So, the story about Saving Silhouettes and how it all started: here we go!
During Christmas break of my senior year in high school I had the opportunity to attend the Passion Conference in Atlanta, GA. This conference truly impacted my life, and one of their main focuses was educating people on the facts of human trafficking through a campaign entitled END IT with a goal to end slavery around the world. After that conference I started to learn more about human trafficking in America and also in our city. However, I took the easy road out and said that I would “pray about it” and pray that God would end the injustice. I always felt I was too small or too young to do anything. This went on for about 6 months.
After graduating high school I read a book by Bob Goff titled Love Does. Through this book God showed me that loved doesn’t sit back and pretend to pray about it: love rescues, loves fights against injustice...love does. During this process I was reminded of this Scripture I’ve heard so many times: “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for the believers in your speech, your conduct, your LOVE, faith, and purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12. However, this time that Scripture defeated the lies that told me I was too young to do anything, too insignificant. God had put a passion inside of me for human slavery in our century, and it was time to do something about it. But I didn’t know where to start or what to do, so I began to actually pray that God would show me.
Our youth group went to camp at BigStuf this year and they challenged students to dream big dreams and to then take small steps to fulfill them. While there, God revealed that I was angry and bitter about a lot of things that I had no control over. I was not in a position to be used by Him. So after relinquishing those feelings God began to change my heart and restore relationships. While I was praying at camp God began to give me a dream for how I could be used by Him, and as I shared this with my sister we began to realize that He had put the same passion her heart about rescuing girls from the sex industry. So we began to brainstorm about how we could both work on a project to help rescue women in our city, TOGETHER.
About that time, the Daraja choir from Uganda took the stage and led us in worship. They were incredible. What caught my attention was their bright, colorful headbands! I began to feel God leading my sister and me to start making headbands out of t-shirts, and then start selling them, with 100% of the profits going to Purchased (a ministry in Shreveport dedicated to preventing and ending sex slavery in our city). We were going to take something old (t-shirts) and make them new (headbands); just like our Father in heaven did with us.
This however was a slightly crazy idea, because I am in no way, shape, or form an artistic or crafty person. So that was the next excuse I gave God, but He quickly got rid of that excuse with the help of Pinterest and easy headbands! Coming home, my sister and I told our parents and just started planning and experimenting with how to make them. To my surprise, my parents were on board, and I could actually make the headbands!
After the idea had become an actual headband, I took the idea to my youth minister, Jared Osborne. From there we took it to a designer, Jacklyn Osborne and Travis Harvey, and God just kept growing the dream way bigger than I ever expected.
We named our product Saving Silhouettes because Purchased has used a silhouette as a logo. It was a way to tie the two things together. We are saving and rescuing girls from the sex industry, though we may not know their names or their faces; they are people. My expectations were to make a few headbands and raise a little money for Purchased. Now we have this: a website, a lot of headbands, and so many wonderful people supporting us. So thank you. Thank you for taking an interest in our organization, thank you for standing with us, and thank you for helping our dream become a reality!
During Christmas break of my senior year in high school I had the opportunity to attend the Passion Conference in Atlanta, GA. This conference truly impacted my life, and one of their main focuses was educating people on the facts of human trafficking through a campaign entitled END IT with a goal to end slavery around the world. After that conference I started to learn more about human trafficking in America and also in our city. However, I took the easy road out and said that I would “pray about it” and pray that God would end the injustice. I always felt I was too small or too young to do anything. This went on for about 6 months.
After graduating high school I read a book by Bob Goff titled Love Does. Through this book God showed me that loved doesn’t sit back and pretend to pray about it: love rescues, loves fights against injustice...love does. During this process I was reminded of this Scripture I’ve heard so many times: “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for the believers in your speech, your conduct, your LOVE, faith, and purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12. However, this time that Scripture defeated the lies that told me I was too young to do anything, too insignificant. God had put a passion inside of me for human slavery in our century, and it was time to do something about it. But I didn’t know where to start or what to do, so I began to actually pray that God would show me.
Our youth group went to camp at BigStuf this year and they challenged students to dream big dreams and to then take small steps to fulfill them. While there, God revealed that I was angry and bitter about a lot of things that I had no control over. I was not in a position to be used by Him. So after relinquishing those feelings God began to change my heart and restore relationships. While I was praying at camp God began to give me a dream for how I could be used by Him, and as I shared this with my sister we began to realize that He had put the same passion her heart about rescuing girls from the sex industry. So we began to brainstorm about how we could both work on a project to help rescue women in our city, TOGETHER.
About that time, the Daraja choir from Uganda took the stage and led us in worship. They were incredible. What caught my attention was their bright, colorful headbands! I began to feel God leading my sister and me to start making headbands out of t-shirts, and then start selling them, with 100% of the profits going to Purchased (a ministry in Shreveport dedicated to preventing and ending sex slavery in our city). We were going to take something old (t-shirts) and make them new (headbands); just like our Father in heaven did with us.
This however was a slightly crazy idea, because I am in no way, shape, or form an artistic or crafty person. So that was the next excuse I gave God, but He quickly got rid of that excuse with the help of Pinterest and easy headbands! Coming home, my sister and I told our parents and just started planning and experimenting with how to make them. To my surprise, my parents were on board, and I could actually make the headbands!
After the idea had become an actual headband, I took the idea to my youth minister, Jared Osborne. From there we took it to a designer, Jacklyn Osborne and Travis Harvey, and God just kept growing the dream way bigger than I ever expected.
We named our product Saving Silhouettes because Purchased has used a silhouette as a logo. It was a way to tie the two things together. We are saving and rescuing girls from the sex industry, though we may not know their names or their faces; they are people. My expectations were to make a few headbands and raise a little money for Purchased. Now we have this: a website, a lot of headbands, and so many wonderful people supporting us. So thank you. Thank you for taking an interest in our organization, thank you for standing with us, and thank you for helping our dream become a reality!