Burgundy and Gold Banquet

Last night, Mark and I were invited to attend Youth For Tomorrow's annual Burgundy and Gold banquet. I don't have a picture to accompany this post, but Mark was looking very handsome in a nice suit, and I was wearing high heels that I hadn't had the occasion to wear in over a year. Where is my camera when I need it! We took the girls over to my mom and dad's for another cousin sleepover, and we headed into the Tysons Ritz Carlton for a nice evening. While the overall purpose of the evening is to raise funds for YFT and celebrate it's successes over the past year, our purpose there was to hear the story and testimony of their first rehabilitated sex trafficking victim. This young girl, now just 15 years old, had the courage to stand up in front of a room of over 1,000 people and tell her story. She told of her entrapment into forced prostitution as a preteen, the years of fear, anger, and hurt that enveloped her at all times, and finally, her restoration as she's found hope, significance, restoration, and her savior, Jesus Christ, while at YFT. A couple months ago, I had spent the afternoon at YFT, talking with their admissions director (and the sole champion of this young girl in her early days at YFT) about the issue of domestic trafficking, and she shared the very difficult road this young girl has had to take to be restored to the young lady standing in front of the audience last night. All too many people had given up on her, thought she was too much trouble, thought that restoration was out of the question for someone who had been through what she had, yet restoration was possible. It was so impactful to see, first hand, a truely changed young person. A girl who was once angry, used, hurt, and without hope is now a survivor, filled with purpose, validated in who she is as a young woman, and bringing hope to others. It was an awesome thing to witness!