Dream BIG

Beautiful Saturday.
I am growing to love the Tenderloin. Friday I spent the morning in Pacifica - a south-of-San Francisco community that is more suburban than urban.  Connected with Peggy, a psychotherapist who uses collaging and other art forms in trauma therapy with women.  She is wonderful, kind, and full of insight.  Sat in her back yard - a quiet, wooded place overlooking a beautiful valley.  California sun. Mmmm.
In the circle was Lindsay, director of the Women's Center, Rebecca, soon-to-be director of Unlikely Heroes Oakland - a safe house/rescue program focused on offering a "way out" to teen girls trafficked on International Blvd in Oakland, California.  Oakland is a poorer community in the Bay area, with large hispanic and African American populations. Gangs, unemployment, drugs and prostitution are serious community-wide problems.  International Blvd has been called the longest "track" of street prostitution in the United States.  For blocks, girls - and some young boys as well - line the sidewalks waiting for johns to drive up in their cars. 
Rebecca and Unlikely Heroes plan to open a safe house and outreach to these girls.

So, in the quiet back yard, warmed by the sun, four women met to talk about what recovery and healing might look like for these young women.  We talked about counseling and therapy. We talked about the Presence of God, which heals deep, hidden hurts.  We talked about how to bring young girls who have learned not to trust anyone to Jesus to be healed and made whole.  We talked about hope and dreams and vision so big it seems impossible.  Except God...

After this time of hop and vision, I returned to the Tenderloin.  I noticed that I felt actual joy as we pulled onto Ellis Street.  I kept thinking, "The Women's Center is going to be a deep well of healing. God is going to bring women in a steady stream.  Come on!  let's GO!  We're READY."