Ginger was just 18 years old.
Shackled to a pole in the dark–Ginger slowly opened her eyes to the terrible nightmare she had been living for almost 2 weeks. All around her it was cold, damp and hard for her to see what was right in front of her.
She could hear the water dripping like a loud drum and smell the putrid stench of urine in the damp molded basement. Where was she? How did she get here? The memory came like a foggy dream…and she suddenly remembered how it all happened.
Like a mirage–she saw Roman’s angry face with his nostrils flared with smoke and sound of his sarcastic laughter echoing in her ears.
“You think I’m playin’? You think I’m some mark or trick you can play games with?”
Roman punched her square in the face as her head slammed back against the pole she was now attached to. Blood gushed out of her nostrils as her mouth filled up with her own red hot liquid.
“You’re gonna learn not to be outta pocket for the last time you punk b@#%! Casey’s gonna take care of you real good now–ya dig? I’ll come back when your loyalty is set.”
He flicked the ashes of his joint in her face and told Casey to “Handle it!” as he walked back up the basement stairs to attend to the other teen girls who were enslaved to their “daddy” pimp.
The lights flashed on in the room. Ginger’s eyes hurt from the glare. Casey quickly grabbed her arm and tied a rubber band tourniquet around it–getting her vein ripe for the speedball injection.
“This will only hurt for a little bit–but don’t you worry–you’re gonna dig it later.” Casey snarked.
Ginger winced as he shot her up with the addicting cocktail.
Fading in and out of consciousness–she remembered Casey’s sadistic expression on his face as he undressed to “teach her a lesson” and took advantage of her body and her state of helplessness.
This was her punishment for trying to escape her pimp—being disciplined in a basement. Shacked to a pole, Ginger was shot up with drugs nightly and forced to serve random men from Craig’s list for Roman and his gang’s greedy pockets.
There was now no one in the room…just the long erie silence and the drip, drip, drip from the broken faucet in the laundry sink. Oh how her body ached in every single area…from her wrists red with blisters to her arms and legs severely bruised! Her mind and body tried to avoid the nightly onslaught of customers hungry to take their turn with her–but it was useless.
She knew at any moment–she would soon hear the creak of the door opening and the click-clod of heavy footsteps descending to come and abuse her…
She was in a nightmare but couldn’t wake up.
To avoid thinking about the abuse and what was about to happen, Ginger’s mind faded to a better time in her life as a younger teen. Times were so much different then. She was innocent. She may not have had a father who was there for her, but she could count on her mama.
Ginger really enjoyed school–she was a straight “A” student. She missed hanging out with her girlfriends–having slumber parties and taking funny pictures on Snapchat. She missed coming home and seeing her mom’s proud expression when she’d show her the ribbons she won in track & field.
She never thought accepting the invitation to a joy ride in the brand new Mercedes from her new friend “Roman” would take her on a journey that would eventually up here…in this dungeon of torture. She thought they had a good relationship at first–He bought her so many nice things her mama couldn’t afford.
She felt a deep sense of remorse and aching loss in her heart as she thought about her mom, her friends and her education she had thrown away by trusting a man that claimed he would “love her like no other” –and better than her dad ever did.
What would she do once this punishment was over? Would she continue to live in fear Roman’s beatings and continue to be his sex trafficked slave? And even if she did escape–would it be true what Roman said–that she would always be “used goods–just a ho” and that no one would ever want her or love her again?
She didn’t want to believe that this was it…the end of her life. But she knew If she stayed in this dungeon she surely would die!
At this point, she knew she had to pray for rescue. And so with a broken heart, spirit and will…she did. With tears streaming down her bruised face….she prayed for mercy, for forgiveness, and for God to give her a second chance.
It says in Psalm 102:17:
He will listen to the prayers of the destitute. He will not reject their pleas.
And God did give her that second chance.
Ginger got rescued. The police arrested “Roman” and put him in prison for a long, long, time.
When we met Ginger–she told us this story and how she prayed. She walked into our Destiny House with tears of joy–because she finally saw the full fruits of her prayer of safety, restoration and freedom finally coming true–right before her eyes.
She will get trauma counseling, She will get emotionally healing. She will recover from her addiction forced upon her. And the best part?
She will have HOPE again. To finally finish the wonderful life she started before she was brutally sex trafficked.
And you know what? Ginger will be studying while she is in our program to get her high school diploma–something she thought she would never get to finish!
Isn’t God amazing? We think so!
As you can see–God is faithful.
Sometimes like Ginger–we find ourselves in this place where we are trapped–and we are completely destitute with no where to turn. And maybe we are where we are because it was through a bad decision or a series of bad decisions.
We feel guilty. Remorseful. Shame filled.
We are often tempted to think that there is no way God would give us mercy or even give a second try for success–because we think we’ve already destroyed our chances by our bad decisions.
But that’s not who He is.
This is who He is:
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lam 3:21-23
I don’t know where you are or who I am speaking to–but I am here to declare to you that God will make a way for you to rise out of this failed situation and come out victorious! Why? Because it says it right there….
His steadfast love NEVER ceases;
His mercies NEVER come to an end.
They are NEW every morning.
Sound like to me He is offering some second chances to get it right!
Aren’t you glad He never gives up on us? Be encouraged today–God has a NEW plan for the one you thought you managed to fail. And guess what???
It’s so much better than the one you’re mind is stuck on from the past. So keep it moving and believe He is BIG enough to not only restore you–but to give you something WAY better than what you originally started with!
Speaking of that–we believe that we’ve been given a “second chance” so to speak ourselves. As some of you know from watching our videos on Facebook–we finally have a good grant writer (after many fits and failed tries past few years) that has gotten us a “matching grant”. We are so thrilled and excited about this!
We believe that God has heard our prayers and blessed us with this grant–and this is our second chance!
But we need to get a “match” which means that if we promise to raise $35,000, they will give us another $35,000!
So far we have raised an awesome $1579.00 on Facebook!
So now the total left to raise before Nov 30th–is $33421.00.
This money will be used for direct services for our DESTINY HOUSE to keep it open 24/7 with food, clothing, utililies, staffing to watch over our current clients and move new ones in.
I know this seems like a lot–but if everyone that we know in social media and privately gave even just $10 a piece, we would reach out goal!
If you don’t want to help with matching our current grant, we have other needs that are serious and pressing:
CURRENT EMERGENCY NEEDS FOR DESTINY HOUSE:
Clothing for new DH girl (Ginger) $350.00
Contacts for DH girl (Anna) $175.09
Emergency Transportation (train ticket) for stranded Survivor $306.00
Electricity (Will be cut off on Nov 7th!) $1567.00
Destiny House Security Alarm pad (broke) $327.00
Destiny House Security Alarm Labor $200.00
Brakes for Destiny House van (squeaking on drums) $491.36
Locking Metal Filing Cabinets (4) Amazon $316/each total=$1264.00
Roof leaking damage 2 rooms $6,823.00 (still not fixed)
Grand total needed for emergency: $11,503.45
To be able to help precious Ginger and other girls like her, it takes much time and investing in relationships one on one.
BUT….the truth is this:
We need finances to restore each girl with counseling, food, clothing, physical therapy, classes, shelter, maintenance for Destiny House and 24/7 staffing care.
If one or many of you feel prompted in your hearts and offer $10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000, $5000…..even $10,000….this need could be met in NO time! Also–your gift is tax-deductible!
Will it be you? Nothing is too small, we will gladly receive whatever God lays on your heart.
“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:19
TO DONATE: HookersForJesus.net/DONATE/
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