Freedom Through Friendship
Please do take some time to read this message from our wonderful Embrace Coordinator, Lauren:
If you are reading this little post, I want you to pretend I am sitting across from you right now and introducing myself and Embrace to you for the first time. Could you do that for me? Because I would love to sit with each person reading this and explain to you how excited I am about this project. Unfortunately, I can't. But please, sense my excitement as I tell you about Embrace.
Hi! My name is Lauren. I am a newly 30 year old and have 3 young boys. I live in Merthyr Tydfil with my Welsh husband, but I was born in the USA. That's me! I have had the joy of being involved in running Embrace for the past 2 years. We are a project that was born out of a desire to love survivors of human trafficking in our local area. Our project consists of two parts: financial support and befriending. We receive all of our referrals from organisations currently supporting survivors.
Today, I want to tell you a bit more about befriending. Many survivors of human trafficking are lonely. Many are not working, live alone, may not speak English, and are working through the aftermath of massive amounts of trauma. Embrace wants to show survivors the love of Jesus by simply spending time with them as a friend.
All of our befrienders are Christians involved in their local churches. They can commit to a couple hours a week to meet with a survivor to do nice things - coffees, museums, parks, etc. They love people. I wish I could introduce you to some of the amazing people that have volunteered their time to befriend. You would meet a group of dedicated, passionate people that want to love people the way that they have been loved.
Each week, befrienders meet with their Embrace friend to do "nice" things. Friendships look totally different depending on personalities and preferences, but one consistent factor - each Embrace friendship is a sweet picture of Jesus' love for people. Where survivors of human trafficking would have experienced the worst of human nature, we want to offer a taste of what Jesus' love looks like.
WE NEED MORE BEFRIENDERS! If you are involved in your local church, can commit to a training day and meeting a friend once a week, and are passionate about simply showing Jesus' love to people, this project could be a fit for you. Please get in touch if this would be something you are interested in. We would love to partner with you in loving people!
Nice to meet you and hope to hear from you soon!
If you would like to find our more about serving as an Embrace befriender please email lauren@redcommunity.co.uk