Thank you

A presidential message | Rebecca McDonald

“Our commitment is for the House of WAR to be a sanctuary. In this season, we see a spike in the number of 911 scenarios as winter brings its own dangers to those hiding under a bridge or running for their lives barefoot—or wishing they could. Some stories are messy and still ongoing, and one haunts both my waking and sleeping moments as we continue trying to bring about a resolution. Every life is precious to the WAR family, and we are determined to fight for her.”

Women At Risk, International’s (WAR, Int’l) 911 Rescue Fund is weekly responding to emergency calls of varying urgency from across the nation and globe. At this very moment, vulnerable individuals are seeking out WAR to rescue and make a way for them.

Primary need: When a crisis hits, there’s no time to gather funds. The money is needed right away. WAR, Int’l partners need to make quick decisions when a life is in imminent danger. Only after the intervention can we take the time to recount the details of the rescue (as much as can be safely shared while also respecting confidentiality) and raise funds to replace the expense. We regularly drain this fund which then requires us to bring the balance back up so that rescues are not dependent on finances.

The 911 Rescue Fund allows WAR Int’l and its partners to rush to the aid of those in imminent danger. We have rescued children as young as three weeks, six months, and six years—all tender ages. We’ve rescued women hiding in barns and under bridges. They often need immediate medical care and don’t have papers to go through normal channels. Through our 911 Rescue Fund, they receive immediate assistance including but not limited to shelter, medical care, transport to safety, a dead drop (pickup at an undisclosed location), legal aid, bedding, furniture, set-up in a safe place, moving services when crisis requires moving company or hired help, court appearances, bus passes, cost of maintaining that 911 line, related costs, etc.

Following are powerful and life-altering stories of rescue made possible by your kindness and generosity.

Angel’s Story

The day COVID-19 hit the U.S. in 2020, Rebecca McDonald, founder and president of WAR, Int’l, hid a young woman in her car.

Freedom is costly.

When you help a woman escape exploitation, you see firsthand the devastating loss that comes from fleeing slavery. In leaving behind abuse, women often leave behind everything they’ve ever known. Starting over is exhausting, and is only made worse by navigating the rough waves of trauma and healing. Freedom is not free–it is painfully expensive in a thousand different ways.

Angel had been running barefoot from her traffickers for hours before she secured WAR, Int’l’s number from a national hotline. After she courageously reached out to us, we ran to her aid. Angel was tucked safely away in Becky’s car while we arranged safe housing.

Today, Angel is flourishing. Not only have pro bono lawyers cleared her name of all crimes claimed against her, but she is excelling as a legal secretary, spreading the seeds of justice that were planted in her own life. She has been reunited with her kids. Through your generosity, she has also been provided with a car. Once stereotyped due to riding a bicycle to and from work, Angel now possesses the resources to reflect her inner potential.

Margaret’s Story

Far too often, traffickers aren’t strangers. This was Margaret’s story. Her boyfriend betrayed her, forcing her to sleep with other men in exchange for the drugs that fueled his addiction.

Margaret waited in anguish for an opportunity to escape. Seeing her only chance, she fled while clutching the arm of her teenage daughter. Like so many others, they left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. As the two of them fearfully hid in a hotel, Margaret reached out in faith to WAR, Int’l.

Due to generous contributions to our 911 Rescue Fund, WAR, Int’l was able to respond immediately in Margaret’s hour of need, providing food, clothing, and other basic essentials. We also arranged the transportation that reunited Margaret and her daughter with their family in another city, restoring them to a circle of belonging and protection.

Ramona’s Story

Responding to a call from a federal agency, WAR, Int’l took Ramona shopping for an outfit she could wear to court. Despite unimaginable circumstances and lingering hurt, Ramona had resolved to testify against her traffickers.

We often emphasize how important it is to shed light on the realities of human trafficking and bring perpetrators to justice but forget that it requires real human cost. WAR, Int’l leapt into overdrive to surround Ramona and prepare this courageous survivor to be the key witness against a trafficking ring. Ignoring the attention we attracted by shopping under armed guard, we watched Ramona’s countenance transform from fear to confidence!

Touched by our compassion for her, Ramona whispered, “Why do you care for me when you don’t even know me?”

We at WAR, Int’l love that question! The 911 Rescue Fund allows us to respond, inform, and reach into lives with action. It permits us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We were honored to be a part of Ramona’s story and are so inspired by her resilience.

The Next Story

Because of your generosity, WAR, Int’l is a sanctuary. Together, we partner in the Lord’s work to bestow beauty instead of ashes.

Our 911 Rescue Fund seeks to be the hands and feet of Christ, showing up for survivors in their hour of need. Empowered by your gifts, there is no need to which WAR, Int’l turns a blind eye.

We hide the hunted, clothe the exposed, and nourish the hungry. To those on the run, we provide rest and respite. The hurting are set on a path to healing and the homeless are embraced. Each woman, man, and child is welcomed and grafted into the WAR family.

Behind each of these initiatives is a story of a survivor who was earnestly pursued and wrapped in compassion.

Your generosity will write the next story. Your Giving Tuesday gift will embolden us to continue to intervene, bringing precious survivors out of darkness and into marvelous light.

Give online here.

Send a check to:
Women At Risk, International
2790 44th St. SW
Wyoming, MI 49519.

(If you write a check, please be sure to note on the memo line that it is for our Giving Tuesday campaign.)

TRIBUTE TO THE UNSUNG MOMMIES

Author: Rebecca McDonald, Founder & President
May 1, 2022

This Mother’s Day, I want to celebrate the women who never mothered a child biologically. They’re role models of a mother’s heart in ways deserving respect, love, and adoration. They sacrificially give of their time, talent, and treasure to nurture in the truest sense of the term “mothering.” True mommies to the mommyless or to others’ children, they may be single committed to nurturing others’ children or married but will never deliver their own. They nurture babies whose own mother was not there for them or nurture others’ kids in ways their parents couldn’t.

Single women profoundly influenced me as a young girl and one reason I am who I am today. I grew up on a humanitarian mission compound in a foreign land with a high number of single women serving the hospital, school, and other humanitarian works. They embraced singleness and poured their lives out 24/7 like a drink offering to nurture little ones. So powerful were these role models, I did not fear singleness. I saw lives that gave up marriage either by choice or by God’s design to nurture a world of children who desperately needed the maternal instinct that’s in every woman.

One of my heroes in Asia would love to marry and have her own children. My heart breaks that she is lonely in ways that married women will never understand. But she was called to be a mother figure to the broken girls of the red-light district who hang on her like the mother they never had. She’s too busy “mothering” to find a husband. She radiates joy and nurture; children flock to her in droves. She is the only safe person they know, a drink offering in a dark place.

Just because you can conceive doesn’t make a good mom. Sadly, this greatest job on earth requires no education, no certificate, no liability statement, and comes with no directions. Babies are having babies with no clue how to nurture. There’s so much more to “mothering” than physically bearing a new life.

This Mother’s Day tribute is to those mothers who have given their lives to lift others’ babies. I often state that after I raised my own babies, I am still just a mommy…Now a mommy to the mommyless. I’m nothing special. I simply do the work I’ve always done of nurturing. Women who aren’t biological mothers are experts at doing the same thing. We stand shoulder to shoulder and join forces with incredible ranks of “moms” who nurture to the exclusion of their own biology. I don’t deserve to be in their company. They know a pain and loss that I don’t. Yet they pour out their maternal instincts to lift the babies of the world.

As a practiced observer of pain, I don’t miss the signs of their sacrifice and sense of loss. They don’t cry in their soup and whine. They quietly give their lives to nurturing others. They are the teachers who pour themselves into the children born to others. They are the nurses who rock the babies in the nursery where the biological mom is incapable of loving for so many reasons. They are safehouse staff who faithfully go into the darkness to find little ones or who, when they were little, no one heard their cry. They hear the cry of the wounded and rejected. They make their pain their responsibility. They bring to the table whatever skill, talent, or treasure God has entrusted to them to be the moms those wounded, at-risk children never had.

It’s my privilege to stand in their shadow. I feel a unique pain for singles offered platitudes that married women and even clergy heap on their heads. I watch as they quietly bear senseless remarks and flippant misunderstandings. As a child, I cringed at the quiet pain filtering across their polite faces as grownups were oblivious to the impact of their comments. I have an uncomfortable knack for seeing pain that has no voice.

I have a soft spot for married women who cannot bear children. I grew up as an American in foreign lands where a woman can still be divorced, abandoned, used up, and discarded for this “sin.” I understand culturally why the women of scripture…Sarah, Hannah, Rachel, and Rebecca were devastated at their barrenness. I have a soft spot for moms who miscarry and mourn their loss. I have witnessed the unspeakable pain and confusion of Russian culture that considers abortion normal birth control, yet is taught by the Orthodox Church that abortion equals murder and is, therefore, an unpardonable sin. One of the earliest programs of WAR was stumbling on a weeping Russian who believed she was required to abort her new pregnancy because of living in a one-room apartment with six adults and no room for a child. She wanted this child in her happy marriage but couldn’t afford it. We supported her for two years. Now her precious son is a wonderful man.

So this Mother’s Day, the world of Women At Risk, International salutes those women who are, in some ways, more a mommy to the world than many biological moms. You are our heroes. We cherish you and lift you high. We honor you in the cultures of the world that would whisper other messages. We could not do what we do without you. We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with you as the mighty warriors of mothering and nurturing that you are. We honor your life as a “mommy to the mommyless,” standing together fulfilling the call to parent the motherless. I could write a similar letter to you about nurturing, protective dads who have not born biological sons and daughters, but that will come on Father’s Day.

Thank you for the honor of working beside you. Someday in Heaven, there will be a real Mother’s Day where the fruit of your labors will rise up and call YOU blessed. Because of you, they will celebrate your nurturing in their lives through your time, talent, and treasure.

From one mommy to another………..I love you. Becky

Is Happiness A Choice?

Author: A Dear Survivor
April 12, 2022

    This, I Believe

Over 10 years ago, NPR had a radio show called “This, I Believe.” This segment focused on written essays from listeners who were stating their stance on something they believed in. It was incredibly inspiring, but it also encouraged listeners to broaden their point of view to hear and understand someone else’s opinion. Below, I’ve written my own “This, I Believe” statement about something that can often be considered controversial:

    Is Happiness a Choice?

Having been a circle of protection to survivors of sexual and physical abuse, human trafficking, and other traumas, I believe happiness is a choice. Persevering against the odds stacked against them, these survivors have risen from the ashes because they chose to invest in their own happiness. One recurring observation I often hear when a survivor publicly shares their story is: “I would’ve never known they were a survivor because they’re just so full of joy!” Every morning, these individuals wake up and are haunted by their horrific pasts. They are faced with the decision of whether they are going to choose to linger in the darkness of their trauma or whether they’re going to choose the warmth of happiness – and by no means is that decision an easy one.

It is incredibly easy for anyone who has endured trauma to any extent to linger in those dark corner shadows where they won’t ever have to face what’s keeping them there. But the choice to be happy? That choice is one of the most difficult ones they have to make on their healing journey. When a person chooses to expose all those dark and scary places, they prove that they’re no longer afraid of what awaits when they open the drapes. It’s like when spring finally comes after a long winter, and they can finally open the windows, let in the fresh air, take a deep, cleansing breath, and allow themselves to begin sweeping up the settled dust and cobwebs.

I personally went through my own healing journey from the years of trauma I endured that resulted in multiple mental health concerns. After one final breakdown, where depression and anxiety left me on the ground, a shattered mess of hopelessness, questioning if I was strong enough to keep going, I realized that I needed to play an active role in my recovery to find true healing. It was no longer enough for me to solely rely on my weekly therapy sessions and my prescription medication. With the help of my therapist, I found it was most beneficial to start every morning making the conscious choice to choose happiness and appreciate the little things around me. I opened my eyes and found joy in the turkeys and deer as they walked through the backyard, in the sunrise over the golden cross that stands glowing high above the Cathedral on my drive to work, and in the sunsets as the burnt orange rays of warmth came streaking through my bedroom window in the summertime. Maybe that’s more of a testament to my personal growth, but similar practices are mirrored in the courageous and strong individuals I’ve had the honor of knowing and loving. Surely, if a survivor of something as horrific as human trafficking, torture, assault, etc., can open their eyes and choose their own happiness every morning, anyone can. This, I believe.