When You Think Selling Yourself Is Your Only Option

Brianna Langley • Apr 12, 2018

The bleeding just wouldn’t stop.

Sandra was in the middle of her most recent in-home abortion. And this time, she could feel the life draining from her like the blood pooling up around her body.

How had it come to this? How had she ended up lying here, dying in her own home?

When she thought back to her childhood, Sandra knew the answer to those questions.

Sold by Her Own Family

Sandra was born in a town on the western border of Chad. Her mother died when she was an infant, so she was raised mostly by her aunt, Delphine*.

Life wasn’t bad. Sandra went to school, and even though her family didn’t believe in God, she often went to church with a neighbor.

But danger is always lurking for young girls in Chad. Girls are often kidnapped and forced into marriage.

Delphine agreed to an arranged marriage for Sandra when she was 13. Delphine said Sandra would be going to live with another man for a while. She could come back after the holidays if she didn’t like it.

But Sandra had overheard the discussion between her aunt and this man. She knew she’d been sold as a child bride.

Enslaved in an Almost-Deadly Marriage

Soon Sandra fell pregnant. She was only 14. The pregnancy was so hard on her small body that she couldn’t even stand up straight. Five months into the pregnancy, she lost the baby — and almost her life.

A year later, Sandra gave birth to a son. Just 12 months after that, a daughter.

When their daughter was about a year old, Sandra’s husband took another wife. Fights became frequent in their marriage.

One day, Sandra’s husband beat her so badly he nearly killed her.

Somehow, Sandra escaped her husband. She fled and found her way back to her family’s village. But when she got there, her relatives didn’t want her. Sandra was on her own.

She Thought She Only had One Option

Sandra had little education and no family support. So she made her way to the capital city, N’djamena.

Feeling she had no other option, Sandra turned to the oldest profession on the planet: prostitution. But N’djamena’s red-light district is a dangerous place. Gang rape and even murder are real risks.

Sandra was young — only 20 years old.

She fell pregnant several times during her prostitution days, but she had no husband to provide or even care for a child. So she chose to have abortions. One time, she bled so much she thought she was going to die.

Sandra’s faith and sense of self-esteem fell to an all-time low. She thought about suicide regularly.

She felt abandoned and hurt by God and openly turned her back on Him.

Rescued by the God She’d Rejected

Once, Sandra was walking back to her room when a group of men blocked her way with their truck. They forced her into the vehicle and drove out of town so they could have their way with her.

Realizing what was happening, Sandra began to cry to God, “Lord save me! Save me! Save me!”

The men began to fight amongst themselves when they arrived at their destination. Then the police arrived and the would-be rapists scattered.

Sandra had never felt more desperate, afraid and alone.

Then she met Albert*.

She Thought He was a Good Man

Unlike the cruel men Sandra usually met in the red-light district , Albert seemed to care for her. He even provided a home for her. They had a daughter together and were unofficially married.

Although Sandra was not Albert’s first wife and he had had children by other women, life finally seemed good again. Sandra even began occasionally attending church.

But then Albert landed a lucrative job. His eyes began to wander. He started taking other women and setting them up as concubines.

Desperate for answers and peace, Sandra began attending church more regularly.

She Found a Safe Place to Recover

That’s when a missionary named Naomi came into Sandra’s life. The two began to meet and study the Bible together.

Then in 2015, Naomi and other missionaries opened the Acacia Center. The center is meant to provide vulnerable women like Sandra a safe place to share their stories and be counseled through their traumas. It serves as a rehabilitation center and a place where Chadian women can learn practical life skills.

Naomi invited Sandra to participate in the programs offered there.

The workers at the program taught Sandra how to earn a wholesome income through making soaps, greeting cards and tote bags. They also helped her identify the lies that had harmed her in the past. She began to replace the lies with the Truths of God’s Word.

Thanks to You, She is Finally Regaining Self-Worth!

When Sandra watched The Jesus Film at the Acacia Center, she finally grasped how much the Lord loves her. Her heart and her life changed.

Now she says she feels like a tree being pruned, bit by bit until she discovers the image of God inside her.

Thanks to friends like you, Sandra is beginning to thrive. Younger women in the program now come to her for encouragement and advice. She counsels from her own life experiences and the traumas she’s faced.

Like the roots of the Acacia tree reach down deep for water in the ground, Sandra is learning to reach for the Living Water of Christ to help her flourish in the harsh world in which she lives.

*Names changed.

Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024
TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024
Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.
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