Redeeming Love Sanctuary Foundation

I’m very excited about “Redeeming Love” – the movie – being released January 21.  The premiere is this Thursday at the Directors Guild Theater and I’m sure portions of the event will be posted online.  But I have other exciting news I want to share, and that is the launch of the Redeeming Love Sanctuary Foundation.  Holly Caruso (Redeeming Love director D.J. Caruso’s wife) is the visionary and founder behind this foundation, and I’m delighted to be on the Board of Trustees.

God’s timing is always perfect, and today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.  In fact, I think this entire month is focused on the pandemic horror of human and sex trafficking in America as well as around the world.  Did you know there are more slaves now than any time in history?

I met Holly over the telephone in the early days of the Redeeming Love movie project.  We talked about what inspired me to write the story and what I’ve learned in the years since, what hope for the impact of the book and movie on the walking wounded who need to know how much God loves them.  When I wrote the book, I had no awareness of sex trafficking as a current wide-spread criminal epidemic.  Letters from readers and attendance at the International Conference on Prostitution opened my eyes.  From the beginning, Rick and I have considered Redeeming Love my first fruits as a born-again Christian and have given the proceeds (minus taxes) to charity.  But after talking with Holly, we wanted to focus our proceeds from the movie as well to the fight against sex trafficking.  Holly and I exchanged ideas on the best way to do that.

The Redeeming Love Sanctuary Foundation is the result of those conversations.  Our mission is to aid in preventing sex trafficking and abuse by funding survivor support services, education, and recovery programs in the United States and abroad.  We just started up a few months ago and thankfully were able to give four grants out before the end of 2021 — all four to organizations on the front lines fighting sex trafficking and working directly with survivors. We hope to give out many more grants in the years ahead.

Please check out the website:  www.redeeminglovesanctuary.org.  Together we can make a difference!