Change is a Big Adjustment

“Change is a big adjustment.”  One of the hardest things about experiencing the transition to a new home, job, school, schedule, personal relationship, or a community of people who are different than your previous one, is simply the energy it takes to adjust.  Everything seems to throw you off balance.  Every conversation requires discernment of the other person’s motives and character.  Every request demands a choice, in the face of limited information.  All the added tasks seem to drain our energy.  And finding a safe place, and time, to recharge our physical strength and emotional fortitude seems elusive or non-existent.  Change throws us off, and adjustments sap our energy; and those experiences make us REALLY vulnerable.  Usually we feel extra tired, cranky, anxious, hopeless, angry, or just plain numb.  We often feel desperate to make the feelings go away, and to completely check out, at least mentally.

Prostituted and trafficked women live in a constant state of change.  They are forced to stay in very temporary housing; hotels, cars, stranger’s homes, etc. for only a few days at a time.  Meals are unpredictable and nutritionally insufficient.  Drugs that confuse and numb the mind are almost constant.  Interaction with strangers, at the most intimate level, are the daily routine; they are often forced to sexually engage 6 – 12 men per day, most of whom are total strangers; some of whom are violent and insulting.  All the money received for their encounters is surrendered to their trafficker.  They have no control over their environment, clothing, food, home situation, travel schedule, finances or personal interactions.

Change is constant, and their ability to adjust simply amounts to survival.

Imagine what that would feel like for you.  Can you even conceive of what it would take to live like that for months and years at a time?

Every woman that comes to Engedi Refuge has had to live that way.  They’ve had to lean into raw survival skills for so long that they just react automatically to everything, and everyone in life, from that emotional conditioning.  They need safety, stability, rest, professional counsel and hope.  And they need to experience that for a long period of time in order to have even a prayer of changing their mindset, habits, and relationship skills.

That is EXACTLY what Engedi’s program provides; safe housing for program participants for up to 24 months (depending on their individual needs), which includes food, clothing, transportation, and medical assistance.  They also receive therapeutic services, education and skill development trainings that stabilize their emotional well-being, and prepare them for successful, independent living.  Engedi is about safe, holistic, long-term restoration.

Bring healing to someone today by partnering with Engedi Refuge to be the agent of change (in a good way), for those who have been destroyed by change (in a bad way).