Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Holly . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Holly, you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?
At Eden’s Glory, our generosity comes from a desire to impact and make a difference in the lives of survivors. Each of our staff members have been called to this ministry to help transform individuals, offering them an opportunity to experience holistic healing, independence and success. Each survivor comes with a different story and each of these stories is a reminder to me of how much the individual matters and how worthy they are of love, empathy, grace and healing. I am sure most, if not all of us, can remember a time when someone was generous to us. Maybe we went thought a tough session of life, or had a bad day, struggled financially, or needed a friend. The feeling that comes from receiving generosity, brings peace, comfort and healing. We believe that everyone, no matter their background, deserves to experience generosity.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Eden’s Glory is a two year residential program for survivors of human trafficking. This program for adult female survivors of human trafficking ages 18-45, is designed to treat each aspect of a survivor’s health—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and relational—to fully support her on her journey to holistic recovery. Using a strengths-based, trauma-informed approach, we work with each resident to create and implement an individualized life plan. We provide 24-hour care in a Jesus-centered, family environment.
In addition to our residential program, we offer outpatient services for minors through our Foster Kairos Program. Foster Kairos exists to provide connection and support to minors who have experienced extensive trauma, or who are survivors of human trafficking, during a critical point in their lives. Kairos is Greek, meaning “an opportune moment for action and transformation.” This program offers therapy to minors and support services to caregivers to help them navigate journeying with their loved one.
Eden’s Glory offers consulting services to other anti-trafficking safe homes looking to start their own program similar to ours. We are currently consulting with homes in Monterey Bay, CA, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania and continue to create more partnerships nationwide.
Community training embodies our commitment to put an end to human trafficking. We believe that everyone has a role to play in ending modern slavery. Our trainings are designed to ignite action in your community and resource others to engage in prevention and identification efforts. We mobilize new generations of leaders and community stakeholders to address the gaps in communities across the country so others are not made subject to trafficking.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Learning from others:
When our Co-Founders Annie and Ginger knew they were being called to open a safe home for survivors, they dove deep into learning from those who had an established home. They traveled around the country and heard stories of successes, mistakes and all the in-between. It’s these experiences that helped them create the Eden’s Glory Program Map, Policies and Procedures, how to set up the home and so much more.
Learning from our mistakes:
Sometimes learning isn’t easy and the best lessons are learned in our own failures. Policies, the resident manual, and day to day procedures have taken shape through our mistakes have gotten us to where we are today. We can’t be afraid of failure. It will happen, we just have to chose to learn from it.
Trusting in Jesus:
Most importantly we couldn’t have gotten through these last 8 years without prayer and trusting in Jesus! In our early days, we would have prayer group once a week. Those days ended up being called “Miracle Mondays” because we would pray for something and later that day, the Lord would give us an answer for whatever it was we had asked for. In fact, this is how our house came about. Annie and Ginger had prayed in obedience, “Okay Lord, if this is what you want from us, then provide a us a home.” Later that day, they received a phone call from a couple who asked if Eden’s Glory was interested in a home they invested in! God doesn’t call us to things that are comfortable but He does ask us to trust Him in the process.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
One of our current challenges is to find and fund a larger home for the residents we serve. Though our home has served us well, we have outgrown it in size. There is need for more space for the women to have individual space for trauma healing. We have need for a fitness room to aid in their physical and emotional healing. A larger space for chapel would provide more opportunities for spiritual healing. Even further than serving the women we do now, we continue to turn away survivors due having our beds filled. Our goal for a larger home would be to serve double the amount of women we do today.
Contact Info:
- Website: edensglory.org
- Instagram: edensglory
- Facebook: Eden’s Glory
- Linkedin: Eden’s Glory
