Impossible?

I want to tell you a story. It’s a story of bravery and courage. It’s a story of just saying “yes.”

A month ago, Wipe Every Tear had fourteen beautiful women living in Hope and Faith houses. Today, Wipe Every tear has nearly thirty women living in Hope, Faith, and Grace houses. How did this happen in just one month? Well take a seat and let me share a story that even I’m not sure I could believe if I wasn’t there to see it.

You see, God gave a vision to a man named Coach. A man who is just crazy enough to say yes to a call that seemed impossible. It’s funny, the word impossible. We are foolish enough to use it even when God is determined to prove to us that it is not a real word. Coach said “I refuse to do nothing” and Wipe Every Tear was birthed. Nearly two years later, God had another crazy idea. “Let’s take girls trapped in bars away on an all-expense-paid vacation,” He said. “Let’s take them to the beach and watch love steal their hearts.” So coach, and over 30 women, said “ok” and not long after, over 70 of us, 40 Filipino women, 30 American women, 2 Filipino men, and 1 American man landed on the beach of the remote island called Puerto Galero. There, women were shown love. They were taken snorkeling, some of them for the first time. They were taken on boat rides, they were taken swimming in the ocean, they were danced with, laughed with, listened to, cherished. They saw how God loved them. Unconditionally. To look back at it, we were simply being like Jesus to these beautiful daughters, sisters. What’s crazier than the idea of a Girls Getaway was that it worked! The day we landed back on the mainland, several of us made the long journey back to Angeles City, not to leave women there, but to retrieve their things and take them home. I cannot remember how many came home with us that night, but I will tell you about two of them.

One of them I had met at a club. A week prior to this moment, I was dancing with women in a club, letting God’s love flow from me to them. I was not comfortable, I’ll tell you right now. Clubbing was never something I did or enjoyed, but there were women in that club that needed to hear about our Girls Getaway. Dorothy was in that club. I danced with her and invited her to vacation with us. She was excited and said she would tell her friends (she did). The nights we spent inviting girls were filled with adventure, with turmoil, with God’s favor. At one point, a group of us were dragged by the waitresses in the bar, onto a stage where nearly naked girls were being forced to perform, and we danced with them. They smiled and laughed, genuinely, and we invited every girl on that stage to the Getaway, about 30 or so. How often does that happen, that even the Mamasans wanted us American girls on the stage with their girls? It didn’t make any sense, but, I have come to find that God likes to do things that don’t make any sense.

The morning of the Getaway came and I rushed with Melissa to the other side of Walking Street where we knew there were girls waiting to come to the Getaway with us. Dorothy was there and she ran up to me, hugged me and grabbed her bag. She introduced me to her sister, Jordan. After the Getaway, it was Dorothy and Jordan that I accompanied to collect their things so they could come live with us. Along with us, also, was my friend Meghan, a Kingdom Journey girl, and Gretchen, a Filipino friend who is a missionary here, in her homeland. As we headed to where Dorothy and Jordan had called home up to this point, a man was following us. I didn’t know who he was but Dorothy an Jordan did and they didn’t seem to mind him coming so I prayed and kept going. When we got there, we opened the door to a room full of bunk beds and fans. No A/C. A tiny kitchen. A tiny bathroom. That was it. Jordan explained, as she collected her belongings, that girls from two of the bars lived in this house. “That’s a lot of women to live in this little house,” I thought. The man who had come with us was just standing in the corner watching the girls collect their things and in walked the Filipino missionary. Gretchen began speaking with the man, and even prayed with him. Come to find out, he was what they call the “handler” in the house. He wanted out too. Funny, even the managers and handlers want out of the life but feel trapped. As we climbed in the car and we headed back to Manila, I looked at two beautiful women making the bravest decisions of their lives, sleeping, and I thought “This is truly what it’s all about.”

The journeys these girls walk through are difficult, but the courage I see from them is incredible. They have the bravery to laugh and smile and dream of brighter futures. Within two weeks, we saw girls just keep flooding into our safe houses, and a month after the Getaway, God miraculously provided us another house for them. We have seen God ravish their hearts in love.

This is not the end of the story, it is merely the beginning of a long story God is writing with willing hearts and submitted hands. He took a bunch of people crazy enough to say yes, and Abba has done the impossible. His Word is truth and “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” (Phil.4:13)