The season of Lent begins today! We are excited about seeing how God is going to work in all of us for the next 40 days. Traditionally, throughout the history of Christianity, Lent has been a time to prepare our hearts to observe Christ’s death, burial and resurrection at Easter. This is a time to prepare our hearts through fasting and prayer. People often cut back on certain foods and habits during Lent (like eating sugar, watching television, social media, etc.) When Easter arrives, things go back to normal. But, what if this year, Lent did more than ever before?
What if this year, Lent remains a season of personal reflection, and also connects you to God’s heart for the hurting?
What if this year, Lent was about both individual spiritual growth and global outreach?
What if this year, for the next 6 weeks (March 5 -April 17), you committed to give life to the world’s most vulnerable human beings?
Around the world, women and girls make up 80% of those trafficked, 70% of illiterates and 70% of the impoverished. We know that religion God sees as pure and faultless involves reaching out to orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27). This year, we are inviting you to join Our Single Purpose in giving life to the oppressed for Lent through She is Safe.
Change your life. Change a life.
“When I was five-years-old, my mother left us. So there was no one to stop my father from beating me.” Little Nima, bruised and bleeding, decided to run away from her rural village in Nepal. On her journey she met seemingly nice strangers who guided her down the dark path to the sex trade in the brothels of India.
“I do not know how old I was when I realized that I was a prostitute,” she admits, head hung in shame. “But then I got pregnant and they threw me out. I ended up in jail.” While incarcerated, a kind policeman called a SIS (She is Safe) partner for help. “She hugged me and loved me, but I could not understand love because no one had ever treated me kindly before.” At the SIS-sponsored recovery house in Nepal, Nima’s daughter was born. “It was there that I understood love for the first time,” she smiled, for the first time looking like the pre-teen girl that she was. No longer a victim, Nima had been given the gift of new life!
How can you change a Life for Lent?
Step 1: Choose to give up something – for the next 6 weeks – worth about $30 a week or even $1 a day.
Step 2: Donate the saved $$ to transform the life of an exploited and abused girl through She Is Safe.
Step 3: Pray for safety and survival supplies of the women and children living in the camps and settlements in war-ravaged areas around the world.
“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” Psalm 68:5
“Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor those who have been robbed.” Jeremiah 22:3
Karina Lopez
