“Remember…those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Hebrews 13:3

Fact is always stranger than fiction. Some things cannot be imagined.

Lorry Lutz’s two historical novels, inspired by the biography of Katharine Bushnell (Kate), read as fast paced plots. But Lutz is not a typical writer. She has carefully researched the material in her two books, then used fictional elements as the glue to present the facts.

Lutz and her husband spent twenty-two years in South Africa with a generation of Africans suffering from Apartheid. She earned a MA at Wheaton Graduate School, and is now part of an active retirement community in Colorado. This is her twelfth book, written as a message to a younger generation. The war against the sex trade has not ended. It is alive and active.

Dr. Kate Bushnell fought against sex trafficking.

Lutz presents Kate Bushnell’s inspirational biography as one person making a difference in the lives of women caught in the web of sex trafficking. Daughters of Deliverance is set in China, Colorado, Chicago and upper Wisconsin, where the fate of women is poor and Bushnell’s mission to rescue them begins. The Queen’s Daughters transports the reader to Bushnell’s fight for the lives of girls and teens held in brothels for the British military stationed in India. Those enslaved considered themselves the daughters of Queen Victoria and appealed to her for mercy. Powerfully written, these books challenge the reader to compassion and action in the present battle against sex trafficking.

Today’s Challenge

The facts of sex trafficking in the present society are evident every day on the evening news, or in magazine articles. Runaway teens are met at bus stations by pimps. The internet lures high school girls. Even children crossing the border risk ending up in prostitution rings. Statistics abound that break the heart and numb the soul. Is there any hope for those who want to escape this type of life? Tony Kirwan, founder and president of Destiny Rescue attests: “We have two choices: Nothing or Something.”

An Indian quilt and bag company has been working for over a decade to provide sex trafficking victims with alternative means of earning a living. Sari Bari is a business that responded to the need of girls who were rescued and sent to shelter homes. Pride and a dignified life are produced by survivors who want a chance at living in society with freedom. They stitch bags and quilts to be sold on the open market.

Photo from Sari Bari

The hope of all survivors is echoed in the words of Carl Jung: “I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to be.” Freedom and a chance to work facilitate that choice.

Comforting with Comforters

Many women who hear of the plight of rescued victims show compassion, pulling out needles and thread to help piece together ragged lives. The Chattanooga Modern Quilt Guild created ten handmade quilts to help a rescue group welcome women into therapy. Sara, one of the stitchers has dealt with sex trafficking as a law enforcer. She understands that the healing process begins with the warmth of a quilt wrapped around raw emotions. The goal of the Guild is to make sure that “each of these quilts is unique and special, just like the women who receive them.” The extra touch that exemplifies woman-to-woman care is that a child’s quilt has been crafted in case a survivor has a little one who needs cuddling, too.

Indian Kantha Quilts Wholesale

Mumbai, India, has a tiny church with many women who sew diligently in the slum in which they live. These sew-ers understand the pain and suffering of fellow women because they live with violence that always threatens people in poverty. This community of low-caste women have created quilts for 700 survivors of sex trafficking. One survivor speaks for all the women rescued from brothels. Shanti says, “I believe Jesus has saved my life for a reason and I have become a person who should save others’ lives.” Joining the quilt makers, she is doing that, one stitch at a time. Creating comforters for those who have been released from bondage.

Today’s Challenge

Lorry Lutz’s books have raised my consciousness concerning the plight of so many women worldwide. They have also made me aware of the outreach of individuals, quilting guilds, and church groups to demonstrate love and hope to women who have known deep sorrow and despair. The challenge is to be like Kate Bushnell and push past personal doubts to reach into the darkest recesses of deprivation with the message of deliverance that comes with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes that message is created with fabric and stitched with love.

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” – William Wilberforce, crusader against all forms of slavery

Author Lorry Lutz

This will make you weep! Read these statistics from She Is Safe which focuses on Preventing, Rescuing, and Restoring young women around the world in danger of being trafficked: