Tell about a time when you have been part of (one) of these kinds of actions: bringing or receiving good news, binding for a broken heart, proclaiming liberty, or offering release? Where do you think God was in that experience? How has it changed you? 
A couple of years ago I worked for a non-profit organisation working with homeless and at-risk young people. I had been working with a young woman, Maria, whom my colleague and I had become very close with over a couple of years. Maria was very strong-willed but was also one of the most resilient people I had ever met.

Maria was trafficked when she was barely an adolescent. She had been taken against her will and forced into a life of captivity and trauma that she did not choose. After a few months, Maria was able to escape and report to the authorities. She was then called upon as a key witness in a Human Trafficking Trial against her some of her captors. I had the honour to accompany her on this journey, across Canada, to help her speak her truth in this search for justice. Watching Maria relive her trauma was both painful and moving to behold. She spoke so clearly, and although visibly emotional, she took her power back - as much as she was able.

Nothing that I did made any of this possible, it was all her. I simply felt as though God had placed me in the right place at the right time. God granted me grace and peace to see and hear her struggle, the strength and patience when she had none, and the the still small voice of comfort and stillness when all was chaos.

Then I was struck by something I did not expect. One day, while sitting in the back of the courtroom, I noticed the other people who were viewing that day. It was the family of the one of the accused. I watched them as they wept silently.

The accused was the driver, as those at higher levels who run these illicit organisations rarely get found and brought to court. I watched the accused as they tried not to look at their own family. The accused was barely an adult themselves. They knew; I could see it on their face, they knew the shame. They felt the agony of hearing what they had assisted in and allowed to happen. So I looked at the accused, and their family. And I felt in that moment a wave of pity, a wave of compassion, a wave of forgiveness. I saw for one fleeting moment a small infinitesimal glimpse of how God might see this young person. That they are still loved, that they are forgiven. I could imagine Jesus washing their feet.

God was there in that pain in the courtroom, sat beside the accused, sat beside the accused’s family, and stood beside the victim, holding each of them, giving them the strength to face what had been done. This experience affirmed in me, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The journey to reconciliation is littered with pain and trauma on all sides. Yet, I believe indiscriminate, all encompassing Love is, and has always been, the answer.
Lauren is the Youth Leader at St. Alban's, Burnaby.