A Day with God's People at Work

I'd like to say we're all sitting here arguing about what to write, but the truth is I'm typing in the dark while my roommate is sleeping and the rest of the team is conked out after a late dinner together reflecting on the day.

Tomorrow you'll hear from them and what the events of the day meant to them. Catherine, Glenda and Loreen arrived on time, excited to move into ministry. By 2pm we were meeting with 2 lovely young women who work for a partner organization for IPP. For me there were 2 amazing moments.

First, was when I asked how they came to work for this group. As each one told their stories you could see their eyes light up when they talked about God's call on their lives. In spite of huge obstacles these young women continue to take their jobs and ministry very seriously.

The second was when we were able to talk about possibilities of implementing things we do at Mariners in mentoring into their ministry. It was exciting to see their open hearts and minds to learn new ways of meeting the needs they see every day as they work with rescuing young girls from sexual slavery. They are already moving towards connecting with the local church and we talked about training lay people to be mentors for the girls.

Their main prayer requests were for finding capable staff to grow the ministry and connect with the church.

At 4pm we were off into city to meet and worship with the Bombay Teen Challenge church in the red light district that ministers to women who are looking to break free of that bondage. Again, the team will share their thoughts, so I will just say how proud I was to be a part of them. Several spoke to the women with a vulnerability about God's love and what it means to them that broke through language barriers and being strangers. The worship - though we didn't understand a word of it - touched us all deeply. And then afterwards to see everyone praying for the women was a beautiful picture of the church at its best. I was humbled to be in the presence of these women who knew the value of prayer - in any language.

It was a long day especially for the girls and we're up early tomorrow to go to church with Sam, the son of CV Vandavana. We know him as he is Free Wheelchair Mission's largest distributor. We hope to begin the search for a church we can partner with to support the ministries we met with today. More soon.

For now, good night and God bless

Karen Taulien