Break-Through On the Journey

Last week I had this great opportunity to attend The Journey.

Linwood House Ministries is based out of..... a house on the Sunshine Coast. Every two months or so they take women out of the Downtown East side (from all different places in the community) and bring them to this life size barbie doll house. Here the women are pampered and treated as the daughters of a King that they are. Throughout the 3 days, there is intentional time for them to bond with each other, to learn more and experience the fuller life Christ has to offer them.

On our first night at the house a conversation sparked up between a few of the ladies at the valentine craft table.
One woman was so upset about how much help she sees for the poor, drug addicted and prostituted in the Downtown East side. She insisted that they were all there by choice and that people spent too much time attempting to assist them and not enough time helping those who have made a better choice for their lives. At one point she said she didn't understand those people who came to the Downtown East side to help the "street women" and not the hard working "honest women"

I was amazed at the genuine anger in her tone. I thought to myself... "Do you know who half the people around you are? Do you know what we do?"
It was difficult for many of us to hold our tongues and not return in defense. I quickly realized that there were just somethings she had clearly been veiled from and that The Journey was the perfect place for her to be.
Throughout the rest of our time there she bonded with a few of the other ladies. She heard stories of their lives, where they had been and where they are today.
On Our last night together we watched a movie called "Akeelah and the Bee" (Great inspirational type of movie. I recommend it, if that's your kind of thing.)

The morning before we left we all sat around and debriefed about the movie and neat things we saw. This same woman said "It's really true that you can't judge a book by it's cover, and things aren't always as they seem."

That was a breaking moment for me. I could have cried as I once again stood in awe of Gods answer to our prayer for her.

This is such a touchy subject for some. We wast so much of our lives stereo-typing people and trying to figure out what category they fall into. That we miss out on really taking the opportunity, when it's there, to learn each persons individual story.