Written by Kasstidy Tanniehill

The Key To Avoiding Burnout: Partnership

The battle against human trafficking is something that you can’t walk into alone. Facing an evil so large by yourself will lead to burnout, everytime. The key to burnout? Partnership. You have to move forward partnering with the Lord and with others. It’s a battle that no singular person is ever going to win alone. It takes a group of people working together with gifts in different areas to make a difference. If you truly want to get involved to find what your portion is, find a ministry or organization you can get involved in. And pray! What part can you play in this battle against human trafficking? What part of the battlefield is the Lord calling you to?

…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Philippians 2:13

We need each person to walk out in their calling from the Lord. The person who is called to walk into the brothels to minister can’t do this without the person who is on their knees in prayer daily. Praying that the Lord would move, that He would set the captives free. Those you counsel and reach survivors can’t do so without proper funding. We need each other! We can be the answer to someone else’s prayer without even knowing them, we only need to be obedient to the voice of the Lord and His calling on our life.

Personally, the Lord has placed a calling on my life to stand in the gap to pray and intercede on behalf of those who are trapped in the bondage of human trafficking. The Lord gave me this assignment a year ago, and I began seeking Him for guidance daily.

While in Thailand on a missions outreach, my team and I were doing a prayer walk in a red-light area. During this time my portion was to pray. So that is what I did. As we walked and prayed, the Spirit of the Lord came alive inside of me. I was ministering in the spiritual realm. Since I know what my portion is I was able to walk out in what the Lord was calling me to. I was allowing the Holy Spirit to move and do more in the spiritual realm than I’ll ever know. To plant seeds that I may never see the harvest of. To break bondage, creating a space for someone else to speak life into. To create an opening for someone to be sent in and to minister.

When we are obedient to the voice of the Lord and what He is saying, we are allowed to unite with others in ways we may never even see with our own eyes. We don’t always get to witness the big picture, but the Lord sees it all. He knows what needs to be prayed for in that specific moment. He knows what words need to be spoken out. He knows the perfect timing for every moment. The thing about the team who is fighting against the injustice of exploitation is there are so many of us who may never meet each other. Though we may never meet on this side of eternity we are joining together in the same battle.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” When we partner with others, we allow the Lord to do so much more through us than we could do ourselves. Stepping into the darkness of human trafficking is something you can not do on your own. We must walk forward arm in arm with those around us, and ultimately with the Lord. If you try to take on this injustice on your own, the burden can get overwhelming and heavy. It creates a breeding ground for burnout.

We aren’t meant to carry this entire burden on our own. The Reshma Project director, Laura-Beth Rimmer, always asks the question, “What is our portion?” This has become my favorite question! It’s the heart of the Lord. Your portion is designed just for you. It is the perfect amount for you to step into. When the Lord reveals to you what your portion is, the spark inside your heart begins to fan into flame. When you are walking out in your portion, it comes with passion and longevity. Another quote from Laura-Beth is, “I want to see people who are committed to fighting this injustice. Who are committed to the end.” When we are walking out in our designed portion we have the stamina to see this to the end. We enter the long battle to fight against this injustice until every person who is trapped in the bondage of human trafficking is released.

I challenge you to seek the Lord in asking, what is your portion? Are you called to pray, to financially support, to find a ministry to get involved with, to seek education, to spread awareness? How does the Lord want to use you to fight the injustice of human trafficking?

Do your research on the ministry/organization that you get involved with to make sure it aligns with your portion!