Letter from LauranLauran Bethell

Dear EBWU Sisters!

It was SO wonderful to be with you in Germany and to be inspired and humbled by your stories of courage and expressions of love! I have just returned from being with nearly a thousand of your sisters in the Latin Amer-ican Baptist Women’s Union (UFBAL), meeting togeth-er in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil—and feel like God is bless-ing me SO much this year in giving me the opportunity to be with great women of faith in Europe AND Latin America!

The Latin American Baptist women invited me to pre-sent some workshops about human trafficking. My fa-vorite time was during the question and answer session when the women enthusiasti-cally asked questions about starting new ministries or told about the ministries they had participated in. One dear woman who immigrated to a new country in Central America and works as a secretary there, told about seeing women working in prosti-tution from her home country, standing in front of her office building. She started greeting them each day, with a smile and a hello. Soon, she was carrying on conver-sations with them—and then one day she invited some of them home to lunch! They were so very happy to be able to talk with someone who spoke with the same accent, who served them familiar food, who knew of their hometowns. In the privacy of her home, they began sharing their stories of being trafficked into this country. Their passports were taken away from them, and they could not go home. What they wanted most was simply to go home.

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She didn’t know what else to do but to go to her embassy and try her best to get trav-el documents for them to go home. And she was successful!!! It was so exciting for her to see them happily get on the plane headed home!

As she was telling this story, I knew that some of the people in the audience were thinking that she was crazy to risk inviting the women into her home! They could have robbed her! They could have taken advantage of her hospitality! Wasn’t she also crazy for intervening with the au-thorities on their behalf, to get their travel documents? Wouldn’t the authorities be corrupt and cause her problems in the future? Wouldn’t the traffickers follow her movements and threaten her?

I know that in some situations, these are real risks that could have real consequenc-es. But this woman felt God calling her to do what she could, no matter what the risks. God protected her, and the risks she took brought freedom from prostitution for the women she served.

She was an example of an ordinary person acting in an extraordinary way. She did-n’t see it that way. She was doing what she thought was normal and necessary if she was to “risk it all” and follow Jesus.

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One thing I know for sure: If every church community had 1 or 2 or 3 women will-ing to do what they could on behalf of victims of human trafficking and prostitu-tion, then I know that this evil would soon disappear! We would have an army of people who were willing to “risk it all” for Jesus, who didn’t just “risk” - but gave His Life for us.

I’d love to hear your stories of “doing what you can” for the sake of “the least of these” who are trapped in prostitution and human trafficking. Please do write and let me know!

With Love From Your Sister On the Journey 2013 / 2014,

Lauran Bethell - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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