My Refuge House seems a world away today, and another lifetime. It’s been 3 1/2 years since I left the role of Executive Director and 2 years since I left the Board of Directors. I still get all the updates and occasionally chat with someone from MRH, but the daily happenings of my life fill up my mental/emotional space and MRH feels very far away most of the time. 

I used to talk to people who would say they wanted to keep the issue of trafficking in the forefront of their mind and I didn’t really understand what they meant- how could you not be consumed with the importance of this heart wrenching problem? Well, now I understand. The days block your view if you aren’t intentional about building a window.

The thing that’s great though, is that My Refuge House is so consistent. While my days are full of conference calls and strategy meetings and trying to eat a healthy salad (but more often that I’d like to admit, eating junk instead) and getting my steps in and making time for friends and family and brunch (Thank God for brunch) and laundry and cleaning and all of the other normal things that make up a really great life… My Refuge House is caring for those same sweet girls I loved and worked with so many years ago— and many more new ones that I’ve never even met. 

They are providing support to girls like Channy whose mother plead guilty to trafficking (1). They are teaching leadership skills and trust (2) through a variety of ways like Girl Scouts and a Peer Leader program. They are providing high school education in an environment where the girls can learn and be fully supported (3), no matter how far behind they are. And arguably most importantly- they are teaching the girls how to play again (4) and reminding them how to be kids (5).

I’m grateful that as I tackle my life, the important and the mundane, I am confident in My Refuge House to keep doing the challenging work of restoring lives. And I’ll continue to support them as they do, monthly. So that when they come to mind (as they often do) I am assured that I am playing a part in lives being restored– and I can go back to putting my energy towards resisting the delicious peanut butter M & M’s my office keeps stocked on the conference room table.

Are you a current monthly donor for My Refuge House? If not, please consider starting today! $15 a month is an amount most of us can live without– especially when it allows us to be a part of such vitally important work.