"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."
Christians love traditions.
We don't like to admit it, but it's true. Traditions can be good, it can keep some order to our wild tactics. But sometimes we get caught up in the legalism instead of listening to the still small voice that goes outside the traditional box.
I'm so grateful our ministry leader, Elisabeth, didn't take the easy route that night. You see, we have a mandatory community dinner with our missions organization but it falls on the night we have outreach. She knew it was important to continue being faithful to the ladies behind the windows, but wanted to honor the leadership as well.
It was in December, and there was snow on the ground. We left early because we knew it would hinder us some since we weren't biking. The first shift of women were friendly, but there weren't really any breakthroughs. We walked to the tram and headed to the community dinner. Right as it ended, Elisabeth and another team member, Marleen, walked back (in the snow) to continue doing outreach to the ladies in the windows who work the night shift.
There, in the hot confines of the brothel room, they met her. She went by Lucy, although it was not the name her mother had given her. She wanted to know more of this "Jesus" and ended up giving her life to Him right there in a room many consider unclean.
A hard, yet necessary step when working with broken people is walking alongside them, empowering and validating them, rather than dictating how they should live. We loved "Lucy" and walked alongside her. Not too long from that December night she called us and said "I cannot work this job anymore, God doesn't want me to." We cried in joy, she was making her own
choices, and they were heading towards a life of freedom.
Westernize Christians forget that it's not about making converts, but disciples. We continue to walk alongside them.
Here is the baptism of our beautiful "Lucy":
