Good day, friends ...
I'm headed back home now, and I come with a sense of real hope and real emerging solutions for the trafficked children of India. The complexities of this situation, with villages/neighborhoods producing generation after generation of child sex workers, is a short-circuit to the American mind, but God has helped me put a lot of the puzzle pieces together here.
And we have witnessed some great breakthrough in how this can be slowly turned. First, we have seen villages/neighborhoods where hope has been reborn by our SEED partners. By establishing schools for the children with loving and mentoring teachers (man, THOSE on-the-ground folks really impressed me with their humility and love) ... they're providing an educational component and planting a hope for the children of a different future. We saw three of these such operations ... two of which have come online in just the last year, through donations by other Sacramento-area churches. It can happen quickly, and it's having an evident impact.
Secondly, while we were here, the plight of 12-year-old Prianka - the girl who's unwittingly become the poster child for SEED's effort - helped force a new hallelujah kind of development. We learned early in the week that Prianka was headed for Calcutta to go into full-time work by the end of March. Her mother and sisters need the money. Angel, the team, and Prianka's school mentors anguished early in the week, seeing no answers. But late in the week Angel helped broker an arrangement with an influential local evangelistic organization, who is going to help build safe houses for girls 12 to 15 years old, when they're most vulnerable to being pulled into full-time prostitution. It's a complex deal, but the partner is proven, a prototype for the safe houses is already built (six units to a building, each unit housing four girls and two trained house moms), and before the end of the week they'd already received a $60,000 pledge from one Sacramento church to build the first six-unit building. The work will begin immediately. And meanwhile, that same partner organization will provide a place for Prianka to stay in the interim and help compensate her mother with donations of food and staples.
We closed our week with a wonderful dinner at a Chinese restaurant last night ... joined by a dozen of the older boys and girls from the first village we visited. These are the ones that have been in the school program the longest - bright-eyed and hopeful for different futures. They laughed, made messes, and thrilled at riding up and down in the building's elevator - their first elevator ride, for all of them. The combination of the kids' joy, and the news of Prianka's hopeful future, really created an emotionally joyous atmosphere.
I have much to share at the India Missions Dessert on Sunday night (6pm at Lighthouse), and I hope you have a chance to join us. As devastating as it is to understand the horrible plight that some of these children face, it magnifies the awe in your heart at seeing God move and provide a way. He came to set the captives free, and he calls us to be like-minded ... so I ask for your continued prayers for these kids.
God bless,
I'm headed back home now, and I come with a sense of real hope and real emerging solutions for the trafficked children of India. The complexities of this situation, with villages/neighborhoods producing generation after generation of child sex workers, is a short-circuit to the American mind, but God has helped me put a lot of the puzzle pieces together here.
And we have witnessed some great breakthrough in how this can be slowly turned. First, we have seen villages/neighborhoods where hope has been reborn by our SEED partners. By establishing schools for the children with loving and mentoring teachers (man, THOSE on-the-ground folks really impressed me with their humility and love) ... they're providing an educational component and planting a hope for the children of a different future. We saw three of these such operations ... two of which have come online in just the last year, through donations by other Sacramento-area churches. It can happen quickly, and it's having an evident impact.
Secondly, while we were here, the plight of 12-year-old Prianka - the girl who's unwittingly become the poster child for SEED's effort - helped force a new hallelujah kind of development. We learned early in the week that Prianka was headed for Calcutta to go into full-time work by the end of March. Her mother and sisters need the money. Angel, the team, and Prianka's school mentors anguished early in the week, seeing no answers. But late in the week Angel helped broker an arrangement with an influential local evangelistic organization, who is going to help build safe houses for girls 12 to 15 years old, when they're most vulnerable to being pulled into full-time prostitution. It's a complex deal, but the partner is proven, a prototype for the safe houses is already built (six units to a building, each unit housing four girls and two trained house moms), and before the end of the week they'd already received a $60,000 pledge from one Sacramento church to build the first six-unit building. The work will begin immediately. And meanwhile, that same partner organization will provide a place for Prianka to stay in the interim and help compensate her mother with donations of food and staples.
We closed our week with a wonderful dinner at a Chinese restaurant last night ... joined by a dozen of the older boys and girls from the first village we visited. These are the ones that have been in the school program the longest - bright-eyed and hopeful for different futures. They laughed, made messes, and thrilled at riding up and down in the building's elevator - their first elevator ride, for all of them. The combination of the kids' joy, and the news of Prianka's hopeful future, really created an emotionally joyous atmosphere.
I have much to share at the India Missions Dessert on Sunday night (6pm at Lighthouse), and I hope you have a chance to join us. As devastating as it is to understand the horrible plight that some of these children face, it magnifies the awe in your heart at seeing God move and provide a way. He came to set the captives free, and he calls us to be like-minded ... so I ask for your continued prayers for these kids.
God bless,
Praise the Lord for Prianka's rescue. Now to rescue the others. Thank you for the update, and safe travels home.
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