Heart Opened Wide

I've been spending a lot of time lately reading through Christian blogs and following various links that lead me to helping organizations. A lot of this started with a post from a friend of mine who highlighted another woman's blog. Her name is Lane Ann Miller and she was diagnosed in 2007 with Stage 4 Colon Cancer. This blog has been her speaking to us about both her struggle and her connection to the Lord throughout this journey. The initial post my friend put up led me here. Reading this left me wanting more and I have since started back from the beginning. This family has an incredible story and a truly God founded and funded ministry, Disciple the Nations. I will warn you that this reading is not for the faint of heart. I have been brought to tears numerous times already.

Another thing I've been doing a lot of is listening to music that touches my soul. Lots of it. And it's all praise and worship...while it started as a search for one particular song, I've come to find several more from that one. I now have a playlist that I love and am adding to often. You can find it here: Center on Christ. If you check it out you'll see that I've got a lot of Hillsong United stuff on there. One of their album covers got me curious. It just has the letter I next to a giant heart. When I started doing a little research, I came across I-HEART. And while I can't recall exactly what got me looking here, I found some amazing links to agencies and movements to stop human trafficking.

After visiting freetobekids and A21 I started wondering, what do we have here in Nashville to help these victims and found this: Nashville Rescue and Restore. The sit is still under construction because it's still a relatively new initiative in the Nashville area, but they've already hooked up with some awesome local organizations, a few of which I'm considering applying to so that I can do my practicum with them. My prayer is that God would use me in a radical way. I don't know where He's taking me, but I know He's got an amazing plan.

Lord, keep me from getting in Your way and help me keep my heart opened wide.

Check out this amazing story from NightLight, an organization committed to addressing the complex issues surrounding trafficking and prostitution by catalyzing individual and community transformation. Its mission is to build relationships and provide hope, intervention, rescue and assistance to women and children exploited in the sex industry by offering alternative employment, vocational opportunities, life-skills training and physical, emotional and spiritual development to women seeking freedom. You can visit them at NightLightInternational.