08.02.2015

Bedtime Stories #1

On a recent trip to the states I had the chance to spend a wonderful time with my kids and grandkids. I had the chance to tell some worn out stories to my grandkids some of the same stories I told their mom’s and dad’s when they were kids. One of the great joys of being a parent and then a grandparent is sharing stories that share life principles. Trying to plant seeds for future generations the way such things used to be told in homesteads long before the electronic media age.

So on this recent trip, I spent time with each grandchild telling them some story that conveyed a life principle that I thought fit their particular bent. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6 ESV)”. I can remember doing family devotions with a simple devotion guide with my kids growing up. Reading some life vignette with a biblical truth and substituting their name into the story. They loved it. They listened. And I heard my granddaughter tell me during one of my story times, my dad does that too. I miss those times. I still get them on occasion but that is something Debbie and I both miss and love to see is being passed on.

But it is not as though we never had it.

Let me tell you a story about Toha. As a very young girl in a very poor family, her mother trafficked her for sex. This happened multiple times as the abuser returned to take her more than once. I can only imagine what bedtime stories Toha heard. I can only imagine what bedtime meant to her. “Hey, let me tell you a story little one” must have been a totally frightening experience for her. No sweet dreams could be found in her life and no one was planting them there to help guide her life growing up. No one was sharing biblical truths in her mind and heart that she would need as she grew up.

Toha did not even know what was going to happen to her the first time. But, following that first time she knew. She knew it too well. It was awful! She had no desire for what these encounters were and yet, it was her mother who sent her with the abusers. What was she to do?

Finally, she developed her own plan. She contacted AIM. On one trip out, after 22 days and 198 “events” of abuse during that period, she cried out and AIM sent help. AIM conducted a rescue of Toha. AIM began the process of restoration and reintegration so that Toha could know the God who lives and is a great rescuer and restorer. She now knows the God who brings this hope.

Now Toha has a new story. She is beginning to build stories of hope and a future. Maybe one day she will have her own children and tell them life stories of hope and plans and a future. That is why we are here doing what we do. Toha represents victory over sin. Oh, sweet is the victory won by the Lord.

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Keep an eye on our blog; we will have more “bed time stories” to share.

06.30.2015

Cambodia/ America. Different?

What a contrast of cultures. Last week Debbie and I returned from 3 great weeks with family and friends in the US. We found ourselves totally engaged with our parents, children, grandchildren and long-time friends. There were so many wonderful things going on that I cannot describe them all here but suffice it to say, we enjoyed the gift of rest and renewal. We are now back in Cambodia and fully engaged in the tasks the Lord has set our hearts to here. The contrasts are enormous but there is one thing that is obviously the same. Here, as in America, people struggle with believing God has a design and a plan and it is for the eternal good of His creation – us, all of us.

This is a blog about our mission work here to rescue, restore, reintegrate victims of sex trafficking and prevention of new cases. This entire atrocity stems from people not understanding God’s design for mankind including children. Reject God’s design and anything can be made to look acceptable. As we closed our final time in America the Supreme Court presented their ruling on the issue of legal marriage. Reject God’s design and anything can be made to look acceptable.

It is not a Cambodian perspective that results in child trafficking or an American perspective that results in legalizing same sex marriage. This is a rejection of God’s design problem and it is the reason the church exists to tell the world of God’s design. It is the reason Debbie and I are in Cambodia.

Set aside the issues of child sex trafficking and same sex marriage, some will say I am judgmental when I express that certain behaviors are wrong. These things are issues only because the underlying issue of God’s design is not widely accepted. Some might say that I am seeking to force my values on others. No, that is not the case. I am not establishing a behavior as right or wrong I am merely speaking of God’s design. Actually, the most loving thing I can do (or that someone can do for me) is to show me the error of my behavior that I would know to repent and seek God’s forgiveness. It is like pointing to the life raft when a ship is sinking. To know where the life raft is and point someone to another way is not very loving.

An honest look at the Bible reveals that the Old Testament is filled with predictions of the future. Those predictions, particularly those about the birth, life, death and resurrection of the Messiah (over 350 specific predictions) all came true. Note, ALL. That is a pretty clear statement of the reliability of the rest of what the Bible says including the design of God for the life of man. Any belief system takes a measure of faith. The Christian belief system offers proof. Verified truth.

svay pak fire 1 — Enormous neighborhood fire in Svay Pak

Last week we had a fire in Svay Pak, our focal community for our work in Cambodia. The national and in some cases international media took up the story. Thirteen homes completely destroyed. Families homeless and possession-less. What did not get widespread coverage was that this was not an accidental fire. A sex trafficker, mad at a former victim, dowsed a young woman in fuel and set her on fire. That fire caused the rest. The trafficker was after the 4 year old daughter of the victim for purposes I can only care not to imagine.

Was this wrong? By what standard would it be or not be? Is it wrong today but maybe OK in a few years? Was this man wrong in 2015 but perhaps he could be right in 2040? Does right and wrong really change or do we just become more comfortable with wrong as it becomes widespread?

Since it is a generally accepted thought that no one is perfect, how can we accept the wisdom of man over the wisdom of God that is constant? I think we dare not make that trade, yet we do every day when we choose differently than God designs. The trafficker sees nothing wrong with trafficking women and children. Really, he thinks everyone else is judgmental.

The problems in the world are not governments, courts, leaders or even perpetrators. The problems of the world exist because mankind does not want to accept the authority and design of God for all creation.

Cultures and contexts change. Behaviors change. The minds of man change. The wisdom of God does not. There is no cultural contrast for God’s wisdom. It is the same throughout creation. Only man’s points of contention with God vary by culture.

svay pak fire 2 — Initial emergency supplies to fire victims

You will be glad to know that we are engaged with helping to rebuild all 13 homes not for the people but with the people who lost all their worldly possessions in Svay Pak. Re-establishing themselves and seeing the Gospel lived out in community is how people come to know God is at work and God does have a design. That is why our primary work in Cambodia, our primary work in America, our primary work anywhere is to make the Truth of the Bible known to sex traffickers, gays and lesbians, families, marriages, church goers, judges, rulers and leaders as well as victims of fires, floods and tornados. When individuals understand the Truth and do not reject it, then we will see the end of man inflicted atrocities.

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Will you please consider supporting the effort we are engaged in to deliver the Gospel Truth of the Bible into this area? Please pray for our area of influence. We will pray for yours as well.

05.12.2015

I Wonder What It Takes?

I wonder what it takes to say its over. Done. Task completed.

As we have become more embedded in the work to end child sex trafficking, it is becoming more obvious that healing takes more than rescuing and prosecuting perpetrators. Children are forced from what should be a safe environment of their home and family (often forced to do so by those in their home and family). It is so very important that rescues keep occurring and prosecutions keep proceeding and police and government leaders keep being reminded of the power of position they have to bring about change, but has it ended? Should we stop while there are children still trapped? It is important that rescue of one or two or even hundreds does not protect the next young children rising into the culture from the very same atrocious abuse. Make it illegal, assess fines, imprison offenders, all are important steps. However, does the beginning of a good work ensure the continuation of it? If these steps were enough we would have no crime in America.

I wonder what it takes? What has to happen to end the atrocity of child sex trafficking? Is the work finished here?

Rescue is a key component of the work of AIM. We have dedicated men and women who work closely with local and national police to identify trafficked kids, traffickers and the abusers who give rise to the untoward business, which is still alive and quite active in Cambodia. In Svay Pak, once the outward and quite visible epicenter of child trafficking with a specialty of very young girls, it is now not so outward. But, do not be deceived, it is still very active. Svay Pak is a place abusers can come to arrange for a little girl to be brought to their hotel where for days at a time in some cases, these small children are treated as objects for carnal, seedy gratification by the world’s least desirable adults. Over the last 10 years it has changed. Instead of door front little girls being offered for sale or rent with men entering those doors to find dirty little cubicles where they take their chosen prey for whatever time frame their budget allows, now city-wide taxi and tuk-tuk drivers know where to deliver wanting men to door front pimps who make shady deals for little girls just like those rescued 10 years ago. Now, the abuse that was more open 10 years ago has changed venue. Now it includes delivery right to the abusers hotel. Seedy room service. Venue changed? Yes. Ended by a venue change? Certainly not. Ended because it is now “illegal”? No. Still occurs, like the CNN video (on YouTube) shows, “Every day in Cambodia.”

I wonder what it takes?

Restoration is a key component of our work with AIM. I cannot image the thoughts, the dreams, the memories the altered expectations of adults and the prospects of growing up that must be in the minds of a child once they are rescued. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Wow! Could there be many situations more dramatic to the emotional development of a child than being serially raped while under the “watch care” of adults who are family or friends? The work has only begun for the child when the rescue has occurred and the perpetrators dealt with. In some cases, the child will grow up and into a world that to them seems unchanged.

I wonder what it takes?

Reintegration is a key component of our work with AIM. Ponder the life an individual girl. Rescue, done. Restoration, in progress. Reintegration? What does that mean? In a world where people abuse children, where there is little value on the life of that child, abuse is not only possible it is probable. Innately we guard what we value so the very concept of abusing a child indicates that child has little value to the abuser and those who allow it. Once rescued the child may not be at risk of the abuse but does that automatically change his/her value? Of course not. In fact, a child rescued and restored finds moving back into their home or community quite difficult because they have a social stigma of what they “once were.” Good jobs are not available to them. Often they are shunned and made to believe that much of what they learned about being valued in the eyes of God in the restoration process is not reality in the reintegration process. The pressure to now live a life in sex trade by choice or default because there is no other opportunity afforded them is significant. These rescued and restored victims need opportunities to earn a fair wage in a fair trade and paths to respectability within their own community. They need to see the value that God has for them recognized by family and friends.

I wonder what it takes?

Prevention is a key component of our work with AIM. Kids are on the streets of Svay Pak and virtually every neighborhood in Asia. Cambodian children are at high risk of every calamity. Being hit by a car, run over by a moto, eating spoiled food they find in a trash pile at the curb and yes, stolen to be trafficked. Every day in Cambodia this is reality. AIM has rented, through the generosity of committed donors, buildings in the community of Svay Pak (about 80,000 people). Buildings that in some cases were the primary brothels of 10 years ago. Buildings along the streets where shady deals for young children are still brokered today. Buildings into which we can bring children during the most vulnerable times of the day and teach them to read and study. Places where teachers tell them about the value they have in the eyes of the God who created them. Teach them, protect them, guide them and keep them from the grabbing arms of those who have designs for their abuse in some hotel room elsewhere in the city perhaps during those same hours. Alongside AIM volunteers, a team of dedicated local young people are learning to become teachers in equipped classrooms rented right in the neighborhood where their students live. AIM is teaching them to stand for right on behalf of these children and the very community they are in and in which many of them grew up themselves. Does that end it? It is a start but it is not a finish.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;²to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn. (Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV)”

Rescue. You bet. Our team rescues and we seldom have sufficient manpower or funds to affect all the rescues of which we are aware. Right now we have 50 girls from Cambodia trafficked to China, many as “brides” who are awaiting opening in our program to return to their home country. The police are more cooperative but the crime is still quite rampant in Cambodia. The presence and activity of AIM is still a necessary powerful influence.

Restoration. On it. Materials and methods developed by some of the world’s leading experts on sexual abuse recovery are to tools for restorative work at AIM’s special homes where 24 hour care is administered with the end being successful reintegration of a former victim who sees their life as valuable in the eyes of God even while the people around don’t yet see it. AIM has extensive therapy for these victims. It will be years of work. Decades of work in some cases. This includes significant spiritual guidance during this period and beyond.

Reintegration. Engaged for the change. AIM operates Training Centers where skills are learned that are deployable in the work world of Cambodia. Training Centers that do more than extract work from the employees but centers that also impart life skills like language, managing money, picking good boy friends and Bible study. Centers focused on reclaiming and redeveloping the very moral and cultural structure of a community. Centers that recognize and reward character development not simple attainment of work goals. From among these rescued, restored and reintegrated victims, AIM is working to establish the next generation of community leaders. Leaders who will not permit the abuse of a future generation. A generation of leaders who will lead their community, nation and world in an honorable direction.

Prevention. In it to end it! Laws, penalties and enforcers will not end it. These do not change hearts. Change occurs from the inside out. Prevention will occur when the people of Cambodia believe that it is just wrong to abuse each other and especially little children whose innocence does not help them even recognize that what is being done to them is wrong. Often, they only know it hurts and makes them scared. Prevention will change their expectations.

What will it take? A lot of dedicated people who know it is necessary to engage in it. Some will be able to engage by going. Some will engage by sending. Some will engage by supporting. It will take all kinds. There is no room for spectators. Everyone needs to find their place and ability to engage.

It is not over. Not by a long shot! Has it changed? Significantly. Is it worth continuing even after 10 years of fighting? Ask a victim. (Nary’s Story and Bella’s Story)

The battle is not over with arrests and convictions. The battle is not over when a certain number of rescues has occurred or restorations begun or job placements made. This battle is not over until the community itself has been changed. Changed from within. A change that only comes through the Gospel not by the laws of man. That’s what it will take. And AIM is in it to end it!

Please consider a donation as your way to engage. DONATE HERE

Please, share this blog with others so that the movement grows worldwide to ende child sex trafficking and restore those who have been its victims.

04.20.2015

From Darkness a Great Light

How do you write about dramatic events without sounding dramatic? I confess to many sleepless hours pondering what to write in this post. I do not want to be dramatic for affect, I do not want to exaggerate circumstances in any form, and I do not want to inflate the significance of what is being accomplished for this cause worldwide right here with this dedicated team that we have the honor to work with daily. However, dear friends, after being here just over 90 days I am still completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of the impact of the crime inflicted upon the people of Cambodia by their very own families and leaders. I am also utterly amazed at the energy and enthusiasm of the current young generation to turn the course of their nation for Christ.

When a nation walks away from the design of God for even a few brief years (Pol Pot era of late 70’s here) the impact is dramatic. No exaggeration is necessary. Pol Pot turned on his own people and these people turned on each other or turned their backs as others inflicted enormous suffering on the most vulnerable of their own – young children. Child sex-slavery was not a deeply hidden away business. It was a storefront, boldly and openly offered LEGITIMIZED business. It was an acceptable way to make a living. In addition, men and women alike, many parents themselves, made their living off the sale of the children for sex to deviant perpetrators who walked the streets without threat of harm. You may say, Pete, there you go being dramatic. I can only say that this is why writing this post has been so hard. It sounds dramatic not because of any emphasis of my own, it sounds dramatic because it is!

And it is still happening today. Not so open, not on the storefront basis, no, it is now underground but still very much available. We have in our recovery house now a 4 year old victim. This is real.

I commend to you a book called “Terrify No More” by Gary Haugen. The story of rescuing modern day slaves. In the first few chapters, he writes of a rescue of young children from brothels in Svay Pak, Cambodia. I have been told that the rescue route to the “safe place” was along a road I now travel every day and passes not much more than a football field from where Debbie and I now live.

Much of the book is about the work started here to rescue children. However, rescue is only the first step. Rescue must be followed by restoration and that by reintegration. Debbie and I now work in Svay Pak engaged in restoration and reintegration as well as prevention.

Walking the streets of Svay Pak can be mind numbing as many of the residents, young and old, are lifetime residents of this community. Oh, the things the eyes of the older ones have seen and their hearts remember. This is what man without God will stoop to and this is why we are here. Sure, we comfort and work to give good educations and establish honorable jobs, but most importantly, we work to be speakers of God’s Truth to a community that needs the hope that can only be found in Christ. The teachers of the Truth were largely wiped out and those that remain need help in the enormous task of being the voice of the Lord in dark places.

This week in our quiet time together, Debbie and I read carefully this verse from Psalm 118:5-6, “Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. 6The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

We have come in response to the call of distress. We have come to be part of the answer that will set these people free, and, it is the Lord who is doing the wonderful work of setting the captives free.

Can I also tell you that out of the darkness there is rising hope. I see it in the eyes of the girls in the training centers as they make t-shirts for church VBS programs and bracelets for awareness events, as young teachers learn how to teach the next generation the skills to live differently than the past, as they see their country become something well above the dark place that it has been. So much more needs to be done but so much is being accomplished. Hope is becoming reality for some, soon we pray it will be so for multitudes.

If you are a supporter of ours, we are so thankful for your engagement with us. If you have not yet engaged in support of this work, please consider supporting our work here. The impact is worldwide.

03.02.2015

Giving what they have

I am seeing afresh that some of the greatest acts of love are seemingly small gestures filled with all the heart someone can give. Today, I received such a gesture.

As I have the joy to work with our three employment centers which are actually “fair trade”, people loving, Christ centered, garment factories where lives are more important that piece goods and the value of being a person is more significant than the lowest cost of production. We employ girls who were trafficked for sex. We give them a chance to do work and earn an honorable sustaining wage. Their smiles are precious. I swear I will burst with joy when one looks up from her machine and smiles as I walk through the sewing room and says, “Hello, sir”. No matter how many times I tell them to drop the “sir” they say it every time. They are grateful for the rescue, restoration and now reintegration that the Lord has brought them through AIM.

Today, I walked through with my old tattered rice bag that I use for protecting my things from the incredible amount of dust. The picture and the sound are the same every time, “hello sir, hello sir, hello sir”, each one lifting their head from their work to greet me with a smile. I reached the office and went through some business matters with the great team that really does all the work. As we concluded, I noted the tattered rice bag. One of our staff jumped to her feet and headed to the sewing room. She was going to have a new bag made for me right then, right there, right now. I was a bit embarrassed. In a minute or so she returned and said she would have it in the morning. I was still amazed and very grateful. We concluded our meeting and I headed back across the factory sewing room to leave. Then I heard it, “Sir, sir, sir” then again, “sir, sir, sir” as four ladies literally raced across the floor to catch me. In their hands was a new bag. They were so pleased to make that gift for me. So pleased to stop what they were doing that made money and make something for me. Oh, if I could show you their smiles. For safety we cannot display pictures of these girls but let me tell you, they were precious. They used what God has recently given to them, skill and love. They made a gift for me.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17 ESV)”

And I treasure my new bag. This simple black bag made expressly for me by precious people who are seeing for the first time in their lives that God loves them and has a way for them. This is a special gift to me – very special.

Thank you for gifts that sent us and keep us here. I may have received the bag but you too receive from the Lord for the part you have played in the work we do.

01.25.2015

At the heart of our work

In Cambodia they say men are like gold and women are like cloth. Drop gold in the dirt and it can be washed clean. Drop cloth in the dirt and it is stained forever. From within that deep seeded context we find the atrocity of sex trafficking of little girls. With this cultural perspective in view, how can this atrocity occur? It occurs because the culture lacks any deep root of the Gospel of Christ.

We are here to help see that this changes. We are here because folks have partnered with us in the work. We will share through this blog what benefit is coming through your support. Watch and see what God is doing.

At the heart of our work here is the desire to see God become known and followed among these precious people. Stepping into the middle of the huge issue of sex trafficking of kids is without a doubt a place to see how lives can be changed through knowing the Truth. In the next few posts, I am going to try to help you understand the root of the lives here and both the depravity and the desperation. Then I will follow up with the rays of hope shinning through. Follow us and please share with friends. This is a cause that cries out. It is worth your attention.

Here is one of the best articles clearly describing the context. Please, take a few moments to read, consider, pray, and share.

Please, follow this link for the story that will change the way you look at your children and grandchildren. If you are a teacher, you will look differently into the eyes of young students. We have a responsibility to our children to raise them in the ways they should go not for self pleasure or reward. http://gu.com/p/3qjv7/sbl

Donate if you can. Thank you when you do.

12.12.2014

They need a New Life

There are places where it is not safe to be a kid. Places where adults use kids for awful purposes. These places exist everywhere on the globe. Even in places considered “civilized”.

There are places where kids are rescued, restored and reintegrated. Where they are shown that God loves them and has a plan for their good. These places DO NOT exist everywhere on the globe. The best places are emerging in more distant lands. Places like Cambodia. Places where the Gospel can be presented clearly as the PRIMARY tool to knowing a person’s worth and purpose. There is enormous hope emerging in these places and it is hope in Christ that is the key.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Debbie and I get to see the Rescue|Restore|Reintegration places grow! We want to press into the atrocity with the Truth of God’s saving grace. We get to be a part of a work that is seeing over 85% of the rescued kids restored and reintegrated. We get to see and aid in the work of the Lord to make the old pass away and new things come. In early January we will begin our two year assignment embedded in this cause.

The premiere agency in the world is Agape International Missions (AIM) in Cambodia and we have joined their staff. While we have already begun to engage in the work, we will move to Cambodia in January to engage face to face and personally for the cause.

Help us spread the word. And if your organization needs a cause for a fund raiser, if you need a service project (ie., ice bucket challenge and glow runs), if you want to support our work, we would love your help. Visit AIM.RADICALLYMARRIED.COM for more info or contact us. We are donor supported in this work and if this cause resonates with you, your church group or your business, please support our work in any way that you can.

May this cause lead you to prayer for the Rescue|Restoration|Reintegration of kids who need to know there is hope. They need a New Life – one found in Christ.

If you can support the work in any way all gifts are greatly appreciated. Please, share this post on your FaceBook page and other Social Media. Bring awareness to the cause.

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12.02.2014

The real “priceless”

My last few months have been quite troubling. I have been wrestling with emotions in a way and for reasons that are different than at any time in my life. I am seeing circumstances, thinking about lives, hurting over tragedies that in the past I found easier to dismiss. I find myself more connected to the sufferings of others than I have been in the past. A lot of it lingers into sleepless nights. It is not fear, it is not anxiety, it is something quite different.

As we prepared for this Thanksgiving holiday and the visit we would get to enjoy with three of our adult children, I found myself thinking about the relationship I have been able to have through the years with each of them. How it has transitioned from their enormous trust in me to the lessons they learned (and taught me) as they grew into their own worlds, to now me placing enormous trust in them. Letting go and letting them let go. I am very blessed, very fortunate. I can sit down and discuss difficult subjects with them and we can learn from each other. They are quickly becoming wise and more independent. Our respect for one another seems to be growing. It certainly is for me of them.

With that as my backdrop, let me describe what has me troubled and wrestling, what is contributing to sleepless nights. What has me both thankful and broken down. What gives me reason to “press on” in these days with work that is about the Kingdom of God.

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you (Philippians 3:13-15 ESV)”.

There are little kids in the world who do not know the love of their mother and father. They don’t have that growing respect thing going on. They only know abuse at the hands of adults. They only know a life that is absent the visible presence of ones who love God and are entrusted with their care and upbringing. What would a “thanksgiving” gathering be for them?

trafficked As Debbie and I engage in the new work of Rescue|Restoration|Reintegration with AIM in Cambodia, we do it knowing that what is being accomplished half way around the world will lead to answers that will one day reach around the world – here. Answers that come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the only life changing answers. We fully get that the mission upon which we are embarking is an opportunity in our lives to live more deeply committed to the life changing impact of Christ upon a person. These kids need rescuers. And I do not mean Debbie or me, I mean Jesus. They need a face-to-face, heart-to-heart meeting with the real rescuer. Our role is simply to point the way, to be among the adults that act like the grown-ups these kids deserve to have.

I stay awake some nights preoccupied with the awesome chance to “be like Jesus” when these kids may have never seen that before. I am preoccupied with daydreams of the atrocities committed upon these kids for even one more day. I cannot separate my feelings from the cause. God has gripped me with it. What an honor.

Could this be a form of suffering for Jesus that I have never known before? Could the suffering of others become more significant to me than what I previously considered to be my own suffering? Yes, I believe it is. Paul expresses his rejoice in suffering for others:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ‘s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, (Colossians 1:24 ESV).

Feeling the sufferings of others and the opportunity to be planted in it for a time to point to the hope of Christ! I hope that a year from now my life will have intermingled with the lives of others such that there is a real thanksgiving for them to celebrate.

This may be the real priceless moment of my life.

If you are a “supporter” in our ministry words cannot express our thankfulness to you. Please know that we pray for you with deep gratitude.

Please, help us spread the word in the SENDHELP! Campaign to reach the desperate neighborhoods where kids do not yet know that Jesus loves them and has a plan for their future. Help us “press on toward the goal for the prize”. If this message is reaching you for the first time, please consider supporting this effort with a donation before the year closes. All donations are tax deductible. See the DONATE link at the top of the page for more information.

10.23.2014

Every gift is special, but some are very moving.

The receiving of donations is new to me. As we have worked to tell the story of the cause that has so drawn us in, we have found the most interesting patchwork of people connecting with our work to Prevent|Rescue|Restore|Reintegrate children from sex trafficking. Family, friends, fellow Christ followers, strangers and age disparity is significant. Every gift is very special. Each one says to us that the donor gets the significance of this work which is an earthly example of the redeeming work of Jesus. Each intervention becomes an opportunity to speak the one name of the one God that can really change a life.

But there was one recent gift that just really was touching. A young girl, about the age of those we will work with, offered a gift. She sent it in a note. But before writing the note she asked her dad about the paper bills she was offering. She wanted to know how much they were worth. When he answered she was convinced it was a large sum and was pleased she could give that much to the cause. Her joy in having something significant to help was evident to her dad. Her joy makes the gift enormous to us.

As we continue our commitment to speak about the abolition of child sex trafficking and the Power of the Gospel to bring real change, we thank all of those who have given gifts to our work. Without each gift we would be sidelined. Without your prayers we would feel alone. Without the Lord we would be weak. With all these, we will see lives, families, communities and the nations changed.

Thank you. Each and every one. Every gift IS special.

10.18.2014

I didn’t set out to be a missionary

As young boy, I set out to be a great athlete. In my school, football was the big sport so I played football, but actually I was a much better runner. And I loved to run. I dreamed I would be the fastest ½ miler in the country and actually, I was one year when I won my first race of the season and it turned out to be the first official track meet of the year in the nation. By the end of the first couple weeks I dropped off the leader board. But I dreamed of that kind of success. Being a missionary was not on my mind.

As a young adult, I set out to be the best sales representative my multi-national pharmaceutical company had ever had. I planned to rise to heights in the company at a great rate and one day run the company. I did quite well, rose pretty quickly but I never did run that company. Being a missionary was not on my mind.

As young parent, I dreamed of an amazing family. This dream has come true. I am blessed with an amazing bride and amazing children and grandchildren. This is a dream that has already come true. Still, being a missionary was not on my mind but I was intrigued by those who were.

Later in my business career, I dreamed of moving an emerging company out of difficult circumstances and advancing it as a public company. That dream ended a bit flat as after reaching the goal of “going public” the shareholders wanted something very different than what I expected. I departed. Short-term missions was inviting and now seemed a worthy work for which I had time.

I took what was to be a two year sabbatical from the business world to engage in the development of a new movement in churches, Family Ministries. In 18 months I realized this was my niche. Still, permanent mission work seemed unlikely although I did begin to have new dreams.

I found what I thought would be my role for the rest of my life when the universe of church ministry began to see business executives with training and skills as useful in church work. Being and Executive Pastor seemed to bring together years of experience in management with years of experience in ministry. It seemed I had been prepared for this throughout my life. Being a missionary now seemed unlikely.

Then came a short-term trip to an Asian country known as an epicenter for some of the deepest and most vile sins of mankind – adults preying upon children for sex. Selling them, trading them, trapping them, abusing them. Suddenly, I wanted to be a missionary. Someone had to go and I knew in an instant that the someone God was tapping was me.

I did not set out to be a missionary but now I find I am embarking on the greatest challenge of my life, to fulfill perhaps the greatest purpose of my life. I have eight grandchildren and someone has to engage in changing the world they will grow in to. Why not me?

Now I am setting out to be a missionary. From where I see things today, I think God set me on this course long ago. He just let me see it a little bit at a time.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord……