Picking Up the Pieces / Unchained

Pearl is a survivor (and learning to be thriver and joy based) of sexual (and other) abuses throughout her childhood that began while she was still in diapers. She was essentially sex trafficked for several years from the age of 3 or 4 years old and was also forced to participate in child sexually abusive material during that era. Following is her bio in 7 stanzas.

Picking Up the Pieces / Unchained

Staring into darkness, watching shadows fall,
empty heartbeats echo down the dark and endless hall.
Starry dreams are crumbling, crashing quietly to the ground,
only to be trampled on then yearning to be found.

Fractured psyche, broken trust, leaving only fear,
Shredded heart, silent screams, crying without tears.
All the times, all the lies, all the damned illusions –
‘Loving’ people cast my chains with all their damn perversions.

Where’d it start? Who can tell? Does it really matter?
The time has passed, it’s moving on, having left the tatters.
And now’s it’s time to let it go, drop it to the floor;
Do what it takes to stop the bleed, blocking out the core.

So dark descends and night has come to take me in it’s folds,
And deep inside now I know there’s nothing left to hold.
That one way mirror finally cracked, a million tiny pieces
Perhaps in time, a two way mirror may rise from all the pieces.

In time came marriage masquerading as love,
for his dysfunction called to my self-loathing.
And when God’s whisper became greater than the threats,
I let Him lead me out. It was time to mend.

Been picking up the pieces with much hope, tumult and doubt
Just trying to figure out how to make it all count.
Mosaics have beauty when they’re put together right
and Stained glass glows gently if it forgives the night.

Years go by and hell still lingers, imprinted in my mind,
but something greater has displaced its stature and I find,
Faith holds on ‘til Grace declares: “They will NOT win, I prevail”.
Their chains are breaking because I’m learning, I AM worthy. LOVE prevails.

I can’t thank You enough, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

In Honor of Human Trafficking Awareness Month

The following is a transcription from the video of WAR, Int’l’s Founder and President, Becky McDonald, sharing about January 2022’s National Human Trafficking Prevention Month:

I want to just send you a quick update and a thank you for your partnership in 2021 and now going into 2022. Women At Risk, International, in 58 countries with 15 different risk issues, is focusing in the month of January on anti-trafficking. It’s our national focus for the year, globally, and we are most known for our fight against human trafficking – this century’s fastest-growing arm of crime – of human slavery either through sexual slavery or labor slavery. Every 30 seconds, a human being is sold against their will somewhere in the world into one of these two forms of slavery, and in the United States of America, 300,000 minors – tender aged children, your daughter, my granddaughter, little people who are at risk, who have constitutional rights – and under COVID, we have seen children as young as three-and-a-half weeks old rescued.

COVID brought the world to a screeching halt, but not risk. And so, we don’t run. We don’t hide, and we don’t fear. We embrace it with the whisper and the message of “come to the Light. Come to the Light, the Light of the World where the peace that passes all understanding, the Prince of Peace, can help bring hope and healing.”

Albert Einstein said the world will be destroyed not by evil people, but by good people who see evil and do nothing. You have been good people. You have supported us. You have supported us in our efforts in Afghanistan both internally and externally, and there, we’re seeing a surge in human trafficking as well as families are desperate for money. Families are in hiding if their daughters are 12 or over. They have to give them to the Taliban as forced brides, but now, some are selling their daughters into a marriage contract at an even younger age to get money to feed the family. And so desperate measures, we are feeding families there and we are working with Afghans outside of the country as well. And thanks to gifts from TCT Family Worldwide, we’ve been able to step into many different risk issues and make a difference.

So, whether you are giving gifts or whether you are shopping with a purpose, we want you to ask yourself “what can you do in 2022 to lift the scourge of human trafficking?” This is a cry for a mother’s heart, from my heart to yours to circle your cradles, to be that safe place to those you love, and to get involved, a call to action. It might be something as simple as shopping. Maybe you go on our website or host an event and purchase the work of their hands. When we rescue women, we immediately give them a way to support themselves and give them job skills while they rewrite the story of their life. So whether you’re buying jewelry or scarves, you know that whatever you’re purchasing comes with a story card and it tells you the story of the people whose lives have been impacted and who are making that. You are buying the work of their hands.

So from our house to yours, in 2022, we want to wish you a wonderful 2022 and thank you for your partnership, and from our house to yours, we just welcome you into the WAR family, and there is an Irish proverb that hangs in my house that I will share with you. It is something that has been seen by hundreds who have eaten here and thousands of others who have come here for safety and security, so take it to heart.

It says this, “So come in the evening, or come in the morning. Come when you’re looked for, or come without warning. Friendship and safety you’ll find here before you. The oftener you come here, the more I’ll adore you.”

So, welcome to the House of WAR, and thank you for your partnership in 2022.