A Legal Intern's Reflections on Rewarding, yet Heartbreaking work

Reflections from a Restoration Ministries' Intern (by B.I.):

Interning at Restoration Ministries in Washington, D.C. has already proven to be a great learning experience. I go every Friday to the Psychiatric Hospital of Washington and every Monday to the juvenile detention center called the Youth Services Center to meet with around twenty girls ranging in age from 11 to 17, some of whom have been sex trafficked, to participate in what the founder of Restoration Ministries, Candace Wheeler, calls “a ministry of presence.” During my second week at Restoration, I was called upon, due to a change in staffing, by God and Candace to lead the teams at the psych hospital and juvenile detention center in our weekly discussions. As a mom of three boys, I found it a little daunting to deal with a room full of girls, but have grown to love it and to really love the girls. They need so much of it. Restoration has also been blessed with a great team of women this summer, and I feel honored to work with and know each of them. A true team spirit prevails here.

During our time at both facilities, we read through a discussion sheet focused on a particular topic for that week and follow that up with an art activity that compliments the discussion. The discussions always deal with spirituality, health and wellness, prostitution and trafficking, or job skills but always with a Christian focus and scripture.  This week, my last of four weeks of leading discussions, I was blessed with a team of musicians to play worship songs, and I taught the girls sign language for signing the words of part of one of the songs. It was a big hit and led to a prayer circle time at both facilities that led to the girls’ speaking out their own prayers to God, something they also write on paper so we can tape it to our “wailing wall” and continue to pray over back at the organization. It was powerful and moving, and God was clearly present. Some girls began to cry and to seek one-on-one attention and prayer from the team, which each of the members was glad to do, the true rewards of the work.

The goal of every discussion time is to get the girls to open up and begin talking with the ultimate goal of building relationships with them. It’s through that process that they are more ready to reveal the truth about the things they have experienced, including sex trafficking. Once it’s clear that there is a possibility of a girl having been trafficked for sex, Restoration Ministries begins another level of working with her, sometimes for years. The work is both rewarding and heartbreaking and the success stories, due to the complexities of sex trafficking and the layers of trauma, are incremental, and few and far between. However, Candace has never wavered in her commitment to the challenge and calling God has put on her life. She has walked for over eight years through the trials that come with this work to maintain that commitment with an integrity and determination that God is beginning to reward in great ways. It has been a wonderful time to be interning here to see what God does when we are faithful.

Candace’s goal for any law student interning at Restoration Ministries is to provide the intern the opportunity to get to experience the reality of girls who have been trafficked, in hopes it will create a greater sensitivity towards the victim for the intern’s future practice in law. In addition, a legal intern is able to get a firsthand understanding of domestic rather than international trafficking, something that often gets overlooked. I have been richly rewarded in both of these ways.

My other responsibilities as a legal intern have been to create legal agreements for new volunteers, interns, and independent contractors; to attend D.C. and Northern Virginia Task Force meetings; to meet with the local judge who handles all of the prostitution cases dealing with juveniles; to meet with the U.S. Attorney who heads the D.C. Trafficking Task Force, and to attend several forums on trafficking, one at the state-of-the-art FBI Northern Virginia Resident Agency in Manassas, Virginia. I will soon be doing a nighttime ride along with local police officers who focus on prostitution and possibly will be able to sit in a few prostitution court cases.

Add to all of that how much I love the city with its unbelievable number of people; my hour commute to and from Bethesda, Maryland on a sometimes un-air-conditioned and always jam-packed crowded Metro train; the long, high escalators leading out of the dimly lit train tunnels to my lovely summer home and host in Bethesda; the restaurants on every corner with every possible delicious cuisine; and the amazing sights in D.C. including my favorite recent discovery, the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden. This is where tourists and interns alike sit in the midst of a circle of neatly pruned trees by a reflecting pool, shoes on the ground behind them, cooling their feet in the pool’s waters, feet steaming from the blocks and blocks of required D.C. walking. Arcs of water stream across the pool, starting low and rising to a crescendo, all meeting in the middle. Breathtaking! Yesterday, a duck dive-bombed into the pool to get crackers from some kids sitting near me. I have never seen a duck from quite that angle, legs dangling as he soared above trying to pick the perfect landing spot. I feel like that duck. First year of law school is like legs dangling, looking for a place to land. I feel I’ve found it for this summer. Thanks so much to those who have made it possible, Candace, Regent, and donors. Six more weeks and lots more to come…. – B.I.