Setting Captives Free News Update:
After seven months of travel, learning, and ministry, I am back in the United States. Before giving you an update of all that has transpired in the last seven months, I first want to take the time to say thank you. Thank you so much for your support; your financial gifts, prayers, and words of encouragement. There truly are not words enough to express to you the depth of my gratitude. I am constantly reminded of God’s grace and goodness; of the immense blessing it is to be a part of the body of Christ. I see how God uses His people, in various ways, to accomplish His plan and to multiply His kingdom. I am in awe of His goodness. Thank you so much for partnering with me; for joining in the call that God has placed on my life. Thank you for making the work, which God has done in and through my life in the past seven months, possible through your support.
SWITZERLAND:
During the three months of training in Switzerland, we participated in local outreach. I tutored three teenagers, from Sri Lanka, in English. The DTS also had a major focus on intercession. It was a large part of daily life on the YWAM base. We took prayer walks around the Capital city, Bern, and also in Biel. During this time God taught me a lot about the power of prayer, about how to follow His leading in prayer, and about the power of prayer in regards to spiritual warfare. I was so excited about the lessons God was teaching me and I experienced noticeable growth in my prayer life. God spoke and led me in ways that brought me a deeper understanding of God’s will and of what it means to live and walk according to, “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen” (Heb. 11:1).
During my time in Switzerland God was also preparing me for the next step in His plan. About a month into the DTS, God gave me two specific verses. One was the parable of the talents; Mathew 25:14-30. The other was Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps”. These two verses did not seem to complement each other. So I asked God to reveal what it was He wanted me to understand from these verses. First of all God took me to Proverbs 16:9. He told me to give up my assumptions. Until this point I had not realized I had built up any assumptions about my life, or my future. So I asked God to reveal my assumptions to me, so that I may relinquish them; and He did. One of these assumptions involved India. God showed me that over the years I had assumed that, at some point, God would call me to India. All that God had done in my life, and called me to in the past, seemed to point to this future call. But until this point, I had never specifically sought the Lord’s will in regard to India. God showed me He had never specifically called me to India; not yet. I was assuming, without consulting Him first. So I wrote down the assumption and gave it to God. Then I wrote out another list; a list of the talents which God has given me to invest in His kingdom (Matthew 25). For many years I wondered how my gifts coincided with the call God placed on my life. It seemed to me that there were others, whose gifts where better suited for the call God had given me. But as God revealed the gifts He had given me, to invest in His kingdom; He assured me that He had a plan. I now had a list of assumptions, and a list of my talents; I gave them both to God. Within the first week of this action, God began to move. I had given India back to God and it now seemed that He was directing me to India. Through a series of events, God quickly began laying India back on my heart. God showed me that He did not say He would never call me to India. It seemed I was throwing the baby out with the bath water. Because He said give up the assumption, I was giving up everything. He simply wanted me to seek His will. Once I did, and I gave India to God, He gave it back again. After a number of very clear signs, God revealed that He was calling me to take a trip to India; after I completed the DTS. I had no idea how, or where I would stay. I just knew that God had called me; even for a very short time. So I said yes and I waited for Him to show me the way. Yet before I could go to India, I still had another three months of training to complete; the mission portion. After learning what it means to know God, it was time to make Him known. For this portion of the DTS, we split up into three teams, going to three different countries for ministry; Ireland, Ethiopia, and Bulgaria. We prayed as individuals and asked God, to which country was He calling each of us. God called me to Ireland. So with both India and Ireland on my mind and heart, I embarked upon a three month mission trip to Ireland. Though I did not know it then, Ireland was about to capture my heart in a special way; the culture, the history, the people of Ireland, and their plight would make a lasting impression.
There were eleven of us on the Ireland team; though eventually we were only nine. Before we left for Ireland we knew we were going to have to trust God to provide for us. We had no place to stay in Ireland. So far we had no ministry opportunities booked on our schedule; none of our contacts had ever responded to us. We were also in need of thousands of dollars. Some of the members on our team had been unable to raise enough support and still needed finances. It was clear, to everyone in the DTS that the Ireland team was in for an adventure. As people prayed over us and received words for our team, the resounding themes were the words, “of inner city Dublin, knocked on doors of churches and ministries, insurprise” and “flexibility”. God had a plan for our team, but we had to be flexible and be ready for whatever God called us to; we had to be willing to obey and serve. So we landed in Dublin on the first week of April, and then stayed in a hostel for a week. The first day we broke up into teams of three and walked the streets troduced ourselves, and offered our services. We were in the country for three months, had a heart for ministry, and we were willing to serve in whatever way possible. It reminded me of the time Jesus sent out His disciples. They went with nothing but the clothes on their backs. If they were received in any town they stayed and ministered. If they were not, then they shook the dust of the town off their feet, and they went elsewhere. This is very similar to what we did that first week in Ireland. We talked to Catholics and Protestants alike. We went to churches, ministries, Christian organizations, and shelters. Some people received us with open arms and grateful hearts, while others gave us the cold shoulder. But, praise God, within the first week our schedule, for the whole three months, was filled. Our entire team learned a lot about God’s provision in Ireland. He provided financially; by the end of the DTS every member of our team had full support. Also physically; when we needed shelter He always provided in the nick of time. In ministry He was faithful to open doors and opportunities to invest in people and serve in various ways. I also learned a lot about the value of service. Ministry in Ireland consisted of a lot of, “washing feet”, so to speak. Much of the ministry we did involved seemingly menial tasks. We did a lot of cleaning and painting. In this I realized the tasks we were doing equipped others. We were serving them and enabling them to do the ministry, in which God had called them. While we were painting a church or cleaning a mission, we were doing tasks would have taken the ministers away from their ministry. By doing these tasks, we were serving the body of Christ and the people of Ireland. We enable established ministries to be more effective. This is washing feet; true service with a willing and loving heart, no matter what the task.
Along with basic service, we did a lot of work with the homeless, toddlers, children, youth, inner-city kids, the elderly, and with families. We did a lot of prayer ministry, leading home groups, leading worship for various groups on a regular basis, and we built many relationships. Some of the relationships we built lead, in a young lady coming to Christ, and resulted in lifelong friendships. I would love to go into great detail; to tell you all about the plight of the Irish people. To tell you about their history, and why past events have lead to the struggles they face today. I wish that I could thoroughly convey to you the hospitality, the warmth, the openness, the richness of the Irish people; not monetarily rich but a richness that goes beyond monetary gain and straight to the heart. I also wish that I had time to convey the deep wounds which run in the heart of many of the people of Ireland. The nation is experiencing major financial difficulty; there are many out of work. This only adds greater numbers to the suicide rate and to the number of broken families. Not only is the present situation of the country in dire straits, but the people dealing with a past full of hurts, fears, and division. With the combination of these things, Ireland filled my heart with compassion, with love, with a passion, and a great desire to see God move in a powerful way across the country. I was filled with such a great desire to see God effect change in Ireland, through His people; to bring healing, unity, wholeness, peace, joy, and hope like only Christ can bring. Three months I spent serving the people of Ireland learning from them, knowing believing and non believing Irish, and developing lasting relationships with them. I can honestly say that Ireland has captured my heart.
Yet even while I was in Ireland, the call to India was still with me. The call was not to go to India for the rest of my life. God simply told me I was to take a trip to India; after the DTS. To me this meant I would go home, raise more support, and look into opportunities for ministry in India. I would contact various ministries, find places to stay, and work out a trip for a few months after the DTS. But again, I was making my own plans; I was assuming. But God had other plans. When God told me to take a trip to India, I made a list of contacts I had there. I was in my second month in Ireland, and God threw a door to India wide open. One day, my dad reminded me of a young lady we knew, who had done ministry in India. She was from Virginia and had recently married an Indian pastor. She had a heart to work with victims of sex trafficking, and would be moving back to India permanently. I had spoken to her once, a year before. She had said if I was ever in India, that I should visit her. Dad said he would be seeing her dad, so he could get her contact information for me again. But where he expected to see her dad, the young lady herself was there. She was with her husband and they would soon return back to India.
They explained that God had called them to begin their own ministry, to victims of sex trafficking. They have a heart to open a home, for the daughters of women who have been trafficked. When they heard I was planning a trip to India, they immediately invited me to stay with them. They would set up opportunities for me to visit ministries in India, ministries involved in working with victims of the sex trade. They would teach me about the culture, the people, the opportunities for ministry in India, and I would have a chance to find out what it would take to do ministry there. They offered all of this to me through my dad that day, and in that moment God provided a clear open door. Through one meeting, He had provided a place for me to go, people to stay with, ministries to visit, and an opportunity to learn and grow; it offered so much more than I ever could have asked or expected.
A couple weeks later I had the opportunity to talk to the young lady myself. She again offered the same invitation to me. But the catch was that, because of time restraints, I would have to get my visa in Ireland and go straight to India, from Europe as soon as the DTS was over. This meant that I would have to send excess luggage home, raise more support from Europe, cancel my plane tickets, buy a new ticket, and acquire a visa from a country where I was not a resident. But I knew that God had called me, He had given me a clear open door. He made it clear that this was His will, so I trusted Him to make it all happen. And He did. Up until the day before I left for India, He was still making a way where there seemed to be no way. I finally arrived safely in Chennai, India on July fourth. I was greeted by my hosts and another American girl who was visiting them.
Thus God showed me that He had much He wanted to teach me; I was to seek God, listen and learn. While in India I was able to participate in prayer ministry and I volunteered at a local school on occasion. I was able to spend a great deal of time with Indian Christians; to learn about the culture and the people. I was given the opportunity, twice, to visit a home for orphans called David’s Home. David and his wife are Christians. They take in orphaned or abandoned children and treat them as their own. There are nine children in the home. They live by faith. Each day the kids wake up at 4:30 am to pray and each child fasts one day a week. They trust God to provide for their every need, and He does. Even the Hindus have recognized the work David is doing, and sometimes they bring food for the family. The home is full of love and joy. The children are precious and I was so happy to be with them; those children captured a special place in my heart. I was also, twice, given the opportunity to help minster in a district, in Chennai, known as VRP. This is the area in which most of the prostitutes live. Once a week a few people from the church go and host a Sunday school for the children of the prostitutes. The kids sing, do crafts, pray, and memorize scripture. Though many people in the cities have learned some English, these children have not. Yet, just the sight of a white person drew dozens of children from throughout the district. They would crowd around us and follow us through the dingy streets. They would call out the only English they knew; “hi” or “bye”. When we stood still long enough, they would stroke our hair or touch our skin. I would teach them a few English words, or practice the few Tamil words I knew. They were so precious, so hungry to be loved, and so hungry for attention. They clung to me. By the time I left, my cheeks ached from smiling. After the first visit, I loved them, and it seemed that they had accepted me as a friend for life.
During my last week in India, we traveled twenty-three hours to Mumbai. In Mumbai we spent two days visiting Bombay Teen Challenge (BTC). The first day we first went to a section of slums. We sat in the BTC food van and served the men and women who came to us. Then we went into the Red-light district; the largest in the world. We were closely guarded by the staff of BTC. We spent a couple of hours in the one-room dentist office. We talked with the dentist and the nurse who service women and children in the district. They have built relationships with them and know many of their stories. The small room is surrounded by brothels. Even the room over the office is a brothel. All down the street are the grimy buildings that serve as the brothels; prisons to the young women and children who are sold inside. Many of the windows are barred and down below. Many of the pimps can be seen standing guard. Even as we spoke with the BTC staff I could see a woman watching us from behind a barred window. Next we were taken to the BTC HIV clinic around the corner. Again we spoke for a long time with the women who staff there. They told us many stories as had the dentist before. They also spoke of all that is involved when trying to rescue women from the brothels.
The next day we visited three of the four Jubilee homes and Ashagram; all run by BTC. The Jubilee homes house children who have been rescued; either from the red-light district, or they have been orphaned or abandoned. The first home has forty-three kids. This is the home for the youngest children; the majority are five and younger. There are seventeen kids who are HIV positive; though the children, themselves, do not know it. When we arrived they ran to us giggling and clung to us. We spent time playing with the kids and my heart was torn when it came time to leave. The other two homes housed girls from the ages of six to eighteen. Again we spent time with them. They called me sister, gave me a tour and we talked, laughed, and sang.
We also spent a number of hours at Ashagram. Ashagram is the complex where BTC conducts the rehabilitation program. Men and boys live on one side and women live on the other. Within Ashagram are those who where once drug addicts but have come to BTC for help. There are boys have been rescued by BTC, from various situations. And there are women who have been trafficked, have found hope, safety, security, and a future in within the walls of Ashagram. The complex has two sections; one for men and one for women. There is also a large cafeteria, where women learn culinary and waitressing skills. There are two other large buildings, where the inhabitants of Ashagram are taught various job skills. One building is dedicated to hand crafts. In one room, women work diligently to create leather crafts. In another room, women make jewelry. In the last room women make clothing and bags. All of these are sold around the world, and they provide an income for the women who have found refuge at BTC. The other building is dedicated to music. Within this building, men are taught how to play various instruments, they learn about sound equipment, and are taught various aspects of the music business. Many of them have traveled with BTC and given performances. There is such a sweet spirit at Ashagram. Joy, peace, love, and hope all seem to run deep within all those who call Ashagram home. It is truly a remarkable place and God is doing a powerful work through BTC in Mumbai. Being able to spend two days with the staff of BTC, being able to visit them, see the work they do, and to learn from them was an experience I will never forget. It was an answer to prayer and an opportunity like no other.
On the third day in Mumbai we visited a church known as Rama House. The building is in the red-light district. It was once a brothel, run by a pimp, who was one of the most powerful women in Mumbai. Through a series of miraculous events, the pimp came to Christ. Through her, many of the women she had trafficked came to Christ as well. Then she turned the brothel into a church. We were able to spend a couple of hours with some women on staff there. Again, it was an incredible time of fellowship and of learning from these women.
When it finally came time to leave India, the country, the people, the culture, and the work God is doing there had made a lasting impression on my life. God did a deep work in me. He planted a seed of understanding. He gave me a bigger picture of what it means to truly walk in His power and a deeper understanding of His love. Throughout the seven months of my travels I can honestly say that the resounding theme was love. Everywhere I went God imparted such a deep love in me for the people I encountered. I was granted a bit more understanding of the Father-heart of God. I feel that both, in Ireland and in India, I left a bit of my heart behind. In Ireland a new love grew in me for the people and the nation. In India, a love for the people and the nation had already been planted in my heart about six years ago. Now that seed, which was planted, had an opportunity to grow and flourish. No matter when it happened, both places made a lasting impact on my heart and my life.
When I was in India God showed me that, while I am at home, I am to intensify in pressing into Him and seeking His will. So I am praying, contacting different ministries and organizations, and I am waiting for God to reveal His will; one day at a time. The Lord has provided organizational structure, leadership, and accountability through Freedom Ministries. I will continue to serve under that banner for the near future, as I continue to partner with other ministries.
I want to thank you again, for joining me in the call God has placed on my life. I will continue to keep you updated on the work God is doing.
May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance,
Bethany Carmichael
