Joy Farrington looks at justice being the restoration of every violation of love

Joy Attmore

Today, Monday November 4th, marks the first day of the Dream Project with The Justice Group. One month ago I packed my bags and left England once again, this time headed for Quito, Ecuador, a country in the heart of Latin America. Back in May of this year I got invited to come out here and partner with a team who have been working with women from the red light district and adolescent prison, to help them establish a six month programme for women wanting to exit prostitution and rehabilitate their lives.

The last four weeks have been full of meetings, outreach into the red light district, visits to the prison, cleaning, decorating and preparing a building for a full time school for these women to come to. For the next six months their days will be full, providing them with a basic education and retraining them for new jobs that they will be set up with at the completion of the programme. They are also receiving counselling and inner healing sessions to work through the trauma that they have all experienced so far in their young lives.

Today is literally the beginning of a new life for our women.

The slogan for the Justice Group that I am working under is 'justice is beautiful' and it really is! On Friday we were working hard painting and cleaning our offices and schoolrooms. One of the women who is taking the programme came to help us for the afternoon and was planning to then go out to the red light district that night and work, as has been her routine for the past 10 years. The following day she came back to help us paint, this time bringing her husband with her. She told us that the previous night she had decided not to go out and work as she wanted to start getting used to a new routine of being in school each day. She hasn't worked since. This is a victory and the beginning of a testimony of restoration!

Of course every new project has its hitches and today was no different. This morning, as our first class was under way, myself and two other volunteers managed to get locked in an office for over an hour! We were eventually rescued by the persistence of Petra, the first woman to say yes to the Dream Project and commit to the six months. We were each enveloped in fierce hugs from her as the door was finally forced open!

'Justice is the restoration of every violation of love.' Jen Toledo, Founder and President of the Justice Group.

Giving my life to helping women find justice and restoration for the times of violation is an absolute privilege and what I have signed my life over for. I've noticed recently that this is seen as somewhat heroic by some people, receiving likes on Facebook or words of adoration from strangers, but weren't we all created to act and move on behalf of love? I can't help but feeling that if we all responded to what we get inspired by when we read a blog or like a status then maybe justice wouldn't be such an abnormal thing, maybe extreme acts of love would just be the way that we all show love to one another.

My heart is so awakened to the need worldwide for dream projects, houses of love that are dedicated to the healing of hearts and lives. I didn't need to go to Ecuador to love people but I got invited here and so I came. There are millions of invitations still out there though, they don't often come in paper form but we read them when we look someone in the eyes, or ask a friend what their dreams really are. I am haunted by the thought that I did not do enough, I have not answered invitations to the best of my ability, but I am resolving to become better at this, to see every violation of love restored.