Doing the work of God can lead you to strange and wonderful moments. If I ever thought I would stand on the stage at a comedy club and ask women for their bras I didn’t think I would do so on behalf of the kingdom.
This past week doing the work of God led me to the stage of the famous Laugh Factory Comedy Club in Chicago to fight against human trafficking. One of the great things I get to participate in, aside from my normal pastoral work, is supporting the organization Free the Girls. At Free the Girls we are working to help women who have been rescued out of sex trafficking rebuild their lives. We do that by coming alongside of organizations that are helping to rescue these women and helping them to provide for the vocational and educational needs of the survivors.
And of course then there are the bras. The simple way that we help these women is by helping them become the proprietors of there very own used bra business. It is such a simple thing, to take what is forgotten and unappreciated in our land of plenty and to turn it into a source of life giving income for those in a land of want. It is so simple in fact that last year we shipped over 30,000 bras from the US to Mozambique to help these survivors. In addition direct donations from partners and t-shirt sales have helped us build a foothold in this vital work of redemption, justice and transformation.
So Thursday night, on behalf of this great organization, I had the privilege of joining the Chicago Chapter of the Organization of Women in International Trade at their Christmas party at the Laugh Factory. Never in a million years would I have imagined finding myself on the same stage as virtually every great comic that has ever come through Chicago (Rich Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Kevin Nealon, Tim Allen, Tom Green etc…) and getting to bring a redemptive moment there was amazing. On a stage where laughter at the expense of anybody and everybody is a nightly ritual there was a moment of redemption. To have a moment to shine God’s light on injustice and to promote a the restoration of humanity in that place was an immense privilege.
As an added privilege, I now get to pastor the bra church. Our proximity to Chicago, where our international shipping takes place, has now made Duneland Community Church the receiving point for all bra shipments in the US. Women from all over the country will now ship tens of thousands of bras to our church, where we will sort and package them and deliver them for transport. Our church community can will be elbow deep in boxes of bras doing the work of God. It makes me smile. It makes God smile too. (It probably makes some people feel awkward and uncomfortable and I am totally fine with that. Redemption is awkward often. If bras make us so awkward as to inhibit our work then we are going to have much bigger issues in doing God’s work.)
If you are interested in joining us in our fight against injustice and our work of redemption then we are inviting you to become one of our partners. Ladies are you interested in hosting a bra drive? Contact us and find out how to host one. We can send you promotional materials, t-shirts and more to make your outreach a success. Are you searching for a great Christmas gift for a women in your life? Go to our website and order a Free the Girls t-shirt and help a great cause. Looking for an end of the year donation to help your taxes? We will take your money!
Do you have a particular skill set that you would like to lend to the cause? Are you a graphic artist, international trade lawyer, congressman, blogger, or freestyle battle rapper? If you have a gift we would love to find a way to use it to restore the life of a survivor. What a glorious journey it is doing the work of God!
December 10, 2012 at 9:53 am
This is awesome! my friend Tammy Blake back in Denver helps with Free the Girls, (I think it has to do with the Terpstra connection?) Roxanne and I both would like some more information on how we can help. I visited the link, but the website is currently being upgraded. I will talk with you more about it after the first of the year.
December 10, 2012 at 9:56 am
Sounds good Padriac, we will get you connected.
December 10, 2012 at 9:57 am
The website was fine an hour ago, so they must be doing some short term updates. Should be fine later today I would imagine.
December 10, 2012 at 10:24 am
I think this is just awesome and I would love to get involved. I would also like to see if Kylee would want to get involved (not just for the simple fact that she happens to have a bra fetish). Please let me know how we can help this cause.
December 10, 2012 at 12:21 pm
That is great Rhonda. We will start working on teams to help us as shipments arrive and start looking at adding more partners in the community. We would welcome your help.