How would you navigate life if you didn’t have a car?

Most of us take reliable transportation for granted. How hard would it be to live one year without a vehicle? Would you be able to find a decent paying job that you could get to every day? Would you be able to afford housing in a safe area with said job? How would it affect your children? Would they be able to participate in extracurricular activities?

At Lighthouse for Life, we have learned that transportation is always an issue for our survivors. 

We don’t live in places like New York City or Chicago where public transport is easily accessible. Our city has no metro system, and the bus system is far from stellar. Everything is spread out all over the place and using Uber is out of the question because it’s so expensive. 

Basically, if you don’t have a vehicle, navigating the necessities of life is incredibly difficult. 

Even if they could afford to buy and maintain a car, many of our survivors don’t have their driver’s licenses due to previous criminal charges. These are just more hoops survivors must jump through to make progress in their new-found autonomy.

Survivor J had been working hard at her job and meeting regularly with one of our volunteer financial advisors. Although her advisor helped her create and maintain a budget, she was still in dire need of a vehicle. Hearing of her need, one of our incredible Lighthouse for Life donors offered her a used car. It was in need of repair, but he didn’t ask for any payment beyond getting the repairs handled. Thanks to his generosity, the efforts of a local community group collecting donations to cover some of the cost, and Survivor J’s budgeting skills, she now has her very own set of wheels!  

When we shared this story with Jim Hudson Toyota, they let us borrow a big red bow to present the incredible gift to Survivor J!  

It's this kind of Christ-centered love and a community working together that pivots someone’s story for the better. The narrative of Survivor J’s journey has drastically shifted now that she has escaped “the life” of sex trafficking. No longer controlled and exploited by her abusers, she is working, thriving, becoming more confident, learning, growing, and smiling. She is FREE! 

Would you consider impacting lives like J’s by donating to Lighthouse for Life?  What we do is not easy or cheap, but it is worth every moment and every penny when you see how God is literally transforming lives for their good and His glory.