Love letter # 16: Diana's Story

On our 28 daily posting quest, we will continue to examine several manifestations of love. Today, we will examine Diana’s love story: a story of healing and resilience, tragedy and triumph. She was bought and sold as a modern day slave. The sexual exploitation she experienced deadened her sense of feeling and made her feel hopeless. Thankfully, that was not the end of her story; the compassionate, consistent care from those who loved God enabled her to feel and understand what it meant to love in a new way. Her story is an example of miracles that happen when we passionately, selflessly and intentionally show the love of Christ to the broken.

She speaks of the people of Love 146 who took her in: “They are the people who loved me, who valued me at a time when I thought I was alone. It was here that I felt love. It was here that I felt love. I became strong. It was here that I learned how to be loved. How to love myself, and other people and God.”

Diana imagined herself as a tree at first withered, and then strong. She understood, better than most, the power her atmosphere had on her resilience and strength. This passage from the first Psalm also uses a tree to describe how our spiritual atmosphere determines our outcome.

¹ Blessed is the one
   who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
   or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
   and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
   which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
   whatever they do prospers.

Psalms 1: 1-3

I pray for those that feel hopeless and not valued, that they would feel the arms of the loving Savior, working sometimes through men and women filled with his Holy Spirit. At the same time, I pray for those who are not hopeless right now; that they would sow into the life of another who needs to know healing and liberty (Luke 4:18). Amen.

For more information on Love 146, and their round homes watch this video.

To learn more about the complex issues surrounding human trafficking and how you can get involved in the solutions, visit the Love 146 website.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

Love Letter #5: Love never ends

So the Sunny D example (see Love Letter #4:Love never fails) was precisely to get us thinking about what it means for us to tell a real from a fake. The girls in the video (also Love Letter #4) are victims of domestic sex trafficking, more commonly known as prostitution. So what does that have to do, you may say, with Sunny D and o.j.? Many of the young girls are lured into the sex trade by promises of 'love' and affection. They are fed a steady diet of counterfeit security, and then are forced; by fear, or by manipulation to sell their bodies for sex-- and many have had few examples of genuine love. Despite being arrested, raped, and beaten, some still think that their pimp is their boyfriend, that they are loved-- that the Sunny D, really is orange juice.