Vineyard Spotlight: “Our Humble Beginnings…and Waiting to See What God Will Do Next” | BRVHEART @ Blue Route Vineyard (PA)

“Our Humble Beginnings…and Waiting to See What God Will Do Next”

VJN invited BRVHEART, the anti-trafficking ministry at Blue Route Vineyard in Media, PA, to share their story of how everything started, as well as what BRVHEART has been up to this year. Abby Lazur, Vera Lee, and Barb Boswell tell the story of how God worked to make it all happen in their own words.

Founded in the fall of 2010 by Abby Lazur and Barb Boswell, BRVHEART is a task force of Love146, and a ministry of Blue Route Vineyard Community Church in Media, PA.  We are abolitionists.  Our mission is to raise awareness about the heinous practice of buying and selling human beings, as well as to raise funds for organizations and individuals who are fighting this atrocity.

God first stirred my (Barb’s) heart about the issue of Human Trafficking while I was in grad school.  I saw the film, “Fields of Mudan” in one of my classes and I wept as I watched it.  In 2010, at a Vineyard East conference, I attended a session on Human Trafficking and sat next to Abby.  As we listened to the presenter, Kathy Maskell from Love146, talk about the enormity of the problem, Abby and I looked at each other and said, “We have to do something,” and we formed BRVHEART.

I (Abby) was born in the Philippines, and am a mother of 5.  While viewing a video at the Vineyard conference, I saw my own daughters’ faces on the images of trafficked children. Having many relatives still living there also reminded me of the dangers they face.  Supporting Love146 and the Round Home in the Philippines seemed like a natural first step.  Barb and I realized that we had to act, we could not turn away: “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know (William Wilberforce).”

After I (Vera) attended my first BRVHEART meeting, I looked up information about Love146.  The story about Love146’s name “gutted me:” “They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left.” Reading about the systematic abuse and enslavement of young girls hit me hard as a mother and a human being. I remembered thinking that some of the girls in the brothel were the same age as my two daughters and that I needed to be involved in this work.

In BRVHEART’s early days, we gathered as much local information as we could.  We invited Hugh Organ from Covenant House in Philadelphia to speak to us about the dangers of trafficking for the young people they served in their shelter. We learned about their efforts to equip kids with information to keep them safe on the streets.  In turn, we donated toiletries for their volunteers to hand out to homeless kids during outreach events.

Some of our events focus on fundraising through art/craft/cupcake sales, chili cook-offs and quizzo nights which enabled us to donate money to anti-trafficking organizations and individual in the US and abroad.  Our other events raise awareness about human trafficking to different audiences.  For instance, we hosted a workshop for employees of a local hotel near the Philadelphia Airport.  Our next event at Cabrini College will focus on the emotional and psychological impact of pornography and the intersection between pornography and human trafficking.  These events are meant to bring the subject of international and domestic human trafficking to light, and to inspire people to participate in the movement to abolish all forms of slavery.

We also believe in the importance of networking with other local and regional organizations, service providers, businesses, and government offices.  We are blessed with members who have connected the group with partners such as, Pearl Kim, the Assistant DA of Delaware County, PA who was a co-presenter at the workshop we hosted for hotel employees.  We have also collaborated with businesses such as, Ten Thousand Villages in Media, PA, who hosts our annual Love146 fundraiser.

Our meetings have also drawn members from other local anti-human trafficking organizations that have provided contacts and support for our events. It has been exciting to see God open new doors as we do our part in brining human trafficking to an end.