I am so honored to have Ginger Amerson, founder of iCare4.org, as our guest blogger for this month's Birds in Branches song series music with a mission. Thank you for taking the time to read and finding out ways you can make a difference.
Serving sexually exploited women, commercially exploited
women and their children is probably the last area of ministry I would have
ever envisioned myself working. When my family and I prayed the prayer,
"God break our hearts for what breaks yours," we were not prepared for
how emphatically or how quickly He would begin to answer that prayer. The seven
months that followed this prayer began a journey into the devastation caused by
the sex industry in our community. In seven months, we met seven women, (all of
whom had children of their own except for one), who needed a safe haven and a
refuge for healing. They needed a chance to show their children a different
path.
I was profoundly struck by this awareness the first time I
entered the home of a girl who works in the local strip clubs. As I walked
inside the home she shared with two other girls who were prostitutes, I was met
with an image that has been burned into my mind. First, I saw stiletto heels on
the chair by the door and several feet away was a baby bottle and seven
beautiful children who belonged to the three girls. The new high dollar black
truck in the driveway led me to believe the "pimp" was in one of the
bedrooms. I was sickened by the fact that he was the one benefitting from the
misery of the women and the little children. The paradox between the innocent
faces and the dark, dangerous lives the mothers were leading led us to begin
advocating and ministering with a whole new approach. For the first time, I
began to understand how children can be groomed from an early age to feel that
this is their only choice in life. To them becoming a sex worker or becoming a
pimp is as natural as my children becoming a teacher or a minister.
Through this experience, we began to see the girls not just
as somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, somebody's neighbor, etc. We saw for
the first time that very many of these girls are SOMEBODY'S MOTHER! This
was a profound revelation to me, because now we were not only ministering to
restore a broken past, we knew that we were being called to minister in order
to prevent a broken future. This paradigm shift led us to found the ministry
with four key areas of focus: Awareness, Prevention, Intervention, and
Restoration. As a result, when we set out to minister to a broken life, we
automatically assume that innocent children are nearby and will need someone to
help them build a foundation.
At Christmas, 2012, we partnered for the first time with a
group who has been going into the downtown strip clubs for the past 10 plus
years. This year, however, iCare chose to add gifts not only for the women in
the clubs, but for the children as well. We had the unique experience of
getting feedback on this gift when we went to one of the stripper's homes to
minister. As we walked in the living room, we noticed that the Christmas
VeggieTale video we had put in the club outreach bag was playing. Not only were
the children listening and enjoying, but the boyfriend (who I believe to be the
pimp), the stripper, and other adult family members were watching/listening and
enjoying. I remember from training, that when children have traumatic
experiences such as sexual abuse in their childhood, they become emotionally
immature and have difficulty growing past the age of when they were first
abused. I think this is one of the reasons why these children's gifts seem to
mean a lot to the Mom's as well.
At Valentine's, we did the same thing, we bought brand new
VeggieTale videos on the topic of L-O-V-E. Volunteers made Valentine
Build-A-Bears, and we put devotional
music by Chris Tomlin and adult Christian DVD's in the bag. This time some of
the girl's literally jumped off stage to get their boxes! Once again, we were
struck by how these gifts spoke to the "little girl" inside these
women. We also received an unexpected blessing when we heard how the
Build-A-Bear employees were touched by the people coming in to get these bears
and praying over the hearts that are placed inside with the stuffing! God is so
good! The second unexpected blessing came when girls from two of the clubs
bought a huge Valentine Card and wrote expressions of thanks and delivered it!
The "thank you" that touched us most was the one that said:
"thank you for seeing us as more than what we do." Isn't that the
kind of gratitude that should be driving all of us as believers? Thank you God,
for seeing me as more than my mistakes and poor choices. Thank you for seeing
me as redeemable and valuable!
Here's how you can help iCare4.org.....
Website: www.i-care4.org
Twitter: @i_care4
Contact: ginger@i-care4.org
Phone: 706-414-6482
Mission
Statement: Caring for needs and advocating for justice through awareness,
prevention, intervention, and restoration on behalf of women who have been devastated
by abuse, addiction, and/or exploitation and for the children who have been
adversely affected and placed in a vulnerable condition.
Material Needs:
Children's Christian DVD's
- Used
Children's Christian DVD's - New (Quantity 30)
Christian Magazines For Teens
Diapers
Baby & Kids Clothes Up to Size 5
Devotional Books
Christian CD's - New (Quantity 30)
Journals (New)
Scrapbooking Supplies
Gently Used Preschool Toys
CASH!! Working to raise $75,000 more dollars to purchase
land for restoration home
Long Distance
Volunteer Opportunities
*Training to become an advocate and possibly a speaker
available June 21 & June 22 Registration and details found on website
*Two creative team members who can attend one meeting per
month in Augusta and who are gifted in design work (specifically jewelry
design), or blogging, painting, photography, and/or videography
*Folks willing to do fundraising
*Volunteers to serve at large functions
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PLEASE REMEMBER: A percentage of the sales from "Little Bird", the first song from the Birds in Branches series, will go directly to help purchase the land for the restoration home for these women and children. Please spread the word about the song so that together we can raise awareness for iCare4 and help generate the funds for this worthy cause.
Thank you for your help and for downloading Little Bird on June 29th!
