He Is Able to Free the Captives
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners. ~Isaiah 61:1, NIV
About a decade or more ago, I was volunteering with our church youth group, and one young teen was especially passionate about blight of human trafficking. Until then, I hadn’t realized the enormity of the problem. Heart pricked, I started reading books like Be the Change and Not in My Town and others. Imagining our modern world where the despicable practice not only still existed, but existed in our country, travelled our interstate systems, blew me away. It was a bit overwhelming. We’ve given a bit of money here and there to charities that helped free victims. Our church supported a village for children who had been freed for a Christmas project.
But still…
So, I decided to incorporate the heartbreaking issue into my latest novel as a tiny means of spreading the word. The novel is set on the campus of the University of Mississippi, and in the summer the students volunteer at a Summit on Human Trafficking. Without going into dark details, they become aware of the problem. The heroine of the story is a college student. She is three years down the road from a date-rape that happened to her in high school. She finds hope as she sees the recovery and strength in one of the speakers who survived sex trafficking and has started an organization to help other victims.
My prayer is that God uses my little story to bring hope and light and freedom. We were all captives to darkness and sin at some point. But we have a Savior who has defeated our enemy. No matter where we find ourselves in this life. We are free in Christ. Isaiah 61 has been my inspiration for the Southern Hearts Series. The second part of verse one says:
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners.
May you find and share that freedom.
~~~
Tackling the Fields
Southern Hearts Series ~ Book 3
Cole Sanders is a changed man. The university quarterback questions his direction in life after serving on a mission trip in Honduras. Things that used to fill Cole’s ego seem empty after witnessing the developing country’s extreme poverty and the death of a precious child. The one glimmer of hope through his confusion is the fresh perspective he now has about his tutor, Audrey. She possesses something beautiful inside and out—something that might help him become the person he wants to be.
University senior Audrey Vaughn tutored Cole Sanders for an entire year and never imagined the popular quarterback would see her as anything more than a friend. After partnering with him on the mission trip, they are drawn together. And he appears to have changed for the better. To let Cole into her life, Audrey will have to overcome not only her brother’s distrust, but also the paralyzing fear still lingering from a past she’s tried to leave behind.
Cole can’t walk away from Audrey now that they’re back in Oxford. He’ll have to figure out how to keep her giant of a brother, a lineman on his football team, from killing him when the coach has his back turned. But can Audrey trust her heart to a player so similar to the one who stole so much from her in the past?
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Janet W. Ferguson grew up in Mississippi and received a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Mississippi. She has served her church as a children’s minister and a youth volunteer. An avid reader, she worked as a librarian at a large public high school. Janet and her husband have two grown children, one really smart dog, and a few cats that allow them to share the space.
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