hey everyone! we just wanted to post another blog about our financial support.
first off, we WILL be sending out a formal thank you very soon to each of you when we have completed our support raising to all of those who gave. we could never thank you enough for investing in God's Kingdom through us and what we were/are blessed to do.
as for now, we are STILL in need of raising our last bit of support. we are in need of people giving several amounts from $250-$1000 and even up in order to complete the fundraising. as you can see, we have so little left to raise and we just need people to give one last time.
if we can raise this last bit then our debt to AIM for this trip will be complete and our trip will be over, but until we finish raising the money our trip still remains in the form of support raising.
so please, go to the top left of this page and click on "Support Us Financially!..." and follow the instructions and give what you feel lead to give so that we may complete this trip!
“Dont you see Me watching you?” He asks, His laughter thinly veiled. I
feel simultaneous terror, exhilaration, and amused. He is funny…and
watchful. Something He once told me is ringing in my ears…”I’ve known
you forever.” Suddenly I feel so seen. He is a witness to my entire
life, from the knitting of my bones to my tiniest discontentment, my
most secret joy. How strange and beautiful to be seen, to be watched,
to be witnessed.
I am
more naked than I understand. Even my skin doesn’t come between my God
and me, nor does the rib cage around my heart. No. He is, I am, and we
are. I am a pulsing vein, and He is lifegiving, oxygen-supplying Blood.
I breathe the air of heaven in His whispers.
This past month, before we arrived home, I worked in Doi Saket which is a part of Chiang Mai in Thailand. This is where the guys helped with a ministry to prevent girls from going into prostitution. And since being back, we have all been interested in keeping up with our "home away from home" so my friend Geoff from the Race sent me this story below, which is the EXACT place that we worked and JUST a few kilometers away from us I might add.
You can read the original story here from CNN but here it is in full pasted into our blog.
(CNN) -- He seemed a little confused and unsure of his
surroundings. Karl Kraus sat alone in a cell, his blue, watery eyes
following me as I entered the holding area of a Chiang Mai courthouse.
Karl Kraus is 90 years old, hard of hearing, frail and, according to
the police, a dangerous pedophile.
I'd wandered into the cells
sure I would be rebuffed. Instead, the Second World War veteran seemed
keen to talk to me. He explained how the allegations against him are
motivated by greedy neighbors. He claimed they are trying to blackmail
him. It's an argument he will make to judges in the coming weeks. Karl
Kraus is thought to be the oldest person ever accused of child
molestation in Thailand's over-burdened penal system.
Last year,
2,888 people were charged with having sex with children under 15 in
Thailand. Thailand has become the destination of choice for sex
tourists looking to prey on children. But now the police are raising
their game, determined to turn the tide.
Police Lt. Col.
Apichart Hattasin leads a small but very determined unit of officers in
Chiang Mai, all dedicated to tracking down pedophiles.
The
workload is going up each month; officers here aren't sure whether that
is because they are simply uncovering more cases, or whether more and
more pedophiles are choosing to relocate to Thailand.
But Col.
Apichart is on a mission to catch them and that's not easy. He opened
his files to CNN, showing us dozens of surveillance videos, photos and
cases histories of suspected pedophiles. While he and his men may be
convinced someone may be sexually molesting children, proving it in
court is another matter. Often a case pivots on the testimonies of the
young victims and that means defendants are often tempted to buy off
families.
"Money can change a lot, it can change even the mind of the victims." he said.
"The
suspect might try to approach the victim or the family of the victims,
to convince them or give bribery to make them change their statement.
And if they change their statement, it could be different or totally
different I would say. That is the most challenge."
"I'm
looking for them and if they think they can escape let's try. I will
get them one way or another. I will make sure they get punished. --Col. Apichart Hattasin
And Col.Apichart is clear the law needs reform.
"There
is no specific law about having child pornography in possession," he
said. "Thailand should issue the new law about child pornography
specifically."
Ronnasit Proeksayajiva is with a small NGO called
the Counter Human Trafficking Unit. He works closely with Col.
Apichart, often accompanying officers on raids. His assessment is frank
-- and bleak.
"Honestly right now I don't think it is getting
better, I think it is getting worse, because I don't know, maybe they
believe that Thailand is the best place for them to come to have sex
with the children."
Karl Kraus is alleged to have lured girls
into his modest rundown bungalow in Doi Saket near Chiang Mai. Just a
few houses away, I met the mother of the four girls Karl Kraus is
accused of abusing. She denied his claim that she is trying to extort
money from him. Instead she breaks down and weeps as she goes into
harrowing detail about the ordeal her daughters endured. The youngest
girl Kraus is accused of abusing is just seven years old.
Kraus'
case has received media attention because of his age, but there are
many thousands of other cases in Thailand, which largely go unreported.
Like Swiss banker Cornel Wietlisbach, who pleaded guilty to abusing
young boys in Chiang Mai -- he was facing a four year sentence, but
this was halved because he cooperated with the police. In the end, he
was granted parole immediately and was deported back to Switzerland
after he'd paid a 4,000 baht fine (about $125).
Such cases do
little to discourage pedophiles from coming to Thailand. Col. Apichart
says online forums are abuzz with talk about Thailand being a child
molesters' paradise.
"There is a group of the pedophiles online,
it is a community, they talk with each other and they like to come to a
third world country where the criminal justice system is not strong
enough to deal with them."
Another case working its way through
the penal system is that of Robert Cutler, a U.S. Fulbright Scholar
teaching biology at a Chiang Mai University. The police accuse him of
sexually abusing young boys, something Cutler denies. Col. Apichart had
him under surveillance for weeks. The photos show Cutler talking to
groups of young boys on the street and taking other boys swimming at a
local pool. A video of a police search of his apartment revealed
semi-clothed youths in his bedroom. All this will form part of the case
against him, which is due to start later this month.
Col.
Apichart has this message to pedophiles thinking of coming to Thailand:
"I would welcome them to come here, I'm looking for them and if they
think they can escape let's try. I will get them one way or another. I
will make sure they get punished."
Scripture emphasizes that each of us has a different function in the body of Christ. As I believe that there are incredible gifts we
have been anointed with--"I also see that there are seasons of using particular
gifts as well.
Our supporters have given generously "as it is requested of
givers and contributors (Romans 12:3-8). Their role in this journey and
function in the body is of tremendous importance. We are asked as Christians to
go and make disciples of all nations, but how could we go if friends, family,
strangers, and the anonymous givers were not prompted to give. They chose to do
so sacrificially, generously, cheerfully, and humbly.
Out of their generosity and care to bring kingdom in these
foreign countries several cities where ministers had never reached have now had
exposure to Christ. People have been healed of addictions, healed of diseases,
live in freedom, heard the Gospel, turned their lives to Christ, been
transformed, and found true holy intimacy.
All of these things made possible through the gifts our
supporters have given because they were willing to listen to God’s whisper.
When people compliment us on what “we have done” this year I
want to impress on them first that Christ is the center of all that has been
done, in fact He is the reason it has been done, the way it has been done, and
the one who has been doing. And secondly, to impress upon them the importance
of the obedience of givers who are so seldom acknowledged or appreciated. It
was through their gifts that God moved in mighty ways this year.
I thank you personally for giving your time, money, prayers,
and energy to this missions journey. It is not just a donation to one
individual (or in Chad’s and my case, two individuals). It is an investment in
the kingdom. If one sows sparingly he will reap sparingly but if one sows
bountifully, he will reap bountifully. You have all sowed into God’s ministry
bountifully and cheerfully. Cheerful givers are those that give not looking to
receive in return, but they are precisely those who do reap the blessings.
I pray rich blessings for you all.
If you would like to invest in a bit more kingdom,
then you can click our “support us” tab on the left hand side. We are still in need of $4,000.00 and as we all know every little bit counts. Chad and I were
just in Thailand. Chad was working in the prevention of girls being trafficked
into prostitution, and I was working with the girls who are working in
prostitution, who want a new life and a new way.
:: This is Ing. She was found just 2km from the girls home. She is only 7 years old. She is the newest addition to the family. She arrived on the LAST day of Chad's ministry there at the girls home. She was prevented from being trafficked because the family found out about how these crazy people of the Remember Nhu ministry were trying to give Thai girls a second chance so that their families would not have to sell them... and so Ing got her second chance. Amen. Selah ::
Okay, so I have posted that blog about where we are, what we are doing, and who we are with. What I have NOT posted yet is how much I have truly fallen in love with this place.
All of these girls have touched my life so much that I want to come back here and be a part of this organization and work forever.
As Jack Black said in School of Rock, "[These] children have touched me and I'm pretty sure I've touched them too." Yes, this quote is out of context from the comical form it placed in the movie BUT nonetheless, I have truly been touched by these girls.
They have stolen that piece of my heart that I have deep down for missions and people. They have taken ALMOST all of it. And this time... it seems as though I can't really get it back. I guess I will have to start working on creating a new space... or a bigger heart.
We thought Man-istry month (which is a time when the guys are together and separated from the girls for the entire month) would be a time for hard labor, a bunch of sports, a lot of theology talk, and sodas and chips...
but never, no NEVER did we think that we would be impacted so much by a group of little girls.
And this is a quick shot of this month so far... (please watch the video below)...
Here is a post from a guy on the "N"-Squad starting Jan. 2010. This is the ministry that we are currently doing in Thailand for the Men. We call it Man-istry month. This is the month I have been waiting for since Africa.
If you would like to see the original post, please go here.
Also, await the video that I'm creating about our month for within the next 2 weeks.
Love you all!
chad
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As we entered Thailand, we were warned
about many things. We were told to make sure to avoid the areas in
Bangkok where there are political riots. We were told to avoid wearing
red or yellow t-shirts in order to not be seen as supporters of either
side of those rioting. We were told to be careful as white men in how
we presented ourselves to a country where white men are often
associated with the sex slave trade industry that is booming here.
We were warned about so much, and they are legitimate and fair
warnings. However, why wasn't I warned that the people of this country
were going to steal my heart? Why wasn't I warned that I was going to
fall in love with the Thai culture, the Thai people, and everyone who
lives and works at our ministry site?!?! I tried to prepare for so
much coming into the country, and I was still caught off-guard!!
It's
unbelievable here! I absolutely love Thailand. This month is unique in
that all of the men of our squad are serving together in Chiang Mai at
a ministry called Remember Nhu. We are doing a lot of manual labor and
developing relationships. We arrive at the site between 6:45 and 8:00
AM and are usually done by noon because the temperatures exceed 100
degrees pretty much every day. We've been digging a trench for a water
line, trimming banana trees, moving branches and rocks, and cutting
bamboo to repair some of their buildings. We have the afternoon off
each day to rest and then go back and eat dinner and spend time with
the girls.
I
wish you could meet them. You wouldn't last 10 seconds before you fell
in love!! The ministry is a home for 30 girls (ages 7-17) who were all
taken in because they were likely candidates to be sold by their
families into the sex slave trade. The director said that 9 out of 10
of these girls would currently be slaves in a brothel if Remember Nhu
hadn't offered them a scholarship to live there, go to school, and be a
part of a Christian community. There are many reasons why they were
likely candidates to be sold into slavery. The girls are either
orphans, abandoned, have a sibling or parent who "works" in the sex
slave trade, parents who do drugs or are in prison, or parents who are
too poor to take care of them. Most of their families do not want to
sell them, but it's driven by poverty. Their parents know it's one of
the few ways to get money here in Thailand when you're poor. Selling
their young daughter's virginity to a man or selling them outright to
be a prostitute in a brothel is going to get them a lot of money. That
is why a ministry like Remember Nhu is so important. It gives the
people who were going to sell the girls another option. Instead of
having their virginity taken away from them as children and trying to
repay a debt to a pimp that the pimp will never allow to be repaid,
they now are in a loving Christian community, are going to school, and
have a ministry who will support them through college or until they
have mastered a skill or trade to be able to provide themselves an
income.
In case you don't know much about the human trafficking or the sex
slave trade industry, I wanted to help make you aware of how huge this
is. As an illegal industry, the amount of money generated is second
only to the sale of weapons. 1.2 million children enter this industry
each year. The youngest girl in the industry in 1997 was 17 years old.
In 2003, the youngest girl was 3. One of the main reasons for young
girls being in it is because many Asians believe having sex with a
virgin will cure the man of AIDS. Girls who enter into it before the
age of 18 have a 90% chance of dying of AIDS. The industry really took
off in Bangkok during the Vietnam War because many US soldiers were
looking for prostitutes. Finally, 50% of the men who fly into the
Bangkok airport are here for the girls/women.
So
there it is. The injustice is obvious, but those fighting against it
are few. It has been an absolute joy to spend time with these girls,
and I don't even want to think about how they'd be spending their
nights if the Lord hadn't offered them another option through this
ministry. It's been amazing to let them teach me how to count in Thai,
play bocce ball, worship the Lord, and share tons of laughs together. I
already know it's going to be tough to say goodbye in a couple weeks,
but I'm so thankful that the tough goodbye is because of how special
these girls are.
Okay, here is my present to my wife for our 4th year Wedding Anniversary.
Even though we don't have money to give each other gifts with or even get to spend our Anniversary together for that matter, I want my Leslie to know how much I love her and miss her.
That is why I created a video for all to see how amazing she is.
Here is a video that I created just for you, my dear.
... is truly hard to come by. What man listens to his wife like Adam did???
(FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY ON JUNE 10th)
I have been reading Genesis quite a bit over the past few months and early on in Montenegro I realized something crazy about the Garden and the Fall of Man...
Right after God told Adam and Eve (which wasn't her name until 3:20) in the Garden of Eden (i love this name by the way... Eden...) to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, what happened? That wicked "crafty" serpent that was more crafty than all the other beasts of the field came to Eve and told her a few things:
[Genesis 3:4-5, from the ESV Bible]
1) You will NOT surely die. 2) Your eyes will be opened. 3) You will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Now, all of these, as we have been taught early on in life, were lies from the enemy right? Actually... we have to look closely at the scripture in order to understand more about the relationship between satan and man. In all of this, satan actually did NOT lie... in a way... well, the way he explained the reactions to eating of the fruit were very bland and with little detail as to future happenings.
So, let's see what happened when Eve ate of the apple and shared it with Adam:
[Genesis 3:6-7]
1) They did not die... at least, not immediately... so they started DYING. 2) Their eyes WERE opened... (which leads to number 3...they were like God before because they were made in His image, BUT the serpent said they would know of good and evil... ) 3) They knew good and evil by immediately seeing that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together.
Now, where does this put me and Leslie and how does this correlate with marriage today? And especially marriage for those in Christ?
We have to backtrack for a second... God tells us in Genesis 2:24-25 that, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked [meaning Adam and Eve BEFORE the fall of man] and were NOT ashamed."
I have been married now for 4 YEARS!!! What a number for a young, dumb kid like me. I have been committed to my wife, and vice versa, for 4 years. And Lord willing (Lord willing), many more to come. But there has always been one thing that has complicated our marriage............... ourselves being too unwilling to submit in many areas of our life because of Satan's deceptions... just like with Adam and Eve.
When I proposed to Leslie some five and a half years ago in Texas on that snowy Christmas day, I asked her one thing that most people seem to not realize when they are committing to a relationship with their spouse... I asked Leslie is she would be my RIB. Eve was taken from Adam's rib... ergo, God created Leslie to be mine. And I was created to be her head.
Now, the Hebrew words for MAN and WOMAN are these... Man = "ish" and Woman = "ishshah"... this is where woman is in/from man. When a man leaves his family for his wife, they become one... a unit if you will.
The verse that says, "they were both naked and were not ashamed" is truly a verse that many people do not understand as well. Before the fall, man did not NEED clothes. Why? He did not even know he was naked!!!! Guess what else? Genesis 3:21 (which is after the fall and after they realized they were naked) says, "And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them. Then the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.'"
God THEN clothed them after the fall with skin. They were skinless BEFORE the fall and did not even know it.
What I have realized in life is that with my wife, I want to be skinless. I want to be able to have everything out on the table with her and she does with me. I think that because of this Race, we have become more intimate and more in tune with who we are and who we need to be with each other. God has revealed so much more to us and how to be free with each other and with Christ. Christ is within us. Now, we worship easier and more freely together. We love each other more freely. We have more grace for each other with arising situations and place a "perfect 10" above each other's heads to remind us that we have to make each other perfect in our mind in order to forgive each other and know each other more.
Adam abandoned his God-given pre-fall role of leading, guarding, and caring for his wife. This was all replaced with his own sinful, distorted desire to "rule" over Eve. One of the most tragic results of Adam and Eve's rebellion against God is an ongoing conflict between husband and wife in marriage, which is driven by the sinful behavior of both in rebellion against their respective God-given roles and responsibilities in marriage.
I am here today to tell everyone that THIS HAS BEEN CONQUERED!! Christ has given marriage in Him and husband and wife and families FREEDOM to use HIM as redemption.
And this is what Leslie and I desire to live in...
...Freedom.
~~~~~~~
So... this leads me to my next project. I have enjoyed being with my wife more than anyone else in the world. So, since she is my best friend and even though we are 22 hours apart in the same country, I want to bless her back and show her how much I love her in one little way...
a video.
Please await the next blog in order to see this gift.
We have met incredible people all over
the world during this past year. We have gotten to live day in and day
out with people who are putting it all on the line to follow God's
vision for their lives. We leave most months inspired and thankful that
God would allow us to see the ways in which He is moving throughout the
world.
This past month our team (Team Ninja)
worked with one such inspiring person. If you've been following along
with Team Ninja during May, you've already heard about him. His name is
Vuthy Nurn, and he lives in a small, remote village in Cambodia called
Toch Village. He was born in the village but spent his childhood in
Phnom Penh, the capital. After a few rebellious years, he accepted
Christ through YWAM. Almost immediately God laid a vision on his heart
for how Vuthy could transform his village.
Vuthy's vision is almost as big as his
heart. His vision includes building a home for abandoned children from
the village, as well as for orphaned street kids from Phnom Penh. He
wants to construct a youth center for the local youth from his village
and the surrounding area. He wants a place for the youth to gather to
learn about God, to have a space for a computer lab, and to run English
classes. He currently runs English classes every day for local children
and youth.
Throughout the month our team caught
Vuthy's vision. We believe that God is working mightily through his
life. In order for Vuthy to be able to see these dreams come to pass in
reality, he will need financial support. He needs money to begin the
initial process to build both the orphanage and the youth center.
Please watch the video that we have put together to give you a more
complete picture of Vuthy and his vision. We hope that you will be able
to see the amazing things that will come out of your donations to his
project.
With love,
Team Ninja and all of J Squad
If you wish to donate to this cause, please go to www.theworldrace.organd follow these instructions.
1. Click the tab "Donate" on the top right side of the page.
2. Click on the link "Click Here To Give!" This will take you to the donation page.
In the box that appears, you will see:
ONLINE DONATION INFORMATION
3. Please select "Support a World Race Project" under Choose Program.
4. Please enter "2010 Jun J squad" in the Project field provided in order to be sure your funds will go into the account designated for this ministry.
If you wish to send a donation by mail, please make your check payable to Adventures In Missions and mail it to:
Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470
Please indicate "World Race Project Fund - 2010 Jun J squad" in the memo section of the check.
It's
unbelievable here! I absolutely love Thailand. This month is unique in
that all of the men of our squad are serving together in Chiang Mai at
a ministry called Remember Nhu. We are doing a lot of manual labor and
developing relationships. We arrive at the site between 6:45 and 8:00
AM and are usually done by noon because the temperatures exceed 100
degrees pretty much every day. We've been digging a trench for a water
line, trimming banana trees, moving branches and rocks, and cutting
bamboo to repair some of their buildings. We have the afternoon off
each day to rest and then go back and eat dinner and spend time with
the girls.
I
wish you could meet them. You wouldn't last 10 seconds before you fell
in love!! The ministry is a home for 30 girls (ages 7-17) who were all
taken in because they were likely candidates to be sold by their
families into the sex slave trade. The director said that 9 out of 10
of these girls would currently be slaves in a brothel if Remember Nhu
hadn't offered them a scholarship to live there, go to school, and be a
part of a Christian community. There are many reasons why they were
likely candidates to be sold into slavery. The girls are either
orphans, abandoned, have a sibling or parent who "works" in the sex
slave trade, parents who do drugs or are in prison, or parents who are
too poor to take care of them. Most of their families do not want to
sell them, but it's driven by poverty. Their parents know it's one of
the few ways to get money here in Thailand when you're poor. Selling
their young daughter's virginity to a man or selling them outright to
be a prostitute in a brothel is going to get them a lot of money. 
That
is why a ministry like Remember Nhu is so important. It gives the
people who were going to sell the girls another option. Instead of
having their virginity taken away from them as children and trying to
repay a debt to a pimp that the pimp will never allow to be repaid,
they now are in a loving Christian community, are going to school, and
have a ministry who will support them through college or until they
have mastered a skill or trade to be able to provide themselves an
income. 
industry
each year. The youngest girl in the industry in 1997 was 17 years old.
In 2003, the youngest girl was 3. One of the main reasons for young
girls being in it is because many Asians believe having sex with a
virgin will cure the man of AIDS. Girls who enter into it before the
age of 18 have a 90% chance of dying of AIDS. The industry really took
off in Bangkok during the Vietnam War because many US soldiers were
looking for prostitutes. Finally, 50% of the men who fly into the
Bangkok airport are here for the girls/women.
So
there it is. The injustice is obvious, but those fighting against it
are few. It has been an absolute joy to spend time with these girls,
and I don't even want to think about how they'd be spending their
nights if the Lord hadn't offered them another option through this
ministry. It's been amazing to let them teach me how to count in Thai,
play bocce ball, worship the Lord, and share tons of laughs together. I
already know it's going to be tough to say goodbye in a couple weeks,
but I'm so thankful that the tough goodbye is because of how special
these girls are.
