So, since we keep asking and God keeps providing, we’re going to ask again!  HopeChest’s partner in India has a whole list of rescue missions and is just waiting for the funds.  Today God brought in enough for these ten girls, plus enough to get started on the next rescue on the list.  Yay!  HopeChest was planning on running the fundraiser through Monday, so we’re going to continue raising money and seeing just how many rescue missions we can fund!  Wouldn’t it be incredible if we set out to fund one rescue for 10 girls and end up funding 2?  Or 3? 

People are getting really creative with ideas for raising money to fund rescues.  If you think about it, it’s your chance to live in an action thriller movie.  These courageous, highly skilled Indian agents are doing reconaissance, nailing corrupt officials, raiding brothels, and saving innocent little girls and boys under cover of darkness.  We pay $10 to watch movies with that kind of action.  We read gripping novels in our beach chairs about these kind of covert activities.  Now we can join in the excitement!  By writing a check, having a garage sale, auctioning some items on eBay, or holding a fundraiser, we can fund covert missions for God!  I love a good thriller, so I’m in!  One of my friends is raffling off a Coach purse.  A pretty, pink, Coach purse for the lives of some little girls.  Duh, no brainer, and so very cool and creative.  If you want to pay $20 for a chance to win the purse and save a child, visit her website here.  If you want to help fund a covert mission, click here.

I lack the kung fu and numchucks skills to BE a covert operative and raid brothels in the name of God.  I’m not even sure if I spelled “numchucks” right.  The only reason I’ve even heard of those things is because of my deep love of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Michaelangelo in particular.  But I CAN serve God by finding Michaelangelo some money for his numbchucks.  Nutchunks?  I am a not-so-covert operative – I am an OVERT operative for God, boldly flapping my lips and waving wildly at people to flag down some money so the truly sneaky people can get these precious ones to safety.  Join me?

Please read in Tom’s words:

Now, we’re asking God for $4884 in the next two days.  The HopeChest team in India has identified 12 kids in need of school fees, at $407 per child for tuition, uniform, and supplies.  School starts on Thursday.  That’s 2 days from now, and if they don’t have the money, they don’t go to school for another year.  Many of these kids are children of the women working in brothels in the red light district of Delhi.  Their mothers brought them to Asha Ministries to get them out of a life in the brothels.  Would you please join us in praying for these kids?  Would you consider giving toward their education?  As we saw with Bosco, if everyone gives a little, it adds up quickly, and all of a sudden, God saves a life, rewrites a future, and uses US to do it!!

Okay, so to give, click HERE, and put “India School” in the notes section.  The money goes through HopeChest to the team on the ground in India right now.

To read posts from the HopeChest team in India, click HERE.

To read more on the kids needing school fees, click HERE.

Getting involved in the one-day campaign to save Bosco’s life back in the fall changed my life forever.  You never know when a simple act of choosing to give could change yours.

Uganda in a week!  So excited.  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for staying with our sweet (and occasionally sour) Elliott, so that we can go share some love with our Adecar kiddos!  We’ll be working in several villages, and spending a good chunk of the trip in our Adecar.  I get to meet our two sponsor boys, George and BOSCO!!  I just felt like he needed all caps.  BOSCO!  He’s not from Adecar, but he lives in nearby Ngarium, so I’ve been told I’ll get to see him.  Oh dear.  Bosco, get ready for Hurricane Melanie.  I’ll try to hold back a little.  I’ll try. 

It seems like everywhere I go, friends give me bags of craft supplies, toys, medicine, or toiletries to take with us.  We’re taking 6 duffle bags stuffed with things for the kids.  I’m feeling a mixture of elation at all the wonderful gifts and how much fun it will be to play with the kids…and sadness knowing that it won’t be enough, that we can’t bring enough to meet the needs of each child.  That’s going to be hard.  So, I’m preparing for a week of joy mixed with pain.  Painful joy.

Joy often is painful, you know?  It’s not like happiness.  You have to be happy to have happiness.  You do not have to be happy to have joy.  I have joy in hearing that Indian Rescue Mission rescued a 13-year-old girl from sex trafficking this week…as I ache for the 15-year-old girl that they had to leave behind…and the 2 million kids in sexual slavery…many of whom are raped 40 times a day.  Joy.  Pain.  Joy in God’s healing, deliverance, and saving grace.  Pain in the horrifying reality of the evil world in which we live.

I love our Adecar kiddos.  I can’t wait to meet them, and also spend time in a few other villages.  Can’t wait.  God has called Alex and me so clearly.  Last night in our amazing small group, we were talking about how God calls people to different things, different places, and I laughed.  If someone told me that they needed me to work in the nursery at church, I would freak out completely.  Oh crap, no, no, no, not me.  But Africa feels right.  My heart is there.  He’s called.  Can’t.  Wait.

I’ll blog during our trip.  We’ll take lots of pictures, but we may not be able to upload large files until we’re home.  So, we’ll do our best to capture each day in words and get it posted.  I have a feeling the words I know aren’t going to be enough.

I need to see for myself.

First, here’s an incredible look at what’s happening in Moldova.  http://www.hopechest.org/sex_cafe-in-moldova/

Are you as pissed off as I am?  Then here’s how you can help.  http://www.hopechest.org/support-moldova/

Are you overwhelmed with the $400/MONTH price to help one person?  It’s a lot.  Think about getting together with a group of friends, maybe a Mom’s Club, Sunday school class, office, small group, neighborhood.  I’m getting together with my fellow Warrior Girls (We need satin jackets with our names embroidered on the backs, don’t you think?) to sponsor one victim.  If 16 people get together, that’s $25/month.  A huge group of people are CAUSING this problem, so we need a huge group of people to FIX it.  But just one person can start making a difference…and that could be you!  Start asking people to co-sponsor a girl with you. 

Here’s one more fabulous way to help restore the lives of orphans and trafficking victims, and it involves buying really pretty jewelry.  http://www.adoptionfathers.com/2010/04/11/supportyoungmothers/  The necklaces are made by JunkPosse, which, next to the paper bead necklaces made by Ugandan widows, is my favorite jewelry maker.  A great Mother’s Day gift!

After talking about Frannie Channie’s Crazy Love chapter 8 in group last night (I’m not sure how he’d feel about my nickname for him.), I’m thinking a ton today about how this life is temporary.  My home is temporary.  My family is temporary.  My stuff is temporary.  I love my life and my home and definitely adore my family and I like my stuff…but what am I doing in my life for the kingdom of God, the forever, ETERNAL kingdom of God?  I want to hold everything up to that standard. 

Today, I’m comfortable.  Life is good.  Life is easy.  I have a house with a decent roof and too much food in the fridge.  It’s easy to focus on this temporary world.  It’s easy for me to get distracted.  I like this temporary world too much.

For other people, this world is a nightmare.  Today, boys are stolen and forced to fight and kill.  Girls vanish and end up in sexual slavery.  Babies cry for food they’re never going to get.  Children suffer from illnesses that they can’t prevent and they can’t treat.  Mothers and fathers lie in huts waiting to die.  And on and on and on and on and my prayer today is that they would know that this world is temporary.  That our God has a better place, with no pain, and it’s waiting for them.  That He is preparing rooms for them in His house.  This life here on earth is temporary.  Jesus experienced their suffering; He conquered pain and death.  Their pain here is temporary.  I pray that the hurting victims of this world would reach out to Jesus and be filled with the peace that comes from knowing that this isn’t all there is.  There’s so much more.  And the last will be first and the meek will inherit the earth and things will be so incredibly good.  I pray that they would feel comfort.

What if she was your daughter?  What is she was my daughter?  To what lengths would I go to find her?  To stop them?  How many people would I beg for justice?  How many calls would I make?  On how many doors would I bang until my knuckles bled? 

Nothing would stop me.  Nothing would silence me.  I would search for her, cry out for her, claw at anyone who stood in my way.  Until I collapsed, I would not stop seeking her, saving her, pouring myself out for her.

The little girl being broken as I type is terrified.  Alone.  Friendless.  Hopeless.  She’s not my daughter.  But she’s God’s daughter.  He loves her fiercely.  And He’s commissioned you and me to save her. 

In the time it’s taken me to write this post, several other young girls have lost their innocence.  Several other evil people have had their way.  Every 2 minutes a child is being prepared for sexual exploitation, and 2 children are sold every minute.  What would I want others to do if this was my child?  What does God want me to do for His child?

I am shattered for these children as the world looks the other way.  That’s a good place to start – total brokenness.  Now where to go from here?  Some friends of ours who we love and respect work with Love146, an organization committed to eradicating child trafficking.  Also, Tom Davis’ new fiction book, Priceless (available on Amazon for pre-order), handles this issue and Children’s HopeChest has an ever-expanding ministry to protect young girls from falling victim to trafficking.

Don’t do nothing.  How’s that for a double negative?  DON’T DO NOTHING!  We’ve done enough of nothing.  That’s why this despicable industry exists.  It’s overwhelming.  For me, too.  Start today with spending 5 minutes praying.  Just ask God, “What can I do?”  Visit a website.  I think the first thing we all have to get over is the instinct to cringe, squeeze our eyes shut, and put our fingers in our ears.  As I type this, I’m staring at pictures of my middle school girls.  Laughing, happy, innocent, beautiful.  What if it was one of them?  What if it was my daughter?  Or my son?  Let’s open our eyes, absorb the pain, and trust God to lead us into action for this precious kids.

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Sveta’s parents abandoned her to the orphanage shortly after her birth. She was their fifth daughter and her mother and father decided they had “enough” girls already.

As a young girl, Sveta loved animals and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. She also wondered about her biological family. She knew exactly where they lived, and knew she was the only child they abandoned.

Sveta wanted her parents and sisters to be proud of her.

After leaving the orphanage, Sveta accepted a place in our Independent Living Program. Thanks to the efforts of her house parents, she got into veterinarian school and successfully graduated.
Soon she re-connected with her sister and brother-in-law. Wanting to help her family so much, Sveta allowed them to use her credit card. But when they refused to pay her, they left Sveta on her own.

They told her that a young and attractive girl could easily get a “job” to pay her debts.

To read more, visit Tom’s blog at http://tomdavis.typepad.com/tom_daviss_blog/2010/01/htad2010.html

Dear Friends,

I’m excited to let you know that a generous ministry partner has awarded HopeChest a $20,000 grant to stop sex trafficking in Russia and challenged us to match it by midnight, December 31.

Since that’s just 2 days away, I need your help (and voice) to help meet this challenge.

I sent an e-mail out earlier today to our supporters, and posted on my blog at http://www.cthomasdavis.com/.

As you read this letter there are over 2 million children forced into prostitution and sex slavery.  This can be prevented and we can do something about it. These girls need our help and there isn’t time to waste.  Right now, pimps and prostitution rings are targeting our precious, young girls. They wait for them to leave the protection of the orphanage, and then offer them a “job.”  Many of the girls simply disappear: never heard from again by their friends.  But sometimes you glimpse this horror.

To read more of this post and learn what you can do to help end sex trafficking before it starts, visit http://tomdavis.typepad.com/tom_daviss_blog/2009/12/urgent-stop-sex-trafficking-now.html.