the last couple of days have been so full...full of hope and joy and possibility...also filled with some disappointments. on tuesday we went to the gach almost right away we meet three girl who were interested in taking jobs with freeset and said they would come right then...but then i think they kinda freaked out and said they needed to take a bath and would meet us in an hour--they never showed up. beth and i were a little discouraged but saw a willingness to consider a new life and hope that maybe they would come another day. So last night, wednesday night, we went down the gach in our sari's...the girls totally loved it and we felt like beauty queens...they were super impressed that i can do my sari myself. On our way down the street on woman called us over and told me her friend had heard and wanted a job doing sly kaj--meaning sewing...so we arranged to meet them today and not one but two women met us to talk with freeset about a new job...we were so excited walking with them...it was like walking the road to freedom myself...they were unsure but as we went up the stair in the freeset building it was like hope washed over them and they could see themselves in this place--working--having freedom. Priya talked with them and asked some questions that made them pretty uncomfortable but slowly they warmed up...after talking with them awhile it seemed like it might not work...the women's expense would far outweigh what they could make at freeset..they are flyers...they come from the village daily..they have husband who have left them and they are each raising 2 children alone. they have high travel expenses (about 12 dollars a month) plus the cost of keeping their kids in school...but the women really seemed to want to change their work...so now they are going to think about it and see if there is something else they can do earn money along with working at freeset--since freeset will required they phase out of working the line in the next three months.
I went full of hope and left a little at a oss...feeling burdened for these ladies...frustrated at my inability to help them...angry at the poverty that compels them. these last days have been so up and down but so much is happening in the gach...light is penetrating...piercing the darkness and yet even as we win one battle we lose another...hoping for more light, more jesus.
last night at the christmas program put on by our friend ambika we saw so much hope and beauty as the children of the district danced and sang in the heart of the darkness of sonagacchi and all through out the crowd were the women of sonagacchi and even the customers pausing for a look...being there makes christmas more real. this is who jesus came to earth to be with...these ladies and their children and even the customer, the trafficker and the owners . he came for them and i am so blessed to be with them as we celebrate the coming of light into darkness...let it be as it was 2000 years ago when our emmanuel came as little baby...at first a small light and new hope...becoming a light that so overpowers the darkness that it overcomes it. jesus came for the world and eveyday i see how he most certainly came for sonagacchi and evey man, woman and child within it's boundaries.
tomorrow night we will go to the gach to bring beauty to our beautiful friends in the form of flowers...one flower for every girl..sundor phul, sundor meyer-er junno (beautiful flower for a beautiful girl). again may there be light in sonagacchi.
beth and i will go to the gach on christmas eve to talk with the ladies we took to freeset today --pray for them, pray for us. and pray that all 10 ladies that freeset is willing to hire will come in the next week!! that would rip my face off for sure!! let the kingdom come!!
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