Waiting in the Wilderness

Waiting in the Wilderness is a six-week course, that draws on themes from Luke 13 and encourages individuals and churches to respond to modern slavery in their communities.

Each week of the course has the following elements:  

• Bible study
  Focusing on Luke 13.
• Animation
  An animated poem, exploring the experience of a victim of modern slavery.
• Group questions
  To help you dig a bit deeper and discuss how the Bible passage and poem relate to your context.
• A spotlight on a form of modern slavery
  Including domestic servitude, county lines, the care sector, sexual exploitation, the car wash sector and forced labour.
• Ideas for action
  Tangible steps to take in your community to help you respond to your learning.
• A prayer
  So you can commit your thoughts and resolutions to God.

You can download the PDF at https://waitinginthewilderness.com/ 

Why “Waiting in the Wilderness”? 

Life is very much a “wilderness” experience for a victim of modern slavery – bleak, lonely, neverending and without hope. Interestingly, the wilderness in the Bible is both the place where God’s people meet Him in a special way and where they face extreme suffering, solitude and temptation. In Genesis 16, Hagar, a victim of exploitation and domestic servitude, flees into the desert where an angel of the Lord ministers to her. He assures her that the LORD “hears her misery” and Hagar responds by calling the LORD “the One who sees me”. This verse provided the inspiration for The Clewer Initiative’s strapline “We See You” and our hope is that, through everything we do, we would see victims more clearly and through our life and actions, share the tender and faithful love of God. 

Learning from Luke 

Waiting in the Wilderness focuses on chapter 13 of Luke’s Gospel. In this section of Luke, Jesus is “resolutely set on Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) and facing opposition from the Samaritans, Pharisees and teachers of the law. He begins teaching about the nature of the kingdom of God but he is on a collision course with the Pharisees, exposing their hypocrisy (11:37-54) and warning his disciples to be wary of their influence. Jesus urges his disciples to not worry but seek His kingdom and be ready for when the Son of Man returns (12:22-48). He urges the crowd who are following him to realise the times they are living in and be ready for judgement day (12:49-59). It is against this backdrop that we reach chapter 13 where Jesus shares the memorable parables of the fig-tree, mustard seed and yeast and heals a woman who has been crippled for 18 years. The chapter includes famous verses such as “make every effort to enter through the narrow door,” “those who are last will be first” and “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Our section in Luke’s Gospel reminds us about the surprising nature of God’s kingdom and the urgency of making “every effort to enter through the narrow door.”

Animated poems

Each week, we have written a poem telling the story of a victim of modern slavery or bystander.