"The women there are working so hard, they’re getting jobs," Cole stressed. Meanwhile, in a "family environment," Mary Magdalene Home helps them secure bus passes, finish school, build job skills and find a permanent home. One woman, in her early thirties, is, for the first time, earning a driver’s license, Cole said.
Facing the trauma
On top of life’s normal challenges, these sexually exploited women deal with "all the trauma they’ve been through," Cole explained.
That includes childhood abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, domestic abuse, life on the street and mental health and drug and alcohol problems.
Many are mothers trying to regain custody of their children in the state’s charge — or mourning the loss of children.
"A lot of the women who come through are having to deal with the grief and loss of having had abortions," Cole explained. "Having had so many different losses in their life it’s now, if they don’t get out, they get dead, pretty basically. It’s that bad."
‘They’re our ladies’
So, in addition to arranging outside help to heal those wounds, Mary Magdalene Home offers in-house spiritual guidance and soon, a regular Bible study and prayer service.
Sister Lorene Griffin, an Ursuline sister and retired psychologist, volunteers as Mary Magdalen’s spiritual and psychological director. She counsels women about their way of thinking, "what freedom means" and how to make good choices. And a caseworker reviews with a woman her sexual and drug and alcohol histories to identify what triggers relapses.
"It doesn’t matter what they’ve done or where they’ve been," Cole explained. "They come into our office, they’re treated with respect."
She added: "They’re our ladies. They’re women who are choosing to change their lives (and they) need people to care."
As Christians, she explained, "you offer love and support. We recognize there’s more to a person than just their physical injuries and their emotional abuse."
"They’re women who are really hungry for God," Cole observed. The first thing that shuts down with most abused people is spiritually, it is also often the last thing that comes back, she added.
Mary Magdalene’s prescription: "Just love them back to God, I guess is what you say."
For more information on Mary Magdalene Home Alaska, visit mmhalaska.org.