09.14.2015

Lessons from Grandma’s Kitchen

When I was a little boy, pre-school age, I used to love to be in the kitchen with my grandma. We called her “Ouie” but that is another story filled with fun, but not now. Right now I want to focus on the joy I used to have to be with her in the kitchen. As I think back, I loved being there with her because when she was in the kitchen it usually meant great treats in the works. I can actually remember during one of her visits to our home making the decision to not go out and play with the neighborhood kids because Ouie was making her way to the kitchen with a bag that looked like it contained chocolate chips. I was at least going to investigate what she was up to before heading outside. Sure enough, I caught a glimpse of the ingredients coming out of the grocery bag and I quickly forgot the call of the outdoors.

Interesting to me is to think back on what drew me to my grandmother’s side. At that early age, I was not thinking, “wow, this lady loves me. She has my best interests in mind all the time.” No, that would have been a level of critical thinking that I just did not have yet. But, I did think, “Wow, this lady loves me. She makes great stuff that I like.” At this stage of my life it was all about me. I did not understand the depth of commitment that compelled Ouie to go to such lengths to demonstrate her love for me. I just knew she gave me good stuff in a measure that exceeded what my Mom or Dad might let me have when she wasn’t around to spoil us.

One day, I remember it oh so well, she was melting some chocolate chips on the stove. I was at my place sitting on the counter closer to the stove than she had told me to sit and when she lifted the pan from the burnt orange burner on the stove she said, “Now don’t touch that, it is HOT!”

Guess what I did next? I can look at my hand all these years later and still remember well the lightening quick pain that shot through my entire body as my hand came away from that burner with the crescent shape of the rings clearly marked on my little hand. I have never come close to making that choice again. I learned “first hand” that stove burners are HOT.

As I ponder this event from my early life I wonder what kept me from being obedient to Ouie who I knew loved me? Why had I so quickly disobeyed her direct guidance? Sure, easy to chalk it up to childishness but is that all there is to it? I think there is more.

You see, I did not understand love at that time. Not understanding it did not keep me from experiencing it but it did keep me from understanding how it works. Where it comes from and how it directs my path. At that stage of life, I thought love was about getting something. If someone, in this case Ouie, loved me she gave me stuff. End of love story. But not really.

Real love is so much deeper than that. Love is about a commitment that, if I had been a deep thinking 5 year old, I would have thought, “Now why does this woman who loves me want to keep me from touching something so inviting? What could be her reason for keeping me from something that looks like fun?” Not me, not at 5 years old. Ouie told me that because she knew the outcome before the event. She warned me of the eventuality of touching that hot burner and she cared enough to say “NO.” Seems like a biblical example of love to me now.

God is the same way. Before I understood love, God was loving me. Before I knew the pain of disobedience God was loving me. Before I knew to ask for forgiveness, I was forgiven. Scripture tells us in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (ESV).

That brings me back to Ouie. She is the first example of love that I remember in my life. God placed her in my life for me to learn about love. When I touched that hot burner, I learned about love. The very person who advised me not to touch it was quickly holding me tightly in her arms and working to comfort and care for me. She did not cast me aside for disobedience. She did not quickly pull out a ruler to spank me (though that did happen on a number of other occasions). She knew my pain and that a lesson was being learned but right then, at that moment, what I needed most was love. And I got it from my Lord through Ouie.

This is a blog about life and work in the field of ending sex-trafficking. Specifically, this is a blog about our work where we are presently engaged in Cambodia. So how does that life event fit this cause?

This is a country with very few “Ouies”. An entire generation of children has been raised up with parents, relatives, neighbors and other adults who not only fail to protect, they often have been the inflictors of pain. They have not had the learning experience of love to even conceptually understand it much less believe there is a God who loves.

Let me be careful to avoid misleading. It is not knowing that activates love but it is knowing that activates understanding. The fact is God loves me and you even if I don’t know it. But understanding that has changed my life decisions. I had many “Ouies” in my life.

Here, in the world of sex-trafficking, young people don’t see any “Ouies”.

That is why we are here. That is why missionaries are sent. Sometimes we spend a lot of time even on the mission field focusing on the rules of faith when we need to focus on the purpose of faith. We need to help people here and wherever we are – wherever you are – understand that, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 ESV).

We are in Cambodia; we are in this cause to show the love of Christ to a generation that has few examples. We are here to help them to be transformed by knowledge to activate understanding so that it becomes action. So that a new generation will grow up with “Ouies”.

If you support our work here, we are so very grateful. If you don’t yet support our work, please consider a monthly gift to keep us engaged in this work. We have been called to this I am certain. Are you perhaps among those called to send us?

Perhaps your church would find a co-mission by partnering with us with monthly support or even your business might want to be aligned with the work of the Gospel to end sex-trafficking of young people. Click a link and find out how you can be a part of sending us.

Thank you to all my “Ouies”. Your lights shine bright in my life.

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.