Christmas for One

CHRISTMAS FOR ONE

So this is Christmas

We think of gifts, music, parties, family, lights and decorations.

We think of joy, peace, and hope.

We think of Jesus…

the One God sent to us.

What about all of the people without joy, peace and hope?

Those trapped in foreign brothels, those duped into domestic sexual exploitation or prostitution, those who believe they have no choice but to pay for the chance to dance at strip clubs.

Those denied education, those weighed down by fistula, those working in slave-like conditions with little or no pay, those who dread the return of their abusive husbands each day.

You think, “I cannot help them all…it’s too much to even consider.”

What about helping just one this Christmas?

What about making this Christmas about one?

One who needs freedom, options, education, choice, healing, fair pay, or safety.

One who needs peace, joy or hope.

One who needs YOU,

this Christmas,

now.

© 2012 by Brooke F Sulahian

Today

TODAY

Today, a young girl has been given no food so her brothers can eat…where is the hope?

Today, a young girl has been married off to an older man she does not know

Today, a young girl has become pregnant…too young and too small to deliver naturally

Today, a young girl, grieving the loss of her stillborn child, has just woken up in her bed soiled with urine and feces…bewildered and ashamed

Today, a young girl has been left by her husband, kicked out of the house by her family, and forced to fend for herself due to her odor

Today, a young woman realized it is her 10^th year of lying in a wet bed…hope continuing to vanish

Today, an older woman struggles through her 40^th year with fistula, sitting alone in her hut unaware that a cure exists

Today, a woman cleans herself in the hope that a neighbor in her village may say “Hi” today…hope is not lost yet

Today, a woman is traveling alone on her way to a hospital, leaking with every step but not turning back, holding onto hope of a cure, a new life

Today, a young girl is carried on her father’s back to reach a hospital to be cured of fistula…feeling loved along the way

Today a woman recovers in a hospital bed, cured of fistula…hope returning

Today, a young girl returns home in new clothing after a successful fistula surgery

Today, a woman makes a home in a new community, free of fistula and its horrors

Today, a woman is welcomed back to her former community as a whole person…hope restored

Today, a young girl is given food to eat alongside her bothers

Today, a young girl is given the chance to study and learn

Today, a young girl is cherished as a gift from God and protected from the dangers in this world…hope that is real and strong

Today…

© 2012 by Brooke F Sulahian

My Son Ran for Women

The Freedom 5K was to be our first run as a family.  I was excited to get out and run alongside my husband and with our children (they would be riding in the double-wide jogging stroller…my husband would get to push).  I was also excited to involve our children (ages 4 and 6) in social activism.  The Freedom 5K was in support of Route One Ministry, which has the vision to minister to women exploited by the sex industry on the North Shore.

It’s tough to explain the sex industry and trafficking to children, so I kept it simple and told our kids we were running for women and girls in need.  In fact, before we ran, Bonnie, Route One Co-Founder and Director, shared that a friend of hers had just met a girl who was being trafficked/pimped out by her mom for cigarettes…really?  Can this really be happening?  I know it can and does all the time.  Even though God opened my eyes to the injustices of the world over two years ago, it still shocks me, still penetrates my heart, still angers me, still motivates me to do more.  Before the race, during the moment of silence as we remembered those for whom we were running, I gripped my children tightly and prayed that they would not suffer as so many children do but that they would become part of the solution.

The pinnacle of the run was when both of our kids asked if they could leave the safety and comfort of the stroller and run.  They did just that.  Our daughter ran, her 4-year-old feet, legs, and heart running for women and girls…sadly, for some girls as young as she is.  She lasted a bit then went back to ride.  However, our son ran and ran and ran.  His 6-year-old feet, legs and heart enabled him to run for women and girls.  He said, “like my sister?” and I said yes.  He smiled from ear to ear as he ran and I did too.  In the end, he ran a whole mile.  What a blessing to run one mile with my son as he and I both ran for women and girls who cannot speak for themselves, who cannot break out of their life situations, who need to know that they are loved and valued genuinely.

It is my hope that our children will grow up to value their brothers and sisters around the world, live for God and serve this world as He calls and equips them.  May our children work to make this a better place for those who have no power, no say, no rights.  May our children be part of the solution for years to come!  May our children run for those in need.

Also posted on www.hopeforoursisters.org.

© 2012 by Brooke F Sulahian

Silenced Voices - How God spoke to me through a bound wind chime

Wind chimes are one of my favorite things.  I got a new wind chime for my birthday that plays the most beautiful music.  I enjoy it for it’s music but more so for the sense of God’s presence I have when I hear it.  He sends the wind to make it play, doesn’t He?

As I ran through a beautiful neighborhood of Melrose this morning, I saw a quaint green house with a large wind chime at the front porch.  I was excited as I trudged up the hill toward the house because I was going to hear God’s music.   However, even with the cool morning wind, there was no music, no chimes, no beauty to hear.  As I got closer I saw that the chimes were bound with wire, one against the other.  The voice of the wind chime had been silenced.

I was initially saddened because I was not going to hear beautiful music.  However, God placed a different thought in my head.  The bound wind chime is like many of our sisters around the world…their voices have also been silenced.  Systematically and thoroughly, the voices of our sisters, both young and old, have been silenced due to illiteracy, poverty, trafficking, early marriage, fistula, domestic sexual exploitation, slavery, abuse and every other type of oppression and injustice.  Silenced.  So many of our sisters are unable to speak out for themselves, make their own choices, or even cry out for help.  Like the bound wind chime, they cannot use the beautiful voices God gave them.

However, we can!  No matter how timid or strong, weak or powerful, quiet or loud our voices are, they are stronger, more powerful and louder than the voices of many girls and women in our very neighborhoods and around the globe.   

Is your voice free to ring out for these sisters of ours or is your voice also bound tight with the wire of fear, guilt, a troubled past, lack of confidence or poor decisions?

I invite you to pray daily to God to give you the courage to speak out, to be the wind chime for those whose chimes have been bound.  I will be praying this prayer along with you.

May God’s wind that lovingly blows through our souls enable us to continually use our voices to ring out for the freedom of our sisters in our own towns and around the world!

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Also posted on www.hopeforoursisters.org

© 2012 by Brooke F Sulahian