Ukrainian women and church members play a card game of Phase10 during “Ukrainian Cafe,” a time of food and socializing for Ukrainians living in Latvia.
Photo provided
Sometimes, ministry looks like baking homemade sugar cookies for a party. Other times, it might look like taking a prayer request from a young woman on the street.
What will communicate compassion and value in a given moment is what Taylor Zimmerman sets out to be doing.
The Greenfield native is about nine months into an at least two-year commitment to serve in Latvia with Freedom61, which reaches out to women being exploited.
“I’ve had a heart for women who’ve been exploited, who’ve been trafficked, since the age of 12,” she said this week via video chat from Riga, the country’s capital.
Zimmerman remembers when she first became aware of human trafficking. She was part of a group of girls from Park Chapel Christian Church in Greenfield who went to a retreat in Ohio. During that retreat, a police officer talked to them about online safety and online predators. The officer also talked about human trafficking, often referred to as modern-day slavery.
Leading up to that, Zimmerman had been interested in history’s Underground Railroad, a network of people and places helping 1800s American slaves escape to Canada. Hearing of slavery still existing today — such as in the form of people forced to work as prostitutes — was both troubling and motivating to her.
She began to read more about the issue and, as a teen, rallied a group of young people to organize a 2013 event, Walk-Run-4-Freedom, on the Pennsy Trail in Greenfield.
Dave Combs, an elder at Park Chapel, remembers watching that drive to help women being exploited unfold.
“We saw early on … she had a passion for ministry to women and girls caught in trafficking,” Combs wrote in an email. “Her compassion toward others who were in such dire circumstances drove her and some of her friends to raise awareness about human trafficking and to also raise funds to help ministries that served this area of need.”
Local Love INC executive director Debra Weber, a friend and mentor, saw that process too.
“Taylor is a wonderful young woman with a heart for serving the Lord,” Weber wrote in an email. “Taylor is passionate about ministering to those affected by human trafficking. From a young age, the Lord placed this on her heart and she has been resilient in pursuing her call to ministry. She overcame obstacles, made adjustments to her journey, and was never deterred.”
That drive continued as Zimmerman approached college. She enrolled at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which offers a bachelor of arts degree in Ministry to Victims of Sexual Exploitation.
She first learned of Freedom61’s work while seeking an internship during college. While there wasn’t an internship available then, amid COVID, she still became aware of its work. After college, the time was right for her to join that work.
In Riga, she’s part of a team that includes another staff member, who’s part-time, along with key volunteers. Her days are varied. There are two one-hour language tutoring sessions each week, as well as hours spent in personal study, as Zimmerman continues to build her ability to speak the local language.
There’s a weekly “Ukrainian cafe” her church offers, at which women who’ve fled Ukraine with their children while their husbands stayed behind can come together. In many cases, the women’s physical needs such as clothing have been met, but “what they’re really missing is the opportunity to be in community and in fellowship,” Zimmerman said. There’s childcare for the youngsters, and the women can connect during conversation, snacks and games.
And of course, there’s Freedom61’s work of connecting with women being sexually exploited, of offering them compassion and a safe place to find friendship — and, for those ready to leave the work on the streets, someone to walk alongside them. There are monthly cafe-style outreaches where women can stop in for refreshments and socializing. There are other times when conversations happen on the street, inviting women to stop by for the cafe hours.
“Often times this isn’t a choice, and it’s not easy to leave,” she said. Even if someone began prostitution voluntarily, say to meet a momentary need such as food for one’s household, there’s a cycle that’s hard to step away from, she said.
“There is so much manipulation; there is so much coercion,” Zimmerman said. “It’s affecting their mental, their physical, their spiritual state.”
In the cafe times, women can find homemade soup, baked goods, and people speaking words of encouragement and affirming their value. Five to 10 women may come. Sometimes one will drop in but have to leave quickly because a customer is outside waiting.
Not every day “feels” productive; it takes time to build relationships. Also, COVID has changed how prostitution and exploitation look in Latvia, Zimmerman said, and Freedom61 has considered how to change too in response. Still, the team has found women are still out there and still receptive to the cafe times, which they plan to offer weekly come August.
There are moments that remind Zimmerman that hearts are warming.
One woman cried when she made sugar cookies for a Christmas party. “I’m always going to remember you. You’re showing me the love of God,” she remembers the woman saying.
Another woman was intrigued when a local artist shared her art and her faith at a cafe time. She was “really engaged and asking tough questions,” said Zimmerman, who could see “even their faces change, where there’s something that’s clicked.”
Still another woman, invited to the cafe time, said she couldn’t come that evening but asked the team to pray for her, talking about wanting to move past addiction and start going to church.
These are the moments, Zimmerman said, that remind her God has led her to the right place.
“This is why I’m here,” she said. “Being able to watch those things is what helps encourage me to go on.”
