Finding & Offering Shelter in Our Storms: Holly Hayes

Series 3

Mar 30

At the end of the day, we all need a space where we feel safe and known. We need a sanctuary. And as we see in the next installment of our Faith in the Firestorm series, a sanctuary isn’t always a place. As our next guest Holly Christine Hayes shows us, sanctuary can also be our people—the ones who hold us close during our darkest moments and help us crawl out of the pit. Holly is a survivor, advocate, author, and entrepreneur. In 2018, she founded The Sanctuary Project, a nonprofit that gives emotional and financial support to women who have experienced human trafficking, violence, and addiction. Nancy and Holly walk through Holly’s own journey through human trafficking, and identify how we can find safe places—and people—to turn to when we feel scared and alone. With her life and work, Holly shows that each and every one of us has the power to not only find sanctuary, but to be one for others.

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Show Summary

Hi there, Nancy Hicks here. Welcome back to So What? Why It Matters. This week, we're continuing on in our Faith in the Firestorm series. And let me let you in on a little secret: I'm utterly pinching myself by the guests I'm able to speak with and interview for you.

There's a lot of junk in this life, a lot of uphill climbs and firestorms, and we bump up against these bleak times a ton. But through it all, there are people who come alongside us and encourage us, who remind us, “Eyes up. Get focused. Take the hill by God's love and faithfulness and power. We can do this.”

So let's get into our episode today. I don't need to tell you it's been a tough year. Our lives look very different than they did 12 months ago. The way we think and plan and parent and navigate the world have all been upended. And right now, I don't think it's ever been more important for each of us to have a sanctuary. What a word, right? Sanctuary. It sounds like a ten-dollar word, maybe sounds kind of hyper religious. But honestly, all it means is a place of refuge, a safe place, a shelter.

Now, think about it. When the winds begin to whip and the rain begins to fall in sheets, what do you do? You take shelter, you move out of the elements and into the safety of a warm, dry, secure place. We all need sanctuaries in our lives because we know that storms can pop up at just about anytime and anywhere.

But sanctuary can also look like people—the people we love and trust, the ones who can hold us and our pain and our struggles without judgment and without turning it into us taking care of them. It looks like a place that can hold our questions and our doubts, and a place that can hold us when we can't hold on and it feels like we might be swept away. You might be thinking to yourself, Well, Nancy, I'm not sure what sanctuary looks like in my life, how do I find it? Tell me what it looks like. My guest today is here to answer those questions.

Today we have the privilege of learning the power of sanctuary from the one and only Holly Christine Hayes. Holly is the CEO of The Sanctuary Project. You have got to check it out. The Sanctuary Project is a nonprofit social enterprise that makes the most beautiful jewelry, and it's completely run by women survivors of trafficking, violence, and addiction. And Holly's own story is a testament to the power of sanctuary. She's written about it in a book called From Basement to Sanctuary, where she shares how she moved through years of alcoholism, addiction, and trauma and how she turned her pain to purpose.

Holly a shining example of what it means to find and offer sanctuary to people who are hurting. And I have to say, my time with her was a moment of sanctuary. So with that, please enjoy my conversation with Holly Hayes.

So What? Moments

Holly Hayes
Find out what that thing is that God has put in you and equipped you for. What has your life experience been? Have you been an accountant who's good with numbers your whole life? Do that for the glory of God. And don't feel like you need to do this work of transforming lives or rescuing women from the pits of hell, when what God has put in you is just an ability to handle numbers really well. Or maybe what God has put in you is a bit an ability to manage women's ministry in your church really well. Do that thing for the glory of God.

Nancy
Whether you're the one in the darkest times, the fiercest storm right now, or you're the one walking with someone who is in one of those times, the one hurting leads. The one hurting gets the airtime, the space, the right of first refusal, the safe haven, the sanctuary.

Thought-Provoking Quotes

“On February 10th of 2001, I was on the floor of a public bathroom. It was quite cold because this was Boston, Massachusetts, and I was just bawling and watching my tears hit the floor. And I said, ‘God help me.’ That very night, I ended up meeting someone who got me into a recovery program. I've been sober and safe since that day, and really began to build a whole new life from that moment on.” - Holly Christine Hayes

“In that moment, it was so clear to me after so many years of searching for this God, that this was the God who had saved me on that bathroom floor, that this is the God that goes around to Salvation Armies and bathroom floors and picks girls like me up off the floor and gives them a whole new life.” - Holly Christine Hayes

“After years of mentoring girls, I realized, This is something I need to create, and it needs to be led by other survivors.” - Holly Christine Hayes on ministering to survivors of human trafficking

“Until we can actually name what's wrong, what's broken, what's missing, what we're in need of healing from, and shelter from, and protection from—until we can name that thing, we can't ever really escape it.” - Holly Christine Hayes

“Say I'm in an abusive relationship, [I’m an addict], and I'm pregnant and am going to an abortion clinic. I'm marching up to this horrific situation, and there's all these women picketing outside and saying, ‘Don't murder the unborn baby, don't murder the unborn baby.’ But then after I'm done, and my body is torn apart, and I have to leave and go back to the abusive relationship, there's no Christian at the back door saying, ‘Can I help? Do you need anything to eat? Are you safe? Can I help get you into a treatment program, anything?’” - Holly Christine Hayes

“Being a sanctuary is really about saying, ‘This is the place that God has shown me His redemptive power, His plan, and His healing hand. And now I'm going to help others walk through that.’” - Holly Christine Hayes

“If you have been redeemed of anything in your life, that is your ministry. That is your opportunity to go and speak into other women's lives who are walking through it right now, because they need you to be that sanctuary. They need you to be that safe place.” - Holly Christine Hayes