I love what Isaiah says in chapter 61 verse three when he says that we are to

bestow on them a crown of Beauty instead of ashes the oil of joy instead of

mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair That crown of beauty is the cosmetology

piece that we bring the oil of joy for heart that is hurting that is dry that is

in need We come alongside them in our faithful friend program it is like that

oil a bomb to a dry soul and the garment of praise that's our styling service that

we provide for job readiness court support advocacy to bring confidence Self worth The heartbeat of refined is the

love and compassion that we show a survivor that each individual survivor is unique and their

cherished and loved just like we are seeing some of the friendships that refined has

brought in Um you just get to see people grow together and here we get to come and people have

all different stories come from all different backgrounds and um coming together um I'm just saying

like hey like I can love you and you can love me and we can be

friends When I first became paired with my faithful friend I very much anticipated the relationship

to be something of a mentor um mentor leader like relationship and that was not at

all my experience Um I was truly met with a reciprocal friendship Their specific role

is so beautiful because they just get to be a friend and I think what a lot of these women

need is a space just to be heard My relationship with my refined friend it

represented any relationship I could ever have again and the relationship with a fine friend is on learning

old things while re learning a new way and it's worth it When I came into this program I left

everyone that I knew from my past So I don't have a lot of friends

coming into this and the refined having a friend that has the same mindset as me um is sober

Um someone I can honestly trust and respect It's very important because I didn't have a lot of that

in my past So the first day that I met with my survivor friend it was weird because

it was like I had just met up with somebody that I hadn't seen in a really long time

and it felt so natural God had definitely just ordained that friendship And so it was very

it was very easy just to connect with her refined has brought a lot of stability when it comes to

our volunteers find really has been a steadfast presence for the women refined has created a

very distinct model that we believe is duplicate herbal Our goal is also to bring on more mentors and

faithful friends and people serve these women and we need the church to come alongside us to help

make this happen We need to be prepared to help those who have been exploited

on any level to gain back their identity and their life I think a lot of people

like to think that love at first sight is absolutely crazy but it's really not

That's probably the easiest love there is It's love at full site that's what's difficult and that's

what you're doing You're loving these people with full side of what's going on Even if

you don't know every detail the way that the refined women are loving other women Mhm Is how

jesus calls us to Mhm That's how Jesus loves us you know And if I know anything about jesus it's

that he loves me and he wants me to love other people But I mean

what else do you need from that That's everything when you look at christ and what

he did when he was here on earth he engaged with the most vulnerable communities those who

are outcasts and that's what we're called to do