How long will we be silent?

CADE: Christians Actively Demolishing Exploitation
cadetogether.com

I have had the privilege and honor of being involved with CADE since its conception.  I use the words privilege and honor because there are no other words that come to mind.  As a pastor I get to walk with people through some of their most difficult moments, but as a member of CADE I get to walk with women away from their most difficult moments.  Women who have been wounded and damaged but not destroyed, women who know true pain in the most severe of ways.  Their hearts have been stained with years of abuse, most of them since they were small children.   Their lifestyles full of degradation, not a choice but rather a reflection of how they have been failed by their families and by the system.  These women have been living as slaves instead of as precious daughters and friends. Girls robbed at a young age of innocence and safety, hardened by the disappointments of a life lived on the streets and controlled by men who see their worth as only a commodity to fill their pockets.  These girls and women that are someone’s daughters and in some cases someone’s mother are devalued and demeaned.  How can anyone not look into their faces and see the dreams of what could have been and still could be.  Hard faces that hide hearts that are broken and fearful.  Hearts that have long since hardened up, in order to protect themselves, because it is better to feel nothing, than to feel the gnawing unfulfilled promise of destiny.  Better to feel nothing, than to feel the loss of innocence or the betrayal of family.  Better to stay numb through drugs and alcohol, than to feel the ongoing pain of a body being used for others pleasure.  Victims, I see victims that deserve an opportunity to be victorious.   I see women that deserve the opportunity to be treated with kindness, respect and honor.   I see women that with enough love and support can be victorious.  I cannot change the world, but what a privilege to be able to help change one life.  To help restore value and virtue to one who has been denied it by a set of unfair life circumstances.  There but for the grace of God go I, and so I call this a privilege and an honor to be able to serve the daughters of a perverse generation with the love of the King.