When Souls Know

You know I love me a good story.

The following is easily top 3.

Genuinely one of the most sacred moments I’ve witnessed this side of heaven.

I’ve begun typing it out a million times, but never committed. It has always felt too precious to put into words.

But I got a text today from the other half of this story and I knew: it’s time.

So…. it’s the year of our Lord, 2018.

I have gotten deeply invested in a local organization that serves and empowers women coming out of sexual exploitation and trafficking. I literally have no business being in this space except that God has dropped me here. So we roll.

I learn so much. My comfort zone becomes but a speck on the horizon, long since abandoned.

My heart begins to beat for these women, learns how to fight for freedom in the anti-trafficking world.

I learn enough to be both unsurprised and devastated one morning to find a sting operation happening in my own neighborhood. Just a few streets over from mine. A house I have run past countless times.

We witness the raid on the way to preschool, actually. Pass all of the law enforcement vehicles, see the SWAT rolling in. Catch sight of girls in handcuffs on the curb.

That day changes me. It just hits so close to home, literally.

For the rest of 2018, God keeps these survivors on my heart. He will not relent. I don’t know any of their names, I know none of the details, I just know that the house they came from is now a permanent spot on my running route, and every time I pass it, He has asked me to pray for them.

Be near these survivors. Free their souls, not just their bodies. Heal them from the inside out. Give them a new name, a different future.

2018 passes. It’s 2019, then 2020. No telling how many times the Lord and I chatted about these girls. 3 years’ worth, for sure.

Meanwhile, back at the farm….

Fast forward to early 2020, I am at a fundraiser for the organization I work with. There is a survivor speaking at our event, telling her story publicly for the first time.

Her name is Ava.

She and I had never met, but as soon as I lay eyes on her, I’m instantly drawn to her. Inexplicably, deeply connected to her. A creepy amount, honestly. I see how nervous she is, ask if I can pray with her before she goes on stage. We have a Whole Moment together.

She is just so remarkable. She is in the middle of court proceedings at this point, so the details she shares are intentionally vague, but my gosh. We’re all inspired.

Fast forward again, fall 2020. I have agreed to co-lead a mentor/discipleship group for the survivors in our program. I have no idea what I’ve signed up for or who will even show up, but here we are, the first night, and in walks Ava.

I’m cool as a cucumber on the outside.

On the inside, I’m screaming and throwing confetti and begging myself to PLAY IT COOL, BROOKS.

Over the semester, we get to know each other. She’s even more incredible than I thought.

I start asking her about her dreams. Where she’s headed.

“I want to go into psychology,” she says. She then tells me this niche field she’s interested in. Says no one knows what it is.

“No way,” I say. “My friend actually does that exact thing. She’s a PhD and kinda pioneered this in many ways. SO crazy.”

I then mention that – come to think of it – this same friends’ husband is in law enforcement and works on trafficking task forces.

We are both like WHAT ARE THE ODDS.

Would you believe me, dear reader, when I say that this connection led to an internship for her with a psychology professor?

Would you believe me, dear reader, when I say that this connection also led to Ava getting in contact with some law enforcement officers who could answer specific questions about her case?

It’s just so good.

BUT WAIT, there’s more.

It’s ugly-cry time.

Ava, at the time, was working at a survivor-employed company. She knew lots of people in the area.

So one day, a few months in to my obsessio—I mean, our friendship— I ask her,

“Hey, this is so random, but I know you have friends all over….

Do you happen to know anyone who was part of that sting up north a few years ago?”

I begin to describe the date, the location.

She begins to cry.

I keep giving details.

She keeps crying.

Then she says, “It was me.”

I said, “Nooo no no…it was up north…it was a while back… it was, it was, it was….there’s no way…”

She says, “It was me. It was my house. We were neighbors.”

*opens mouth, shuts mouth, opens mouth, shuts mouth*

Would you believe, dear reader, that she was the very girl my heart had been carrying for 3 years?

I sure couldn’t.

Would you believe that as God led me to pray, having no idea if I’d ever see or hear anything about it, He was already answering left and right?

Healing, check.

Freedom, check.

New name? Check. Sarah, meet Ava.

Different future? Check. She’s going to get accepted into to a freaking IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL. Get married. Start a family.

I will never forget the moment I got to look her in her eyes and tell her “Giiiiiirrrrllllllll do I have a story for you about you….

I may not have known your name, but God has never forgotten it. And had me – and who knows who else – on you this whole time. There was not a moment he was not with you, not a moment he didn’t have an army standing in the gap for you.”

We both cried. A lot.

And suddenly our introduction made so much sense: my soul recognized her instantly. It’s why I was so inexplicably drawn to her that first day. Souls battle on fields we cannot see, cannot name. My soul knew her before I did.

Hey, but listen.

Come a little closer for this part.

While the details of this story are specific to Ava and myself, this story is also for you.

Because God is also in your details. Same story, different details. He knows your name. He knows where you are, how you are, and there is no length of time, no place he will not go, no path too far, no army he will not send to fight for and with you.

Sometimes he even lets ya know about it.

Brings you to your knees when he does. It did us.

• • •

Gosh, I could tell you a million more things about my girl, Ava, and all the places she’s going, all the gifts God continues to lavish on her, the gift that SHE is to everyone she encounters…..

But I’m just going to let you digi-meet her for yourselves.

And admit, unashamedly, that I’m telling you this story today because Ava still needs an army for her tomorrow.

Would you consider partnering with her? Literally any amount will help get her through this next year.

Plus, when she’s president one day, I promise you’re going to want to talk about contributing to the GoFundMe that helped get her there. 🙂

Click below and watch the video to hear her dreams in her own words!