We recently connected with Rachel Timothy and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
In many ways, your purpose tends to find you. Due to my own personal experiences of being trafficked by a teacher/coach starting at the age of nine, I was given an opportunity to see first hand into one of the darkest crimes there is. This personal experience gave me a deep righteous anger toward people who hurt others in this way. Knowing what I know, once I got out from the situation, I knew that I had to do all I can to protect others from this evil.
From there I began to speak out and share my own story, as well as, tips on how to keep yourself and your children safe from predators. This “purpose for my pain,” as I called it, gave me a chance to see how God was making beauty out of ashes, and using what Satan meant to destroy me and instead turning things out for my good and for God’s glory.
It felt empowering and miraculous to see the impact my personal experiences had on giving others awareness on the dangers of trafficking, but also hope for those who have been through something similar and still feel stuck by the trauma effects.
It was freeing for me to speak boldly about what I’d been through knowing that people truly needed to hear it and that it could be the very thing to rescue someone else stuck in a similar situation. My purpose definitely found me and it quickly became bigger than I ever could’ve imagined.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
It excites me to get to explain what it is I do on a daily basis, because it wasn’t that long ago that my days consisted of me living in survival mode, frozen in fear, unable to accomplish much at all in a day. But now things look completely different.
As co-founder of Stop Suffering in Silence, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness on trafficking and trauma, as well as, helping those on the healing journey, I am often interacting with survivors and with people interested in learning more about trafficking. I use social media as a way to spread awareness and hope for survivors by creating reels and content that people could benefit from. I help Denise Walsh, our other co-founder of Stop Suffering in Silence, run our programs for survivors that includes 90 Day U Turn, Reflecting Ownership, and a Survivor Book Collaboration. We also plan and prepare a special three day retreat for our survivors so that they can be pampered, but also stretch themselves even more in the healing journey. Our group of survivors are incredible. They have a sisterhood bond that is priceless and something that they would all say has been huge in their healing.
Another incredible thing that I get to do is speak usually monthly to crowds who are interested in being educated on trafficking. It is never easy sharing my story to a crowd, but I must admit, the opportunity to get to share Jesus a long with it, and to then share in conversations with people afterwords who have been through similar experiences and they found hope from my story, it is truly incredible. I always leave speaking events in awe of God.
We have a small mentor program with our survivors that I head up, and we are also beginning a new ministry called Bringing Hope. In this ministry we are going inside of illicit spas or illegal massage businesses (IMBs) and bringing gifts to the women being trafficked on the inside. We work hand-in-hand with law enforcement to shut down these spas, but in the meantime, we will go in and be the hands and feet of Jesus inside of IMBs in our area. This is a ministry that we are hoping others will want to start doing in their own towns with our future curriculum to come.
The things that Stop Suffering in Silence is doing is endless, and I can’t thank God enough for letting me be a part of something making such a big impact.
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?
I love this questions, but I’m going to twist it just a little bit if that’s okay.
We started our non-profit and ministry with a lot of unknowns. We didn’t have everything figured out, nor did we feel 100% confident in how to run a non-profit. We moved forward anyways. I feel like this is important to say because oftentimes people will wait and wait because they don’t feel prepared enough, or knowledgeable enough, or equipped enough. Ultimately, many people remain on the sidelines for this very reason. The best teacher is often doing the work yourself.
Denise and I had never ran a non-profit before, but God lined up the people and the resources to help us start it. We made some mistakes along the way but learned so much. When I think of all the people that Stop Suffering in Silence has had the chance to impact in the last year and a half, I would hate to think what would’ve happened if we had waited till we felt fully prepared.
That being said, our greatest area of knowledge was the experiences that both Denise and I had been through prior to starting Stop Suffering in Silence. For Denise, she graduated with a clinical psychology degree and counseled for five years before opening her own business. She understood business and was great at working with people. My knowledge, as stated previously, is my own experiences of living the life of trafficking starting at age nine. I feel like this personal experience gives me an empathy for other survivors and a deep respect that goes a long way. I also believe that God has blessed me with a powerful healing journey that I am able to share with others to help them with their own journey.
My advice for others is if you know that God is calling you to something, He will provide for you as you go. Trust Him in that process. Satan wants you to stay small and wait for everything to perfectly line up before you say yes. You might be waiting a lifetime if you are looking for things to be perfect.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
You have perfect timing with this question as I have been battling a feeling of being overwhelmed lately. As I said previously, I went from barely leaving the house because of trauma, to now traveling for speaking events, being a survivor consultant, running programs, planning retreats, counseling survivors, and more. I found that the better my emotional health got, the more brain space I had to accomplish more and pour into others. Occasionally, though, my trauma will still have an impact on my emotional state and in those moments my brain space to accomplish things goes down.
For a long time I would berate myself for this, but recently I have learned that this isn’t something that is wrong with me, it is just me understanding my limits. When my emotional state gets overwhelmed then I need to take time to focus on my own healing. Often times it is simply making sure that I give myself time to be still, to get lost in prayer, to allow God to fill me up, to listen to what my emotions are trying to tell me and then to remind myself of truths about the present day. It often doesn’t take me long to get re-centered and leveled out.
In the past, I would’ve tried to barrel through not pausing to give myself a chance to regroup. That usually led to me needing days to recover from the overwhelming state. Now that I am more observant of the signs of being overwhelmed, I know exactly what I need. Usually a whole lot of God, and a break from the noise. Then I’m back fully charged and ready to continue in the calling God has blessed me with.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stopsuffering.org
- Instagram: _stopsis_
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StopSIS
- Youtube: @StopSIS
- Other: email: stopsis@protonmail.com
