Elijah Rising
Elijah Rising
Prayer as a Catalyst for Justice and Action - Ep. 82
Elijah Rising was founded as a prayer meeting. In this episode we share how prayer was foundational to us becoming who we are today, but also how it has helped us continue in the mission to combat human trafficking.
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You're listening to the Elijah Rising podcast, where we talk about our mission to combat human trafficking and our goal is to spread awareness and education in hopes that we can create safer communities free from exploitation. And I'm your host, david Gamboa. Today's episode, I'm going to share more about how Elijah Rising was founded as a prayer meeting and why prayer remains the foundation of our work today, and I think this is a very interesting topic because that's one of the big questions we get asked is how does prayer combat human trafficking? And I think it's very interesting because prayer is so multidimensional. It impacts not just individuals, it impacts situations and circumstances, and that's really what I able to tap into during difficult seasons and imparting that into the women that we serve, the men that we reach. You know, prayer is so important. It's healing, it's restorative, it changes us, it brings us to a place of rest and peace. It brings us to a place of rest and peace. But I really want to dig into what role did prayer play in founding Elijah Rising and where we started? And so we started prayer meetings back in 2011. And that was really the only plan that we had. We had no plans of becoming a nonprofit organization, it was very much just human trafficking is a global problem.
Speaker 1:Around that time, a documentary called Nefarious came out, shout out to Exodus Cry, and it really impacted a lot of people and brought a lot of attention to human trafficking. And so a lot of people saw this documentary and wanted to do something, and our response was pray. And so Elijah Rising started what was called Exodus Cry Houston Prayer Watch. That was the original name, and it was just meant to be a prayer meeting where we'd come together and pray over the issue of human trafficking. And just in case you're new and you don't really know what prayer is or maybe you're listening to this and maybe your idea of prayer is different from my idea of prayer but I'll just say prayer is simply having a conversation with God, bringing requests to Him, praying for others, bringing requests for other peoples to the Lord. It's just a conversation, it's relating to God. And so, you know, back then the prayer meetings just looked like hey, let's pray over the traffickers, let's pray over, you know, women and men and children that are stuck in this cycle of exploitation. Let's pray over our government. Let's pray over law enforcement. Let's pray over, you know, all the various different sectors of society. Let's pray for the church to be awakened and mobilized and do something. And that was really the focus of a lot of those prayer meetings.
Speaker 1:And the amazing thing about prayer is that it leads to action, prayer leads to action, prayer leads to action. And one of the most foundational prayers in the Old Testament is called the Shema, and this is in Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 5. It says and this is the Shema, this is the prayer Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and as for you, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. And so that word shema, the hear O Israel, that word means both to hear and obey in Hebrew. So the idea is that the evidence that you heard something is that you did the action, you followed up. So it's not just enough to hear something and to take that thought into your mind and just think about it. The evidence that you heard it was that you went out and did something. There was some action involved.
Speaker 1:And this is what prayer naturally does. You begin praying for your community and you begin to feel compelled. Well, hey, I need to go reach out to my neighbor or I need to go volunteer or be a part of this, and prayer always leads to action. And that was what we saw. We saw people, you know, gathering together, praying, whether it be, you know, on the college campuses here in Houston or what was HBU, and you had people say, okay, we're praying, now let's go do outreach, you know, let's go see what the needs are and see if we can meet a need. And that's really how it starts, that's how we started. It just was praying and then seeing okay, what's the need, okay, and how do we meet that need? And very quickly, once you begin to assess all the different needs that are involved in a complex issue, just like human trafficking, it's going to lead you to action. And so that's how we started. You know, we began to do outreach on the streets and people are going to say, well, I need housing. And so then the next step is like, okay, well, how do we provide housing? You start praying.
Speaker 1:You know, god, please open doors, provide a strategy, a way for us and for us, that's tapping into faith. It's something that we don't have, we can't see yet, but faith is us believing that it's there. We have it before we do if that makes sense, and so that was just so important to when we started, because that ties into the perseverance of human trafficking is a complex problem. There's many different needs. How do we? Obviously we can't meet them all, but which ones can we meet? And how are we going to do it? You know, going before the Lord and asking Him and spending time meditating on His Word, on His commands, on His instructions and those being literally like blueprints of here's what to do. You know, care for the poor. Okay, god, what does caring for the poor teach me? What can I do? And as you begin to pray and meditate on those things in Scripture, and as you begin to pray, it leads to action.
Speaker 1:The second point is that prayer changes us as individuals. When you commit time to praying, it's bringing you closer to God because you're relating to Him, you're sharing things with Him, you're being vulnerable with Him. But it also refines us. We gain compassion, humility, a deeper understanding of God's heart for justice. And it changes us from being someone who is just an observer of something to wanting to be in more of a supporting role and more of taking action. And so it changes us from, you know, if you begin to pray for the issue of human trafficking, your heart begins to break for the issue, and so when you see someone who's affected by human trafficking, you're going to be more inclined to go out of your way to help them.
Speaker 1:And it's the difference of people driving down the road and saying, oh, that's just a prostitute, versus someone who has prayed over this issue and has spent time thinking about what led people into prostitution, because you prayed over all the streams that lead someone into that lifestyle, from abuse to neglect, to abandonment, to fatherlessness, poverty. You pray through all those things. It brings you to a deeper place of understanding of where someone is at and why they're there, and so it changes you, and that's really important. It keeps us tender, it keeps us open, doing what we do with patience, wisdom, faith. It brings change to us. And you know, for me personally, I never saw myself doing this type of work, marketing or being involved in church ministries, but not addressing the issue of human trafficking. That was something that happened during prayer, where I experienced just something changing me, something calling me, something, pulling me towards David. I want you to dedicate a significant part of your life to this. It changed me.
Speaker 1:The third thing is prayer opens doors we can't open. You know there are some things that Elijah Rising does today that I could have never imagined us being capable or having the resource or the provision to do 10 years ago. And you know, likewise, walking with survivors who are coming out of trafficking and exploitation. You know there's a lot of complex things they're trying to navigate and, quite frankly, some situations the situations they face, on paper looks impossible. It just looks like you know you're never going to be able to get housing, you're never going to be able to reach this level of education that you want to reach, you're never going to be able to overcome this certain addiction. And on paper, you know, it looks like that. But when we realize that God can do things that are impossible, he can bring us through situations that are just like we can't imagine us being there. God can do it and he can open doors that we can't, and we've seen that happen. We've seen God open doors like being able to provide housing for women who need housing.
Speaker 1:Amazing testimony that I love to share is that when women would graduate our program, one of the biggest needs they immediately had was transportation. It's like great. You know, you've been in this program. You've been faithful, you've done the work of, you know, overcoming stuff and you're ready to go, move into your own apartment, start this new job, start your life over. And it's like, but you need a car and you know we at the time you know we don't have funding to buy everyone a car and you know we at the time you know we don't have funding to buy everyone a car. And so back then you know we would just pray, god please provide, and you know we'd put asks out on social media and just this in these past couple of years. There is this organization that started called three-in-1 Mechanical Ministries, where they work to just provide cars for women who are coming out of trafficking in many other situations.
Speaker 1:But I say all these things because that just seemed like such an impossibility for us back then. Like you know, who's going to start an organization where they just give cars away for free? That just seems crazy. But you began to see God open doors that were closed or you know situations you thought were impossible. He just makes a way and he brings acceleration to things where you think, okay, someone you know comes into our program with all these educational limitations and God just accelerates them to being where they need to be and we can't explain why. So prayer opens doors. We can't.
Speaker 1:Prayer prevents burnout and I think that's so important, especially in our culture when everything is moving at a million miles an hour pace and especially when you're in this type of work, where you're combating something that's very complex as human trafficking, it's very easy to feel overwhelmed. It's very easy to feel like you're doing as much as you can but the needle just isn't moving forward and I'll say that's an illusion. We've come so far in being able to provide so many incredible services and housing and resources and all of that, but it's very easy to get in that trap of like I just have to do more and more and more and more, and prayer forces us to reorient our day to focus on the Lord's strength and not self-strength. So this is why, elijah Rising, we spend an hour every morning in prayer, because it is us resisting the hyper productivity, the desire to control everything, and then get stressed and weary when what you're trying to control is not controllable. You know, there's so many things that happen throughout our life that we have no control over. I mean, think about this. The things that we have control over are limited, and so having a daily time of prayer every morning, dedicating that hour, causes us to step outside of ourselves, bring others' prayer needs to God, so we pray over one another, but it's also just finding that resting place in God and surrendering, giving up our desire for control and trusting the Lord and believing in faith that God is moving and working and he's going to give us strength and help us persevere. I think that's so important, and prayer is a resistance to those things that cause you to run on empty. And if we don't have that hour a day to pause and meditate on the scriptures or pray for one another, or pray over our residents, or pray over whatever situation that we're facing or you know our staff is facing, or just our community is facing, you know this is such an important time that we dedicate to the Lord as a way of saying we trust you and we want to rest in this place, we want to work from this place of rest. And that's very hard to do and I will say it's not always easy coming in to an hour of prayer meeting because you think about okay, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this and you really want to get going and be productive with your day, but prayer is one of those things that I find that is more productive than me doing basic tasks.
Speaker 1:We have this saying, and I think this is by a guy named Ian Bounds but prayer is doing the work, service is gathering the results, and it's in that place of prayer we get vision. It's in that place of prayer we are able to verbalize our dreams of man, god. It would be amazing if we could provide this, if we could provide transitional housing in an apartment complex. And you know, the dream, the visions. That is all part of dreaming with God, praying with God, coming to this place of surrender, saying I can't control everything, but you do, god, and I want to be on board with you and what you have for us. And then, finally, you know, prayer helps us discern our role, and that can be in anything but especially in combating human trafficking. A lot of times we tell our volunteers, you know, sign up to volunteer, but also spend some time praying, asking God, god, what is my role, what is my gifting that I bring, what am I naturally bringing to the table and where is my place, because this is so important, because you could get an idea of like well, I'm good at this, this and this, so I'm going to go do this. Or you could think of well, god, you know, a person who is pursuing God has to do this type of ministry thing and it has to look this way. And sometimes it looks very different than what you set out to do.
Speaker 1:And I love this example of William Wilberforce, who? He was an English politician, he was a philanthropist, but he was a leader of a movement to abolish the slave trade and he's best known for his campaign to end the slave trade in the British Empire, which culminated in the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Culminated in the Slave Trade Act of 1807. But early in his life he had this spiritual awakening and he felt a very clear call of God on his life and he faced this crossroads of like. He was like I know that you know to me, in my mind, the right thing for me to do is to go and become a minister and to go be a pastor at a church or a preacher, not to remain in politics. And so he was at this crossroads of like do I choose ministry or do I choose politics. And he struggled with the decision of whether to remain in parliament or pursue a life dedicated solely to spiritual matters like praying and studying the Bible and all of those things, and so he consulted a guy named John Newton. John Newton is famous for writing the song Amazing Grace, but he was also a former slave ship captain who also had a change of heart and renounced slavery. Ship captain who also had a change of heart and renounced slavery. But Newton recognized Wilberforce's unique talents and influence and he advised him to stay in parliament and serve God through politics. And that's just such a you know.
Speaker 1:I think that prayer has this profound impact on us, on discerning our role. And when you look at Wilberforce's life I mean, of course anyone thinks you have the spiritual encounter with the Lord your immediate response is like you go start a ministry, or you go be a preacher, or you go be an evangelist, or where you focus so much on the quote unquote spiritual matters. So much on the quote unquote spiritual matters. But for Wilbur's force, the call of God on his life, was to remain in politics and remain in parliament and and remain in those societies that you know, maybe were not on board with his religious beliefs, but he was the one person that can be a bridge and get through to them, and so this is why I say it's so important to don't make assumptions or presumptions. But he was the one person that can be a bridge and get through to them, and so this is why I say it's so important to don't make assumptions or presumptions about what God would have you do. Spend that time in prayer and ask him what is your role, what is your unique role and it might look different from your expectation or your experience and just be open to what God wants to do.
Speaker 1:And so, with all that being said, let me just recap these points for you, and hopefully you can see why prayer is so instrumental to our work here at Elijah Rising. Prayer leads us to action. Prayer changes us. Prayer opens doors we cannot. Prayer gives us perseverance, prevents burnout. Prayer helps us discern our role, just like Wilberforce. And so if this episode was helpful to you or if you have any questions, please reach out to us. We would love to hear from you. I hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in and spend some extra time this week praying, asking God to move in your life, and we hope to see you again on this next episode. We hope this was insightful and helped you understand more about why prayer is so foundational to who Elijah Rising is and the work that we're trying to do.