Night of Freedom

Night of Freedom was a night of light.

Abolition International had their 2013 benefit dinner last Tuesday and I truly got the honor to watch my husband plan and pull together this God centered event. In retrospect we have been excited and exhausted as we talk through what's next for Abolition and their plans to open a safe house restorative care facility here in the Nashville area for minors rescued out of the sex trade. These plans were unveiled during the event and I'm confident God will see this and other homes built all over our country.

I'd be lying if I said everything went perfectly, but I knew walking into this evening that we were going to have to be ready to deal with things way beyond our control. I knew our trust in God and what He has planned was going to have to outshine the physical circumstances surrounding us. There was quite a bit of heaviness leading up to the actual event. Phil and I weren't sleeping much, our kids were waking up multiple times at night for no reason, one of the chairs of the event had some things stolen from her home in broad daylight, while setting up for the evening the video equipment was glitching an incredible amount, and the day of the event a dear friend of ours who also happened to be one of Phil's right hand volunteers lost her baby after 10 weeks of pregnancy.

The day felt much beyond humanity for me. Dealing with the sadness and loss of a life while believing God was going to show up profoundly at the event was difficult to balance. I dropped dinner off at our hurting friend's home and drove through the Tennessee countryside to the event. My heart racing at the anticipation for the evening; my eyes heavy from leaving tears behind. I was tired, but God, as always, is so good.

The plans for the safe house were presented along with a plea for prayer. The Tennessee Home needs a community behind it asking for God to make a way. Volunteers handed out prayer pamphlets as attendee's committed to believing that Jesus' light is in us and where our lights shine, darkness cannot be present. I've so enjoyed reading the prayers this past week and want to share them with you all. Toward the end of the night I felt God's reassuring whisper that He is the warm, hope-filled light that sees all the darkness and He will prevail.

Images by: brad + jen // www.qavenuephoto.com

Here is the 7 days of prayer pamphlet. Images by: Sonnie Shay's iPhone :)