Excerpt from my Beggars Society talk last night

As I have begun to live life with the women of sari bari I have become aware of this very human conception that God will always take us straight out of slavery and into the promised land or what we can calcutta call freedom. But it seems more often than not God First takes through a process. A process of exodus and he has it planned from the beginning…

Exodus 7:16

16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened

he did not say so that they may worship me in the promised land or the land that I am going to them he said the desert.

Why would moses take them to the promised land before first introducing them to the promiser—the desire of the ages. If he first brough them to the promised land they would end up loving the promises more than the promiser. God’s main purpose in delivering israel was so that they could know and love him…bevere

We must recongize that from Adam to now that God has been interested in the transformation of his people. Jesus is not just interested in the destination because the destination in his own mind is secure. He is interested in the process of transformation…that is why after more than 400 years of slavery God does not take his people straight to the promised land he takes them into the desert.

He is not just interested in giving us what we want or what we think we deserve…he wants to be apart of the process that takes us there. So that we can receive freedom as gift instead of a right. A gift that only we can give..so we fall in love with him and not just the things he can and wants to do for us. He is interested in knowing and being known by us.

Exodus requires obedience, struggle and a willingness to be transformed. That is what Sari bari is about…the restoration of women from the sex trade. Sari bari is about transfomation, redemption and exodus.

The road to freedom is never easy. For the women coming out of the trade it means a completely different lifestyle. I means getting up early, making food and making food in india is no short or easy pop it in the microwave task. I means a 40 hour work week, it means structure and accountablity. I mean budgeting and planning ahead. I mean learning something new when all your life you have told that you are nothing, worthless, trash who can not to anything but lay down and take it.

But the flip side to this freedom we have on offer to the women, is a new life, new confidence, restoration of hope, self confidence and diginity. It means the hope of life in Jesus.