The area where I, Traci, live is a natural corridor for raptors returning during the spring migration. If you take the time to watch, you are treated to thousands of hawks, eagles and other raptors flying overhead each day. Every spring, a little village in southern Manitoba hosts a Raptor Festival and often one of the features is the release of a healed eagle back into nature. For those who have cared for this majestic bird for months at a time, it is a bittersweet moment. They have had to strike a balance of caring and nurturing the bird and yet still not taming it so much that it forgets how to hunt and survive in nature. Although they have come to love this bird, they know it is the greatest act of love to release it.
If you are an “empty nester,” you know exactly what this feels like. You have poured yourself into your child for 18 years or more and you love your child more than words can describe. Yet, little by little over the years, you have gradually been loosening the strings until the day has come for your child to fly.
Last year, since it was safe to do so, GNI released two of our beloved girls back to their families in a village in northern Thailand. Our leaders have maintained contact and been able to make visits to these girls, one of whom has just graduated from high school.
We are thrilled to see God encountering one of these girls. She has become so hungry for His word and God is meeting her through reading the Bible. She’s praying that God will use her to draw her family and friends and whole community to Jesus. Please join us in praying with this girl that God will encounter and transform this entire village. Pray that the people will respond to the invitation of salvation and living for Jesus. This is how the cycle of human trafficking will break!
*Photo Credit: Ryan Wiebe
