the garden up with Himself. He births and shapes ideas and visions in this garden of my heart. He Himself provides the Living Water and He is the Light. He does it all. My part of the labor is to yield and receive until I overflow.
So instead of doubting if I am in a healthy, growing place in my life, I sense the Lord's invitation to CELEBRATE! He is smiling at the flowers He has made blossom in my life.
I know, in His perfect timing, He will call me out of this comfortable place I am in and begin birthing and watering the new seeds that are already forming on the inside of me. Calling me to take new territory for the Kingdom. To risk, dream and create afresh.
“The land you are entering to take up ownership isn’t like Egypt, the land you left, where you had to plant your own seed and water it yourselves as in a vegetable garden.
But the land you are about to cross the river and take for your own is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water that rains from the sky. It’s a land that God, your God, personally tends—he’s the gardener—he alone keeps his eye on it all year long.” (Deutoronomy 11:10-12 MSG)
Beautiful promises here. We are not left to ourselves. This journey of life consists of both mountains and valleys. And Gardener God keeps his eye on it ALL YEAR LONG. In each season.
If you are also in an easy, comfortable season with the urge on the inside for more; God sees you too. He does not operate from a measure mindset so that He only sees the one struggling more than you. He sees both the downcast and the joyful. He sees YOU.
I pray we will invite God to design the garden of our hearts. I pray we will let God celebrate what is already flourishing in our lives. And I pray we will trust His commitment to see the seeds planted in our gardens grow up and be all it was meant to be.
Let us abide. Let us press in. We are not forgotten. God prunes us even in good times so that we may bear more fruit.
“In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.” (James 1,19 MSG)
Enjoy your season! His gaze is on you.
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A Light in the Deepest Darkness
I’m so excited to celebrate the incredible season of Easter!
One of the ways, I am going to celebrate (besides being in church and by eating lots of Easter eggs of course!) is by spending time with my friends caught up in human trafficking here in Copenhagen.
I, along with two other amazing women, head up the Night Light Café at Vesterbro. The café was established two years ago with the goal of reaching foreign women in trafficking with the love of Christ. The name ‘Night Light Café’ is inspired by John 1:5 that says:
“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
On the 1st of April, we expect around 80 trafficked women to attend an Easter event we are hosting where there will be food, songs and handmade gifts for all the ladies. We want to declare the message of Easter loud and clear: † = ♡. We want to declare it so clearly that it overshadows the pain and shame ruling in these precious women’s hearts!
The café is a place of spiritual nourishment and rest for the women in the midst of endless demands from their traffickers and customers. We are currently open two nights a week and have a volunteer group of 40 women from different church backgrounds. We love the unity and support we receive from churches for this Kingdom cause and how we can stand together to spread light and hope in a place that is literally the devil’s playground.
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The cross truly equals unconditional love. On the cross, Jesus loved us back to life, and therefore we have a desire to embrace people in the midst of their brokenness, just as Christ continuously does for us.
This unusual love compels us to humble ourselves and follow in the footsteps of our Saviour. We no longer live for ourselves, we live for Him and our hearts are moved by what God’s heart is moved by - broken humanity.
Life with Jesus is not always glamorous outwardly but it is glorious inwardly. It is not always glamorous to spend my Saturday nights with people, who are considered outcasts by society. But the sweet presence of God is gloriously manifested in the deepest darkness. The women I meet are absolute treasures. They teach me so much by their strong faith and perseverance in the midst of their tragic situation.
I am reminded this Easter, how service is not a path to greatness. Service is greatness. That’s truly what our beautiful Jesus displayed to us on the cross.
Christ challenges our human nature. As we give, we receive. As we serve, we are called great. As we die to ourselves, we come alive in Him.
May we get a deeper revelation of Christ’s love for us this Easter and may His perfect love compel us to lay down our lives by standing up for someone else’s. In doing this we declare the message of Easter loud and clear:
† = ♡.
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Bought free
Okay, so I declared something: Let’s be our sister’s keeper – and then that’s totally what my family became for this woman I described in the post “Am I my sister’s keeper?” (https://sanvest.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/am-i-my-sisters-keeper-2/) Here is the story continued.
I met with this woman again! She is free from her trafficker but still caught in the environment around prostitution because she has not known much else the last 10 years. She had sex with one man here in Denmark who gave her 2500 kroner for a night. She spent 2000 kroner to pay her rent and 500 kroner on food. I met her the day where the money had slipped up. In three days time, she would be thrown on the street if she did not prostitute herself to earn money for her rent. But she had decided it was not an option for her anymore!
She was so desperate & the only thing we could offer her in the moment was two bags of rice & 20 kroner I had in my pocket. Before she left our appointment, I looked her in the eyes while she cried & said: "It’s okay, we’ll find a solution. Don’t worry. We’ll not forget you."
After saying this, I had to calm my own heart & tell it: "Trust, dear heart, trust. God will finish what He has started with this woman." Inwardly, I felt so helpless. Especially because her situation was so acute!
Then, I went home to celebrate my dad’s birthday. When I told my family about this woman, I tried to be rational & list up the different options we had to help her quickly. It was all a cover-up, a desperate way of not really showing how powerless & overwhelmed I actually felt. Sometimes it can seem easier for me to plan or act when something’s hard than just to wait! Wait on the Lord.
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While I tried to plan & figure things out, I heard the Holy Spirit gently whisper, "Just tell them what’s on your heart. You heart is broken for this woman. You don’t know what to do. Tell your family that.” So I got real & began speaking from my heart while bursting into tears.
I have the most understanding family! My mum’s immediate response was to invite her home for an unlimited time to live with them on their farm. Even though the house was filled with birthday guests the whole weekend, she wanted to provide shelter & food for this woman. Doing what she could with what she had. My mum exemplifies this verse:
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you”, when you already have it with you.” (Proverbs 3,27 NIV)
So, the next day, my little sister & I drove to Istedgade to pick this woman up.
My 15-year-old sister is so cool. She prayed passionately & declared this scripture from Jeremiah over this woman in the car.
“And then I’ll enter the darkness. I’ll break the yoke from their necks, Cut them loose from the harness. No more slave labor to foreigners! They’ll serve their God” (Jeremiah 30,8 MSG)
This verse seemed so timely to proclaim over her. How cool is God?
We had some great farm days with her. We went for a walk on the fields in the mud and talked differences in cultures & sang a worship song in the fresh air. It was beautiful to see the healing effect it had on her to be outside the city; no noise, just peace & rest, & with someone taking care of her needs. I would find her reading the Bible I had given her when I woke up in the mornings in the room we shared! It moved my heart.
Sunday, as we went to church with her, she was handed a gift. My dad decided to pay her apartment rent. This means her body has not been sold to any man this month of March! It is so touching that my dad bought her free! My mum gave her stacks of clothes too & my grandparents gave her money for food.
In the midst of worrying & trying to figure out the future for this woman, I almost missed God’s extreme goodness in the middle of the situation, & this gracious encouragement from her:
“You have a lovely family. They are so happy. It is my dream to have a family like this. My problems have become your problems. You have brought my problems and sufferings into your own family.
You were not busy like the other ones I have met that tried to help. My life has changed since I met you. I will never forget you.”
Tears! How often have I been the one too busy to respond to a need that could have been a divine invitation from God? Often, for sure! It’s totally God’s grace that He opened my eyes this time.
This was truly a Heaven-kissed weekend.
As we gave, we received so much more. We experienced a beautiful unity in my family around a cause, around helping the one. Priceless.
Thank you Jesus for choosing to partner with us, broken people! It’s all for Your glory.
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Let the walls fall
For years, my <3 was surrounded by thick walls built of destructive bricks.
Bricks of insecurity. Self hatred. Control. Perfectionism. People pleasing. Unforgiveness. Bitterness. Just to mention a few. Sin always promises us satisfaction but ends up stealing from us.
Same with these bricks. I thought they would be means of protection but they ended up destroying me instead.
The result?
A numb, masked and superficial life filled with addiction. A life lived in denial about the real condition of my heart. I would pretend to be completely fine while I was dying from the inside; isolated in the shame of wrong thoughts which led to lots of negative emotions!
An important step in my healing process was therefore to allow myself to feel again after years of suppressing my emotions.
For a season I would write to my mentor everyday and simply put into words how I was feeling.
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It was an exercise in being aware. Waking up. Not faking it for myself or others anymore. Coming out of denial. I began to express instead of living to impress.
It was a tough and humbling process to acknowledge my own weakness and not pretend to be strong when I was actually hurt. Daring to ask for help. Smashing pride in the face. Receiving grace. Letting the walls fall.
My mess was met with love and no sense of condemnation. It was so incredibly healing to realize that emotions are not a curse. They are gifts that make life colourful.
As I submitted my emotions to the authority of the wonderful word of God, the great exchange happened. An exchange of what was momentarily true about me for that which is the ultimate, forever truth about who I am in Him! He lowered my walls brick by brick so I could receive His steadfast love that melts lies away.
As my walls came down, I began to come in contact with my own fragility and weakness, which is rarely a fun experience for anyone! It's humbling for sure! But, I keep practising to just let Christ take over. And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. (2 Corinthians 12,10 MSG)
What a crazy thought! The weaker we get, the stronger we become. This kingdom we are part of is truly upside down!
That's why we especially as leaders as well need to lead upside down. I once heard someone say:
“Before I trust you as a leader, show me your scars.”
How profound.
Jesus, our perfect leader, modeled this when He showed his scars to Thomas after His death and resurrection.
When Jesus let Thomas touch His scars, doubt was turned into belief. Jesus showed that His leadership was trustworthy because He could sympathise with humanity. He knew pain. He knew humiliation. He knew weakness. And conquered it all!
May we be people who dare to do show others our scars so that Jesus’ strength can shine forth and be revealed in our human weakness.
'Cause we cannot take people where we have not been ourselves. When we allow the Lord to do the amazing work of wall breaking in us, we become carriers of the freedom and restoration we have received ourselves. We become lighthouses.
Figuratively speaking, we become like the Statue of Liberty; holding a torch of freedom in our hand that lights the way for others to follow.
Free in Jesus, we become people not focused on building walls to protect ourselves but rather people focused on building bridges to reach the lost!
God wants to bring our strongholds to ruin. (Psalm 89, 40 NIV) With Him it's safe to let the walls fall and let LOVE rush in.
So the question is: What do you want gracious Jesus to do for you?
He is eagerly waiting for your request. He wants to break through for you.
Trust your <3 to the One who sees hearts like we see faces, who hears ache like we hear voices, and who touches wounds like we touch skin. (Ann Voskamp)
He is our God.
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Am I my sister's keeper?
Saturday night we were open in Night Light Café & welcomed around 40 precious women working in the sex industry at Vesterbro. Some of them work as prostitutes voluntarily but most of them are forced to serve the customers there.
98 % of the street prostitutes in Copenhagen are from Nigeria. They live in a very tough environment with lots of competition about the customers. Competition seems necessary for them to be able to earn the money they need for themselves, their families & their traffickers!
These Nigerian women come from a religious background where it’s not a taboo to talk about God. They believe in a spiritual reality, have an awareness of God & most of them see themselves as believers in Christ.
So, in the middle of the night, we normally have a short devotional & prayer time with the women who want to join which is usually them all.
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I decided to share about the importance of being our sister’s keeper. I heard my pastor, Thomas Hansen, teach this brilliant thought lately to a volunteer training night in my church. Immediately I thought about how ideal it would be to bring this message to my friends caught in the sex trade.
In Genesis 4 (Message Bible), we hear about how Cain kills his brother Abel. The Lord confronts Him with his action in verse 9:
“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know”, he replied. “Am I my brother’s (sister’s) keeper?”
God’s question imposes that Cain certainly is supposed to be his brother’s keeper. He is supposed to defend, support & encourage his brother.
This is still true today. We are supposed to fight FOR each other, not AGAINST each other! The bible is clear about that God commands a blessing where there is unity.
Despite these women’s horrible circumstances, I wanted to urge them this Saturday night to trust God with their circumstance & live from a kingdom perspective.
Kingdom perspective is not about competition & winners & losers. The kingdom is about completion - bringing the best out in one another. In a beautiful kingdom fellowship, we lend our strengths in areas where our brother or sister is weak, & we lean upon their strengths in areas where we are weak ourselves.
This life is not an independent race but a race where I am responsible to help others cross the line into eternity. While competition destroys trust and creates single thinking, completion is thinking - if you win - I win.
As I shared some of these thoughts with the ladies, I sensed the exact opposite happening in the room. There was a spirit of division among them rather than unity. And it made me realise, once again, the importance of speaking biblical truth & principles over their lives.
Ten minutes before we were closing down for the night, I casually asked a women sitting alone how she was doing. Immediately she began telling me of the sadness of her soul & how lonely she was. She truly needed a ‘sister’s keeper’.
“I come alone to the street. I leave the street alone. I am always alone. I was always alone in Italy too. When you have many friends, you have many problems, that’s life, you know. I don’t trust the other women. They slander me. They don’t help me.”
What she told me showed me that she was truly one of the women who needed this message of fellowship & unity. She needed desperately that the sisters around her would be there for her!
She began telling me how tired she was & how much she wished to have another life.
As I prayed over her, she cried & ended with saying: "I think the solution for me is to go to church with you & get a bible!"
I couldn’t agree with her more & she left the café uplifted and excited for church the following day.
So this Sunday, she went to church with me. Afterwards we drank coffee together where she graciously allowed me to record our conversation so I could remember all the details of her story.
I share some details from the conversation on her permission. It is both her desire and my desire that it will stir you to pray for her! In advance - thank you so much!
This is simply a tiny glimpse into one story in an ocean of similar stories. Stories real people carry. People who are selling their bodies daily at Istedgade.
"I have been in Denmark for one month and two weeks now. When I was in church with you and when I drink coffee with you now, my spirit is happy because I have chosen to be here. But I find it difficult to go with men because I did not choose it to begin with. Since I have been in Denmark I have only been with one customer because I don't like myself when I am on the street.
I can’t lie to you. I don’t pay my trafficker anymore. When I was kidnapped to work as a prostitute, it took me 6 years to pay off the 40.000 euro they demanded me to pay back. I have paid it now. I don’t know how to go back to Nigeria because I am still in slavery in my mind. It was very terrible to be trafficked. Here are my scars. "
Then she lifted up her sleeves for me to see the violence that had been done to her.
"I don’t want to remember the past. If I remember, I start crying. Last year was a hell."
When I asked her about the other women on the street, she said:
"I don’t have any girlfriends...and I can’t do it anymore. I don’t know what to do… The other women working on the street have problems. I don’t want anyone close so they can spoil my dreams, you know.”
When I asked her if she had been involved in voodoo, she answered this:
(Voodoo is a religion that involves black magic & casting spells on people. It is often used to manipulate girls spiritually before they are trafficked to Europe. Voodoo doctors cast spells over a girl so she believes terrible things will happen if she tries to escape her trafficker - for example that her family will be killed.)
"Yes, they tried to cast a spell over me before they trafficked me. I had to obey at that time. But I don’t believe in it. It’s a dirty thing. It does not work. The voodoo doctors are blind to the truth. But I believe the voodoo men and women are created by God. They don’t have the power. God has. When God touches them, they will repent."
When I asked her how her customers have treated her, she told me:
"They have broken me. They have hit me. They have stolen my money. One time I was cast right in front of a car that was speeding. If it was not for the protection of God, I would have been dead many times.”
When I asked her of her dreams for the future, she explained:
“It’s my dream to buy beautiful stuff from Italy and sell it in Nigeria… and I would like to serve the Lord. I would like to tell people about the goodness of God and the truth of the Bible as you do to me…"
We ended our conversation by talking about how God is a master in turning our stories around for His glory.
I am in close contact with this woman and tomorrow, I am meeting up with her together with my two colleagues to continue ministering to her & help her take the next step towards freedom.
Please pray that these words from Psalm 40 will become this woman's experience! God is well able.
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me & heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”
God so loves this woman. What He has already done by creating this opportunity for me to meet her is amazing.
Her story is still being written.
Let’s be people who never lose hope for other’s stories…and let’s be people who are being our sister’s and brother’s keeper.
The definition of a keeper is among other things to be:
- A person who guards or watches.
- A person charged with responsibility for something or someone valuable.
Yes. Let’s be those kind of people. <3
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