At My Refuge House, we believe in prayer.
Years ago, when a small group of people were burdened, halted by compassion for girls they had never met, trapped around the world, they prayed. They prayed and struggled and prayed. And out of that struggle, out of those prayers, My Refuge House was born.
And all along the way, prayers have continued. And all along the way, prayers have been answered. Simple and Miraculous, God has proven to us, over and over again, that this is his House and these are his girls.
He has answered our prayers for finances. When I was overseeing our first building project, after only 1/3 of the building had been completed, I was laying awake at night rehearsing the speech I would give to our construction workers when we told them we had to halt construction because of lack of funds. Miraculously, the remainder of the funds came in, literally overnight, and we opened our home… two weeks ahead of schedule!
Two separate times, girls rescued from sexual exploitation and slavery by law enforcement were brought to our home for care and rehabilitation as a direct result of their own prayers. One of the girls prayed the night before for rescue. The other girl prayed the week before she was rescued. God heard them, and, along with many others, brought them to us.
As a demonstration of our belief in prayer, and a way to encourage and unite some of our partners and our girls, we decided to host a sunset prayer ceremony at the beach, complete with lotus flower floating lanterns covered in written prayers. Prayers written by the attendees of our Annual California Banquet, and prayers written by the girls and staff at our home. Prayers joined together, for one common goal, and offered to God in, what one of our girls described as “the most amazing moment of her life.”
There are too many good photos to post! Click here to view our album of the best ones.
Special Thanks to Rich Schwarz, Jim Hammond, Jessica Curiel and Kelly Hoey for the incredible pictures of the evening.
“My God, I
believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I beg pardon of You for those who do
not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.” Loving Jesus is also necessary because
Paul says that if you don’t love Jesus, you will be cursed: Loving Jesus is not the same as
obeying all of Jesus’ commands. Jesus said, “If you love me,
you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
That means that obedience to the commandments is the result of
loving Jesus, not the same as loving Jesus. Love is something invisible and
inside. It is the root that produces the visible fruit of loving others.
I believe in God and I am sure he will bring someone in my life forever because
I need and moreover I can’t accept any non Christian in my life. I pray to God
many times a day because my Dad and my cousins are totally against me, they
want my marriage with Dad’s niece, means daughter of Dad’s brother. However,
except me all are non Christian in my family. Life seems very complicated but
it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love and I am happy in every situation
eventually his love is unconditional. I am virgin and in search of a lovely, caring
and above all God fearing woman who i can spend the rest of my life with. I am
honest and trust worthy with the blessings of God almighty.
I admire Jesus
Christ more than any other human or angelic being.
I enjoy his
ways and his words more than I enjoy the ways and words of anyone else.
I want his
approval more than I want the approval of anyone else.
I want to be
with him more than I want to be with anyone else.
I feel more
grateful to him for what he has done for me than I do to anyone else.
I trust his
words more fully than I trust what anyone else says.
I am more glad
in his exaltation than in the exaltation of anyone else, including me.
To understand what it
means to love Jesus, we must first define what is meant by the word love. To love the Lord is to follow Him wherever He leads, to obey
Him whatever He asks, and to trust Him whatever the trial. To love Jesus is to
reflect the love that God has for us, for “this is love: not that we loved God,
but that he loved us and sent his Son” (1 John 4:10). To love the Lord is to care for the ones He
loves (1 John 4:19; see alsoJohn 21:16). God grants forgiveness and
salvation to all those who place their faith in Jesus – trusting His death as
the payment for our sins (John 3:16;Romans 5:1;Romans 8:1).
AMEN
Hallelujah