Reruns, repeats can be great!

Five years ago we set out on a journey to change lives with the Gospel as the essential tool in our tool box and broken education and job environments the workplace that was sending children at a horrendous rate into human trafficking – not by their choice, but as slaves.  It took us two years to gain sufficient context and language understanding to see exactly how God had prepared us to bring transforming opportunities to those affected and to do it so that God is the one who is glorified when the captives are set free.

Now we have seen his transformation take shape.  We have seen local leaders rise up and take charge and bring change.  The joy that surrounds these “change managers” who understand that education and job opportunities alone are only the beginning, that real change only occurs with the Gospel, these are the folks who will change their world.

We are merely their mentors. (Read Isaiah 61)

We are eager to see this movement grow.  But to do it we need financial seed to get more classrooms opened and hopefully new schools started.  Each classroom modestly equipped, staff trained and started.  We have a financial, model now proven, in the first school and want to repeat it to create a dynamic interacting brotherhood of schools all focused on the Gospel.

We have three driving directives:
1.  Glorify God
2.  Teach about God
3.  Witness about God

Each of these gets flooded daily into the staff and student of the school.  It is 8-10 hours a day of discipleship into newly trained teachers who in turn witness into the lives of the local children who also hear and live in the Gospel environment 8-10 hours every day of the week.  Disciples making disciples who witness in their community.

#purpleschool

Here is a picture from the front of Purple School.  It is the first and now clearly demonstrated model of a school established to be self-sustaining and it is growing rapidly both in enrollment and in influence.

Now, we have been offered another site to start another school using the same model.

It takes seed funding to make this happen.  We need deposits, desks, chairs and marker boards.  Supplies and start-up staffing costs.  The model is designed to result in self-sustainability inside of 2 years.  The first school is well ahead of the target.  We have learned a lot.  We have demonstrated a lot.  And the reputation has now resulted in invitations to start new schools in communities where children suffer both financial and educational poverty and therefore are susceptible to human trafficking.  The work we are advancing is a game changer.  The people we work with are community changers.  They are all in with the power of the Gospel.

Consider being a sponsor of this work.  All donations are tax deductible.  DONATE HERE 

Share this link with your friends.  Tell them to join you and get on board.

For short term work projects, contact us.

13 Moving Trucks

Moving truck

13 times.  5 states and 2 countries.  Pete and I have watched that moving truck pull away with all our earthly possessions.  And now we sit in a local hotel with 4 suitcases awaiting customs clearance.  Now we know this is just “stuff”, but your stuff forms a home for the inhabitants to enjoy.  Cambodia was a huge, life-changing experience for us.  A combination of love and hate.  Loving our sense of purpose and Khmer co-workers while hating the harshness of a totalitarian, godless environment.  And now our hearts are divided when people ask, “Where are you from?”  In our 60’s still learning, growing, experiencing.  On a day I was really struggling in Cambodia, the Lord reminded me to choose joy and find beauty in the things around me. (“Count it all joy…” James 1:2) And so on my daily tuk tuk ride to work I would renew my mind with the “joys” I’ve found in our mission work in Cambodia.  These are some of the things I’ll miss…

Iced lemon tea, $8 foot massages, beef lok lak, tuk tuk rides, roosters crowing at 4am, Asian iced coffee, bare feet at church, moto rides with Pete, laundry washed ironed and folded for $2/kilo, cell phone plans- 2 phones $8/month, mangos, longyan, rambutan, custard apples, snake fruit, papaya, plimeon, red dragon fruit, and no sales tax.

I’ll also miss our beautiful, talented, amazing Khmer staff, little ones peeking into my office every day, being call Ya (grandmother) and Da (grandfather), simple gifts from Khmer friends: origami roses, fruit, homemade soup and our school director whom we now call “daughter”.

Those smiles! Peeking in the door.

But I most definitely, will not miss… horrendous traffic, roosterscrowing at 4am, trash and filth everywhere, 90 days straight of 100 degrees, 3 showers a day, sewer gas, bribes, lice, pinkeye, stomach issues, diarrhea, techno pop music, dried crunchy laundry, corrupt police, dictatorship governments, no Ohio State football on TV, power outages, water dribbles for a shower, ants, ants, ants, reverse discrimination, strawberries $10 a pint, Cambodian beef (leather in disguise), rice 3x a day, no red Twizzlers, Durian (stinky fruit), Khmer words that has 4 different meanings, no Diet Dr Pepper and no Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving or 4th of July.

They love to come to school.

Do be praying for us and our work to be sustained in Cambodia. (#purpleschool) In God’s typical fashion with us, He has led us away from our finished work here for the Cambodians to embrace it for themselves, but He has not revealed our next “work” for us.  Know anyone needing an awesome experienced Executive Pastor, a passionate experienced Mission Pastor, the best hands-on Marriage and Family Pastor or an advocate for the anti-trafficking movement?  Please let us know.

Grateful thanks to you all for sharing this experience with us.

“Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:16-17 ESV)

Honor “T12” with us

She is free indeed!

They called her “T12”. The human trafficking police use code words to protect the innocent.  “T”stands for “target” and “12” is the age she was sold into slavery. By. Her. Mother. Many times over. She was a domestic slave who cleaned 12 hours a day and was available by night. Living outdoors behind a palatial mansion she had one change of clothing and ate 2 small rice meals a day. Unable to read or write her own language she was trapped by illiteracy, ignorance and poverty.

But God did a miracle. An obscure American couple noticed her plight and endeavored to have her rescued and restored. Sharing the love of Jesus they worked with an investigation and rescue team to build her case and plan her escape. It was indeed something out of Mission Impossible.

T12 bracelet

After 8 months of undercover preparation, with determined courage and faith in a hope not yet seen, T12 made her escape successfully! Unsure whether we’d ever see her again, one of our at risk artisans designed a one of a kind bracelet for T12. Molded from melted bullet casings from the Vietnam era killing fields and in her own language, the bracelet said “freedom”! Freedom from slavery, freedom to pursue her own choices, freedom to experience the joys of life for the first time.

We are making the same bracelet available to those interested in stopping slavery through human trafficking! All funds go back to The ongoing work to help other T12s and T10s and even T8s! We are in this together friends.  Together we can change lives one “T” at a time.

Bracelets are available in 2 colors: black or purple $35 plus shipping. PM us at pete.livingston@gmail.com to order.

If you would like to partner with us in this ongoing work to set captives free, please click here DONATE and accept our sincere appreciation.

The Complete Guide to Coming Home

Oh, you’re going back to America for a holiday huh? Kinda, sorta.

While we do get to visit briefly with our precious family, but t’s a work trip: fundraising, human trafficking awareness events, donor functions and church visits. It’s exhausting…

Here’s what it takes to”COME HOME” from the mission field..

*Make airplane reservations six months in advance: Seoul, Taipei,Gangzhou, Bangkok, Hong Kong which way to go?
*Acquire housing, transportation and meals for all the six locations you will be living in.
*Wife gets out suitcases and begins to pack one month in advance.
*Wife gets out husband’s suitcase day before the flight and he still hasn’t packed 6 hours before flight time.
*Go to nine different local Cambodian pharmacies to acquire all necessary “just in case” medications.
*Crack a tooth 2 days before you leave and have to get it repaired where?
*Travel to far off remote small strip mall to find your airline to choose your seat assignment.
*Because you’re coming home for six weeks you have to pay your rent and electricity two months in advance so..
*Go to an ATM machine every day for two weeks to get enough cash because the limit here is so small.
*Fill out countless forms because your visa expires when you get back.
*Fill out those same countless forms again because your drivers license will expire before you get back.
*Purchase 24 passport photos and 12 thumbprints later you may or may not get your visa or drivers license.
*Have long sad tearful temporary goodbyes to all your Cambodian friends and coworkers (miss them already).
*Fill an entire suitcase of Made27 artisian products, coconut balls for gifts, countless scarves, and birthday and wrapped Christmas presents for the rest of the year for all family members.
*Completely empty and clean out refrigerator in case the power goes off while you’re gone.
*Wrap or put in plastic tubs any food products left in your cupboard so the ants don’t take over.
*Clean apartment top to bottom, strip all the beds, clean mosquito netting.
*Put mothballs in all closets and drawers where clothing is kept.
*Bug bomb the whole place before you leave.
*Give your 22 plants to your friend so they can water while you’re gone.
*Pray your moto is still here when you return.
*You experience 3 different currencies on the route home- make sure you have enough?
*Try to remember what time zone you’re in?
*Deep breathing as you ponder the 30 hour flight and swollen ankles- pack compression socks.
*Pack 19.9999999 kilos in each suitcase (20K max) see photo yeah!
*Don’t forget your old 110v curling iron you use once a year in the states.
*Pack an entire bag of phone cords, outlet adaptors, car jacks, battery packs, kindle chargers, iPad chargers, computer chargers, small speaker.
*Notice you need a whole new wardrobe after living in SE Asia 4 years- it’s all falling apart after being cleaned and air dried outside in the sun.
*Disconnect internet, swap out Cambodian SIM card, remember to go on airplane mode, buy a $1 phone scratch card to have minutes on your phone when you return in the middle of the night and need to book an Uber.
*Quick mani pedi ($12 here) with your sweet expat friend you’ll miss.
*Remember to say “thank you” in English instead of “សូមអរគុណច្រើន” in Khmer.
*Oops – last-minute T-shirt order came in for Made27 for 440 shirts! *Again have to go to three different ATMs to get enough funds to cover the T-shirts. By the way did you know our human trafficking survivors can make your company or church T-shirts?
*Your 80-year-old mother again reminds you she’s counting the minutes until you are “safe” on US soil again.
*Have beef lok lak, sour soup and fresh coconut juice one more time.
*But can’t wait for chips and salsa, diet Dr Pepper, Tommy’s Pizza, Captain Curt’s and red Twizzlers!

And it is worth every step. Hello family and friends!

One Cell Phone, One God

I must brag.  I am so proud. 

They call me “Mom” – my 8 teachers who daily I get the privilege to mentor in the Christian faith, train teacher skills, drill English and model before them a life centered on Christ.

They are young.

For the past year, I have spent many hours teaching and hanging out with this awesome group of young people prodding them to read their Bibles daily, act on what they’ve read, go to church, involve themselves in Bible study, teach their students the beauty and the faithfulness of our amazing God.  Most days I’ll be honest I wonder- do they hear me?  Am I making a difference?   Do they want to grow in the Lord?   (big sigh)

And then Wednesday happened.

Unbeknownst to any of us, a local drug dealer in the village had threatened one of our first graders that if he did not steal one of the teacher cell phones at school, he would kill him!

The child stole the phone, delivered it to the dealer but broke down in sobs when he got home and reported to his parents what he had done.

The parents marched their son right back to the school to confess to his teacher what he had done.  The child was mortified, scared to death and knew expulsion and condemnation was due.

But instead, grace ensued…..

My precious teacher hugged him, forgave him, ensured him of his love for him as Christ had loved him in his vileness (the teacher) and vigorously invited him back to school the next day.

This part-time teacher makes $90 for a half day teaching, attends university on his own dime in the afternoon and evening, buys nightly dinner and lives in a quiet corner of a church empty room.  A Samsung phone is a big deal, but His God was bigger!

Both parent and child were stunned…shocked…amazed!   This doesn’t happen in Cambodia.  Stealing would have been sure termination from the school and an unbearable shame to his family.

These Buddhist parents were overheard saying, ‘This school is different, it’s the Jesus school!”

As I was rejoicing in my quiet time for this young man and his Christian walk, God gave me this verse of praise for that teacher,

“ Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace (2 Corinthians 1:12).”

Way to go VanSol!  This “Mom” teacher trainer could not have been prouder!    

 

 

Who’s teaching whom?

Today I told those 8 eager faces (my Cambodian teachers) that we were going to study the ខួរក្បាល (in English this means brain).  Four times a week I tuk tuk out to a local village to lend my love and support to 8 elementary teachers who range from ages 16-27 and minister to 145 students 3-year-old until 2nd grade.   Two are currently in Cambodian university, 2 have not completed high school and ALL have no teacher training.   This has been my most daunting task since arriving in Phnom Penh almost 3 years ago.  While this is my fourth round of teaching at schools, it never gets easier.  As I first walk onto their school sites, most have NOTHING!  Few supplies, cramped spaces, untrained personnel, very little English, but one thing I have consistently seen in all 4 schools I have worked in:  A RADICAL LOVE FOR JESUS AND CHILDREN!  This passion brings me to my knees every time as they pour out their untrained hearts (both in educational models and Biblical understanding) in changing the landscape for Cambodian children.  

In this, they are my heroes.  They teach me.  

To encourage educational growth and stimulation, I taught my teachers this…

1. Teachers need to help their students by stimulating brain growth (I called it “exercising their brains”).   Children need to exercise their brains to boost cognitive performance, memory and thinking.  Just as I said these things, a lightbulb went on over my head.  

Duh!  This applies to my 62-year-old self.  You try learning a new language at 60.  You try navigating impossible traffic in Cambodia. You try driving a moto for the first time.  You try teaching teachers with absolutely nothing but what I create.  You try teaching Biblical applications to non-Bible readers.  After “liberation” day from the Khmer Rouge in 1979, there were only a few hundred Christians left and 3 pastors!  The whole Bible was not translated into Khmer until 1954, thus Biblical illiteracy is widely evident.   Most don’t own a Bible!  Yet, the few stories they know, they teach.  They pray.  They fast.  They attend church faithfully.  They worship.  

These are my heroes.  They teach me.  

2.  Teachers need to help their students by creating new and exciting challenges for them.  (Instead of doing things the same old way, change it up!  Get creative!)  Hmmmm….

Duh!  Again, this applies to my 62-year-old self.  When God saw in His good mercy to give us a passion for human trafficking, he gave us a whole new work.  In 40 years of marriage, we have had many exciting new experiences:  parenthood, marriage ministry, adoption, 10 moves).  But who gets a new call to go half way around the world at 60 to fight the atrocity of child sex trafficking in Cambodia?   He knew what we needed.  What a challenge! We pray daily for creativity in reaching the lost here and rescuing and restoring as many children as possible.   As I watch these precious teachers really try to be creative and change it up, I am challenged as well.  

These are my heroes.  They teach me.  

In this season of giving, if you would like to contribute a teaching item to our precious school, please click on the following Amazon Wishlist link and choose an item:  

If you would like to support the ongoing work we do in Asia and America to fight trafficking of children, we would be honored to have your support.  Tax-deductible Donation here.

9 states 17 different beds 32 presentations and One True God

Two weeks before heading back to the US for a 3-month furlough, I received the diagnosis of a needed total hip replacement.  Unable to change hundreds of details: flights, plans, graduations, meetings, and events I limped with pain through the past 3 months.

We call it the Livingston US Bed tour.

This is how strongly we feel the US needs to hear about the atrocity of child sex trafficking around the world.

We visited 9 different states and dozens of churches where we met amazing people of God and churches who were unaware of this thing called human trafficking.  Oh, they’d heard of it but felt helpless to do anything about it.

We slept in 17 different beds:  good ones, bad ones, lumpy ones, cold ones, opulent ones.  Nothing like the humbling experience of waking up night after night wondering “where am I” or “which way is the bathroom”?

We conducted 32 human trafficking awareness events where we were able to share the Gospel through our work in Cambodia and how God is sustaining us through His Word by His Spirit.  We’ve met in churches, living rooms, kitchens, coffee shops, auditoriums, offices and restaurants.

“And Jesus went out…”

I cannot tell you how many people jokingly say to us, “Wow you’re on a 3-month vacation!”  I wish.

Yes, we got to spend time with our families.  We attended a son’s graduation, moved two of our now adult children to new jobs, visited with Mom, celebrated 8 family birthdays and anniversaries (something we do not get to do when living overseas), had our annual trek to Siesta Key, ate so many good meals our guts are longing for Cambodia and worshiped many times in our own language.

But we are in the US for the Kingdom of God on Earth not our earthy pleasures.

We desperately long for Jesus to be known in every heart.
We desperately long for the end of human trafficking.
We desperately long for children to be protected and cherished.
We desperately long for women to be valued as God created them.
We desperately long for traffickers to repent of their wicked ways.
We desperately long for governments to protect the innocent.
We desperately long for the church to rise up and set the captives free.
We desperately long for the return of the King…

“For in just a very while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay’”.  (Hebrews 10:37)

And so we return to our beloved Cambodia on August 1 and again return to fight the fight.

And get a new hip.  Pray for me 😊

I Know A Slave

I Know a Slave.

An indentured slave sat in my apartment today and sobbed her heart out. As Pete and I both encircled her with our arms and prayers, she poured out her grief and fear, not for herself but for her 8 year old brother.

IndntureThis is the story of S (name hidden to protect her – she is in present danger for even approaching us).

Without parents or family, S left her rural province to take a job with a foreign Madam as a cleaner in a Phnom Penh apartment building. For $60 a month she has boarded at the Madam’s house while working 7 days a week – morning to night – cleaning, washing and sweeping day after long day. No days off. S had no family to take care of her or her brother.  Father divorced the mother for a younger wife and mother fled the village to eek out survival for herself.  Children abandoned.  So S came to the city to earn a wage to support her brother and herself.   She was just 12 years old when she took this responsibility.  Brother lives with the monks in a pagoda in their province. Monthly S tries to send money to provide food for her little brother, but she frequently falls short and has to borrow money.

S is smart, hardworking and trustworthy.  She is also illiterate, desperately poor, vulnerable and spiritually lost.

Fast forward 8 years and S now owes $3000 with interest growing faster than payments can be made.  It may as well be $3 million to her. Her life ahead is a long continuous drudge to pay off her debt while still supporting a little brother she never sees and agonizes is okay.

Until today.Tear

For a 20 year old Khmer woman to take this risk to share her story with us is short of miraculous. Her embarrassment, shame, and fear she will be found out by Madam is palpable on her face. In her very limited English and our very limited Khmer, she asks, “You help children?”

She doesn’t want much….nothing for herself. Just a better life for her little brother. A safe place where he won’t be sexually violated, sold into labor trafficking or hooked on meth with rural gangs. A place where he can get an education and learn.

I (Debbie) come from a country with so many choices. But, here S has no choice. She must stay and work until an impossible debt is paid off and which grows bigger each day. She must stay and live in fear the Madame will find out she’s told someone of her struggles. S will never have a day off to enjoy a meal out, go to school, see a movie or hangout with friends. For now, slavery is her only option.

But, God…

“ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

Jon Bloom says, “These two words are overflowing with gospel. For sinners like you and me who were lost and completely unable to save ourselves from our dead-set rebellion against God, there may not be two more hopeful words that we could utter. “(Desiring God)

There is hope for S. There is hope for me. And it came in the form of a baby sent to earth to grow, die and be resurrected for my sin. Once a slave, now set free.

There is hope for S and her little brother. It lies in the person of Jesus Christ.

Pray for S and Divine Wisdom as we minister to this precious one.  This is what we do.  Thanks for joining us in support of this work.

If you are a donor, thank you so very much.  If you are not, please consider supporting this work.  Lives are changing.   Give when and if you can.  Click ENGAGE above for info.

One Life, One Village at a time.

There is a certain glitter and sparkle in the eyes of child when they look up to their mommy’s eyes. This gaze acts like a magnet drawing them together for the great celebrations of joy in life and through the most tragic of circumstances. Moms and their kids can connect without words. It only takes a look, a meeting of the eyes and all that needs to be said is said.

traffickedOr, so it should be. Increasingly in the world today it does not work that way.

Slavery is outlawed in every country in the world, and yet it exists widely. There remain enormous, almost unbelievable, numbers of individuals trapped in slavery. The most commonly accepted estimate is 27 million people worldwide RIGHT NOW serving in some capacity by threat of force, drugs, starvation, harm to family and other means of coercion. This figure is staggering.

80% of all slaves are sex slaves, 50% are children, many not even yet teenagers. It is possible to get lost in the magnitude of the atrocity and wonder if fighting back can make a difference. Not only can it make a difference, it is!

We have engaged in work where the sparkle is gone from the eyes of many. We have emersed ourselves in a place where mommy has frequently been a dangerous person. Where mom and dad are sometimes the most vile people in a child’s life.

SilversmithTogether we are doing more than rescue kids and more than prosecute traffickers. Together we are entering villages and educating the children for the future. We are establishing micro-businesses that provide positive economic opportunities. We train the next generation of teachers and community leaders. We work alongside the local church to see that the Gospel permeates village life.

Together, we are seeing change. Together, we are making a difference. Together, we are ending the atrocity of sex trafficking one community at a time. You may have a part in all of this.

We want you to pray for this endeavor and if you can, support the work through the SENDHELP! Funding Campaign. Also, by purchasing survivor/ at-risk worker created products at www.Made27.com

For more information on the work, corporate sponsorship or tax-deductible donations please visit aim.radicallymarried.com Or contact us: Pete.livingston@gmail.com or debbieglivingston@gmail.com

We can help you prepare your community, school, business and church be a positive impact for fighting back where you live. Contact www.Made27.com to begin an Awareness Campaign in your area.