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.)

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.