I recently contacted a young woman who is working to helping women escape the commercial sex industry. When I asked her how she found the women she worked with, I was surprised at her response.

“I’m a Christian and don’t have friends in those places. So I found a local paper that includes ads for massage parlors and escort services and just started calling the numbers.

“When someone answered, I explained who I was and asked how I could help them. Sometimes the women just hung up. Occasionally, however, someone would share their pain, we would pray, and started keeping in touch.

“On one occasion, a woman I’ll call Alicia agreed to meet me at a local coffee shop. She carried bruises along with the tattoo of her pimp on her neck. It was heartbreaking. She wasn’t ready to leave her lifestyle yet, but now she had my number if and when she was ready to change.”

Living out any faith, including the teachings of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourselves, is tough. Why? It requires us to believe and to live what we believe. In short, it requires us to do something.

In this case, there was no easy path to success, riches, or fame. Instead, there were cold calls to women in the sex trade. There were multiple times when people hung up. But there were also a few glimmers of hope and at least one person who knows that there is a way out when they are ready. And that way out happens to be through a person who loves Jesus.

Activist Faith isn’t about protest signs, petitions, or public policy. It’s about living what you believe whether others notice or change as a result. There is One who sees all we do and He is the One we seek to please and whose love we long to share with a world in need.