Taryn Chula: Serving with All You Have

You don't have to be on the front lines to change someone's life. Some of the most powerful healing happens because people like you choose to come alongside — carrying the story forward, strengthening the work, and making recovery possible by offering support in ways only they can. That's exactly what Taryn Chula, from Kentucky, did.

Taryn came to know Ked and Michelle Frank through church and through the early days of this work. What began as a shared mission became lasting friendship.

Taryn has spent most of her life helping people care for their bodies. After beginning her career as a dental hygienist, she later became a massage therapist and has now spent nearly 25 years working closely with people in pain. Over time, she has learned that the body often carries more than physical strain. It holds grief, trauma, fear, and stories that have never been fully processed.

Years ago, her heart was drawn toward women impacted by exploitation in a way she did not expect. She was invited to serve with a ministry that reached women working in strip clubs, just like Safe Places is currently expanding our outreach ministry to go do. One Christmas season, she offered chair massages in a dressing room backstage. She walked in thinking she would simply show kindness. Instead, she encountered something that marked her deeply.

She remembers the lockers, the noise, and the smell of cheap perfume and sweat. This wasn’t just a bar. It felt heavy with the darkness that prevailed there. And then she saw the photos. Pictures of children tucked inside those lockers. Crayon drawings from little hands. Reminders that these women were not just strangers in a bar. They were mothers, daughters, women with dreams and stories that mattered. That moment shifted her understanding, God had knit her heart to these women and it broke for the darkness they were living in. 

You may never walk into a dressing room like that. But you can help change what happens next for a woman who does.

For Taryn, that night stayed with her. Not long after, her own life unraveled through deep personal heartbreak. In the middle of her own healing and restoration, God began to redirect her toward purpose. Through prayer, faith, and even running, she began to walk forward with the Lord and this new path he had for her. What began as healing, became action.

Taryn started running races to raise awareness and funds for anti-trafficking work. She showed survivors their value as she worked and sweat on their behalf to help provide for their recovery. She knew she was not personally called to go back into those clubs week after week, but she also knew she could still say yes. She could use her gifts, her voice, and her effort to help women find safety and healing. And she did.

Michelle had become someone she deeply loves and trusts. Even after Ked and Michelle moved from Kentucky to Colorado and began Safe Places for Women, that connection remained. When Taryn learned more about the work happening here, especially the care for women and the investment in the next generation of ministry through the internship program, she knew she wanted to be part of it. In fact, her daughter joins our team as an intern next month.

Stories like Taryn’s are a reminder that there are so many ways to step into this work. And you are part of that story too.

Today, Taryn is stepping into a new season. Later this year, she plans to release her first book, a deeply personal project shaped by loss, healing, and years of listening to the stories our bodies carry. Entitled, Cry Over Spilled Milk, it reflects her life’s work of helping people understand the connection between body, soul, and spirit, and the freedom that can come when pain is brought into the light with Jesus.

In a beautiful act of generosity, she plans to donate the proceeds from her book to support Safe Places for Women. Her support is more than financial. It is personal and rooted in years of compassion and obedience to the call of God.

Because of people like Taryn, more women will have a safe place to go when they are ready to leave exploitation. And because of you, that door will be open when they do.