Life Prepares you for Life
Twenty six years ago today I was an Intelligence Officer for a newly formed elite unit called the Defence Debriefing Team, or DDT. My job was to oversee and debrief victims of torture and refugees from the Bosnian/Kosovo War to gain intelligence, identify war criminals and torture techniques, and rehabilitate those effected by the war, in that order. It was harrowing work. Viewing videos and evidence of mass rape camps, torture, infanticide, genocide and pretty much every conceived evil deed one human can afflict on another. Six of my team had to leave with PTSD, such was the emotional trauma of being exposed to such horror.
I had recently become divorced and I threw myself into this task working 16 hour days, living from hotel to hotel with all my worldly possessions in the back of a Vauxhall sedan. I saw first hand the absolute hell on earth and wondered how these people would ever rebuild their lives after losing everything. Wearing clothes donated by charities they shared their experiences with me. I cried with them, I comforted them, I took their testimony with a view to seeing if anyone in the international community cared about them and their lives. I stood by these strangers in their time of need.
Fast forward Twenty Six years and I am going through divorce once more. This time I AM the refugee. Wearing clothes donated and living out of my car where all my worldly possessions are stored, I work to rebuild my life after I have lost everything. Life has a way of preparing you for what you will experience. I am grateful, as those Bosnians of all sides were, for the gift of life, where many others were not so fortunate.
I have a choice. Either move into despair and lament the unfairness of the world, or rise to face the new challenge God has so graciously gifted me in order for me to serve others.
Tomorrow I will announce an initiative to aid and assist those effected by the Californian Fires. Not another fundraiser but a practical and powerful way to actively prepare those moving forward that have lost everything. I trust and require you, my friends, to stand with me and support us. Together we will make a difference and I ask you to share this post and the others that will follow. Together we will pass through the challenge of fire and like our ancestors before us, rise to new glory. Thank you in advance. #malibustrong