Beauty for ashes

When I first read these Bible verses back in May 2005, when Dave and I came out to Cambodia for a two-week visit, I didn’t fully realise the impact it would have on my life:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the broken hearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed… To all who mourn, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning and praise instead of despair” Isaiah 61:1,3

Now that I have begun working for a ministry which provides restoration and healing for women and girls who have been sexually exploited in Cambodia, I am reminded of how God spoke to me through these verses.

It’s overwhelming to think that our Sovereign Lord, the God of the universe, has given me the authority and His Spirit to bring comfort to the broken hearted and announce release to the captives here in Cambodia. I find it even more amazing that God has put me in a place where I can work with girls and women who were once captive to rape, abuse, prostitution and trafficking and who can now access healing and restoration, rediscovering the beauty that God has placed in them.

The ministry I have begun working with provides holistic support to the women and girls they work with. Through a 2-year residential program, these women are provided with food, housing and medical care. They also have the opportunity to learn new skills, such as sewing, dancing and hairdressing as well as finding healing through counselling and daily Christian teachings.

I will be working with the women and girls, using art and crafts as a means for them to express themselves as well as helping the girls in coming up with new ideas for products, which can be sold to help generate income for them and the project.

Here‘s one of many stories about a girl that was released from prostitution by the project:

Sophea’s story
Sophea was 17 when she married a man form her village. Three months after their wedding, he convinced her to move to a distant province so he could find new work. Upon arriving at their new town, they checked into a guesthouse for the night. Sophea’s husband went out for the evening to see some friends, leaving her by herself. The next morning he still hadn’t returned. Sophea waited days and then a week to see if he’d return, but he was no where to be found. She had no money to pay for the guesthouse, no friends nearby and nothing but the clothes on her back.

Sophea was shocked when she realised that the guesthouse she was staying in was actually a brothel and the owner came to her and announced she had been sold to them by her husband. Sophea was forced to take clients against her will under threat of being beaten or tortured. Weeks, then months, then three years passed. In anguish of soul she cried out, “If there is a God, help me please!”

Finally, one day, someone purchased her freedom and she eventually was directed to the project I’ve begun working with. There she acquired skills for a new life, learned to read and grew in her relationship with the Lord. Having contracted AIDS, Sophea went to be with Jesus after three very happy years there.

My wish is that I will be able to, at least in some small way, make a difference to the lives of some of the other women I’ll be working with like Sophea and see God give them beauty for ashes.

Laura