Keep Showing Up

Friends, I'm coming to America. I'm coming to the United States of America. I'm going to eat burritos and play with my dog and see my Mom and Dad and go camping with my friends. I am beyond excited.

This will likely be the last blog before I head home. So what goes here? What do I write? How am I supposed to wrap this up? What can I say that hasn't already been said by Neil Diamond?

It's feels a little futile to try and tie a bow on this past year. Probably because it's been a large, chaotic, magnificent monster. And monsters tend to resist having bows tied to them in my experience.

There is also an element of my time here that seems simply to resist communicating. When I come home, people are going to ask, "How was South Asia?" and some of them will want the long story, and some will only want to know about the food and the weather. But no matter who is asking, they inevitably wont get the full picture. Maybe the best I can say is that this year pulled a good deal of sweat and tears out of me. A lot of sweat and tears. And not just because it is so dang hot all the time.

This year I've seen some of the greatest examples of humanity and endurance enter into the most wretched and hopeless stories of suffering and tragedy and exploitation. I've been consistently amazed by the capacity of regular people to withstand, and endure, and adapt to untenable circumstances. Prayers were answered and not answered. I have seen much and understood little. There were many days where it felt like I just got knocked down the stairs. And others where I just wanted to sing and jump around and shout and laugh and be a goofball. Friends it has been just a glorious mess.

It feels like I'm walking away from a plane crash.

I told that to a friend recently. She said that she was sorry to hear I felt that way, but I meant it in a positive sense. I feel like I have survived a plane crash. Like God has brought me through some powerful, violent, event over which I had zero control - for some reason or another. Like I am experiencing the sensation of someone who has narrowly escaped some great danger.

But hell, I'm walking right back in in a few months and I can't wait!

Honestly, this year has been one of the hardest in my short life. But I want to tell you that I'm just some guy that God brought out here. Why exactly I don't know. Maybe just to see. But the heroes here, the ones who have really suffered and sweat, are the ones that have shown up faithfully every day for years and years and years, and have looked into the face of evil and exploitation and madness and fury and just dealt with it. The ones who have shown up over and over in hopeless situations and brought hope with them from God. The ones who go into the vilest brothels on Earth and pluck children from the hands of death. And the ones who help pick up the pieces of their lives and try and get these girls to be healthy and ok and well loved. And the ones who fight kafkaesque legal battles that last years and years. And even more, the girls who are actual legitimate survivors, who have the guts to get up and live life and start over again.

Wendell Berry said that to Love anything good, at any cost, is a bargain.The people I work with have paid dearly for their love of the poor, and for their love of justice. I have been invited to pay part of that cost alongside them for a little while, and I have been blessed to take part in that Love as well.

So please, send me back! There is still work to do! I'm coming home in two weeks time for a few months to do more fundraising and get a new visa and spend some much needed time with my people. But after that I'll be coming back for a second year, God willing. So if you think that the work of Justice for victims of sex trafficking and abuse is worth doing and supporting, please continue to donate. Nobody likes asking for cash, but that money goes to plane tickets and rent and electricity bills so that I can continue doing the work I am doing here. And you're money will go farther this year because now I have some experience and a better understanding of the work.

I guess all I can say is that showing up isn't a one time deal. You don't just make this one time investment in the world and then coast forever on that commitment. Showing up is a daily, momentary choice. Sometimes this year it felt like I had absolutely nothing left to show up with. But what do you do? You show up anyway. You choose to love and be obedient despite the fact that you've got absolutely nothing left to love with and no strength left to obey. When you take that step, just that one most immediate step, even though it feels totally impossible and untenable, God is there. Sometimes you have to say it over and over in your mind to try and convince yourself that it's true, but God is there. And I'm convinced that something does happen when you take that impossible step, and when you chose to affirm what you know is true despite everything in and outside of you that says the opposite. Maybe you get stronger or build faith or just manage to endure it all. I don't know. But God is there. God is showing up. And that is important.

That's all I've got to say! I'll see you in America!

Love,
-Greg