What an incredible trip I had to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia! It was amazing to meet with workers from around the world who are bringing the hope of Jesus to some of the darkest places and challenging situations.
While I cannot post specifics, one of the most incredible ministries I got to hear about was once in which children and young females were rescued out of human trafficking. While our minds automatically go to the sex trade, other human trafficking include workers for farms and females for pre-arranged marriages. The key aspect to this ministry is safety: safe places to live, to work, to be educated and to have community. This ministry covers all of those areas in creative and practical ways that are interwoven with each other. There is training to work in coffee shops, hair salons, jewelry making and soon there will also be sewing. There are safe houses for the girls to live as well as a farm that produces items sold to restaurants and grocery stores while also feeding the girls in the safe homes and equipping local farmers on organic farming. They also HAVE coffee shops, jewelry stores, and hair salons to provide jobs.
On the farm I mentioned they practice organic farming using crop rotation and creative methods to provide their own fertilizer and chicken feed. Why is this so important? In some asian countries that have been directly affected by wars, they are still in rebuilding stages that will take generations for recovery. Some countries are missing generations. In these situations other countries have come in and taken advantage of them and the lack of laws/guidelines for healthy farming practices and have brought cheap and extremely harmful sprays and fertilizers — to the point where some workers, especially children, have incredible health issues and some can no longer even walk! This farms brings in local farmers to help with certain harvests etc and shows them how they too can have healthy farming practices and crops! How is this the light of Christ?
In the midst of this rebuilding the hope of Jesus is being shared. Most of the girls in the safe housing hear of Jesus and accept him into their lives. They get discipled and are taught the bible so they can bring the good news back to their villages or wherever they go to after they graduate or move on to more advanced employment. They have been shown love and respect — they have been given hope and a future…and all through Christians who love them enough to obey the call of Christ to move into these countries and serve.
What a God we have! That he relocates his servants into different fields for harvest and to bring healing and hope. Please pray for this ministry. I will see what I can safely post to provide more information. If you know me personally you can contact me and I would love to provide what I know so you too can support this amazing ministry that just continues to grow beyond imagination!
I CAN tell you this…this ministry has become so effective it has been invited to participate with different levels of government and law enforcement to break up human-trafficking rings and shut down beer stores (sex shops that have beer stores as fronts). Please pray for the girls who no longer are being forced into this trade but now willingly do it because they can make so much more money than working regular jobs. May Christ continue to provide restoration in our world until he returns and justice flows over the whole earth.