Why Global Renewal is Transforming Lives and Generations to Come
Written by Amy Noelck
When Liney Chacko, Founder of Global Renewal, asked me to share during the 2019 Annual Selah Gala I thought I would be really good at that because for the 6 years I have been working and volunteering for them, I really had no idea how to explain all that they did and do. I would write for them and help them with whatever I could—but they would talk about going to so many places and doing so many things, but I really didn’t understand until I was able to go and see it all with my own eyes.
You see, I’ve worked with non profit organizations all my life. From Haiti to Africa, El Salvador, Mexico, and India. But I’ve never seen anything like what I saw with Global Renewal.
In September of 2019, I was finally able to go on a trip with them visiting all the areas they serve in Southeast Asia. I had heard the stories—but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw in Cambodia. As we drove through the streets, there were young girls sitting in plastic chairs on the sides of the road. Hundreds of girls. Dressed up, wearing red lipstick—just waiting for someone to come pick them up. Liney told me most of these girls are between the ages of 8-12. They dress them up to look older, but they prefer them young. The even younger ones are kept hidden in the back—the youngest we have rescued at the Selah House is 4. As we drove through the streets, I just sat in the van, crying and broken, wondering what I could about this massive problem.
But then we pulled up to the Selah House—and 20 little girls ran out—smiling and laughing. We played, we sang songs, we danced, and I got to take them to their private school where they showed me their classrooms and talked about what they are going to be when they grow up.
When we arrived at the next Selah Safe House location, it was so late the girls were already asleep, so I just went to bed. But I woke up the next morning at 6 a.m. to the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. The girls were singing in the prayer room beneath me.
The girls start and end their day with prayer and singing. You’d think when taking 9 little girls into a time of prayer and worship you’d need to round them up and say, “Okay, it’s time to pray—let’s not touch one another…” But you don’t have to say anything. When it’s time to worship, I couldn’t get their attention if I tried. Their faces are down on the ground. Their eyes are closed and their arms are outstretched—praising the ONE who healed and transformed the very depths of their soul. They’re worshiping their King. They LOVE Jesus because He’s their Redeemer. Their Healer. The ONE who rescued them out of the darkness and placed them into His incredible Love.
Liney often says something that I absolutely love. She says, "Jesus had a way of seeing the gold in people and drawing it out. He would see their greatest potential when no one else did and speak to that part of them.”
And that’s exactly what Global Renewal does. Everywhere they go, they see the gold in everyone they meet and they draw it out.
What this ministry has been doing for the past 20+ years is creating an army of leaders and change-makers who will with absolutely, with no doubt, eradicate this kind of darkness and abuse from their nations. Global Renewal creates leaders everywhere they go. They call out the gold in individual hearts and lives. They’re raising up an army all over the world—an army of people that I believe will actually see the change we all want to see: The end of human trafficking in our world.
I actually believe that. And I hope you do too.
- Amy Noelck