Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:04 Hi and welcome to that makes total sense. The podcast where we talk about faith, finance and everyday life in a way that makes total sense. I'm your host Alexis, spew city. On this podcast you'll hear the personal stories of friends I'll be interviewing who are doing familiar things in new and innovative ways. We'll answer questions specifically about money and our relationship with it and we'll explore faith and Bible teaching together. In all of these. It's not about changing our convictions as much as it is about messing with our methods. We'll have a lot of moments here together where we pause and say that makes total sense. Hi, I'm Alexis Piseti and welcome to that makes total sense. So today's episode is part two with Sarah Bolling. Please, please go back and listen to part one. If you have not heard that yet, you'll get a background on Sarah and it was just such an encouragement to listen to that interview and that conversation with Sarah.
Speaker 0 01:02 So today is part two where she is going to take us and give us a, a peak at what she's doing right now in ministry with her organization called saving Moses. Now it's saving. Moses actually first came to my attention through my husband Seth. He sent me a link in a text message and it was literally just this website for saving Moses. And I was kind of like, where did this come from? Like what's going on? What do you want me to know about this? But he was drawn to it because part of what saving Moses does is provide real, um, physical and medical and nutritional care for children who are actually in the DRC, which is where our youngest son was born and where he's from. That is the dr Congo in Africa. And so, um, of course I just opened up the website and I just felt like I couldn't navigate it fast enough.
Speaker 0 02:02 I was just looking at everything they were doing. And one of the intriguing and I think just really powerful things that they are doing is actually what we're going to talk about today. So I want to go ahead and give a warning and say Sarah's work with saving Moses. Part of it is with women and their children who are in the sex trafficking industry in Asia. So they do the work in Africa, she'll tell you about it. They do so many things. But specifically today we're going to talk about the work that she does with the women and children in the sex trafficking in Asia. And so I just want to let you be aware of that. We do not use explicit language, but definitely know that there are mature themes. And so while none of my episodes are marked as explicit or anything like that, I do want to let you know, if you have children who are listening to this or sensitive listeners, I'm, you might just want to, um, proceed with caution and listen to it at a time when you can maybe put your ear buds in.
Speaker 0 03:07 So anyway, please, I hope you don't let that deter you. This is an amazing conversation with Sarah about real work that God is doing right here on the ground through saving Moses'. So enjoy my conversation. Part two with Sarah bowling. All right everybody, thank you so much for joining us. Again, we are back with Sarah bullying on that makes total sense podcast and I am beyond excited to talk with her again and to bring this next episode to you guys. So if you missed it last time, please get on and listen to the last episode. She really spoke into my heart and I know so many others about what it's like to just hear from God and to express the love of the father and and just listen to the Holy spirit as he guides us in our everyday life. And it was just so great. And now she's back. Hi Sarah.
Speaker 1 04:06 Hey, how's it going?
Speaker 0 04:07 Hey good. So now she's back and she is going to talk with us last time, I feel like was kind of everyday life, what we all get to do and then today she's going to talk with us about what she gets to do on a ministry level. This thing that God has allowed her to scale. So she has an organization that God has brought into her life called saving Moses. And Sarah, I feel like I just want to let you loose and let you tell us about saving Moses. Tell us anything you want us to know about this because I think it's all just so powerful work for the kingdom. Sure.
Speaker 1 04:43 Um, well, I mean if you start with the name saving Moses, um, it really is the name. It comes out of Moses being in the Nile river, you know, three months old, right. About, and uh, he's going to be, you know, basically crocodile food. Right, right. Pharaoh had said, all males get thrown into the Nile river and his mom makes this little boat, you know, and he's, he's, he's an, he's an infant and a Pharaoh's daughter rescues him. He's three or four months old, takes him out of the Nile river. And um, you know, I don't think Pharaoh's daughter, when she reached down and collected him, I don't think she had any idea that he was going to be liberated or of Israel. Right. Would get the 10 commandments right. In Mount Sinai. He would do that whole red sea thing, right? Yeah. Like tangents. Yeah.
Speaker 1 05:39 He like, seriously, I mean, who had, who is any idea like this is just a three, four month old little baby and you have no, no earthly idea of what God has for this little baby. Right. So what happened was, um, I remember was in Ethiopia and I was there and a friend of mine had said, Hey Sarah, I think God's got got more in your heart then. Then just teaching the vital. And I was like, well, maybe, you know, and uh, but I was in Ethiopia and I happened one of those coincidences, I happen to run into twins, newborn twin girls, their names were Sarah and Ruth. They've been abandoned on a field. And uh, the police had rang this orphanage. We were standing at this orphanage and the, they rang the orphan and he said, Hey, can you take these? He's newborns Orban and said, no, it's against our policy.
Speaker 1 06:30 We don't have the resources for newborns. And, uh, the police who will, if you don't take them, we have to put them back on the field. And I, that's exactly, that was exactly my reaction. I was like, ah, who does, I was wow, I was just outraged. And so they were, they had just newly arrived at the orphanage. So I went to hold them, you know, and I'm, I'm a mom at this time and I'm like, yeah, I mean I just flabbergasted. And when I went home I was like, I held them and I was at just a, you know, a toll puddle of tears cause I was like, and uh, I went home and I, I did a little bit of research. I was like, that's not uncommon, um, for orphanages around the world to have this policy because they don't have the resources. It makes sense. And I to take care of babies and toddlers. So if you only have $10, you can take your five 10 year olds, but if you only have $10 that $10 you'd have to use all of it too. Take care of one six month old.
Speaker 0 07:43 Wow. And these were twins. I mean, this is, there's, there's no way for you to know this, but we actually have twin daughters. And so I'm picturing, you know, what the first, because, because it is true. Like I'm just picturing what the first, you know, six months of their lives look like in our house. Right. Where it's like it is, it's all consuming. There's so much resource and so much energy and just so much that goes into caring for infants. Yeah. I, I
Speaker 1 08:11 wow. Wow. Yeah. So I started looking into it and, and long story short, I was like, you know, I feel like, and I'll never forget sitting up in my chair, my morning quiet time, I felt like Holy spirit dropped the name in my heart, saving Moses. And uh, I was like, Oh, and I love it. And, uh, so from there, um, I started looking and saying, well, what, what does that look like? And we, we, I finally landed on this idea and that it really resonates in my heart and continues. Um, I, I look out for babies and toddlers where the need is most urgent <inaudible> and the care is least available. Right? Wow. We fall at like Moolah most urgent, at least available. Moolah. So that's, that's going to be primarily developing countries. I look and see where's the highest infant mortality and that's where I want to work when I look at like where's the least resources? Um, so we do malnutrition clinics in uh, Angola as well as the DRC. Um, democratic Republic of Congo. We do birthing birth aid in, uh, Afghanistan. We're starting to do some work now. Schubert excited in Iraq and Syria.
Speaker 0 09:34 Wow. The mobile birth clinic. Oh, that's big.
Speaker 1 09:38 Right? In a shipping container. So that means we take the, should we move the shipping container too? The moms
Speaker 0 09:46 wow. Mobile birth clinic. Right. That's intense.
Speaker 1 09:50 Oh my gosh. I'm so stoked about that. And then the other thing we do that's like phenomenal it, like nobody does it. We do something called night care. So I look after, we look after the babies and toddlers of sex workers in, in developing countries while they work, while the moms work.
Speaker 0 10:08 I mean, this is, I have to stop you because this is like, I feel like you're going to have to repeat that again almost because it's like this is earth shattering work. I mean, I, I was, I was telling you earlier, my husband has heard you talk about this and he is, he's a very sensitive guy but not terribly outwardly expressive and he is, he is fighting back tears telling me about this aspect of saving Moses' and the, the work that you do across the organization is super important. I mean with the, with the nutrition and with the birth clinics and with all of the things. And we have a son who's from actually from DRC. Um, and so we appreciate and love that work. But I really would love for you to tell us, I mean, where did that even come from? How did that even get on your radar? Oh, did you care for these children?
Speaker 1 11:10 Right. Because nobody's doing it right. I mean nobody's heard of. We are of daycare.
Speaker 0 11:16 Of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1 11:17 I mean that's pretty common in the world we live in. But night care
Speaker 0 11:21 started that right. And night care, you know, we think in, in the States we think of there are some, you know, very rare but like 24 hour day care, but like for shift workers and things like that, right. Where their, their mom and dad go to the factory or they're working at a hospital or something like that where, you know, they're in some space. But those are rare. And this is not what you're talking about. I mean you said this is developing countries and these are the children of workers in the sex industry.
Speaker 1 11:48 Yup. And so what happened was, uh, I a documentary called born into brothels. Oh wow. It's interesting cause in at one, like all these prizes, like it's really significant documentary. And there's a brothel in India called Suna Gotzsche and this is what, that documentary is all about. 20,000 sex workers in one square mile. I know, I know. That's unbelievable. I know. When I ended up and, and I watched this documentary and in the documentary there's a little toddler that's chained to Eurail. And when I saw that in, in the, in that brothel, I saw that I just, I, I lost it. I was like, Oh my gosh, what happens to the babies and toddlers? Yes. Because it's implicit in the industry. Huh? I mean, like, seriously sex workers. So babies and toddlers are a natural consequence of this industry, right. Controlling all that stuff. But seriously.
Speaker 1 13:05 And so I went over, I went to, I, when I saw this, I was just, you know, like I'm gonna do night care and I felt, I really felt strong from Holy spirit do this. And so, you know, I went over and I went to SUNY Blace or I went to to India to visit and um, they're like, you're never going to do this. It's not going to happen. It's too dangerous. All this stuff. <inaudible> it's really frustrating. And so I just, but I couldn't get away from it. And so I felt Holy spirit say, well, Sarah, where do you have friends? Where do you have relationships? I said, well, I go to Cambodia, I love Cambodia. And so I started looking at is there like a six industry there? I don't know cause I'm dumb as brick. Right. And so I just started to kind of ask around and do some or you know, Google it.
Speaker 1 13:49 Right, right, right. Well I came to see, Oh my gosh, this is like, this is a huge industry in Cambodia because of the poverty, the lack of educational and stuff. So I have friends over there, like my second church, my family there. I'm like, I went over and I said, Hey, this is an idea. I have night care and my friends. Really. Absolutely. Sarah, we'll connect you. How about this person? That's for sure. So long story short, we opened night care in Phnom Penh, um, probably close and uh, we now have five night care centers in Phnom Penh. And then we also opened our second night care center in Bangladesh. Um, just recently. And so, yeah, and what I found like, so what happens, I, I asked the moms in Bangladesh that when I was looking at opening there, I went to the largest brothel involved Ladesh and kind of surveyed the moms. And, and asked him, I said, you know, what do you do your baby toddler while you're working? And, uh, eight out of 10 of them, they said, the baby is on the bed with me while I work.
Speaker 0 14:53 Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 14:55 And then, right, so this will really make your hair stand up. And they said immediately on the heels of that, they said, and it's not uncommon for a client to roll over and molest by toddler when they're done with me.
Speaker 0 15:08 Oh my goodness. Sarah, how did you even hear those words from those mothers?
Speaker 1 15:15 I was, I w and I asked her, I said, well, would you want night care? And they're like, two years is too late. I mean, you should've been here. And of course we want it. Are you kidding? And so a lot of times, and people really say, well, you know, what do you do for the moms? Cause I mean, get the moms out of the industry. Um, and, and I, I never ignore that. I never say that's not a coordinate is important. But let me just be really clear. There's a lot of organizations, a lot of NGOs, nonprofits, ministries that help the moms, that really focused on the moms and rightfully so. So let me be really clear. There's not one organization that looks after their babies and toddlers that is devoted to their babies and toddlers to looking and caring for their babies and toddlers. So if you want to change the industry, start with the babies and toddlers.
Speaker 0 16:14 I just think if, if, you know, because as, as a mother, I mean, that's, that's why there's hardly a faster way to my heart, right? Then love on my kids. I mean, if, if you're, if you're going to love on my kids, you're, you're in, right. Um, and you're genuinely, genuinely loving and looking after my kids and caring for my kids. And so I just think, you know, I, I understand the <inaudible> the rebuttal maybe of what are you doing for the moms? And I'm with you on, on your response, but I think you are serving the moms. You know, you, you are serving the moms by serving their children. You know, because, because you are, yes. You're rescuing, um, these children every night in that situation. So they don't have to be in the, in the, in the situation that they were, that was imminent for them.
Speaker 0 17:12 But, um, also for the, for the mom, those, those actions that would take place, that's not without emotional and physical and spiritual consequence for her to have to bring her child to work like that. And so when you are bringing them into that space, I'm just like, you are serving them moms. I just think you are. I mean you, you have to be, so what does that look like? Um, you know, every night. And how do the moms, like how do the moms who, who want to utilize their services, how do they find you and what do you guys do? What does that look like on the ground?
Speaker 1 17:50 Sure. And I just invite the audience. We take a team every July to Cambodia, to Phnom Penh. And so I had invite people listening to come with us to Phnom Penh takes about 10 days total. And we go and we do night care. Amazing. Come with me. You have to do, uh, you know, like a application around checks cause we're not bringing whack jobs over there.
Speaker 0 18:19 Right, right.
Speaker 1 18:23 Legitimately you can come with me and we do night care for about five days, five nights over in Phnom pen and you can see what it looks like real time and join it.
Speaker 0 18:33 Hello.
Speaker 1 18:34 Meet the moms, meet the nannies who work in each center. You get to go to one center and like work on that center. So you get to paint it and clean it. You get to meet the nannies, you get to go into the neighborhoods where those moms are <inaudible>. And so that's how that looks. So our, we have our, our, our workers, our nannies go into those neighborhoods with like invitation cards that are all written in kumbaya language and say, Hey, we'd love to have you bring your baby and toddler or whatever to our night care center. We have open houses to invite them so they can come and see what we do. Um, there's a lot of good word of mouth, you know, among them community cause you know,
Speaker 0 19:14 Oh I'm sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 19:16 So a baby. So what happens is basically we open up around five 30 at night and a moms will bring their babies and toddlers from, you know, five 30 till about seven 30 and they bring them all, all that time. And they'll bring them in. We, we take them, the first thing is they land and we change. We give them a bath. Huh. Because we pretty raunchy environment. Neighborhoods are really dirty and there's gross and that is good to have a bath. So we give them a bath, then we have play time with them. We give them dinner and then we have like circle time and then we put him down to bed. Yeah. And mom's collect them in the morning.
Speaker 0 19:56 Oh my goodness. That's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. And actually I told a couple of my close friends that I was at, I was getting the opportunity to interview you and that was one, one of my dearest girlfriends, the first thing she said was, I want to go on a trip with her. I want to take the mission trip with her. Like she had heard about what you guys do and she was and she was so excited about it. But I'm like, but this is not glamorous work. I mean this is, this is kingdom work, this is making a difference. This is huge, big a ramifications that we can't even express. We get, I feel like we can't even wrap our minds around, but it's exactly what you said. It's bathing kids and feeding them and, and being kind and giving them a bed and, and letting them rest and then, and then letting their moms collect them in the morning. Like, like how I'm just so blown away thinking about the kingdom of ramifications of babysitting. This is babysitting. Yeah, it's genuine love. It is. It is. And what are the moms responses when they actually get in and they pick their babies up in the morning? Like what, what are some of the stories? Like if you have time to share just one or two like responses from moms because I just can't imagine as a mother how good that must feel.
Speaker 1 21:24 Yeah, I mean I think you have a whole spectrum of responses from the moms. So you do have moms are like, Oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing on the planet. We have a mom who said, you know, my, my little girl come home and we pray together now. And she prays for me, thankful that God has now come into our lives. I mean just cool stuff like that. But let me also say on the other end of the spectrum and you get everything in between. I have a mom who was a drug addict and also an AIDS. She's a drug addict and an AIDS patient and she uh, would often not let her daughter come tonight care because her daughter, she used her daughter. So condoms to her clients.
Speaker 0 22:10 Oh dear.
Speaker 1 22:11 Right? A three, four year old little girl selling. Right. And so the mom, I mean the mom, it just, you know, the tragedy of it, it just gets under your skin and so it breaks, it breaks your heart cause you just sink. You want to hear the redemption stories. And I'd love to tell you every single one is, but that would not be reality. They're not all redemption stories that wound up dying.
Speaker 0 22:39 Yeah. But you guys
Speaker 1 22:40 right as well. And so there's some equity in it.
Speaker 0 22:44 Oh yeah. But you guys are, I mean there is, and it's, it's hard. It's heartbreaking, but you guys are available. Yup. I mean it's, it's the, I feel like it's that, it's that consistency and it's kind of, it's even reminding me of what of what you talked about on the last episode, a bit of this, um, serving in these, in these, you know, like when, when Jesus says, when you did this to the least of me, you know, at least of these, you did this to me because it's like, you know, being, going in and doing those, those jobs that no one else notices or just that you're consistent like every day. Like what do we do everyday? Well, we change diapers every day. That's what we do. And we clean dirty, you know, fingernails every day. And that's what we do. And we cook dinner and we sing and we pray.
Speaker 0 23:41 And every single night. I'm saying Dave, every single night, you know, you guys do that and your team does that. And I just think that's a powerful testimony for, for love. It's a powerful testimony for kingdom outreach. It's a powerful testimony to these women that even though every story isn't sadly isn't a redemption story, there is still, um, there's still so much there in that, in what you guys show them on a regular basis by just, by just showing up by your teams, just showing up and just saying, you're here for them. You know, that you're willing to do that
Speaker 1 24:23 genuine love. I mean, God doesn't withhold love. Right. Just because somebody doesn't receive it.
Speaker 0 24:29 Absolutely. Absolutely. There are times I haven't been very receptive. Right, right. You know, I think about sometimes my kids, you know, and I say, I love you and my daughter will say, I know. Yeah, how do you know? Because you tell me every day, you tell me all the time, mom, you know, and I'm like, well, you're right. But it still is one of those things like, like is that even even when the response is, it's still a joy to God's heart to share his love with us even when we're not receptive and um, and it's still a joy, you know, it's still a joy to pour that out even though it's not received every time. And I just think the cumulative effect of what you guys are doing is going to be seen generation to generation, to generation in these spaces where you, where you're serving.
Speaker 1 25:23 Yup. And I love it. I completely love it.
Speaker 0 25:26 Well, what did I, as we wrap up our time, what did I leave out? What question did I not ask about saving Moses' or some of this work that you're doing that you really want to make sure people know?
Speaker 1 25:39 I think at the very heart of it, um, <inaudible> Oh really would say the, the core motive is genuine love <inaudible> and loving babies and toddlers. And I agree. I loved what you said to the least of these. Jesus talks about that in Matthew. If you do this to the least of these, the smallest, the most unnamed identified. And Jesus says, when you do this to the least of these, and so I think loving a baby, loving a toddler, um, and not, not getting sidetracked or rabbit trail on. Why, why are they, I don't know why they're in this situation. Why I don't just, just love <inaudible>. If there's anything I could say for our audience, for our listeners, I just would, it would challenge me included that we love, well, let God love us as well as love, God, love through us. Um, that's the end game here
Speaker 0 26:44 is his genuine love. Wow. I mean, thank you. It's just say that you said it so well. That's the end game. You know, it's not love unto something else. Nope. That's it. That's it. It's just, it's just love. You know, it's just love. Oh my goodness. That's so good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Sara. Well, how can our listeners find you? Especially if they're thinking, yeah, I could do that. I could, I could spend some time in Nike or I could go on one of these trips or if they just want to look and look around and see what you guys are doing and support you in another way through prayer or through finances. How did they, how did they get ahold of you?
Speaker 1 27:26 Yeah, saving moses.org. That's our website. We're on Facebook, we do Insta, we do all that, all this stuff. Um, and really great. We have blogs and videos and stuff. So, and if you want to share it, you know, if you can share stuff on your social media from saving Moses, that is so golden. So always to help. That can include prayer, can include, you know, social media and advertising, marketing, helping us with that as well as finances. Come with us. Um, invite you to do all those things. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Election.
Speaker 0 28:00 Oh my goodness. There. The pleasure was all mine. Thank you. All right, we'll talk soon. Thanks. All right, so thank you again so much for listening. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss an episode. Share the link with your friends. You can visit us at <inaudible>. That makes total sense.com and until next time, this is Alexis B SETI, remembering to do well for ourselves so we can do good for others.
Speaker 2 28:25 <inaudible>.
