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Partners Speak Out: Dan
Allender
I do not wish to digress about whom we see as worth our admiration—sports figures, Christian rock stars—celebrities in the fields of music, ministry, and words, and people with mega-millions. It is a rant that I have neither the energy nor interest to sustain. However, I do know my heart needs heroes—men and women who have lived with imaginative abandon and foolish savvy to build the Kingdom of heaven on earth. A hero is an ordinary person who seizes the opportunity to step into the maelstrom to rescue, to care for those caught in the dark cruelty of their situation. It could be an ordinary motorist who sees a car turned over in the ditch and the early flames of disaster licking at the spent fuel on the ground, who stops and rushes to the car to find trapped children and their mother. He risks his well being to offer rescue. Later, when told he is a hero, he looks startled and a bit chagrined and says, “Nope. I just did what anyone would do in that situation.” A hero sees their act not as one of bravery and choice; instead, it is a divine necessity put upon them because they were granted the privilege of being there before anyone else was on the scene. Every hero is too frightened to feel heroic and too focused to ponder long whether they should act. I need heroes because the church seems so often tragically associated with rich bozos who own radio stations and predict the coming of Jesus in May or October, 1994 or 2011 or whenever, whatever. I cringe as the most recent absurdity that takes the focus of the news delivers our ‘message' in the clothes of a clown. I simply need to know that someone is doing more than merely furthering their career or bearing the slings and arrows of the common complaints that are no more worthy to be addressed than a kind and gentle invitation—I plead with you to grow-up. I need to know that the gospel actually takes a few men and women into realms of danger and goodness to offer life when all that exists is death. I need Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Corrie Ten Boom. It is good to know such men and women existed on this earth—but I am a hungry man who needs to know face to face someone who enters darkness with little regard for the naysayers or the voices of reason. I met her this past week. I actually met many such women and a few men this last week at the International Christian Alliance on Prostitution conference. A second confession is that I believe anyone unaware or untroubled by human trafficking and prostitution is similar to the baker whose shop was outside of Dachau and who said when interviewed, “I had no idea such a terrible thing was happening.” It defies incredulity. It is not only impossible; it is the utter loss of human dignity as a shining lie is held unto as more precious than the darkest truth. We have well passed the hour when Christians can say, “I just didn't know. I thought it was happening in Asia or Africa, but not in my home town.” Prostitution exists in every nook and cranny of our land. The average age of a prostituted women entering the ‘life' is 13. Not one prostitute enters fully of her own volition, or untouched by sexual harm and exploitation well before she turns her first trick. And it is the same all over the world—the church condemns and turns away in self-satisfied self-righteousness. 10 Years ago, due to the arrest of my 16 year old daughter for alcohol possession and her eventual decision to return to faith, and the subsequent decision to go to Siberia to work in an orphanage, she learned that many of her ‘girls' would leave only to become trapped in the sex slave trade industry. She returned angry and as an advocate. I listened and was too busy to do anything other than to feel sad. In turn, she hooked my wife and my wife awakened me, literally by her tears often at night, and metaphorically by reminding me that my central calling is to sexually exploited and damaged people. It might seem obvious that I'd see the connection, but I am a coward and slow to dawn on the obvious when I am afraid. And for 10 years I have been cautiously putting my toe in these dark waters—teaching and interacting with front line care givers who put their lives, reputations, and hearts on the line each and every day to go where few dare to enter. And then I facilitated a small group for 4 women who chose to consider the impact of their own story on their decision to enter the realm of human trafficking. I met Cara, Renee, xxx, and Kimberly. I met four heroes. I will only introduce you to one, in part, because she is the only one so far to put her story into print. Now let me come clean as to the purpose of this blog—buy her book. This is not a book review or endorsement—it is a plea. Her name is Kimberly Smith and the title of the book is Passport Through Darkness (David C. Cook, 2011). Her website is MakeWayPartners.org . Milton and Kimberly were missionaries in Spain when they discovered the reality of human trafficking near their home. They got involved and the trafficker threatened the life of their children. It rocked their worlds and rechanneled their labor. It also ruined their capacity to turn away and remain quiet. Kimberly weaves an intricate and raw story of honesty and struggle with heartbreaking elegance. She is led to start an orphanage in war-torn, godforsaken Sudan. All the voices of reason said it was utterly impossible since the closest supplies were nearly a thousand miles away and only 3 miles of paved roads existed in that infrastructure barren land. And that was the least of her troubles. The Janjaweed, the militant Muslim raiders killed, raped, and stole at random. Pirates and thieves paroled the battered dirt roads. There was no one on the ground, but one man, a Sudanese Lost Boy who was caring for hundreds of orphans who had to sleep in trees to avoid being eaten by hyenas and lions during the night. And Kimberly decided to build an orphanage and to do so without her husband. The story is mind-boggling. Milton who is a type one diabetic simply could not accompany her to Sudan. He remained behind to care for their kids and provide financial and ministry support. When I read of his courage to let his wife follow the calling of God, I wept. Actually, I swore and wept. How could this be God's plan? How could God ask a husband and wife who adored each other and found strength and solace to make such a demanding, and at times, what I felt to be an unbiblical decision? I raged simply at the thought that God could separate my wife and I –or call us to danger, or even extremity. It is too much. But then I read on. And what I thought might turn into a lovely story of God shows up, riding on a white steed, his blue passport in hand, the sword of righteousness and mercy in the other, didn't occur. Instead, the story turns from momentary offerings of goodness and love to the dark reality that no one can stop the daily carnage of starvation, disease and human cruelty. But somehow this frail reed didn't get broken or the flickering candle allowed to be snuffed out. That alone is incomprehensible. But far more than that, the story is not merely about doing good as the earth totters and seems to come off its hinges. It is a story of redemption—the story of Kimberly and Milton. The story has so many layers and complexity it felt like I was reading a novel. But it is not—it is hauntingly true. She writes, Once asleep, I often dreamed of children scrambling up trees to claim their branches for the night—safe from hyenas. The next morning reality would break in with the sun as I bandaged orphans from wild dog attacks or stitched their split foreheads from falling out of the high bough of their tree bed. Or worse yet, I counted the missing children of who we would find no remains. Living this life with orphans made it easy for me to understand we must build safe housing for them, regardless of the risks or cost. It is not such an easy leap for those who don't hear the cackle, wipe off the blood, sew up the skin, or count the MIA orphans the morning after. Those who haven't seen or heard the orphan's life tend to rationalize the expense per unit, per square foot against the fear of war potentially destroying their investment: a building. I have looked into this woman's eyes and she knows the mystery of death and resurrection. Do I? Am I far more caught up in the cost and the practicality of my calling or the holiness of being a witness and a presence for those who have little or no hope? Let me tell you the sequence of events of reading her book. I met Kimberly in my small group. I knew only a few hazy portions of her story. I had not read her book. But what I met in that group was a passionate, brilliant, sensitive and wild woman who had had more than a few experiences of taking on or at least encountering strong, opinionated Christian male leaders. It would be unethical to tell a single iota of the time with her and the other three. But suffice it to say, she knows her story—up to a point. And when we reached the point where it would cost her dearly to name and enter domains of heartache that seemed too severe to suffer, she entered that dark realm with eyes blazing (at me) and mostly at the evil one. She is a warrior who simply will not forsake the call to destroy all forms of darkness. She is a prophetess who will not settle for truth for others and a form of livable truth for her self. To be in the group was to watch a valiant woman take on evil and come out dirty, bloody and triumphant. And then I read her book on the flight home. I began weeping in the first half hour and I was mesmerized and captured for 5 hours straight. The book haunted me. Here is a woman who is willing to hear hard truth about her own story from a total stranger with no trust, no history, and no basis for considering my words. And she struggled, fought against, and debated those issues with me in the group, finding for herself the true truth uniquely meant for her heart. And though that took courage, I later read she has been to the cruelest heart of darkness on this earth and found the passion to rise and suffer the stories of hell for another day. What does it mean to be a kingdom of God hero? Enter darkness, especially your own. Enter that darkness with sufficient humility that it can only be called foolishness. And to the degree you find the bright and beautiful light of the kindness of God, then take that light to the darkest world that God calls you to enter and then let the voracious winds of hell try and suffocate the minuscule light you offer in his name. Come to see if you find God to be real, true, and good. There are matters of my heart that I have been too frightened to name and hold as central to my calling. The particulars are not relevant at this moment. In reading A Passport through Darkness and gazing into the daunting, playful, death-knowing and resurrection believing eyes of Jesus it is time for me to say, “I must build an orphanage.” This blog post was written at: http://www.poopedpastors.com/blogs/heroes-danger-goodness-and-prostituted-women/ Dan Allender Author of To be Told and Founding President of Mars Hill Graduate School CLICK
HERE to become a partner today!
BIO: Dr. Dan B. Allender
received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological
Seminary and his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Michigan
State University. Dan taught in the Biblical Counseling Department
of Grace Theological Seminary for seven years (1983-1989).
From 1989-1997, Dan worked as professor in the Master of Arts
in Biblical Counseling program at Colorado Christian University,
Denver, Colorado. Currently, he serves as Professor of Counseling
at Mars Hill Graduate School. He travels and speaks extensively
to present his unique perspective on sexual abuse recovery,
love & forgiveness, worship, and other related topics.
Dan is the author of The Wounded Heart and The Healing Path
and has co-authored several books with Dr. Tremper Longman
(Intimate Allies, The Cry of the Soul, Bold Love and Bold
Purpose). |
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There
is an ache for heroes, danger, and goodness and it is found
uniquely in our day caring for exploited men and women and
children. I need to make several confessions before proceeding
into this entry. First, I believe we desperately need people
who rise, in fact, tower, above the mendacity and mediocrity
of our day. I asked a group of Pastors (5) how many in their
church they would consider to be passionately and irrevocably
committed to the Kingdom of God and all its privileges, responsibilities,
and calling. Each looked at me like I was demented. I figured
it was because I seemed to be questioning their integrity
or the goodness of their flock. In fact, it was because they
knew the numbers were so low it boggles incredulity. One said,
“I have a congregation that regularly has 600 at Sunday worship
and I'd answer about 10-20.” The others agreed the numbers
were that low in each of their congregations.