11.22.2015

A story you need to hear: Toha’s story

A story worth sharing.

As you prepare for Thanksgiving this week in America, please remember to be thankful for the rescue and restoration of Toha and others just like her here in Cambodia and around the world. The story is hard to hear, but the victory should be shouted from the mountain tops.

God is not dead! He is alive and we see His work in the lives of those we get to work with here. Please consider sharing this with other folks who may share your desire to see child-trafficking come to an end here, there and EVERYWHERE.

https://youtu.be/mSbHDakdddU

We are thankful for those who follow and support our work both in prayer and finances. On this Thanksgiving we will not be with our family in the states but will be with some of our brothers and sisters in Christ here who are our co-laborers in the work to end one of our generations great atrocities. We will be thanking the Lord for our prayer and financial supporters who give the team here the opportunity to engage in the front lines of this work.

Join us in the fight. Support the work .

Need a speaker for an upcoming event on the fight to end trafficking? Contact us, we can help. pete@aim4asia.org

Share this post please.

10.29.2015

Time to talk turkey

We will be back in Cambodia and re-energized (and I will add, healed) in time to search for a turkey (albeit likely pretty skinny) and all the fixins’ and our own celebration of Thanksgiving.

This was not our schedule or plan. We had planned to be preparing to return to the states for Christmas with our family, but God had a different plan. It involved an unexpected blessing. His ways and plans are so much better than mine.

A year ago we spent Thanksgiving with an amazing family in their home in Jefferson City as we longed for our work in Cambodia. Now one year later, little did we realize what the next 12 months would entail. Amazing, powerful, life changing work. Cancer, healing, return to the task.

I am grateful for each day of life. I awake each morning and wonder why? Why did God choose to extend his mercy to me and cure my illness? There will come a day when my “cure” will be to graduate and go home to be with my Lord but right now that cure is to remain on this earth. So the answer to why seems abundantly clear to me. He still has work on His agenda for me to engage in. So, this morning I woke up here, on earth. The only answer I have to “why me?” is He made that choice. I know I have not earned it nor do I have any special thing to offer in my service to Him. He just willed it to be so. I need no other answer to why.

So the tickets are purchased. We depart for Phnom Penh on 11 November arriving in PP at midnight on the 12th. At noon on the 13th (we will sleep in a little) we will be back with our beloved friends in Svay Pak, Cambodia. Back to the work we are so wonderfully blessed to have in front of us, the Rescue|Restoration|Reintegration|Prevention of child-sex trafficking globally. We are in it to end it.

And we will give thanks to the Lord for confirming the work of our hands.

“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 ‭90:17‬ ‭ESV‬‬”

For your prayers and support, I extend my deepest appreciation. Please remember us for yet another year in your prayers and to your friends and associates as the topic of child-trafficking and the battle to end it emerges in our western society. This is a battle for which the Gospel has ready answers. We just need believers to respond, especially men who will lead other men into the light.

Blessings to you. May your Thanksgiving be a time of understanding even more fully that the great Blesser is even greater than the blessings He bestows.

If you are a financial supporter of our work, please know that we are unable to fully express to you the depth of our appreciation. You make our continued work to Rescue|Restore|Reintegrate|Prevent child-sex trafficking possible. This is when enabling is a good thing.

If you have not yet become involved with us financially, please consider this opportunity to engage with us to end this modern day atrocity. Use the DONATE tab at the top of this page to see how you, your church or your business can sponsor us. We welcome your support of any amount. All donations are tax deductible when made through this page.

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.

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.

04.26.2015

A daughters worth?

When within a culture there is not an understanding that man, each person, is created in the image of God and therefore is of great worth, then subduing others for personal pleasure is not understood as wrong. The Gospel teaches the value of life, each life. The Gospels sets captives free. The Gospel changes hearts of offenders.

We are engaged in ending what is described in this video, please take the short 3 minutes and 46 seconds of time to watch it. In many parts of the world, especially here, is legitimate business.

May we see it end in our lifetime! Your support assists us in the battle to end it. If you are a donor, we thank you deeply. If you have not yet engaged, your financial gift would be well used in the battle. Donations

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.

02.20.2015

What does 3rd world mean?

Cambodia is a 3rd world country and the United States is not. Why? What is the meaning of this term that is tossed out when referring to many mission locations?

Actually there is not one term, but three. During the Cold War the United States and its non-Communist allies were deemed the First World, the Communist bloc was defined as the Second World, and nonaligned nations, which were predominantly poor, were designated the Third World.

Today, 3rd world usually refers to areas of the most impoverished countries and regions of the world, serving as a blanket term for characterizing the political and economic life of Latin America, Africa and Asia – Cambodia where we now live. One might also use this term to describe extreme destitution in otherwise affluent countries.

The TEFL Academy which certifies and trains teachers all over the world outlines 20 characteristics that generally apply to most Third World countries.

1. Low life expectancy is encountered in these countries due to the lack of money allocated to health services, and because people have less access to quality medical care.
2. Low standards of education.
3. Poor health care. Over 11 million children die each year from illnesses such as malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia.
4. Unemployment.
5. Poor nutrition. 824 million people go hungry or have a very limited food supply while an additional 500 million suffer from serious malnutrition.
6. A lack of clean drinking water. In excess of one billion people do not have proper access to clean drinking water, 400 million of which are children.
7. Overpopulation.
8. Poverty. About one in four people have no means to live on, and millions of people live on less than $1 a day.
9. Economic dependence on more developed countries.
10. Their economies are devoted to producing primary goods for the developed world whilst providing markets for finished goods manufactured in the developed world.
11. The ruling elites of most of these countries are extremely wealthy.
12. Corruption is endemic in a lot of these countries.
13. Control of major economic activities such as mining and cultivation is often retained by foreign firms.
14. The price of their goods is often determined by the developed countries.
15. Trade with developed countries is practically the only source of income.
16. Human rights are less protected.
17. A total lack or inadequate national electricity grid- 1.6 billion people live without electricity in these countries.
18. Although some of these countries, such as Venezuela and Nigeria, are rich in natural resources: very little benefit is felt by the ordinary people.
19. These countries are often ruled by dictatorial regimes, or corrupt ‘democratically elected’ governments.
20. HIV/AIDS is a serious problem in some of these countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Much of this list describes our precious Cambodia and the environment where we work. Understanding the living conditions of the people is essential in showing them to Christ. Pray for the Khmer people and those caught up in the ravages of sex trafficking. Only Christ can be their hope! These too are God’s precious people and He is setting them free!

In some ways, these third world folks understand the love of Christ that first world folks just can’t. We are privileged to be working with them and seeing God work through them to show the world how to set captives free.

Note: TEFL is an acronym for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. TEFL academies are all around the world.