Our launch party has happened. It’s weird to think that a week and ½ ago, I was standing in the warehouse and it was filled with 500+ people! I have been looking back and thinking “Did that really happen?”.
But it did really happen. I know this because some friends and I have been working for an entire week adding up our sales and putting them into QuickBooks! I know it has happened because we now have this stack of Commitment cards with people who are ready to give their time and their finances to help make Rethreaded happen. I know this because, suddenly, Rethreaded has over 500 Facebook Fans. So, I have physical evidence that , Yes – this day we plan and prepped for months did in fact happen.
And then there is what happened in my heart. As most of you know, I spent 5 years in Kolkata, India working with women trapped in the sex trade. My time in India was the most amazing, richest, heart breaking, formative, difficult time of my life. My last three years on staff in Kolkata, there were three North American staff and 2-3 Indian staff members. And there were 10,000 women in the red light district we would go to every day. That is what the battle felt like most every day. Us, our little army, vs layers and layers of darkness that kept women and men trapped in the sex trade. We were always fighting. Always hoping. Always feeling like the fight would never end 6 of us, with 10,000 girls that needed a community to fight for them
That is why I think the Launch party blew me away. 500 people showed up! For the past three months, about 50 people have worked on the warehouse. Rethreaded has a board of the most amazing, wise people. We had over 30 volunteers that worked the day of the event. And it occurred to me: Jacksonville has an army. An army of over 500 people. 500 people who want to see change in our world. 500 people who believe that love wins. 500 people who will help fight against what the sex trade steals from our brothers and sisters.
It has helped restore my heart. It fills me with new hope. It fills me with new vision. It makes me believe that this crazy idea we have of love, relationship, community and business will actually work. Because we have a community of people who say, “Yes! I believe there is more for me, for our community and our world.”
I am officially all in and it seems like Jacksonville is as well.
So thank you, Jacksonville, for making Rethreaded’s Launch Party surpass anything I could have dreamed of. Thank you sewing a new story in my heart.
