Light House, April - July 2023
Welcome to the latest edition of our LightHouse Disha Newsletter! We are excited to share the latest updates and initiatives happening in India from April to July 2023. This newsletter aims to keep each one of you as our valued supporters and friends informed about our ongoing projects and upcoming events so that you pray with us and for us.
APRIL
As a team on the ground, it was a special time for us to spend quality one-on-one time with Pastor Trevor and Sharon of Revival Fires. We were blessed to together minister to people from both plains and hills to witness firsthand the power of the gospel in seeing lives transformed. We were both filled and renewed in spirit listening to the powerful messages shared across various sessions by Pastor Trevor and Sharon. It was a blessing to ponder upon the promises of God upon our lives as we carry the mantle of setting those sold into human trafficking free and bringing them into the light of the Gospel.
Looking back at our years of intervention we are in awe of how the Lord held our hands through every challenging situation never letting our faith waver but through all times of crisis and challenge we have had a special favour of the Lord always helping us come out stronger both as individuals and as a non-profit organization.
Hurray! We prayed and shortlisted the rented property for our Restoration Centre. The seed you sowed as a financial gift toward the Restoration Centre is giving a safe space to heal, empower, and equip women and girls who are rescued from sex trafficking, living in brothels, domestic violence and unsafe environments and now finding safety in their new ‘Home’. With Your Support they can dream again, having access to training and education and living a life of choice and opportunity.
MAY
Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder’s labour is in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” We truly believe that the key to success in any of our endeavours is depended on God’s absolute sovereignty over every step and every event. Therefore, by faith, we have continued to build our work and we wait in complete obedience with firm faith that it is the Lord who gives success.
RESTORATION CENTRE
At the heart of our efforts here in India is our commitment to making a difference in the lives of those that need to step into the Light from the darkness. Jesus is our source of wisdom! “By wisdom, a house is built, and through understanding, it is established; through knowledge, its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures” Proverbs 24:3–4. This is our hope that the Restoration Centre which each one of you Helped us set up is build upon these godly principles and based on these foundations.
May has been a busy month with multiple activities to help set up the new centre from scratch and our team worked relentlessly turning into a mere building into a beautiful home for the girls and women who have lived in such a safe and clean space for the first time in their life.
YOUR CONTRIBUTION is making a real difference in the lives of these precious ones one day at a time. We have enrolled two of the survivors in Hospitality Management Training at one of the top Skill India Training Centers in the City. We have been giving them round-the-clock Study guidance and tuition to them and we hope in October we will be able to share a real-time update with some of you on how our efforts and Jesus-centric love have transformed them. We have also been mentoring and sharing the good news with the mothers of the two survivors placed with us who are working as sex workers in the main city red light area of Siliguri.
MENTORSHIP
Our Mentorship Program enables us to not just make these survivors and at-risk women and girls a better version of themselves but also share our lives with them through our words and actions as champions of Christ.
We have a dedicated team whom we have trained to bring healing in the lives of these women and girls through the gospel along with trauma counselling and care. The combination of both along with regular monitoring, check-ins and evaluation help us understand the gaps and continue walking alongside them in this healing journey.
ACTIVITIES
A Day in the Life of a Survivor at our Restoration Centre starts and ends with the following:
Morning Chores
Tea and Snacks
Prayer meditation & Scripture reading
Cleaning Chores
Breakfast
School or College or Training Classes
Lunch
Tea and Relaxation
Rest
Dance and Music as Therapy
Lessons and group work activity
Prayer + Reflection
Reading
Rest
We are using your Monthly financial Gifts to cover the cost of Victim support which also plays a vital role in addressing the multifaceted needs of survivors of human trafficking. It provides a safe and nurturing environment where they can access essential services and receive emotional, psychological, and practical assistance.
JUNE
Our community-level work is crucial to our fight to end, curb and combat human trafficking as one of the forms of modern-day slavery in this part of India. We are intentional with our efforts to work in collaboration with various government agencies in our city.
We praise God that we have been able to build strong relationships with Labour Commissionerate and Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force in this region and we can appreciate and acknowledge the quality and ground-breaking work we are doing with support from International Justice Mission, West Bengal a leading global organization to fight modern-day slavery as a knowledge partner.
This has been possible because of Your Relentless Prayer Support for us. We cannot wait for some of you in October to visit our New Restoration Centre to see and hear firsthand from us about what is happening here in India, what are the gaps and what still needs to be done in our continued fight against Modern Day Slavery in India.
As Christ champions we bear a calling to go into the world, into the hurt and the pain and the torture, and to work towards redemption, to promote freedom, to bring about justice, and to offer compassion to a hurting world. “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” Revelation 21:4.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Pray for strongholds to be uprooted from the foundation of our city Siliguri.
Pray for exposure of human trafficking rings here in India and that traffickers would be brought to swift justice.
Pray for Decree every person preying on children or luring people into human trafficking is detected and dealt with justly and swiftly.
Pray human traffickers and buyers will find their transactions interrupted and their wicked plans frustrated in their plots.
Pray God will bring confusion into the enemy’s camp so that his human trafficking schemes are unorganized and ineffective.
Pray for legislation to be enacted that makes it easier for law enforcement officials in Siliguri to arrest, charge and prosecute human traffickers
Pray for us as a team to be able to help police, law enforcement and local partners who work to investigate units to track down and capture human traffickers.
Pray for the rescue of those enslaved in human trafficking in your city and that the Lord would restore back to them the years the swarming locust has eaten as God promised to deliver them and rescue them from bondage and death
Pray for justice, salvation, and healing of human trafficking victims we work with.
Pray for peace, courage, comfort and resilience for us as a team on the ground in India.
JULY
There are still over 14 million trapped in modern-day slavery. The fight is not over! This heinous crime, often referred to as human trafficking, thrives on exploitation, cruelty, and the disregard for basic human rights. It still breaks the heart of God to see millions of innocent lives lost in the darkness because of heinous crimes like human trafficking. It is high time it starts breaking our hearts to see the plight of women and girls here in India who need people like you and me to bring them out of the vicious cycle of abuse, trauma and exploitation. It is only possible if we collectively raise the issue of human trafficking. We are still in the fight to end, curb & combat Human Trafficking because India continues to be a source, destination and transit country for labour and sex trafficking.
In India, 90% of trafficking occurs domestically (intra-state or inter-state), and 10% occurs across national borders. Our Anti-Slavery Initiative is relevant in Siliguri because the severity of the problem of human trafficking is high in West Bengal. In its 2013 Anti-Human Trafficking Report, The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (“UNODC”) reported that West Bengal serves as the source, transit point for trafficking given its geographic location.
The Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri Station, act as the gateway to North Bengal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Assam. Due to its geographical location, it becomes a major transit zone between the regions from where people are migrating, and unsafe migration contributes to the exploitation of men, women and children and is the single large cause of human trafficking.
We are working in collaborating with Indian Railways to fight human trafficking because The Indian Railway is one of the world’s largest railway networks over a route of 65,000 km and 7,500 stations. The Railways, which operate trains across the country daily, is the most reliable mode of transportation but on the other side, the Indian Railways may also be vulnerable to the l most reliable carrier for traffickers across the country.
Railway with its pan India Presence cutting across state boundaries, Therefore Government Railway Police plays a very important role in the prevention and detection of heinous crimes like Human Trafficking on railways.
Thank you for your prayers as we could successfully organize our Campaign Event on World Day Against Trafficking in Person on 30th July 2023 which we Organized in collaboration with Government Railway Police, and Railway Protection Force at NJP Railway Station with assistance from Knowledge partner International Justice Mission. We praise Jesus that Our efforts garnered widespread media attention locally!
The fight against Modern Day Slavery is not over and we can only win this fight with Jesus as our Aly because each life trapped in human trafficking is a tragedy, representing an individual with dreams and aspirations who has been victimized and trapped against their will. The fight against modern-day slavery is a battle for the realization of basic human rights and the preservation of human dignity. It is a fight that demands relentless commitment, compassion, and unity. Let us join forces to eradicate this abomination from our world and bring justice and freedom to the millions of victims who suffer in its grip. Together, we can create a brighter future and bring about positive change. Stay tuned for our next newsletter for more exciting updates and ways to get involved!
THANK YOU
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated friends from Revival Fires who continue to support our cause through their generous gifts and prayers. Your support allows us to carry out our mission and positively impact the lives of those in need. Here are some ways You Can Continue Helping us:
1. Volunteer Opportunities: Join our team of dedicated volunteers and contribute your skills and time to our various projects and programs here in India. Write to Revival Fires for further details.
2. Spread the Word: Help us raise awareness by sharing our newsletter and social media posts with your friends, family, and colleagues by raising support for our work through Revival Fires.
3. Donate: Your financial contributions allow us to continue our important work. Consider making a one-time donation or becoming a monthly donor through Revival Fires.
