This is how God works with me.
I seek his face, my own expressionless, staring out the window
Smeared mascara, tears wiped away with a swipe of my wrist while doing dishes.
Heart sad, my spirit so discouraged.
My lack is in my face.
I go upstairs and gather my tools to enter into His presence.
Coffee, journal, blanket, fan, pen, books, phone…
A habit that carries me into the only thing that brings hope.
I am honored to have Katie Polley, writing for Love Justice International, as a guest here today. Please read about the very important work they do and share it if you feel led to help spread the word about this amazing nonprofit. The world needs to know about it!
–Amy
by Katie Polley, writing for Love Justice International
In 2016, I started helping a nonprofit with their social media and website content for a couple hours a week. I worked with many clients at the time and had little reason to suspect that getting to know this nonprofit would drastically impact the way I desire to live my life.
Love Justice International is compelled by God’s love to fight the world’s greatest injustices—one of which is human trafficking—an issue I had heard a lot about but hadn’t really ever engaged deeply with. It felt far away from my little world. The numbers were so big (in 2016, the Global Slavery Index estimated that 40.3 million people live in slavery), and felt impersonal. And ultimately, I was ignorant.
This all changed as I began to learn more about the people and work behind Love Justice. As I started receiving story after story from the field, I quickly realized they didn’t just see and talk about the issue of human trafficking, but quite literally they entered into the very trenches of it to stop it. God woke me up.
You see, Love Justice is unique from most anti-trafficking agencies in that rather than working on the preventative or the reactive side of human trafficking, they actually intervene at the exact moment when trafficking is occurring, and they intercept the potential victim before she is trafficked.
So I began reading account after account of young women, from various countries, who were being taken across borders, bus stations, or airports, but instead were intersected by Love Justice’s trained monitors. Young women like Sanjula who was most likely headed into a life of some form of slavery, marked by unimaginable darkness and despair. But instead, because there were justice-fighters stationed, waiting, and seeking out girls just like her, she was literally intercepted and turned around.
Instead of traveling further with her trafficker, Sanjula was educated on the dangers of trafficking and safe foreign employment. She was cared for, counseled and comforted, and then sent to safety.
These stories of real people like Sanjula¸were oftentimes girls my age. They were children of God—with names, families, beautiful facial features, unique hopes, and dreams. Their stories deeply affected how I thought about human trafficking, justice, and my role in it as a fellow child of God. I was no longer ignorant, and apathy was no longer an option. I couldn’t deny how these stories of faithful people pursuing the vulnerable girl who was being deceived into a life of slavery and darkness, perfectly reflected God’s pursuit of me.
It’s the gospel—the story I’ve been graced to hear throughout my whole life. The God of the universe passionately wanted to save me from the slavery of the sin I was born with. He wanted freedom and a relationship with me so much that He didn’t stay in the heavenly places and leave me to my helpless estate, but instead, He literally moved heaven and earth to come up with a plan, a strategy, the only way to save me in His son, Jesus Christ.
He pursued me! He entered into the mess, the danger, the pain, and came down to earth, taking the punishment I deserved and made a new way for me. He turned my path around and offered freedom, light, and hope.
This is the reflection I saw in every Love Justice interception story I read from across the globe. In the same way, God pursued justice for me and came to save me, Love Justice was literally placing people right where the injustice of trafficking was happening, so they could intercept victims’ paths towards slavery and instead offer them freedom. What an amazing, beautiful picture of how God pursues us!
And even more than that, He has made each of us in His own image. So the same heart of His that craves justice is in us. He built in our hearts a desire for justice, a hunger for wrongs to be righted, a quest for things to be dealt with. When we truly know God and His love, and we truly know the reality of injustices like human trafficking, our hearts cannot help but be compelled to be a part of stopping it.
The joy and meaning I’ve found in being able to work alongside and play a small role in what Love Justice is doing have been immeasurable. Simply put, God is using this ministry to bring more of His Kingdom here on earth—to destroy injustice and usher in freedom for the oppressed. To date, they’ve intercepted over 16,000 lives to prevent them from being trafficked. And each one of those interceptions results in powerful intelligence that allows them to assist local police with criminal investigations and arrests of the perpetrators.
When you see God moving like this, the same God who saved you from spiritual darkness, it’s hard to not jump at the chance to be a part of it. So today, at the very end of Human Trafficking Prevention Month, I want to invite you to be a part of Love Justice with me! Allow your life to be impacted by the beauty of leaning into God’s heart for justice with action. Go to LoveJustice.ngo to learn more about how you can get involved with your time, treasure, and talents.
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Thank you Allstate for sponsoring this post. I chose to write this post because doing good in local communities is at Allstate’s core.
We recently had a simple and meaningful family night thanks to Allstate. They released a video that showed an example of how the core of who they are is dedicated to the communities where they live and work.
It is the perfect example of how Allstate believes that young people are not waiting for change to happen in their communities but they’re creating it! I couldn’t wait to share it with my family.
My hope was that it would spark some great conversation as we gathered our 3 teen girls (and a sweet boyfriend that belongs to one of them) to spend some family time around the table and discuss something that truly matters.
It only takes a little thought and preparation to create space for meaningful conversation. It is ok to keep family night super simple, and it doesn’t have to last for hours.
With teens and their schedules, sometimes you take what you can get, and it can look imperfect. That is ok! Just be purposeful in creating the space, and flexible with how it turns out.
Like most teens, my girls love snacks, so I drew them to the table with food! Snacks are a sure way to go to get teens’ attention, especially when presented in a tasteful way!
I lit a candle to create cozy hygge for our little family gathering. I texted (because what better way to communicate with teens) my family earlier in the day, and let them know I wanted to come around the table that evening for a bit and had a video that I wanted to share.
I made sure to mention the video was only a little over 3 minutes long and that I wanted to get their thoughts on it. Teens like to know what to expect.
They saw me setting up the snacks and my oldest, Teagan, threw a pizza in the oven. I’m still healing from surgery and had a few setbacks in healing, so I appreciated the ease of pizza for dinner.
My girls have been working on a puzzle, and I just kept it out at the table and set the snacks around it.
Food and a puzzle are both great items to encourage lingering and good conversation, but the video is what sparked the conversation. Thank you, Allstate.
Allstate believes in youth empowerment and is inspiring people all around the country to do good in their local communities.
My husband Todd and I could not agree more. We have always believed that young people have the capacity to change the world in a positive way and make a difference.
We have encouraged our girls from a young age to influence the world around them by using their gifts, strengths, talents, interests, and abilities.
Allstate looks to inspire the next generation by using community projects that empower young people to become change-makers and a generation of leaders, and it is beautifully portrayed in the video.
I was eager to see my family’s reaction to the video and hear their thoughts. I knew my Todd would relate so much to the beauty in the video, as his life work is serving young people in our community.
We ate our pizza on paper plates and dimmed the lights as I played the video for them on my Kindle Fire.
Watch this video to learn more about what Allstate is doing in local communities!
After the video, I asked them what they thought of the word “Change-Maker.” I asked them if they were on the bus that was in the video, driving through their community, and looking out the window…what kind of change would they be inspired to make?
I also asked them if time and school did not get in the way, how would they want to make a difference in our community?
I loved their answers. I loved seeing their wheels turning as they thought about it, and it delighted me how their answers were so fitting to their interests, talents, personalities and life stories.
Our oldest is always drawn to kids and has volunteered faithfully every Sunday teaching little ones in our community.
She is pursuing a career in the medical field and said she would want to serve sick kids, and make a difference in their world by “creating fun DIY or craft projects according to their unique abilities” Her heart is to bring them joy while they heal.
Her boyfriend communicated that he is already enjoying the work he is doing in the community…he is a volunteer reading tutor and also is a mentor for a younger boy.
His tutoring takes him into schools and he expressed a heart for kids who not only have reading struggles, but also behavior issues. He started brainstorming ways to change this.
He expressed that he wishes each kid would really know the ‘why’ behind everything they do in education and believes that it would be a game changer for many students.
My middle girl has always had a heart for special needs children. Even at a young age, she was aware of the kids whose needs were different.
She expressed a desire to help students in our community who not only were special needs but also students who have been bullied.
My youngest is a soccer player and has talked of wanting to be a volunteer soccer trainer for younger kids, so that was her answer. She has been a young change-maker at our church by watching toddlers so parents can be a part of the service, and her face lights up when she talks about young kids.
Our girls wanted to know our answers, too.
My heart is being pulled more and more toward those that have had cancer and serve them in some capacity.
I am very familiar with the cancer world as I have experienced it myself, as have 3 of my closest friends and many of my acquaintances. I want to make a difference and am excited to see what more I can do locally, with some plans already on the horizon!
Todd said he is already doing his dream community work. His dream is for every young person to be a thriving reader in our city, and he runs an in-school reading program that teaches kids to read.
Tutors rotate inside of the schools, meeting one-on-one with the students, which gives the teachers much-needed support. It is a beautiful thing and I am a proud wife!
My husband loved the video and said that Allstate uses an approach called “appreciative inquiry” which he likes very much.
He said “instead of focusing on what is broken in a community and trying to fix it, they focused instead on dreaming about what it would look like to build a thriving community. They asked the kids in the video ’what does a thriving community look like‘ and then allowed them to dream up an answer.”
When I think of Allstate, I love what they are about, and how they believe the future is bright. I wholeheartedly agree and have such confidence in our young people.
Allstate believes youth making change builds social and emotional learning skills and life skills — like teamwork, problem-solving & empathy. These skills help ensure their future success. We as parents have seen this first hand.
Our girls have good hearts, and it is a joy to watch them follow those good hearts and work with their hands, to tangibly serve and care about those around them in our community.
Here is the beautiful thing:
The character and skills our oldest learned from serving not only helped others but came right back around to her.
She has a full ride to college due to scholarships earned by her character, as her leadership and community service was recognized and rewarded by some amazing local businesses who get what it means to invest in young people.
We are so thankful and proud that we can call all three of our girls change-makers in this world!
Not only can we say that about our own girls, but the underprivileged youth my husband serves at his workplace are some of the biggest and most amazing dreamers and change-makers we know!
Yes, the future is bright!
1. Keep it simple, simple, simple. Utilize convenience items like paper plates.
2. Be purposeful. Have a time together that has meaning. The Allstate video I showed our girls did this for us in such a simple way, and can do it for you too! I want to challenge you to use it to gather your people together and show them the video. It is such a great tool to spark conversation and inspire the whole family.
3. Use food! Entice those teens, but keep that simple too. Order pizza. Throw some store-bought cookie dough into the oven. Set out some clementines and bananas so they can help themselves to fruit…gotta keep those change-makers nourished! Chips and salsa, popcorn and nuts are all easy things to grab and set out for munching.
4. Communicate. Teens want to know what to expect. I texted my girls and asked them what their schedules were, and let them know I’d like to have a family night gathered around the table with some food. I also let them know I wanted their thoughts on a 3-minute video that I would be sharing.
5. Respect what is going on in their world and keep it short if needed. Even 30 minutes of quality time as a family is better than none! Teens are so busy these days with school, jobs, sports, activities…and serving their communities! My girls have finals week this week so I reassured them our family time did not have to last all night, and that I would respect their time.
6. Create an atmosphere. I lit a candle, put snacks out on display, and made sure the area was picked up and felt comfortable. I always have blankets sitting around for added comfort. The puzzle was out to keep hands busy and bodies lingering. You could even have one of your teen’s playlists as background music. Cater to what they might like.
7. Let go of perfection. Even the most amazing change-maker teens can be moody. If there is grumbling about coming together, don’t let it throw you and don’t react to it. Keep things light and positive. If they don’t feel like sharing, then share your own heart and thoughts with them. They ingest more than you think.
8. Ask them questions. Right after I showed the video, I turned the light back on and immediately asked them some simple questions and the conversation was off and running.
9. Encourage your teens. Young people are amazing. They have good hearts and capable hands. Take a minute to tell them the good you see in them, how happy you are to spend time with them as a family. Make sure they know you see how capable they are in making a difference in their communities with their #GoodHeartsGoodHands
This post was written as part of the Allstate Influencer Program and sponsored by Allstate. All opinions are mine. As the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer, Allstate is dedicated not only to protecting what matters most–but to guiding people to live the Good Life, every day.
I am in the cancer world. I am a two-time survivor, take medication everyday to help keep cancer at bay, and question every ache and pain. I have an Oncologist who tells me this: “give each ache and pain a two-week window. If it lasts longer than two weeks, or you find a lump or bump, come see me.”
I have been in this world for 7 years. It has changed me. I have lived more fully, loved more deeply and know that loss can be right around the corner.
Have you loved someone with cancer?
Being in this world means meeting others in this world. I am not alone. Oh how I wish my loved ones and I didn’t have this in common. I’m sure you can relate, for who has not been touched by this, with cancer so common?
What can we do with our commonality?
“Cancer is an epidemic.” These words were spoken last week by my very heart friend, the one who talks to me every day and who is texting me this very moment, my phone buzzing at me. She has survived recurrence and spends her days at a non-profit organization that helps women fight this beast. She knows. Her weary words ring true.
How do we fight an epidemic?
My phone buzzes again, a text from another heart friend, so so dear to me. She asks if we can meet Friday morning before she leaves for Houston, gone for at least 3 weeks. This is the place she goes to fight the beast that has shown up for the second time in her delicate neck. How can something so ugly invade such beauty as my friend?
How do we fight the beast?
And then the children.
I remember my brave Lottie Mae, we lost hair together and were on the same schedule of growing it back, the schedule of fighting cancer. I couldn’t fathom her courage or the courage of her parents as she battled leukemia. Lottie’s beautiful red locks are now long, they grew as did she, now a beautiful young lady. Prayer along with the right medical treatment saved her life.
Can I tell you of one more story?
It is the story of 11-year old Kamryn, another beauty whose life could be saved with the right medical treatment. Watch the video and see courage, light, and life. Even the tears on the cheeks of her Momma are courageous tears, asking others to be the match for her sweet, sick girl. She needs the right medical treatment, but it is on hold, waiting for the right match, a marrow donor.
{Learn more about Kamryn’s story and sign up to join the registry at join4kami.org.}
Can you imagine waiting for others to give?
I can’t imagine having a sick child where there is life-saving treatment but that treatment depends on the giving of others. There are many just like Kamryn who have no donors available.
A marrow transplant can be a life-saving treatment for more than 70 diseases including leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle-cell. 70% of patients are just like Kamryn and don’t have a fully matched donor in their family.
They depend on Be The Match. This is an answer! We can be available.
Be The Match Registry® is the world’s largest and diverse donor registry, but there are still thousands of patients who don’t have a match.
All it takes to join the registry is a simple cheek swab. It is mailed to you, you swab, then mail it back.
How amazing would it be to know that you helped cure someone’s cancer? Blood cancers can be cured with the help of bone marrow donation. Becoming a donor is something we can do to fight the beast of cancer and many other diseases.
Can you commit to becoming a donor?
Donating is a lot less painful than one might think. Most donate through a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell donation where a machine draws blood from one arm, extracts the cells it needs and returns the remaining blood back to your body through your other arm. Donors are fully awake for this procedure. Lives are saved with this cell extraction.
For some people, the doctor will need to extract marrow directly from the back of the pelvic bone with a needle. In this case, one receives anesthesia, feels no pain during the procedure, and most donors feel completely recovered within a few weeks. This is a sacrificial act, but a small one for the chance to save a life.
Can you help spread the word?
I know I am not alone in watching loved ones fight cancer. I know the whole world has seen and felt the sting of this beast.
We can help others who are waiting. We can reach out our hands, hearts and arms to others who need a life line.
Visit Be The Match. Make a commitment and get on the registry. Spread the word. Every person who joins the registry gives patients like Kamryn more hope of finding the match they need.
Help beat the beast. Be The Match.
{Help spread the word by pinning above image}
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
“God, I look to you, Your where my help comes from.”
—God I Look to You, Bethel Music
I listen to this song and it takes me back as often songs do.
A slight ache starts in my inmost being and I remember that time of desperation.
I listened to this song and my soul cried desperately to you.
You came.
You were there.
You saw.
You hid me under the shadow of your gentle wings. I was covered, hand-held. Never alone.
You held and helped me in my suffering.
God you reign and so does your timing.
I cried out for you to take it away.
Your timing was not what I desired, but I held on because I was held.
I trusted you and you showed me that you are safe,
you’re worthy of my belief,
your plans better and bigger than mine.
God I looked to you.
You were and are where my help comes from.
You gave me wisdom and showed me what to do
You led me right to Psalms and to
the right book
the right therapist,
the right medical doctor
and the right medication.
You made my path straight
You brought healing in your time.
You lifted me out of the muck and mire and set my feet firm.
Lord, I still need you.
When I cannot stand, help me fall on you.
When I stumble catch me, turn my eyes and face to you.
Help me to keep looking up at you.
I will love you all my days.
You have become so very real to me, especially in the trials this life brings.
You have not left me alone.
Forever all my days, I will praise you!
The time of suffering I mentioned above was when I was in the thick of anxiety. If you are in a season of suffering, hold on! Look to God. He promises to never leave or forsake His children. He is with you and will get your through.
If you do this, this entering into suffering with others, you might just glimpse a joy unspeakable. This has been my experience. There is so much suffering on this earth. I ask God to help me see those who walk through suffering and love them well.
He has allowed me to enter into stories of suffering and I see what a gift this can be, not just for them but for me. I come away from these interactions changed.
I go to encourage, and walk away encouraged.
Let me tell you about my friend Ali:
A young mom, we met at a conference for cancer survivors, the two youngest in the room.
Our eyes meet and she comes straight to the empty seat next to me, which was my hope. She is all beauty and bright-eyed. Her sense of style is effortless and spot on, her hair regrowing is a pixie cut perfect for her face shape, and her smile the best of accessories.
Our hearts connect, she invites me to her home and introduces me to her man and her two littles with cherub faces. Dare I say some of the cutest I’ve seen?
We eat greens and drink kombucha and talk all things cancer and life. We just get each other, our stories very familiar. That was in the spring.
Late summer her story takes a turn. We meet for coffee she directs my hand to her elegant neck and it looks like I am taking her pulse. It is quite a moment, as I feel her life pulse and what could cause death at the same time. It is cancer in a lymph node, the placement in her neck places her as an automatic stage four.
I write these words and tears fall for my beautiful friend.
But, here is what I see and want the world to see, too.
Her beauty overcomes and shines through and I see peace and joy and she proclaims to me with eyes bright:
“I’m keeping my eyes on Jesus”
I see love. I see Him reflected so clearly in those big beautiful brown eyes.
She is the epitome of grace, courage, hope, trust, joy and all things lovely. Despite an automatic stage 4, she shines.
Several days later her text to me:
“I spoke with my Doctor”
“She said median survival for my stage 4 cancer is 2 years.”
“I plan on much longer than that”
She meets with doctors and loved ones and forms a plan, walking in trust that the God she loves holds and directs her path.
She is choosing a path less traveled, one that will bring toxicity and hopeful healing and she walks bravely forward right into it. This road leads to Houston, months away from her littles, (3 years old and 5 years old) and all that is familiar. This is the road that we pray will provide her with the “much longer than that.”
In the meantime, God is providing all that she needs. She lives this and proclaims it.
She invites me to Houston and I go, and spend 4 precious and some of my most favorite of days there. I write a bit about that trip here, and share a beautiful breakfast recipe that my Ali lovingly made for me while I was there. This early morning act of service for me is just one tangible example of how entering into someones suffering brings blessing beyond. The recipe is amazing, but the memory of being served by her in the midst of her hardship, the morning of her chemo treatment, is the most precious of memories. Such a sweet gift, one of so many that Ali has given me by just being who she is.
Enter into others suffering. Gifts will abound, you will give, and will be astonished at all that will be given back to you.
Update: Ali is back from Houston and reunited with her littles and husband. She will have ongoing treatment here and periodic trips back to Houston. If you are a praying person, will you add her to your list?
Ali is also an accomplished artist, and the above piece is her work.
Love wins.
I tell myself this as I am distressed and stressed, tears stream down while I try to type words and a pit in my stomach all of this day long.
The day after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S history.
I think of those who died, many who were so young, scared, texting their Mama’s knowing they were going to die, just to say I love you one more time.
It could have been my loved one, texting me one last time, hostage in a bathroom, knowing they were going to die.
I don’t know much, but I do know this one thing and I grasp hard onto it, clinging even as my stomach tightens. I know this.
Love wins.
In the end, love wins. Evil loses.
I type that and I have to stop, eyes clinch shut tight and lump in my throat comes up and erupts and I wipe the overflow and my heart feels like it is breaking and I wonder again about those Mama’s whose hearts are in pieces over last texts.
I remember.
I remember when another massacre happened, the Von Maur shooting, the day my little sister once again became my hero. She was working there that day. She knows what it is to hear shots that make your heart stop and race simultaneously. She knows how everything stops but it doesn’t and you have to act and you just do, you just act and react. She gathered customers into a storage closet and hid and acted heroic. I think of the many who acted heroic in Orlando yesterday that did or didn’t have the same outcome as my sister. She ended that day thinking of a precious man whose smile & greeting met her that morning and most workday mornings, who even at that hour was lying at the bottom of the escalator, a smile and greeting snuffed out by evil. She mourns and then heals. She believes that evil does not win.
Love wins.
I remember that day, being ushered to a room where families wait. Some had news, some didn’t. Some were in the middle of receiving the worst news possible. I remember a woman eyes wild, clinging to my arm, begging me to tell her if her own sister was ok. Had I heard? I had no answers for her, just eye contact & a connection. We were two wondering about our sisters, mine lived hers didn’t. The next time I saw this dear woman was on the news, walking behind a casket, her sister’s funeral televised. I think about how without deep love there is not deep mourning. I think about how very, very deep her love was as her shoulders shook while walking behind a casket.
Last night I needed to write articles but my thoughts were low and words would not come so I turn on Netflix to pick up where I left off. I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy, old seasons that I had stopped watching back in the day when hospitals & trauma became a very real part of my life. I am six years out and blessed enough to be able to watch once again. I press play and it is an episode about a mass shooting and I watch actors dressed as nurses and doctors playing a horror that nurses and doctors in Orlando just lived out in early morning hours. I thought how they continue to live it even now as day 2 and day 3 are often critical after surgery. My mind can’t wrap around what I’m watching– that it is real in Orlando and I think about pushing pause, but I keep watching, because I want to feel, I want to be a part of love winning.
Love Wins.
I wake up today and read the names & look at faces. I go about my day with names and faces in my mind & carry them in my heart as I grocery shop & do the mundane. I slight smile at mangos that are just ripe enough at a great price & marvel at the sweet scent of a pineapple not yet broken into. I try to find joy in the mundane despite a heavy heart, for this is another way for love to win. Evil will not steal our joy, hope, smiles or sweet scented moments of life. Even if those moments are memories.
Mid-day I look for more faces to go with the names, because love remembers. Love mourns with those who mourn.
I watch to let others’ pain sink in, to join in their pain and know how to pray, to let it in deep and I think…would I be faithful in prayer without pain? I want to feel others pain. I want to have ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart that cares enough to stop for a moment and just listen and absorb, to mourn with and feel with. I want to enter into pain with others because this is what love does.
Evil creates pain.
Love enters into the pain.
Love wins.
