be brave.

So interesting. 

I needed a break away and my wonderful husband let me escape to our favorite hang out (Groundswell of course) to get a break.

I'm dinking around on my laptop and sippin' my tea, catching bits and pieces from all the conversations around me. 

The nice older ladies at the table beside me are talking about their goals for the year. Their goals sound like all of our goals: Important yet redundant. 

Then there are three 20-something dudes. They are sitting a little further away but a few of their words trail over to me and my ears perk up when I hear "sex trafficking.... strip clubs... healing and restoration... God's love.... righteous anger..." and then I start to get that tingly feeling that I get when I know God's about to have me do something crazy. So I text my friend Kjersti. One of my fellow fighting-the-good-fight girls and tell her. She's the one I mentioned recently that also has a heart for women in the sex industry. My text ended with "pray that if this is a divine appointment that God makes it happen!" 

I was sorta hoping maybe she would get the text later and not make me go talk to them. But she yelled at me over text to TALK TO THEM!!! 

I have talked about it before that I am struggling with what my role is supposed to be in connection with the women and children being affected by sex trafficking and the sex industry. Lately I feel like God's revealing to me that it is simple. That I am just supposed to raise awareness. Start conversations. Make connections. Point people in the direction of my friends who are getting to be the hands and feet. Pray. Educate myself. Know resources. Be a voice for the voiceless. 

So I did it. I risked looking dumb. I risked sounding nosy. I walked up and said "Sooooo.... this is gonna sound weird, but, I was kinda hearing parts of your conversation and was wondering...." 

And guess what? These guys are broken hearted over this issue too. They were so willing to open their hearts and share their thoughts. They were from Mill City Church in NE Minneapolis. Their church has missional communities and one of them is dedicated to loving and serving victims of sex trafficking. One of the guys has felt lead to go to Moldova to work with children being rescued out of sex trafficking. What a cool connection! I got to share with them what my friends are doing in their ministries, I got to encourage these guys and thank them for being strong men willing to stand up for the millions of victims out there. 

I tried not to cry as we talked. Dudes never know what to do with girls that cry. So I kept my cool :)

Then I went back to my chair, sat back down at my laptop and erased how this blog post had originally started (new year, new goals, yadda yadda yadda...) 

Yep, I will try to work on the list of things my lady neighbors are working on: take better care of myself, more rest, eat better etc. etc. 

But I think the biggest thing 
I want to work on this year 
is being brave.

Even if I look dumb sometimes. I want to be brave, I want to respond to the tingly feeling that comes when I know I am supposed to speak up or do something crazy.

Other things I am working on this year:
-being a voice for the voiceless
-growing my Trades of Hope business (I have my first three parties booked this month!)
-more dates with my man
-being a more patient mama
-learning to play the ukulele!

Happy New Year! What are you working on this year?