Yesterday, Today and Forever

As we move into a new year, we at the SA Foundation have much to be thankful for. God has graciously sustained us through another year. We could count on his provision for every day, week and month that was before us, even when we were wondering how that would happen. We wish to thank you, our supporters, for faithfully remembering us and praying for us.

The turning of a new decade gives additional impetus to consider and contemplate the past, present and future. This is something that we regularly do as an organization. In order to know what to be busy with in the present, we need to reflect on how things have gone in the past and plan for the future. We need to do this, trusting in our Lord and praying for his discernment, wisdom and courage. This is what we have done throughout the past decades of our organization. We’re committed to do in the same in the 2020’s.

Our Lord and Master, whom we serve, and to whom we look every day for his blessing and direction, is faithful and constant. As Hebrews 13:8 says:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

We are imperfect servants, but he is the perfect Servant Leader. As we listen to his voice, follow in his footsteps and seek his direction, he will never abandon or forsake us. In a crazy world, this rock solid reality brings us peace and comfort.

There are three things we’d like to share with you about our present circumstances and needs at the SA Foundation.

In the first place, we are in the process of moving to a new frontline house! This move will not only save us a fair bit of money from month to month. It is also a much newer, more pleasant and better suited home for the women and children in our program.

In the second place, we are in need of a reliable 12-passenger van for the Genesis Vancouver program. If you know of an individual or dealership that would be able to help us acquire such a van, please let us know!

In the third place, we are looking for funds to provide entry level job training program for a successful program participant.

We trust that God will continue to provide for each need, one by one. But we also know that he works through people like you to meet our every need.

The whole team here at the SA Foundation wishes to thank each one of you and wish you the very best in the 2020’s. Please continue to pray for us, for the women and children in our care and each member of the staff and board. We are committed to praying for each of you as well!

 

 

 

Parenting is Vital

One of the distinguishing features of our program model is that we welcome into our program both women and their children. It is important to us to do everything possible to keep mothers and their children together, so that the generational cycle of exploitation can be broken. Like our Lord Jesus, we want nothing to hinder the little children from experiencing the healing that God wants to bring to them.

The Lord Jesus said,

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”–Matthew 19:14

For this reason, we provide housing that is suitable for mothers with children, daycare for the children while their mothers are busy with the day program and parenting guidance, classes and mentoring. Will you help us to be a generation changer and help us bless the little children in Jesus’ Name?

Skills Need to be Taught

Whatever vocation a person chooses, they need to be trained. They need to obtain skills and learn how to put those skills to productive use. As they gain experience and competence, they are challenged to develop more advanced skills and given larger responsibilities.

Jesus talks about this sort of thing in his parables. He mentions how a satisfied employer speaks to his diligent and hard-working employee:

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”–Matthew 25:23

For the women in our programs, who’ve escaped sexual exploitation, doing satisfying and fruitful work that does not demean them and in which they are not being used by their boss is a huge blessing. We help them discover how they can be fairly rewarded for honourable work, rather than being abusively exploited solely for the selfish benefit of an abusive master. We point them to Jesus, who loves them, wants them to succeed and also promises not merely earthly rewards but an eternal reward!

Talents Yet to be Discovered

For full recovery to happen in the lives of women who have escaped sexual exploitation, they need to be trained and given the tools to discover and develop the gifts that God has given them. Every woman is unique, blessed by God with her own set of gifts and skills. Our task is to help her to discover these talents and to guide her in developing them in healthy, productive ways, so that she will be able to succeed and thrive. We provide her with opportunities for learning and training in these skills, assisting her in finding suitable educational programs and providing her with job shadowing opportunities. As she discovers her competencies and skills in small ways, and succeeds, she gains the confidence she needs to pursue and embrace greater challenges and opportunities.

The Lord Jesus, by his transforming Word and Spirit, is the one who makes such success and flourishing possible. He is also the one promises his reward to these women, as they look to him for his blessing, provision and guidance.

The greatest reward, both for us and the young women and children we serve, is the reward that Jesus promises. Our desire is that as we do our work, and as we model for the women in our program what it looks like to work for the Lord, we may each receive his promise of success, blessing and reward:

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.”–Matthew 25:23

Quality of Life

God desires not only that we believe and trust in him with all our hearts, but also that we experience the peace and security of his presence daily. Quality of life is something that every person desires. God’s promise to those who will entrust themselves to him is a quality of life that surpasses anything we humans could ever offer or experience, even those with unlimited money and resources. And not just here on earth, but forever!

As Jesus said to his disciples before he ascended into heaven:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”–Jesus in John 14:27

Jesus does not give as the world gives. He is infinitely more generous and gracious, knows exactly what we need, and has the power and ability to deliver it to us from his infinite supply. It is this promise of Jesus that undergirds another one of SA Foundation’s core values for program delivery, namely, Quality of Life.

The peace and safety that Jesus promises to us is the peace and safety that we desire for each woman and child in our programs. One of the ways we endeavour to convey this is by ensuring that we create a peaceful and secure atmosphere for all program participants and their children, both in the spaces where they live and learn and in the caring community with which we surround and support them. Forging long-term, authentic relationships is key to creating this quality of life. Finding, building and maintaining program and living spaces that are safe and reflect the same standard of living we wish for ourselves is also important.

While we cannot give the women and children everything they need–only God can do that–we certainly do our best to help them taste and see the goodness of their loving and gracious God, by being a loving and gracious community, one that is created and shaped and sustained by our Lord Jesus.

Will you continue to help us be such a community, through your continual prayers and regular support? Thank you for all the ways that you are already doing so! We certainly experience God’s goodness, and the peace and safety that Jesus imparts, through people like you.

It Takes Time to Heal

Another one of our program delivery core values at the SA Foundation is that it takes time to heal. Jesus says:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”–Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30

We apply this principle of patience, compassion and mercy to the manner in which we deal with the women and children in our program. Healing from the deep and extensive trauma that they have experienced takes a lot of patience and time, both for them and for those of us who care for them and walk alongside them through their recovery.

Everyone needs the love and mercy and patience of God to be healed from human sin and brokenness. What we have experienced ourselves, God’s grace, compassion and patience, we endeavour to share and pass to those who desire healing.

Please join us in praying that we at the SA Foundation, in all our programs locally and globally, will be faithful in showing the love of Jesus that he has first shown us to those in our care. Pray with us that through us many more women and children would be come to Jesus and find rest in him.

Recovery

The mission of Jesus, the Son of God, the purpose for which he was sent into this world by his Father, was to bring recovery to lost and broken sinners. In this respect, no human being is any different or any better than any other human being: we all stand in need of the grace and mercy of God, to heal our brokenness, to forgive our sins and to restore us into fellowship with God our Father and Creator.

The Lord Jesus, at the beginning of his earthly ministry, stated his own mission this way:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”–Jesus in Luke 4:18-19

Since Jesus is the Lord of everything that we do at the SA Foundation, one of the core values of our program delivery is recovery. As servants of the Lord Jesus, we have Good News for the participants and their children: God wants to set them free from every form of slavery, the bad fruit of human sin and depravity. He wants to shower them with his favour. He wants to proclaim freedom, healing and recovery to them, as much as to anyone else.

A crucial step for anyone is to recognize their need for recovery, their need for God’s grace, mercy and healing. For the women in our program, this means that they need to take ownership of their personal recovery. We can point them to God and the healing that Jesus and his Spirit provide, but in order for recovery and healing to happen, they must want it.

By God’s grace and the power of his Spirit at work in them, this is exactly what happens at the SA Foundation on a regular basis. Pray that we will be faithful in communicating God’s love for them, that his Holy Spirit would make us instruments in their healing, and that they would see all this is God’s gift to them for a better life here on earth, and a taste of the perfect life to come in the New Creation!