A Message of Freedom and Healing

• Spring 2018

Before knowing the meaning of the word “missionary”, Renay West felt called to minister overseas. She now serves in Bangkok, Thailand, as a missionary through the Assemblies of God World Missions. She is notably the only single woman to hold the title of Missionary Evangelist within the fellowship.

Renay West is an anointed communicator, involved in numerous ministries within Thailand. She ministers regularly at the International Christian Assembly in neighboring Phnom Penh, Cambodia, while serving her home church in Bangkok on the leadership team preaching once a month. West is also an experienced pastoral counselor specializing in counseling children, adolescents and adults who are victims of abuse or sexual assault.

From huge conferences all over the world to counseling a small group of orphans, her ministry takes on many different forms, but always a similar theme—a message of freedom and healing. West expresses, “It wasn’t being a talented preacher that opened the doors—it was simply giving what I had—my own life message, so that other broken people could understand that there is hope.”

At just 10 years old, her life radically changed after being sexually abused by someone outside of her family. She fell victim to a childhood of brokenness and at the age of 20, she reached a point of pure helplessness—enough to want to end her own life. The night in which she planned to follow through with the act, an encounter with the Lord brought her the freedom she needed to pursue healing and wholeness. She says, “That journey of healing and pursuit of restoration in my personhood has become my life message.“

Although her formative years were tainted by an incident that left her broken, God was able to meet her in her darkest place and redirect her towards the plan and purpose He had set for her. In 2006, she transferred from Thailand to Argentina. Everything would change when she shared her testimony for the first time. She began counseling individuals who were suffering because of past or present abuse. Because the numbers of people needing ministry was so great, it led her to start her own conference ministry called “Aguas de Sanidad” (Healing Waters). She and her team, comprised of Christian counselors and social workers, ministered to thousands of broken people throughout Argentina and Europe by utilizing the same process that opened her eyes and brought her spiritual restoration. During one of their most recent outreaches in a province of Argentina, the local government paid for the entire event because of the great need in that particular region.

“One of my greatest joys has been seeing other women who were impacted by our conferences or my message rise up and pioneer ministries similar to Aguas de Sanidad,” she says. “After ministering in Fiji, some of the Assemblies of God women there with whom I ministered won the favor of their government by being a voice for the abused and exploited. They now have a registered social foundation recognized by the government called ‘Breaking the Silence.’ I love seeing God multiply this message of deliverance and healing!”

Renay West hopes to use her ministry to empower young ladies who feel called to preach God’s Word. She says, “There are so few women who have a pulpit ministry, that I believe just by modeling it, it will demonstrate to girls that ‘in Christ, there is neither…male nor female,’ that God is calling men AND women to be a prophetic voice to this generation.” She wants young women to remember that there is a place for them in ministry and that they never have to compete for that place.

Renay West has faced her own set of unique obstacles throughout her ministry. With most senior pastors being men, the logistics of seeking a mentor was difficult to figure out, but she knew she needed this specific type of proximity to someone with a pulpit ministry. When she finally found a mentor, he soon became a spiritual father whose influence produced a hunger within her to pursue the gifts of the Spirit and believe for miracles and signs and wonders as she ministers. He taught her the difference between talent and anointing which resulted in a drastic change both in her personal life and her ministry.

West has experienced, firsthand, the impact a mentor can have on a young adult. Today, she actively recognizes the young women who intently observe her, takes them under her wing and says, “Come walk with me in the altar as I minister.” Just as her mentor did for her, she hopes that personally investing and speaking into the lives of these young women will result in a hunger to pursue God’s call on their lives and pursue Holy Spirit empowered ministry.

Renay West places great value in relationships and the positive influence they can have on someone's personal journey. In 1988, West graduated from Southwestern and says that her peer relationships and influential professors such as, Adonna Otwell, made a lifelong impact on her ministerial career.

West and her team are currently in preparation to launch their new ministry venture based in Thailand called the C2 Project. C2 stands for Compassion Coalition: Compassionate Care for Communities and Children in Crisis.

She has also published her own book called, “180º to Freedom.” The book was first published in Spanish and released in Argentina, and eventually in English. The book shares about how to identify and tear down spiritual strongholds in one’s personal life, family, and ministry.

To learn more or to purchase “180º to Freedom,” click here .

“I’m praying the Lord will allow me to lead a movement that gathers and trains caregivers who will influence their villages and communities by addressing the areas of childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence and exploitation. And, in the process, we will have the opportunity to share Jesus with those who have never heard the Gospel” she says.

Health, Healing, and Wholeness

• Spring 2018

Veronica, a prostituted woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a sexual object—an attraction for men to receive sexual pleasure when they visit the red-light area where she is held captive.

When she was sold into the sex trafficking industry, Veronica gave birth to two children. When the children were just toddlers, her owner realized he could make more money prostituting the children than with Veronica. As a result, he forced the children to be sex slaves and sold Veronica to another man.

While she was with her second owner, she gave birth to two more children. Out of fear that her children would suffer through the trafficking industry, she contacted her sister to take the children 200 kilometers away. Veronica was sold again to another man.

The third owner was a violent man who used Veronica’s children to keep her imprisoned. He held up a photo of her daughter and said, “If I think you want to leave, I will go get her. Do you want her to take your place?”

Sadly, hundreds of thousands of women like Veronica are held captive and robbed of an ability to embrace their God-given identities.

The International Labor Organization estimates globally there are approximately 20.9 million victims of human trafficking. That number is higher than the total number of residents in the State of Florida. Of those victims, 68% are trapped in forced labor and 55% are women and girls. The International Labor Organization estimates that 4.5 million people are trapped in forced sexual exploitation.

Sex trafficking is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third largest criminal enterprise in the world.

Alumna Brandy Tuesday passionately desires to reach prostituted and sexually traumatized women and lead them to health, healing, and wholeness. Most importantly, she desires to help them understand the identity they can have in Christ.

“As Veronica and I began to build a friendship, she began to realize that what was happening to her body did not need to affect her eternity,” says Tuesday. “Watching her come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ was phenomenal.”

Tuesday is an Assemblies of God missionary and team lead for the LIVE Initiative of Nurture Hope, the anti-trafficking arm of Assemblies of God World Ministries International Ministries. Nurture Hope helps local communities of faith “Get there before the trafficker” and bring health, healing, and wholeness to sexually exploited populations.

For approximately 19 years, Tuesday has served in ministries specifically purposed to minister to suffering women enslaved by the sex trafficking industry.

In her current position at Nurture Hope, she travels throughout the world to implement the training frameworks established by the Integrated Freedom Approach (IFA), a three-pronged approach that Tuesday has developed over the course of her career. IFA is designed to effectively minister to and revitalize sexually traumatized and enslaved populations by focusing on three distinct areas: health, healing, and wholeness.

Health: Nurture Hope partners with local medical practitioners, doctors, and HIV specialists to establish local medical clinics and STD and HIV clinics.

“It is not a matter of if,” says Tuesday. “All prostituted women will at some point contract HIV and be infected with numerous STDs and STIs. They are often given zero prenatal care. If there is not a clinic in their brothel or red-light area, they simply have no access to a doctor. That is why we are partnering with local doctors so that prostituted and sexualized traumatized women will be empowered to care for their physical needs.”

Healing: Assisting women to cope with life after suffering from an attacked identity and living in constant trauma.

Enslaved and prostituted women carry deep trauma. This damage will often inhibit them from the ability to verbally process their pain. “To tell an enslaved woman at first that she is free in Christ is almost like speaking a foreign language,” says Tuesday. As a result, all teams are trained to administer different methods of self-help, such as therapeutic art. In this way, a prostituted woman can communicate without speaking a word. Mobile art stations that are set up on the streets work as a point of connection and are a way to build a presence in the community.

Contextualizing redemption using art speaks to women whose photos and names are pornographically printed on fliers and plastered on walls for the financial profit of their pimp or owner.

“Art helps women learn to live in the midst of trauma with an intact identity,” says Tuesday. “Being raped 15 to 30 times within each 12-hour shift damages every fiber of a woman’s being. IFA helps women to walk through the healing process, despite an attacked identity.”

Wholeness: Developing Communities of Faith – Planted among traumatized women in red-light areas around the world.

How do you establish a safe place for women who have not experienced the comfort of security? Tuesday expresses the importance of meeting women in red-light areas and areas of captivity. Mobile art studios, coffee shops, dance, and visual art exhibits are ways to engage with the community. Because of the culture within these locations, these contact methods are seen as appropriate and useful for the community and also help establish safe zones for enslaved women. Community engagement allows for discipleship without putting the enslaved women at risk and without risking the safety of their children and loved ones.

Leah is a beautiful example of the power of these communities of faith. As a former sex slave in a violent brothel in the Asia Pacific region, she dealt with extreme Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. When she first met Tuesday and the team, she was unable to make eye contact or have a coherent conversation. Through months of training and time spent at a local community of faith, she began to open up. Through one-on-one mentoring by team members, Leah learned how to market through social media platforms and perform public relations-related tasks for businesses. Fast-forward a year and two months, and Leah is free from the bonds of prostitution and has a salaried job. Tuesday says, “She looked at me and said, ‘Please take my picture and tell people back in America, thank you because this is my first salary that did not involve rape.’”

“It excites me to know that opportunities are waiting for women like Leah. I get to be a part of helping women realize that through Christ they can come to understand authentic freedom.”

Tuesday’s U.S. office is currently at International Ministries’ compassion office in Springfield, Missouri. However, Brandy is committed to walking with and training teams throughout the world for one to three years, depending on the experience of the teams. As the team leader, she develops training materials and resources while making contact with missionaries and workers around the world. At times, Tuesday has spent more than 60% of the year overseas training teams.

Tuesday sensed a call to missions when she was only 12 years old. While preparing for her first missions trip, she had a dream that would alter the course of her life and eternity. She remembers being awakened early one morning in 1988 with a vision God placed on her heart in which she saw faces of little girls engulfed in flames. “The Holy Spirit said to me,” Your response to this dream will not only affect your eternity but the eternity of girls throughout the world.” At the time, she was unaware of what specific ministry God was calling her to.

She also experienced sexual trauma during her childhood and adolescent years. “I knew Jesus,” she said. “Regardless of what was happening to my body. I knew Jesus.” Due to the sexual violence, Tuesday struggled with her faith and spent much of her teenage years away from the Lord. “I did not want anything to do with a God who could allow the years of sexual trauma.”

At age 17, the Holy Spirit met her in a very real way during a revival service. She rededicated her life to the Lord and was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Her call to missions was reaffirmed that night.

“Because of the sexual trauma that I experienced in my own life, I can understand the women whose bodies are being traumatized. I can understand their hearts, their dreams, their hurts, their thinking, and their emotions on a level that many cannot. The Lord has used that early trauma to place me where I am today. Sexual trauma affects all of us differently. The nuances of how we are affected are unique to each woman. The ability to live in trauma with an intact identity is possible for all of us.”

Years later as a student at Southwestern Assemblies of God University, the Lord began to unveil the vision He had placed on her heart at age 12. It was also during her time as a student at SAGU that she experienced the power of prayer walking from Professor Dr. Adonna Otwell. Prayer walking plays a vital role in Nurture Hope’s ministry. Teams spend three months walking and praying the Scriptures, as part of the community mapping process, in red-light districts before planting communities of faith.

After college, Tuesday pursued full-time ministry. As a single woman in ministry, Tuesday will be the first to tell you that she has had her share of struggles. “It is challenging to be a single woman in ministry,” says Tuesday. “When I have been asked to speak, I have often been asked, ‘Will your husband be joining us tonight?’ As a woman in ministry, many individuals expect you to have a husband as a covering. Wonderful, single women have encouraged and served as godly and courageous models and mentors. They forged a path for single women in ministry today. Also within the Assemblies of God, we have amazing men and women who champion and adhere to the full gospel. Joel prophesied and then Peter preached that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, male and female. We continue to see the evidence of this today.”

Tuesday’s response to single women concerned about going into full-time ministry was simple: “Just do it. If you feel the Holy Spirit calling you, don’t tiptoe, dive. Realize that your covering is the same as others–Jesus. He is the head of the church. Your marital status does not deter you from fulfilling God’s will for your life.”

After nearly 19 years of ministry to prostituted and traumatized women, Tuesday is optimistic for the future of ministries specifically geared towards reaching women in human trafficking. As Nurture Hope and similar programs continue to experience growth, more churches and communities in the United States become aware of the severity of the human trafficking industry throughout the world. Tuesday is also excited for the next generation of women whom God is calling to reach prostituted and sexually traumatized women worldwide.

“As Pentecostal women, we have a unique voice. We have the privilege to be conduits of the peace of the Holy Spirit. However, I always caution that ministry in red-light areas and brothels can sound very romantic, since some people may think they should go into brothels to 'rescue' women. That is not always a reality. The reality is that ministry to the sexually assaulted is hard. It looks different in each area of the world, but you do have a voice as a Christian woman. We do not always know, although sometimes we think we know, what trafficked women need. The truth is that we have the ability to listen to the Holy Spirit, and He does know what sexually traumatized women need. Because of this, by the Holy Spirit, we can have a role in reaching exploited girls and women.”

Equipped for Life

• Spring 2018

The Center for Disease and Control and Prevention reported in 2014 that there are 186 abortions for every 1,000 live births in the United States. In Texas alone, there were 55,287 documented terminations in 2015.

Many women do not feel equipped with the necessary financial support and resources to support a child. As a result, abortion is often viewed as a way out of financial hardship.

Two Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) alumni are driven to bring these numbers down through providing resources to families in urban communities. Jamie Stanley and Chariti Lough, work at Southwest Pregnancy Services (SPS) to help expecting mothers who feel like they either can’t parent their child or don’t have the resources to do so.

The city of Dallas is home to an alarming number of poverty-stricken citizens. In the past decade alone, poverty has skyrocketed in the city, especially with single mothers and children. According to a biennial study conducted by Children's Health and the University of Texas at Dallas, one in five children in North Texas lives in poverty.

“We’re able to serve them (SPS clients) and share the love of God with them, and equip them with medical resources, social resources, and spiritual resources so that they can be successful parents,” says Jamie Stanley.

Jamie’s call to urban ministry started in her adolescence while she was growing up in Friendswood, Texas – just south of Houston.

“I felt a passion for ministry to urban communities since I was a teenager because of a mission trip I went on into the Fourth Ward of Houston,” she says.

Jamie attended SAGU and graduated in 2004 with a Church Ministries degree. She was ordained in 2006 and graduated with her master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2012. She is especially grateful for her time at SAGU because it gave her the opportunity to grow and lead in a number of ways.

“One of those ways was in leading student mission teams on a spring break trip. I took a team of, I believe it was 26 women, to the Los Angeles Dream Center,” she says.

Not only did she lead a group of women in the slums of Los Angeles, but she was a leader of women’s accountability groups on the SAGU campus at the time. During her junior and senior years, she volunteered off campus to lead a ministry group in Deep Ellum to work with a church there.

Jamie has had an incredible amount of experience in urban communities beyond her time at SAGU as well. She worked for an arts education nonprofit called Big Thought and a domestic violence shelter, Bay Area Turning Point, in Houston. Additionally, she has directed after-school programs in low-income communities.

“I’ve done development in those communities with different types of programs such as food, education, spiritual services, and church planting,” she says.

This coming April marks Jamie’s third year as the Executive Director at Southwest Pregnancy Services. She enjoys her job, and heading up the organization comes with a lot of responsibilities.

“I champion the mission of the organization and lead the staff and volunteers and work with the board of directors,” she says.

She also reaches out into the communities around southwest Dallas to find new clients, does fundraising, and works with individual and corporate donors to obtain money for the nonprofit organization.

Though Jamie has felt the call of urban ministry very strongly for the majority of her life, one specific instance really inspired her to couple that passion with pregnant women and motherhood – the birth of her first child.

“I was hit by a drunk driver when I was 34 weeks pregnant,” she says. As a result of the accident, her son, Elliot, was born by an emergency Cesarean section. She broke both her arms and injured her leg, and had to have help caring for her new baby during those first few months of motherhood. Elliot was in NICU for 17 days, but is now a healthy seven-year-old.

Through this experience, she learned how important it was to trust the Lord with her life and her kids. It also made her realize the importance of motherhood for shaping women, and how much more difficult the struggle is to raise a child amidst poverty or relational issues.

The startling number of women, especially single or expecting mothers, in need touched Jamie’s heart and directed her to this ministry in the DFW area. She loves being able to help her clients and considers it very rewarding.

Jessica's Story

Over the course of her career, one of the clients that stuck out to Jamie is a woman named Jessica. Jamie first met this woman standing in the education classroom holding four shopping bags-each full of baby clothes, diapers, and bottles. As Jessica began to open up to Jamie, she shared with her how she ended up in the clinic that day.

Jessica had previously come to the clinic to receive a tubal ligation to prevent having any more children. During the visit, she learned she was pregnant. “With all the mouths to feed at home and her and her husband struggling with work, she said to me, 'We are just too poor, we are just too poor. We did not feel we could keep this baby',” said Jamie. Jessica and her husband were leaning towards having an abortion when God interrupted their plans. Jessica went to Southwest Pregnancy Services and received a pregnancy test and options counseling. It was during this time, she also received a free ultrasound. When she saw her baby, Jessica was unable to follow through with their initial plan. “When I saw the baby, I knew it was mine and I had to keep it,” Jessica said to Jamie.

Jessica enrolled in education courses in which she earned “baby bucks” to spend in the boutique filled with donated baby items which is what brought Jessica into the clinic that day.

“From fear to the decision for life,” said Jamie. “From life to preparing herself for parenting and from preparation to provision as the items filling those bags and others she would earn in the next months filled her home with hope that in the midst of poverty she could care for her baby. We are so proud of her and her husband because they are now parents of a new sweet baby girl and both working. They have been able to join a housing program that enabled them to buy their first home.”

While Jamie came to college with the intent of ministry, Chariti Lough didn't plan to pursue missions when she arrived at SAGU. She had always had a passion for ministry, but while growing up as a missionary kid in Paraguay, Chariti saw some difficult things in the field. She tried to distance herself from her calling. God, however, had other plans.

“During my time at SAGU, God led me back to it and reminded me of the love he had placed in my heart for missions,” she says.

Chariti credits much of her knowledge of mission work to her time at SAGU.

“I had lived missions prior to coming here, and I thought I knew a lot about missions, and then I came here and I learned a lot more that I didn’t know before,” she says.

As a student, Chariti led a missions trip to Ethiopia and was the Vice President of World Outreach, which is a part of the Southwestern Missions Association (SMA). Later, during her internship, she worked with an organization called Arms of Refuge – a ministry geared towards helping refugees in the Dallas area.

“Just being in SMA and Arms of Refuge, that’s taught me to look beyond me and see someone else for who they are and what they’re going through,” Chariti says.

This valuable experience equipped Chariti to care for women at SPS. After graduation this past December, Chariti was in need of a job between now and when she goes into international mission work. She wanted a job that could help people and make an impact in the lives of others. She was drawn to SPS because it gave her an opportunity to provide women with the option to choose life.

She applied, interviewed, and started working there just two weeks ago. She believes that God gave her this job for a purpose.

“Even though I’ve never had anything to do with abortion or unplanned pregnancy, He’s led me to this moment. I think it’s preparing me for whatever He has for the future,” she says.

Chariti and her husband plan to evangelize in Eastern Europe one day. Her love for school inspires her to continue in her academia, and she plans on pursuing a degree in philosophy to minister to atheists. For the time being, she’s growing in her ministry to women at SPS.

“I think what I’m looking forward to is just giving women hope, specifically in this job, giving them hope that they have options besides abortion.”

When it comes to the future of SPS as a whole, Jamie Stanley has a few goals that she hopes to accomplish with her team. The urgent need to serve pregnant women considering abortion is daily motivation to take the work further. In this recent year, the clinic clients served has grown 77% and the education program has grown 135%.

SPS also has its share of challenges. It is located within three miles of Planned Parenthood-South Dallas Surgical Health Services Center, which only provides abortion procedures. “We know thousands of women enter their doors pregnant and leave having had an abortion,” says Jamie. “We desire to capture these women before they make an abortion decision, though culture and opportunity so near them leads towards going to Planned Parenthood.” However, SPS has experienced success through effective marketing campaigns to help direct women searching for abortion and pregnancy information to the SPS website. “We hope to expand our targeting campaigns as funds allow,” said Jamie.

“I’m excited for us to be the preferred place for women facing unplanned pregnancy throughout southwest Dallas county to come and receive help.”

Jamie believes that SPS will continue to grow and reach women all over the area with the possibility of opening more clinics in neighborhoods. In addition, they also plan on expanding their medical services to impact women’s health.

“My other goal with this would really be to unite the capacity of churches throughout our region to respond to the crisis of abortion in a loving and compassionate way that will save lives.”

21 Lions earn spots on the CSFL All-Conference Team

• Spring 2018

The Central States Football League has announced members of the 2017 All-Conference Team and 21 members of the SAGU football team made the list.  The Lions finished 7-1 in CSFL play, giving them the best conference record in school history.

SAGU junior quarterback CJ Collins was named as the CSFL Offensive Player of the Year.  Collins was also named to the 1st Team – Offense.  Joining Collins on the 1st Team-Offense are senior running back JP Lowery and senior offensive lineman Devon Petty.

For 1st Team-Defense, senior defensive lineman Matt Lighter as well as senior defensive back Carl Morgan were honored.

Sophomore wide receiver Roderick Brown, junior offensive lineman Dayne Maclin, sophomore defensive lineman Jordaan Coleman and sophomore linebacker Coby Roach were all named to the CSFL 2nd Team.

Senior running back Ricky Bickham, junior wide receiver Justin Allen, senior offensive lineman Zach Erwin, senior offensive lineman Devo McNeal, senior defensive lineman Paul Ellis, sophomore defensive lineman Darnell Martin, sophomore linebacker Landon Jones, freshman defensive back Maliek Golden, senior defensive back Matt Williams, sophomore kicker Tluang Hmung, and junior punt returner Sam Northey were all listed with Honorable Mention honors.

In CSFL play, the Lions went 7-1.  They lost their only game to Langston University 14-10.  At the time, Langston was ranked #8 in the NAIA.  The league’s coaches voted and decided on the members of the CSFL 2017 All-Conference list.