Embrace: Sponsorship
Our Embrace project coordinator, Lauren, has written a series of posts explaining Embrace in more detail. In this first post, Lauren shares about the Sponsorship Programme...
The first aspect of the Embrace Project that we have currently launched is a Sponsorship Programme.
Imagine for one minute that you have been smuggled into a country that is not your own by an abusive pimp. You have been forced to work against your will. You may have been drugged, beaten, and treated as property. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You have been rescued. You have been recognized as a trafficking survivor and received government support for a period of 45-60 days (this is called the National Referral Mechanism).
But the government support is gone now. How will you manage for money? You aren't yet receiving benefits. You haven't been able to acquire a job. How will you pay for food? For shelter? For transportation? For daily necessities? And how will you do all this with very limited English?
This is the place that trafficked survivors find themselves every day. And we, as the church, as the Father's hands to a broken world, want to help. We want to stand in the gap where government money has stopped and provide finances to support trafficked survivors as they tirelessly work to get their lives back.
Embrace wants to help. And this is how we intend to do so:
Generous contributions have been made from churches to go into a pot of money that can be used to support victims. Government agencies that have been supporting the victim are able to apply to Embrace for either a one-time gift or an on-going sponsorship that will go directly to the victim to provide for life necessities, training courses, legal fees, etc.
We want to help. And we think that this is one way that we can. Do you want to be a part of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked? We would love you to stand with us and do a small part in loving people the way Jesus did.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’