She’s Got the Brokedowns

It’s January 2007, and I am in a bare concrete building in India, holding a 3-week-old baby girl. Her name is Vickey. She’s swaddled in a green towel, looking up at me with big brown eyes.

She has no idea how special her story is yet.

My friend, Anival, and I spend the day falling in love with her and 11 other little girls. When the day is over we hop into the Jeep with our Indian friend, Amal, for the trek back across the mountain to our hotel. Anival and Amal are in the front seat chatting away and I’m in the back seat, quietly sobbing. Finally, Amal looks back at me, sees me falling apart, and looks over at Anival to say,

“She’s got the brokedowns.”

I have no idea what word he is trying to say in English, and I decide not to ask. Because yes, in this moment, I feel very broken down.

I finally eek out, “Amal, if it weren’t for you and your brother, they’d all be dead . . .”

He replies, “Yeah.”

We ride the rest of the way back in silence.

On that ride home, in the cold Indian night air, a vision was birthed in my heart. I knew, without a doubt, I was meant to be a part of this work.

* * *

I knew of the preference for a son in Indian culture. The tradition of having their firstborn son light their funeral pyre, thus preventing their soul from being lost. I knew that the dowry system was a huge financial burden for families - many are not able to pay for their daughters to be married. I also knew that families would pay their midwife to kill their baby girl, in the hopes she would be reincarnated as a boy next time.

I knew all these things intellectually, but as I held little Vickey in my arms it became very real. I was holding a little girl who would have been dead had my friends not risked their lives to rescue her. She lives now because of their courage. As I played with the little girls in the home that afternoon, I imagined the world - changers they would become.

I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

So I came home and began dreaming. But a few months later I received the news that my Indian friend running the ministry had become hospitalized with malaria. He passed away just one week later.

The work slowly stopped. My hopes of working with them crashed.

It did occur to me that maybe I was supposed to pick up the reigns. But for the next six years I let self - doubt and insecurity hinder me from that. God would give me visions and dreams about what to do and how to do it; and I made every excuse about how I needed Him to provide the way.

I was waiting on God, while He was waiting on me to take that first step of trust.

Then, one January, I was watching a live stream of Gary Haugen - of International Justice Mission - over the Internet. He was speaking on how we are God’s plan for showing the world who He is. God doesn’t have another plan. We are the plan.

I sat in front of the computer with tears in my eyes, embarrassed by my lack of faith and courage. I made up my mind that day to trust, even though I didn’t have all the answers.

I changed my Facebook job to say: Rescuer of Girls in India.

A few months later I put a name to the company: Rescue Pink. I hired attorneys to form a corporation and began writing a business plan, job descriptions and formulating budgets. The final business plan was being written so we could become an official non-profit corporation.

I’ll be honest. This entire process has been hard. I am the most reluctant leader. I am not well spoken. I don’t match the image in my mind of what a great leader is supposed to look like. I don’t have that special something I always thought accomplished people just had.

I’m ordinary.

But God likes to use the ordinary when they are willing. To become willing, I had to finally realize that it’s not about me. I had to trust that God has His own plan and He has chosen me to accomplish it.

Once I jumped off the ledge, every single thing fell into place. I know He was just waiting on me to blindly trust Him.

“If I die with my dream in my heart, I die a dreamer; but if I die with my dream in their hearts, I die a legacy.” – Matt Higgins

Six Impossible Things

Have you ever met someone with extraordinary faith? I recently worked with someone who would make our heads spin with his vision and dreams. Most of the time we whispered things under our breath like, “No way, he’s crazy.” Or, “This is impossible.”

But he believed they would happen, and they often did.

Starting Rescue Pink has been a huge undertaking. If you read my previous post you know what it took to overcome my fears and take that giant leap of faith. Since that first step, it’s been moment after moment of God taking what I thought should be impossible, and making it possible.

One of the visions God gave me for Rescue Pink was that it would become a well-known organization. On one hand, this sort of dream was hard for someone like me to visualize. But on the other, I knew it would take a mighty following to inspire national change in India. I wasn’t sure how it would happen, but I asked God for it, and I’ve been amazed to see how He’s put Rescue Pink on the hearts of people from all over the world. They’ve messaged me and connected, and each one has used the exact phrase when introducing themselves: “I can’t get Rescue Pink off my mind and something in my spirit told me I needed to connect with you.”

I know God is putting together a team of people from various locations that will work hard to give these baby girls in India what they deserve. God is showing me that when I think the vision He has given is impossible, I just need to trust Him and be ready.

—————

I received an email with discounted airfares to India this past October. I really wanted our board of directors to be able travel there to research, gather digital media and connect with our Indian partner. But even with the discount, I knew the cost was impossible. Instead of dismissing the idea, I decided to pray. And in those prayers I felt God wanted me to move forward with this impossible dream. I felt like my visionary friend when I pitched to my board that I wanted us to raise ten thousand dollars, take off work, get Visas and travel to India within the next couple of weeks.

Five days later we went from having zero dollars in the bank to having ten thousand dollars pledged, and that November we traveled to India. I even got to meet and take my impossible dream photographer with me: Tina Francis Mutungu. And trust me when I say that she is just as precious in the flesh as you imagine her to be.

Impossible can be possible if you believe it.

—————

While in India, we spent days in the villages learning about the heart-wrenching issue of dowry and how it causes desperate moms to choose infanticide for their daughters. In a moment of utter disappointment I prayed that God would provide us with a way around dowry, even though there seemed no way to stop it.

It was an impossible thing.

The same afternoon I whispered that prayer, we found ourselves being ushered into the office of a member of Indian Parliament. He was surrounded by at least one hundred of his constituents. As we entered, I heard him say, “This is why I brought all of you here today. What she has to say is extremely important.” (gulp) What?

Normally, this type of situation would have left my introverted self in a puddle on the floor.

But I was able to passionately share Rescue Pink with him. I could tell he already knew what we were about. He let me finish and then he smiled kindly and said, “India is beginning to recognize this problem, but we need your help.” He went on to explain that just two weeks prior they passed a national law that would give financial incentives to the poor if they allowed their girls to be born and educated. These incentives are more than enough to pay for their dowry. He said that though they were the lawmakers, it was up to us to help these girls get what they deserve. I left the meeting thinking, “Only you, God, would go before us just two weeks earlier and make this happen. Making impossible things possible.”

—————

Upon our return home, I knew we needed to focus on fundraising, but a big obstacle was receiving our tax exemption status. That November, I called and found out the IRS was over a year behind on reviewing applications. I knew we wouldn’t be approved anytime soon. When I called that January to get a status update, the woman on the phone replied, “Ma’am, as of January 3rd you are tax exempt. You have been approved.” When I went to the IRS website, it said they were still processing July 2012 applications. We applied August of 2013.

Impossible is possible.

—————

A few days ago, a friend posted a photo on his Instagram. It was a photo with a quote and drawing of Alice in Wonderland characters: Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast, it said.

It stopped me in my tracks. I thought, “People who allow themselves to dream impossible dreams every day, and have enough faith to take action to work towards making them come true, are the people who change the world. I want to be more like that!”

One of the things I’m learning is that faith is like a muscle that has to be exercised in order to take giant leaps and accomplish big things. If I didn’t take the leap and launch Rescue Pink last year then I never would have experienced the impossible things I mentioned above, and those are just a few of them. I love this quote from Through the Looking Glass. Alice and the White Queen are talking:

“I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.”

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one CAN’T believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

My visionary friend is like the Queen with his impossible dreams. I want to be like them too! I’m beginning to not let the reasons why something might not happen stop me from taking the risk.

I’m starting to understand the importance of not playing it safe. I’m stepping out more and believing more quickly.

I want to be that person who truly does believe in as many as six impossible things each morning, just to get my day started. I think it’s a great motivator, but I also believe it takes practice; so I’m shutting my eyes and drawing a long breath…

My #6impossiblethings this morning:

1) Funding for a Rescue Home in India

2) Funds to hire three advocates to help mamas in poor communities get what they deserve so they can choose to keep their girls

3) A way for at least two of those advocates to be women and still get things accomplished in India

4) Passionate volunteers from every state and province in North America

5) Funds to help supply business micro-loans to women who want to keep their girls

6) For the Indian government to offer us an adoption license

What are your #6impossiblethings?

(Written Feb. 2014)