by Donya Dunlap | Jan 29, 2013 | Making a Difference, Modern Day Slavery
I didn’t intend to read it in just two sittings. I wasn’t expecting it to bring tears to my eyes. But it did. In fact, The White Umbrella by Mary Frances Bowley continues to rattle around in my heart and mind, echoing the voices of the young women captured within its pages.
walking through the storm alone
The White Umbrella: Walking with Survivors of Sex Trafficking was written by the founder of Wellspring Living in Atlanta, Georgia. Wellspring Living began in the hearts of a small group of women who wanted to minister to the needs of the young girls in their community. As they prayed over their burden and reached out to those in need, they discovered that each girl had experienced sexual abuse at some point in their past. Realizing that God was doing something special they determined to do everything in their God-given power to rescue, restore and renew each of the lives that crossed their paths. God has blessed their ministry and has grown it into a multi-faceted program for both women and girls who have been sexually exploited. This book shares the stories of these girls, their process of recovery, how God has worked in the lives of their caregivers, and the ways that the readers can make a difference in the lives of victims everywhere.
The powerful symbol of the white umbrella is explained best by the words of the author:
An umbrella is a common item, usually left forgotten in the back of a closet until needed. But when nature delivers a downpour or hailstorm, an umbrella makes a difference—a buffer that protects us from the harsh elements falling from the sky. An umbrella often does something else as well—it brings those who suffer together. When you share one with someone, you have to stand close, side by side…
To me, a white umbrella is the perfect symbol. The color white represents purity—the purity these girls stll possess and the motivation we have, without any agenda, to help them recover it. Our volunteers respect these young ladies as people. They look beneath the surface to glimpse the person God created them to be. Part of our call is portraying their innocence and worth to others who might not believe in them.
The umbrella represents protection against the storms and our willingness to stand with these girls shoulder to shoulder. Girls who have been trafficked live in a whirlwind of chaos and crisis. Like a tornado, you can’t understand it unless you’re in it. Our courageous volunteers and staff hold an umbrella over these young women, providing cover and letting them know they’re not alone.
I want to be an umbrella holder.
As I read the stories of these young women and children, my heart broke again for the devestation left behind in the wake of selfish people that ravaged their bodies and warped their minds. But I also rejoiced in that through the storm, God brings hope. He placed into the heart of one women a burden—a desire to help hurting children—and He used her to reach out to a young women named Sara, changing both of their lives forever.
She didn’t know that one would turn into dozens and now hundreds of faces and names entrusted to her care. She could never have imagined that God would one day provide thousands of dollars for emergency shelters, recovery homes, education, clothing, food, therapy and so much more that would be poured into these hurting lives. She never dreamed that so many would find hope and healing through the power of the Holy Spirit and transforming work of Christ. She was just a mom and a kindergarten teacher that had been told that a local hair stylist was in need of help. She thought she’d recommend a book for her to read and that would be the end.
She didn’t know, but God did.
God knew that Sara and thousands like her needed an advocate, a loving shoulder to cry on, an umbrella holder. And only God knows how many other Sara’s are still struggling to survive the streets of Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, San Diego, Tucson, and your home town. Are you willing to do what it takes to shelter a soul from the storms of this world with the umbrella of God’s grace and hope?
Learn more about The White Umbrella Campaign at www.thewhiteumbrellacampaign.com. Profits from the sales of The White Umbrella will go directly to Wellspring Living to further its work in confronting the issue of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation through awareness, training, and treatment for girls and women. Purchase your copy here.
Photo credit: Kevin_Morris / Foter.com / CC BY-NC
by Donya Dunlap | Nov 20, 2012 | How Great is Our God, Making a Difference
I write today to give thanks and to celebrate a modern day miracle and a new adventure.
You may recall two posts that I wrote at the beginning of this year sharing what I believed God wanted to do in my life in 2012. My “resolutions” were to dream God-Sized Dreams and to have A Supernatural Testimony–essentially, to live a life that could only be explained by God and His working through me. I can honestly say that He has done much more than I could ever have asked or thought…
and He’s just getting started!
Yesterday afternoon I resigned from my position at Oakwood Baptist Church as a step towards beginning a new women’s ministry in the heart of Charlotte under Citylight Baptist Church.
Until June of 2011, I never dreamed that I would ever want to minister in a public way or be a church leader. I was content serving in my local church and ministering to women through my writing and any mentoring opportunities that came my way. But when God prompted my heart towards starting a women’s ministry in the heart of a major city, He also changed my desires. I realized that the writing of my book, which I previously felt was going to be the pinnacle of my women’s ministry, was only the start. He has a far different plan than I could have imagined and I am in complete awe that I get to take part in it. I am humbled and overwhelmed at His working in my life and so very, very thankful.
God has given me a large vision for women’s ministry and I am excited about what is to come.
For now, my plan is to get established in Charlotte as soon as possible and begin serving in my new church and getting to know the people there and in the city. I will be sharing my journey through my blog, as always, so be sure to subscribe to the updates so you don’t miss any of the exciting things God does!
I ask that you would help me by doing three things to move this new ministry forward:
1) Pray for me, for the ministry, for Citylight and for Pastor Brian and Laura Norris
2) Consider giving a tax-deductible donation to help the ministry begin as soon as possible.
3) Rejoice with me at the goodness and greatness of God and His working among the children of men! (Psalm 107)
Click here to visit the new Women’s Ministry page of this site for more information and to donate.
Click here to visit Citylight’s website.
by Donya Dunlap | Sep 28, 2012 | Guest Posts, Making a Difference
I have the privilege of sharing with you today a brief, but invaluable five question interview with author, blogger and speaker Jeff Goins. If you have been following my posts recently, you know that Jeff has written a book called Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life. The book was an Amazon bestseller for two weeks and went into a second printing the day after it was released in August. If you have yet to get a copy, I hope that this glimpse into Jeff’s heart and the core of Wrecked will encourage you to get it soon.
Jeff, thank you for taking the time to share with us today!
Jeff Goins, Writer
Wrecked talks a lot about finding your passion. What is your passion in a nutshell?
My passion is words. To communicate messages worth spreading. I’ve done that my whole life — with music, theater, art, and now writing — and I love helping others do the same.
For the longest time, I minimized this passion, because it felt too small. I had friends who were traveling the world, and here I was, writing about it. But recently, I’ve had a change of mind: I’ve come to grips with the power of words.
Words can bring life or death, and my hope is to live a life in which my words bring hope and wholeness to people. Some say talk is cheap; I no longer believe it.
When did God first start stirring your heart in this area?
About two years ago, a friend asked me what my dream was. When I hesitantly told him it was to be a writer, he looked at me funny. Then he said, “Jeff, you don’t have to WANT to be a writer… You ARE a writer; you just need to write.” So I did. And that changed everything.
Was there a catalyst to this stirring? (ie: personal prayer, fasting, sermon, song, event, trip, etc.)
I had been working with a ministry, helping other people find their passions and pursue their dreams, and I was wondering, “Do I have a dream?” It had been so long since I’d asked that question, I was afraid of the answer.
After attending several conferences, I had to come to grips with the scary realization that I did, in fact, have a dream.
Was this always a dream for you or did you have a different desire at one point that God redirected?
I think it always was, but I didn’t know it. My experience with dreams is we get them often before we need them. So we have to go through a season in which the dream dies, which is exactly what happened for me. For five years, I served somebody else’s dream. So when the dream came back, it felt selfish and like betrayal. But at that point, my motives were more pure and I was ready.
The dream was now bigger than me.
Did you respond immediately to God’s tug on your heart? If so, how? If not, why?
You know, it took me a long time to see the spiritual implications of dreams and passions. It all just felt kind of selfish to me. When I was in college, I had some pretty dramatic experiences that led me to believe my life was going to be about more than me. I was called to serve others.
And so when I had the chance to write a book and pursue a platform that attracted an audience, it felt a little weird. I was scared of that much influence. So I avoided it for awhile, but eventually I came to see it as an opportunity to serve others (as I had been called) with the gifts God had given me. I’m continually surprised by how much impact a few simple words can have on people. So I guess I’m still getting used to it.
As I share in the book, our callings often come to us as surprises, and that’s exactly what happened for me. Discomfort is what causes us to grow; this is a lesson I keep learning throughout life.
When I was 23, the most uncomfortable thing I could do was go downtown and hang out with homeless people, so I did. When I was 28, the most uncomfortable thing for me to do was sit down and write. So I did — albeit, begrudgingly.
The abundant life, it seems, is about making choices we’d rather not make, but understanding that there’s more at stake than our own comforts.
*affiliate links above
by donyadunlap | Aug 4, 2012 | Making a Difference, Modern Day Slavery, The Spiritual Life
Everyone is afraid of something—and not usually just one something, but a lot of somethings. The list of common phobias is extensive.
Attribution: KickAss Pics (Forgive the name please. I didn’t choose it!)
Reactions to fear
Avoidance
Fear can be paralyzing or motivating depending on how you handle it. Personally, I am afraid of spiders. I don’t care if they aren’t poisonous, there is something just inherently evil about something with that many legs creeping about my house. My common reaction to spiders is avoidance and delegation. In college, my friend Naomi was my designated spider killer (and I kept her quite busy). After college, my roommate and I had a deal. She killed the eight legged creatures and I disposed of the lesser legged intruders. It was a great partnership.
Procrastination
There is also a great deal of fear wrapped up in my writing. This manifests as procrastination. What if I say the wrong thing? What if someone disagrees with me? Will people expect me to have all of my life together and be disappointed when they find out I have a basketful of faults that I struggle with every day? If I let it, these fears will keep me from writing. They cause me to delay posts my heart is begging me to share and they turn every chapter that I write for publishing into a spiritual battleground.
Motivation
My greatest and most personal fear is personal harm. I believe a lot of people share this fear or something like it and that it is paralyzing us in our efforts to reach the needy of this world with the power of Christ. However, I believe that my fear of being raped is part of what motivates me to fight on behalf of the thousands of women and children that face that reality every day in the multi-billion dollar sex industry. The Lord has given me an enormous burden and passion to help these souls, in part, because I am so afraid of becoming a victim myself.
Control
When Jesus visited the Gadarenes in Mark chapter 5, he had just performed an amazing miracle. He had cast out a legion of demons from a man that had been so tormented by them that he was forever crying out and cutting himself. Any attempt to restrain him had failed. So the people of the town avoided him as he roamed the graveyard and mountains near the city. Jesus came along and had compassion on the man. He cast out the demons who then entered a herd of pigs causing them to run into the sea to their deaths.
You would expect the people to be angry at their loss of livestock and income at such a turn of events, but that isn’t what the Bible says happened. It says that when the witnesses to what happened told the other townspeople, they were afraid and begged Jesus to leave their region. I’ve always wondered at that. It would seem that if they weren’t angry at him for the loss of the pigs that they would be grateful that a legion of demons had been sent away from this neighbor of theirs, and by nature of his proximity to their families and homes, had been afflicting them as well. But instead of offering their thanks and praise, they ran Jesus out of town.
Results of letting fear rule
Recently have I started to see this story in a new light. I realized people are afraid of what they can’t control and what they don’t understand. Things like homelessness, human trafficking, divorcees, single moms, low income families. These problems don’t have easy answers. Dealing with people in difficult circumstances can be draining, costly and even dangerous. So instead of showing them the love of Jesus and letting loose the power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts as we minister to them, we turn away, avert our eyes, come up with excuses not to help, turn the channel on the news broadcast, or even blame them for being in such a mess. We do what the people of the Gadarenes did—we ask Jesus to leave us alone.
What are you afraid of?
So I wonder—what are you afraid of? What is it that you feel motivated by the Holy Spirit to do, but that you aren’t sure what might happen if you try? Is there something you’ve always wanted to attempt, but never felt like you were qualified or the time was right? Jesus wants to do amazing things through us to change our lives and those in our communities. We have to let Him work through our fear. We have to invite Him into the mess and let His Spirit cast out the inner demons keeping us trapped in complacency.
Face your fears with Jesus
Let Jesus bring life and healing into your fears. Can you imagine what other miracles the people of that town missed out on because they were afraid? Don’t be like them. Face your fears and let Jesus have His way with them.
by donyadunlap | Aug 3, 2012 | Guest Posts, Making a Difference
Susie Finney is a full time missionary with Youth With A Mission in Tyler, TX, working with the School of the Bible. When she’s not busy teaching or hanging out with her Bible students, she blogs, reads, and goes to as many Christian concerts as possible. I am thrilled to have her share her story of how God changed her heart and life with us today as part of our release week party for Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life. You can follow Susie on her blog or on Twitter:
Twitter: @missionsgirl
Nepal – Photo by Karna Deshar
It was July 2009, and I was very, very far from home.
They sometimes walked for miles to come to our seminar. Men and women who had experienced the challenges of living in a predominantly Hindu country, where the Christian population was very small. I met men and women in Nepal who had done jail time for the “crime” of being Christians. People who had been beaten and exiled from their village for their faith. And here I was, an American girl in her late twenties, looking and feeling very out of place in Nepal. I’d never experienced persecution beyond maybe someone rolling their eyes at me. I’d certainly never been kicked out of town for my beliefs.
The one statement that has always stuck with me from my Nepal outreach was during the last day of our second Bible seminar, held in the city of Pokhera. They asked some of the seminar participants to share feedback from the week-long seminar. One man stood up and started to speak through an interpreter. “I became a believer five years ago, but always wondered whether or not I was following the true God, and now I know.”
The theme verse of our seminar was John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”, but his statement was significant not only for that, but because he came from a Hindu background and culture of millions of gods and goddesses. Why should someone choose to follow Jesus and Jesus alone? What made him unique and to be worshiped rather than all the other options available at the shrines we saw at virtually every corner?
The thing that cemented this man’s faith was digging in to the scriptures and seeing what they said about what God is like-His nature and character, always trustworthy and true. It wasn’t based on feelings or an arbitrary view of an unstable god who could change on a whim.
Three years have come and gone since my trip to Nepal. I haven’t been out of the U.S. since then, and have spent most of my time at the YWAM base here in Tyler, TX. But I will never forget the people I met during my month in Nepal. My perspective changed after meeting people who had suffered for their faith, and people who came from a very different perspective than my own, yet we were bound together by love of the same Lord.
At the moment I don’t get out and travel much, but I am still a missionary. My time in Nepal was simply another confirmation of the power of God’s Word, and the privilege of getting to teach it and watch as people’s lives change never gets old, whether here in the States or halfway across the world. It is so vital to understand what scripture says about God, about Who He really is. I guess you could say that that trip reoriented my perspective on the world in that way.
How about you? What is one experience you’ve had that has changed the way you view the world around you and what is most important to you?
If you buy Wrecked by tomorrow, August 4, you’ll get over $158 worth of free resources when you scan and email your receipt to
wrecked@goinswriter.com. Click here to purchase your copy on
Amazon. (Disregard the notice that the book is out of stock. There is an error with the page.) The book is currently being offered at $9.90 and is worth every penny and more. What additional awesomeness will $9.90 get you? Here are the resources you will receive:
- All electronic versions of the book, including Nook, Kindle, and PDF for you to read on the device of your choosing (a $31.47 collection).
- Advance download of the unabridged audiobook — three months before anyone else will be able to buy it ($29.99 value).
- The 10-week “action guide” for group or individual study (an exclusive guide valued at $12.99).
- A complimentary copy of Jeff’s latest eBook, You Are a Writer, an Amazon bestseller — in Nook, Kindle, and PDF formats (a $14.97 value).
- Free download of my hour-long audio program, The Writer’s Studio, plus a companion worksheet (a $19.98 value) .
- 50% off Jeff’s upcoming online writing course, Tribe Writers (a value of $49.50).
That’s over $158.00 in free stuff for a book that retails at $13.99. So even if you don’t like it (which I can’t even imagine), you’re going to get a great deal.
by donyadunlap | Aug 1, 2012 | Making a Difference
I am so excited to announce that Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into your Comfortable Life is finally available for purchase!
If you buy the book between now and August 4, you’ll get over $158 worth of free resources when you scan and email your receipt to wrecked@goinswriter.com. Click here to purchase your copy on Amazon. (Disregard the notice that the book is out of stock. There is an error with the page.) The book is currently being offered at $9.90 and is worth every penny and more. What additional awesomeness will $9.90 get you? Here are the resources you will receive:
- All electronic versions of the book, including Nook, Kindle, and PDF for you to read on the device of your choosing (a $31.47 collection).
- Advance download of the unabridged audiobook — three months before anyone else will be able to buy it ($29.99 value).
- The 10-week “action guide” for group or individual study (an exclusive guide valued at $12.99).
- A complimentary copy of Jeff’s latest eBook, You Are a Writer, an Amazon bestseller — in Nook, Kindle, and PDF formats (a $14.97 value).
- Free download of my hour-long audio program, The Writer’s Studio, plus a companion worksheet (a $19.98 value) .
- 50% off Jeff’s upcoming online writing course, Tribe Writers (a value of $49.50).
That’s over $158.00 in free stuff for a book that retails at $13.99. So even if you don’t like it (which I can’t even imagine), you’re going to get a great deal.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Wrecked:
“Our brokenheartedness at the injustices we witness is what gives us compassion. So when we rush past these messy and uncomfortable moments, we take away the experiences that teach us mercy.”
“We’ve believed a lie. We’ve been told life is about us. That if we work hard enough, save enough money, and buy enough stuff, we will eventually be happy. Many of us have done just that and we are anything but happy…we are left wondering what to believe. We know something is missing; we just don’t know what it is.”
“We find our vocations not by focusing on ourselves, but by focusing on others.”
Click here to read my review on the You Are Project.
Click here to read my review on Amazon.
