without restraint

Dreaming from the inside out

This vessel desperately trying to sprout

Rain down on me oh Lord

Make beauty with this storyboard

Reveal your love to me once more

You are the waves, I am the shore

Open your arms and let me in

Create in me a new wineskin

Sweet Lord cover me in Your grace

On my knees I will embrace

Remind me now when my heart is faint

You are everlasting without restraint

--LF

truth in silence

"Silence is not simply the absence of noise or the

shutdown of communication with the outside world

but rather a process of coming to stillness.

Silent solitude forges true speech.

I'm not speaking of physical isolation;

solitude here means being alone with the Alone.

Experiencing the transcendent Other and growing

in awareness of ones identity as the BELOVED.

It is impossible to know another person intimately

without spending time together.

Silence makes this solitude a reality.

It has been said 'silence in solitude practiced in action'".

Bangkok to Detroit, same same but different

How can two evils be so alike and so different and half a world away from each other?

I’m still processing and working my way through Thailand (I recently went on an anti-human trafficking mission trip). The dark, the evil, the sadness, and also the light, the joy, and the purity of the Father’s love. In Bangkok sex is no secret. It is not hidden and prostitution is socially acceptable. Sex sells on a menu and where there is one girl there is many. One of the hardest realizations for me was the daunting feeling these young girls grow up with knowing the expectation for them to bring in money by way of prostitution is heavily set upon them.....some even from birth. Sixty percent of men that fly into the Bangkok airport fly in for sex. To use, abuse, belittle, and degrade young girls.....because they think they ‘can’ or they feel ‘entitled’, whatever their motive is it is wrong. When you walk down the streets of Pat Pong, the 2^nd largest red light district in the world sex is not hidden. Signs that read ‘Super Pussy’ or ‘Super Girls’ are plastered all over. Every corner is home to 2-3 people asking if you want to go to a ‘ping pong show’ which is a sex show. Every bar leaves open just a large enough crack in the door so you can peer your eyes in and see dozens of teenage girls either half-dressed or naked. Innocent baby girls. Yes, there are brothels hidden in the depths of the city that house continual sex trains off 11 year old girls that most do not know about. Yes, there are hidden sex rooms the higher you travel up in the bars. There are also obvious sexual acts that are so sickening you turn your eye and somehow convince yourself what you see is not real… I’m sure that is how those young baby girls feel too. But for the most part, sex in Bangkok sells itself right in front of your eyes. There is a purpose for these tourists, a plan of action, a pre-determined mind set, and innocent lives fall responsible to fulfill.

Almost an entire world away…across oceans and miles away in Detroit, Michigan some of the same evils listed above take place. The difference? In Detroit for the most part it is hidden. You don’t walk down a designated street for young woman or lady boys. You don’t walk down a four block neighborhood and see 4,000 girls/lady boys selling themselves. You don’t walk up and down streets to see young western men (and old ones, too) purchasing sex before your eyes. In Detroit, Michigan, my home, it’s the same but it’s different… sex is hidden. Now if all you’ve ever been exposed to is prostitution within the United States you won’t fully understand this; you may think ‘prostitution is not hidden here’ but when you travel to the worst of the worst, Detroit appears to be a cake walk when compared… but that is not true. Looks are deceiving. Just because we do not have designated streets or sex sold on a menu does not mean that Detroit is any better off than Thailand – but rather the opposite. It’s the hidden that is worse. If 11 year old girls were the same as the 15 year old we met in ‘Super Girls’ bar in Pat Pong they would not be hidden in a brothel… in the same way, if the women in Detroit who are caught up in the Sex trade industry were ‘not in as bad of conditions’ as the others then the evil wouldn’t be hidden. I’ve been all over Detroit at night, 10pm, midnight, 2am, 4am, in the strip clubs, at the bars, strolled over Michigan Avenue and it is nothing like Bangkok. But when you go deeper into the neighborhoods, drive up and down the streets that look like a war zone, peer into the busted windows, boarded up doors, the crack houses……it is there that you will find Bangkok in Detroit.

I went out last night with a local ministry who offer prayer and pass out bagged lunches and hygiene packets to the afflicted in those very streets and neighborhoods of Detroit. I had gone with the team prior to my trip to Thailand and then again after my return home. Night and Day difference. I left Thailand thinking ‘what in the world… my city is nothing like this’ and after last night I came home and thought ‘they are almost the same’. How can two evils be so alike and so different and half a world away from each other? In Thailand people say ‘same same but different’ that is what I think about Thailand and Detroit – same, same…but different. Here we have to look for the evil, search for the girls… in Thailand it’s all in front of your face. I’m not saying one is better than the other… actually quite the opposite. Both are disgusting and inexcusable. Last night while driving through these broken neighborhoods I thought I was in a war zone. A similar war zone I felt while in Thailand. These girls were afraid for their lives. The same look of desperation, hopelessness, and distress gazed from their eyes. In the last week three girls were found dead in the neighborhood we were in. All left to die in their own pool of blood from their slit throats. One of the girls was only eighteen, her life barely lived. Each girl we came in contact with (which were many) immediately wanted prayer. Similarly each wanted protection.

This morning the Detroit Free Press released an article stating 70 arrests were made in Metro-Detroit within 3 days in connection to sex trafficking. Five girls and one boy recovered from child prostitution, ages ranging from 13-17. Arrests made in the city I grew up in. Sex trafficking is not just in Bangkok, Thailand or Amsterdam, or any other third world country. Sex trafficking is here. It is in our own backyards. It is everywhere. We must do something besides turn a blind eye to the topic that makes us feel uncomfortable.

Find out what you can do in YOUR community. Find out how YOU can make a difference. And be encouraged… Jesus Christ has OVERCOME this world – and no evil, no prostitution, no pimp, NOTHING CAN OVERCOME HIM! Share His hope, love, joy, and goodness; wherever you are is a good place to start. Pray for your city, your state, your country, and this world. Sex trafficking is the 2^nd largest crime in the world and each night thousands and thousands and thousands fall victim. Enough is enough. Let’s change our city.

Google search ‘Human Trafficking in the United States’ = 18,700,000 results

Google search ‘Human Trafficking in Michigan’ = 1,210,000 results

Google search ‘Human Trafficking in Detroit’ = 897,000 results

And pray for me as I seek the Lord on returning to Bangkok in October.

At His Service,

Lindsey

Identity...

"Your identity and worth is not made up in anyone other than Jesus Christ".

My worth, your worth, all worth comes from the Savior. Worth is not defined by man made accomplishments, man made success. Worth is not lost in failure and it is not intimidated by hurt. Man does not define you, the Cross does.

Defending the darkness

Love. It's all we have to fend off the darkness. {Thailand...2 days}

In 48 hours I'll be on a 21 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand...one of the darkest places on earth. I'll be in a place that is home to 0.5% Christians. I'll walk through streets and bars that have robbed hundreds of thousands of their innocence. I'll be the minority. I will look straight into the eyes of many, many of my sisters who have been used, beaten, robbed, disrespected. Sisters who have been FORCED to have sex with the devil. Sisters who have been FORCED to let go of dreams, happiness, laughter. Sisters who NEED the saving grace and love of Jesus Christ.

I'll look traffickers, pimps, and evil dead on in the eyes. I'll see their sin, their darkness, their desperate need of salvation and I WILL love them. Jesus loves the sinner, He died for the sinner.

Only love will fend off the darkness.

Please be in prayer for our team of 17 + 2 leaders. Please pray ultimately that we would shine so brightly in the darkness of the red light district. That the Holy Spirit would seep through our pores. That every person we encounter would see Jesus through us. That we would love with reckless abandonment. That we would walk in desperate dependence. That we would act out of desperate obedience. That our prayers would send shivers up the spines of the lost and broken. That there would be favor in language barriers. That our team would be divinely united. That we would bear life changing fruit for the Thai people and each other. That the Lords will would be done. That we would be humble. That we would be selfless. That all expectations would burn and we would be keen to the Spirits leading. That we would have powerful discernment and wisdom. That we would have protection. That the darkness would become His light.

My heart aches with sadness knowing the pain those woman are in. I just want to love them and show them they are worthy of His love.

Let my name be feared at the gates of hell as I exalt the Savior - The Chariot

Radically.

Today is the last day is 2011 and I'm overwhelmed with a whirlwind of emotions, memories, thoughts, and more. 2011 has been a trying year yet overwhelming with power from the Lord. It's been a year of dependence. A year of good. A year of breakthrough. A year of growth. I am eternally thankful to have a Father who is omnipresent in my life. A Father who covers me in grace and finds me flawless in His perfect eyes. A Father who loves me in a way no one could ever. A Father who pours out grace and mercy. 2011 was a year of new birthing on the inside of me. I learned that I can fully depend on Him for anything and He will see me through everything.

I pray in a year I look back on 2012 and one would comes to mind, radical. I want to be radical this year. Radically chase after God. Radically seek Him and intimately desire His will for my life. I want to be radically obedient. Radically generous with love, grace, forgiveness, finances, time. I want to radically love the Lord. Radically read His word every day. I pray I radically live out His purposes on my life and radically fulfill His callings. I pray I radically yearn to be quiet and listen to His whispers. I want to radically transform my life to be full of praise and thanksgiving. I radically want to care for the lost, the broken, the orphans, the widows. I radically want to worship Him. Radically lay down my cares at His throne. Radically pray. Radically worship. Radically selfless. Radically open handed. Radically seek His will above my own. Radically get rid of selfishness and pride. Radically serve. Radically give. Radically adore my Creator. Radically seek a humble heart. Radically forgive others and seek forgiveness. Radically share my faith. Radical. I want to be radical.

I love my Father and I pray 2012 I show that love with my actions.

Fruit Bearing Obedience

The Lord has consistently been whispering to me "where would you be if Mary wasn't obedient"?

In Luke Chp 1 when the coming of Jesus was fore told to Mary by way of Angel she responded "I am the Lord's servant," "May your word to me be fulfilled." Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:38 NIV).

There is so much power in obedience. Look at Mary. I pray when the Lord reveals callings to me that I would respond just as His servant Mary did. If obedience bears fruit, then Jesus is the best dang fruit there is. Ahyah.