A Way Out Ministries

Walk with us around The Meadow, our campus we are asking the Lord to build to serve more trafficking survivors. There are so many radiant colors and textures during this fall transition of seasons. It was incredible to see all different stages of life and these pictures just don't do justice to HIS breathtaking splendor! 🍁🍃🍂🌿🕊

Some things were still alive and green.
Some things were changing colors and about to die.
Some things were seeding with the wind ready to carry their seed to be planted somewhere else.
Some things were already dead, withered, and crumbled under our feet.
While in the same step, some things were blooming!

It is truly spectacular how all different stages were present at the same time in beautiful harmony and peace.

We believe God speaks through His Creation and there is something so profound about being still and sitting with Him.

We are grateful for the hours spent in His presence, watching the sun go down. Without the Lord, we cannot and will not do this work. We couldn't for some reason post videos and photos, but go to our next post to hear some of our prayers for the women we serve, God's team, and the vision He's given the ministry to create this into an oasis where women can encounter their loving, gentle Father.

"To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." Joel 1:25

We had an amazing time joining today with Memphis partners (including , , , child exploitation criminal analysts) in the A21 two mile Walk For Freedom.
In a single file line we walked in silence for two miles in our city praying with each step that slavery would be abolished. What an incredible united front!!
We are especially grateful to one of our board members, who's a criminal analyst fighting cyber child exploitation, who was the MC for today's event and devotes her life to this cause, including leading on our outreach team.
We are stronger united together!

Happy Birthday to one of our dear house moms, Delilah. We honor and celebrate you!!!
Then we had a trail mix party. Yummy!
Happy Friday from the best team ❤️

One of our outreach volunteers saw this "No Lot Lizards" sticker on the back of a car and sent it to us. We support this message!!!!

What's a "lot lizard?" It is the most degrading name labeling those being prostituted in truck stops and rest areas. Truck stop prostitution occurs most commonly at night but can also happen during the day. When we do outreach on Friday nights in our region we witness this type of exploitation first hand. We drive through the parking lots and pray freedom for any who are bound and anything that may be taking place in the hundreds of truck cabs parked.

It's important to remember that men and women being prostituted are often victims of s*x crimes. S*x traffickers coerce their victims into prostitution through promises, manipulation, threats, violence, drugging and much more. Victims are forced to offer s*xual services to truck drivers by reaching out over CB radios or going from truck to truck in truck stops or rest areas.

Demeaning jokes are often made and the term "lot lizards" is also incredibly degrading because they equate those being prostituted coming in and out of truck cabs in a parking "lot" with a "lizard" slithering in and out of crevasses.

Please pray for:
✅️ Our outreach teams (we especially need men to join our outreach team)
✅️ The supplies and resources needed to reach, rescue, and restore those being prostituted (we depend 100% on churches, individuals, and businesses to provide outreach supplies shared with those we encounter)
✅️ The men and women who are bound in the s*x industry

If you are interested in more information about what we do, please email [email protected].

Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander. These will consume you and we are commanded in the Word of God to remove them.

Being kind, compassionate, and forgiving are a choice and qualities we aspire to emulate to the traficking survivors we work with and teach. They are threads throughout our Bible based curriculum and have the power to release freedom. We sure are grateful for God's forgiveness!

We pray this for each of you tonight, for our ministry, and for the survivors we are blessed to serve.

This God-fearing outreach team (some who come all the way from Tupelo) and others not pictured, faithfully serve past midnight on Friday nights to reach those in the s*x industry.

Last night one of the dancers called one of us mom and fell in her arms crying as we held her. This is a dancer we have taken to lunch outside of club hours and have built a relationship with. She changed her number and lost ours and right before we walked into the dressing room she was having a break down. She was shaking as she shared how God brought us in at just that moment because she needed our prayers and number again. We are so grateful God showed up at the exact moment she needed to hear from Him.

So many of them want out but exiting the s*x industry can feel so impossible. We had more than normal last night asking for prayer and circled up to join together in God's presence. For that brief moment they were safe. They were not touched forcefully. They were not an object for someone else's pleasure. They were seen and heard. They were spoken tender words of truth with no hidden or blatent agendas. They were daughters of their Creator.

There are so many people hurting and we need God's power to break through every lie and stronghold. Please continue to keep our team of volunteers, ministry, and the women we serve in prayer. We are in great need of more outreach volunteers including men to remain outside and minister to the bouncers. It is a sacrifice, but our lives are also changed by the women we come to know and love. Email [email protected] for more information.

Today our staff gathered at our new safe house for a "Policy and Procedure" meeting and shared breakfast as a team. 🍳🥓
In serving trafficking survivors, it's so important to have harmony and unity as a team with clarity of expectations. We are so grateful for the God-fearing women the Lord has called to serve in the ministry. Our team doen't see this as a job - we consider it a calling with roots planted in good soil.
As we sat and learned and laughed together, it's so refreshing to witness true authentic sisterhood with no agendas. In a world with so much discord and disunity, we can confidently testify that our team's desire is to come alongside women and witness them walk in eternal freedom and the fullness of all God has for them.
A huge thank you to all of our supporters, prayer warriors, and volunteers. The A Way Out family loves and appreciates you all! We are looking with great faith to our latter days.

We are so grateful for church partners like Grace Evan Missions who have been supporting us for years. We had a great time at their annual Taste of Grace this past weekend!

To join or get information on how to become a church partner, email [email protected].

Did you know the next few days are Amazon Prime Big Deal Days?

Our new safe house for s*x trafficking survivors still has items we want and need to enhance their time with us when we re-open. Help us take advantage of the deals today and tomorrow. Here's the link for our New Safe House Wishlist and items will be shipped right to us:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/9B5EIWCIHIJ7?ref_=wl_share

Thank you!

We are so excited to announce that a generous donor is sowing $25,000 as a match to help us raise the $50,000 needed to install our electricity at our campus, The Meadow!!!

They are long time supporters of our ministry and believe in all God is doing to enlarge our territory to reach more trafficking survivors. We are so grateful for God's faithfulness and His children who are turning dreams into reality.

Would you join with us in helping to bore under the entrance road, dig a 1900 foot trench, and lay the power lines so we can generate changed lives. Our goal is to install this before the ground freezes. Opening this facilitiy will allow us when we re-open our safe house to offer a new component of trauma-informed employment opportunities through our social enterprise businesses that will help us be self-sustainable.

Your seed planted, of any size, will have a double impact through this generous matched gift!!! Anything over the $25,000 needed for electricity will go towards installing the gas lines. You may look at this and be intimidated. Don't be. We have 1,669 followers on Facebook. If each of you gave $15 we'd reach our goal. God has a way of multiplying, so pray about what your best gift could be to help us reach our match goal! And help us spread the word by sharing.

The link to invest ANY amount to be doubled is: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/citizens-for-community-values-inc/welcome-home-capital-campaign

Thank you!!!

We haven't gotten all of our pictures back from yesterday's 2nd Annual Take Aim at Human Trafficking Sporting Clays Tournament, but we wanted to share a few pictures and videos.
We are so grateful that we grew from last year and for everyone who came and supported. The weather couldn't have been better and fun was had by all! We are looking into possibly hosting one on a weekend for those who couldn't sign up during the week, so stay tuned. Also, we look forward to sharing a recap video with great appreciation to all of our sponsors and participants!! Here's just a sneak peek.

Please keep our outreach team in prayer tonight. Consistency and showing up is so important and rain won't stop us.
We are so grateful for students in their culinary classes who baked the homemade treats for the bouncers tonight as we minister! They look delicious and will be a gateway to share the love of Jesus.
We also want to share an incredible testimony. One of the churches who made bags for the dancers shared that a former dancer who got our bags in the past started attending their church. And she was part of the team putting together the very bags she used to get!!!
The former dancer shared with the pastor how she would read the Father's Love Letter (a beautiful presentation of the Gospel) that we put in the bags every time she got it and how it was such a blessing to her. She mentioned a volunteer by name and how kind and encouraging we are. This is a dancer we've been blessed to take out to eat outside of club hours and we are so proud of her!
These may just look like cookies and bags, but when coupled with the body of Christ they have power to break chains. We are grateful to everyone who bakes, buys outreach items, makes bags, intercedes, donates, and physically comes out with us. We celebrate lives changed and NONE of this would be possible without you!
If you love to bake or want to help with bags or outreach, please email [email protected].

There's still time to register for our Sporting Clays Tournament taking place this week. Link in the bio.

We were so honored to host and learn from Yeshua Hearts Ministries who have volunteers around the country who make these amazing dolls for trafficking survivors. They came all the way from Idaho today to meet and train us in how to make these precious dolls that we have given the past year to survivors in our safe house.
We got the adorable pattern and will be able to teach volunteers and trafficking survivors how to make these and give them to women who come into the program after them. They are so soft and cuddly and we can't wait to start making these.
If you want to volunteer and make these, let us know and if you want to donate fabric and needed supplies for them, see the link below! The ladies we have shared these with loved them and we can make them ourselves locally! What a beautiful ministry!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3BX7UFLI46YLQ?ref_=wl_share

We applaud our great leaders in the Tennessee Legislature for passing the Protect Tennessee Minors Act that will be effective January 1, 2025.

This law "requires an individual or commercial entity that publishes or distributes in this state a website that contains a substantial portion of material harmful to minors to perform reasonable age-verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material; specifies that a violation of age-verification or data retention requirements is a Class C felony."

What does this mean? Pornographic sites (where it is known that many victims are trafficked and r***d) that now allow anyone to view by clicking a simple button that they are over 18 before being allowed to enter, will now require viewers to verify their age before gaining access. Other states have enacted this important legislation and sites have third-party vendors where customers have to upload their identification that gets verified.

In a digital age where minors cannot unsee things, this protection will allow minors to be protected from viewing pornographic content. This is a HUGE win for our state and for our children.

Here is a copy of the full Act:https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/113/pub/pc1021.pdf

9/26/24. We are 13 days away from our 2nd Annual Take Aim at Human Trafficking Sporting Clays Tournament.

Have you registered yet?

No worries. We still have limited space at the link in our bio! Including space for students from school Trap teams who will be joining us!

This morning if you wake up and something feels impossible or there's a mountain in front of you, we'd encourage you to read the whole Parable of the Persistent Widow.

In this parable we are introduced to a widow, which to put into context had low if any status in her day. That didn't hold this widow back. She was persistently going before a judge for some type of injustice and one version says she was driving him crazy, to the point where her persistence paid off. He finally granted her wishes.

"...God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!" Luke 18:7-8

The survivors we work and pray for face situations that feel impossible. From breaking free physically from their trafficker to then breaking free emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We walk along side them and encourage them to keep crying out in prayer persistently.

God hears you. He sees you. Today let's heed this verse and "always pray and never give up."

There are so many things that motivate us in the fight against human trafficking and s*xual exploitation.

L❤️VE

It is truly our greatest motivator.

Love for the Lord
Love for the women we get to serve
Love for our city
Love for each other
Love for justice
Love for truth
Love for freedom
Love for the brethren
Love for the sinner and the outcast

Pray for our continued capacity to be vessels of God's pure love.

Earnest and disciplined prayer and showing deep love for each other. We pray this truth helps guide you today as we pray and serve those being s*xually exploited.

This afternoon our amazing team had some great fellowship and laughter. We started with food and iced coffee treats. Then we made our own pink zebra wax scents for our burners and got to name the scents we made. That was creative fun! And finally we bagged up all the baked goods for the bouncers we will reach on outreach tonight.

This team loves unconditionally and serves without ceasing. Today they got just a small pampering of appreciation for all they do.

And in the middle of it all we got a call on our helpline from a dancer who called for the first time after getting one of our bags and asking for help because she's "so tired." Please continue to pray for this incredible team, the women we serve, and for outreach tonight.

On August 1st we officially moved our Administrative office.

As we turned the key for the last time in this beautiful space it was bitter sweet but we will forever cherish the countless memories and changed lives in these halls and offices that are now empty. Many tears shed, prayers prayed, meals shared, milestones celebrated, goals set, and dreams actualized.

Thank you to every volunteer and donor through our 32 years of fighting exploitation. This wasn't our first office and our new one probably won't be our last. We will continue to follow where the Lord leads and prayerfully continue to move forward in the fullness of all God has for us in Memphis and beyond. If you need our new mailing address, please let us know.

Change may be hard but as the trailblazers we've always been, we will continue to abide in the Lord and trust in the direction He is leading. One thing remains, we are grateful for His unwavering faithfulness through the decades. A Way Out belongs to Jesus.

Outreach Supply Needs:

Did you know all of our outreach supplies are donated by churches, businesses, and individuals just like you? We go out two times each month to strip clubs and other venues where s*xual exploitation takes place and each time we bring 145 life giving bags that light up faces when we enter.

We just moved offices and unpacked all of our outreach supplies and need to replenish lip glosses and eye lashes off our wishlist linked below.

Can you partner with us and buy a pack of lipgloss for under $8 or a pack of eye lashes on the list for the women we reach? Every bit helps us be the hands and feet of Jesus in the darkest places. Those are the only items on the list that we currently need to help us make it until the end of the year.

Also, stay tuned for some exciting outreach updates, including a new Zoom Support Group we are launching for those in the s*x industry. We conducted a survey and had an overwhelming response that they wanted to participate.

We also currently have 8 dancers we are actively working with as a direct result of these red bags, not including the others we have already helped. Thanks for being a part of changing one life, one lip gloss at a time!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1MFHP50GK7RHK?ref_=wl_share