December 31, 2007

Rahab’s Rope Update

Wow! What an incredible year. What an amazing and adventurous God we serve. Who can adequately describe Him? Surely, not me. “Praise Him for His power, praise Him for His abundant greatness” Ps 150:2. It is hard to recapture a year in one short letter. It has been an amazingly positive year as we have moved forward in every area of the ministry. More and more women in India are finding out about Rahab’s Rope, more are coming for training, more are receiving the Lord into their lives, more are being discipled, more are sharing their new found faith in Christ with other women, and we have hired more staff at the center. We are seeing lives literally transformed by the love and power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Stateside we moved the store to Gainesville, in May, more people are finding out about the ministry, more people are shopping with us, and more people are supporting the work. I guess you could say we have had a year of MORE. As with any more there are also the growing pains of more, this year has not been void of difficulties both spiritually and financially. Ps. 66:12”…we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.” As we seek Him he brings us through situations of difficulty and distress to places of overflowing well-being. We greatly desire your prayers as we continue to move forward and grow and seek God’s direction in every step we take.

We have recently returned from India celebrating our 4th annual Christmas Celebration. In three short years we have come from 100 women in attendance to an amazing 900, so many familiar faces but so many more new faces. Only God could accomplish so much. This year even the police sent a thank you to us for making their job easier during our Celebration, how funny is that. God definitely has a sense of humor. As my eyes spanned the crowd that day each face I recognized came with a story to tell, my eyes and heart swelled with so much emotion. I saw so much beauty from the ashes, so much gladness from the mourning, and so much praise instead of despair, what a beautiful display of His splendor. There was Amma, the first woman to ever receive the Lord at Rahab’s Rope; she was beaming from ear to ear. Then there was Anathuli, Pusba, Usha, Elizabeth, Mary, Hemma, Sonu and the list goes on and on, what transformations we have seen take place. Then I saw Radha, it was almost more than I could contain and definitely more than I can explain. The last time I saw her she was disruptive and belligerent to the point that some said she was demon-possessed. She had been diagnosed with AIDS and had already outlived her expected time. As I looked into her eyes I stood amazed at this beautiful, peaceful young woman, she said, “from the day you prayed for me I have not been the same person”. God completely healed her both spiritually and physically. Praise to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or could possibly imagine. It was a wonderful day as our girls from the center sang and danced and performed the traditional Christmas story, all in full costume. I brought greetings from you all to the women, our team members shared with the ladies and Dr. David Dass brought the message of the good news. At the close of his invitation over 100 women stood and raised their hands that they desired to make a decision for Christ and learn more about Him. We praise God for this inspiring movement of His Spirit and pray that He will guide us and give us wisdom as we seek to counsel and disciple these women in full understanding of the decisions they have made.

It seems as the women grow in the Lord so grows the gift He has placed inside each of them. The quality of their work in the vocational skills taught continues to grow. It has been a goal since the beginning of this ministry to one day be able to market and distribute the work of the women at a wholesale level thereby enabling and empowering many more women than we could possibly employ through what we can sell at the store. We have had several meetings with a permanent showroom at the Atlanta Merchandise Mart and they have agreed to display for sale some of the jewelry and sewing items the women are currently making. This is very exciting news as this opportunity could allow us to give more work to more women enabling them the financial freedom necessary to escape the vicious cycle which comes through human trafficking. Please pray for us as we are currently putting everything together for the show, which begins Jan. 8. There is so much behind the scene work to be done to get ready for this event, paper catalogs, flyers, cards, web catalog, display designs, etc., but it is very exciting to see it all coming together. I am expecting a shipment of new items from the women any day now and in a few days you should be able to see some of their new work in our on-line catalog. It is so exciting to see God putting all of this together and to be a part of what He is doing with the women of India.

Daily I meet people who are finding out about the work of Rahab’s Rope and it brings so much encouragement to a difficult task. I mentioned earlier the faces of the women who now have hope, but mingled in with them and out numbering them by the hundreds are faces of hopelessness. Those are the task before us. “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” Acts 20:24. Thank you all for all you do to support the task before us; your love, prayers, words of encouragement, your going and your giving mean more than words can express.

May mercy, grace and peace be yours in abundance, Vicki

Rahab's Rope

P.O. Box 907308

Gainesville, Ga. 30501

770-287-5218