We are located in Kampong Cham, Cambodia.
Here in Cambodia the religious statistics are:

93% Buddhist
3% Muslim
2% Christian
1% Chinese

The first day here, our contact took us to see some of the idols located in this city.

These are skulls of children killed during the civil war in Cambodia

Their depiction of an angel

Buddhist beliefs consist of:

• Life is suffering
• Karma
• Reincarnation
• There are 6 essences of a person
• Your life now is a result of Karma from your former life
• The only questions to ask is: What can I do now to make my next life better?
• Places and things have spirits
• You constantly strive for a state of enlightenment, to which you cease to exist because life is suffering
• The blissful state of nonexistence is called Nirvana
• Worship ancestors
• Worship Hindu Gods
  
  

The people of Cambodia are blinded from the truth.  They have no purpose in this life because Karma from their previous life has already dictated their status and success.

But

We are here to tell them that they were made for a purpose and God has a plan for their life. 

We are here to tell them that there is a God who is living and desires to have a relationship with them.

We are here to show them the love of Christ.

***Continue praying that God will open the eyes of the spiritual blind and break the chains of spiritual bondage in Cambodia.

We arrived in Cambodia this week.  We are living in Kompang Cham this month and working/living at the youth development center.  Our ministry contact is a beautiful Pilipino lady named Cecil.  When we arrived to our ministry, we were under the impression that this month we would be teaching English.  However, we soon realized that they use English classes to draw the attention of the youth living in this city and share the gospel with them. 

Kompang Cham is the most highly populated Muslim city in Cambodia.  Mostly all of the students are Muslim or Buddhist.  Mostly all of the students do not know who Jesus is and have never read the Bible.

Cecil expressed her desire for us to teach on "Identity" this week.  As we began to make lesson plans, we realized that we cannot begin to explain identity without first explaining that our students were created for a purpose and by a Creator.

During our second day we decided to have each class read Genesis 1.  All the students read out loud from a Kmer Bible for the first time.  They had never heard this story before.  This was the first time they ever read the Bible.

I began to describe that they were created in the image of God.  After He created man, He said that it was "very good". 

We passed around an inkpad and paper and had every person put their fingerprint down.  We then asked if they thought God spent just as much time and care in making them.  Most of them were shy and looked down.  But one of the men spoke up and said "Maybe".  They didn't know.

I then explained that each fingerprint in the world is completely different.  Out of the billions and billions of people in the world, God decided to make each and every fingerprint different and special.  He must have spent time on each of us to make us each different and special.

I also read Psalm 139:13-18

I said that even before we were born, God knew who we were and how he wanted to make us.  Not only that, but the Creator thinks about us.  He thinks about us more than the number of grains in the sand.  So in fact we must be important and special to the Creator.

The message we tried to express to the students is that we are all alike and different in many ways. "Same Same but Different".  And that God made us all unique and special.  He made us for a purpose and has a plan for our lives.

This was the first time they have ever heard they were created for a reason and the first time they have ever heard about their Creator.

She sits on the bar stool seven nights a week and hopes the next guy that walks in is not one of the bad ones.  She constantly reminds herself of why she does this. "I must provide for my family, for my daughter" she says to herself. 

When a foreign man walks by she plasters a smile on her face and says "Hello come here".  But her heart screams out, "No leave me be!"  When the foreigner turns his head and continues walking she is filled both with relief & rejection.  "Maybe I am not beautiful enough or my clothing was not provocative enough."  So she thinks to herself, "I need to try harder."

And when she finally captures ones attention she puts on the mask.  He sits across from her, groping her and playing with "his merchandise."  She acts interested in him and pleased by his attention.  But deep down she is disgusted with him and herself.  But there is no time for pity because this mans attention dictates
Whether or not her family has food. 
Whether or not her daughter can go to school. 
Whether or not her daughter ends up in a bar like her one day.

Once the guy pays the $70 fee for his merchandise...she follows him into the darkness. 
Not knowing whether or not she will be treated with care. 
Not knowing if he might drink more and hit her. 
Not knowing if the $70 might be the price for her life.

Everyday her soul is constantly drained out of her.  Piece by piece her soul is dying away so she no longer feels anything.  So the rejection of not 'being bought' wont sting.  So being constantly used by men wont affect her.  So she can do her job and see it just as that. 

Then I walk into the bar...sit on the stool across from her.  I look into her eyes and see the dying soul.  I see the mask and plastered smile.  I see the sadness that has reached the depth of her soul. I see the desperation and hopelessness.

& I ask myself....Does anybody see her?  Does anybody care?  Has anyone ever told her that she is beautiful and worthy of love?

And What Do I Have To Offer?

But God

For "The spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn.
To console those who mourn in Zion.
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
That they may be called trees of righteousness
The planting of the Lord that He may be glorified!"
Isaiah 61:1-3

Let God break you for the lost and broken all over the world.  Jesus is the only hope for the hopeless situations.  He is the only one that can make His beautiful daughter know her worth.  Continue in prayer for her and several others that have no other answer but Jesus Christ.  

Out to dinner

Day at the lake

Her name is Sam. She is 25 years old.  She has a 5-year-old daughter.  Her favorite color is blue.  She loves spicy food.  She is Thai.  She wants a foreign husband.  She lives in Chiang Mai.  She works at New Star bar & she is a prostitute.

This week I have been dating a girl named Sam.  As a part of our ministry, we have been forming a relationship with her by asking her to hang out with us.

This week we went to the pool, got massages, & went out to dinner.

 

We got to hear her life story and why she moved to the city.  She told us that her dream is to open up a beauty shop.  She told us, "I don't plan on working at New Star all my life."

Her 5-year-old daughter does not live with her because she wants to have a better job first and does not want her daughter to see the ugliness of her life.  She wants a better job, a better life, and to be a better mom.

At the bar playing jenga with the girls

But as we visit her in the bars at night, she is desperate for a "customer".  She constantly says hello to foreign men in effort to get their attention.   & when there are no takers, she slumps down and says that no one wants her.  Her value is rooted in whether or not someone buys her.

God has been teaching me a lot about planting, watering, and harvesting seeds. 

Last month another World Race team was here and working in the bars.  One of the girls named Jess had been building a friendship with Sam.  She told Sam about God and about His plan for her life.  She told her that even though she had to leave, other "friends" would come see her in the months to come.

So after I visited the New Star bar for the third time, Sam asked me if I knew Jess because I reminded her of Jess.  I began to realize that Sam saw the same Jesus in me that she had seen in Jess.

Not only that, but the seed that Jess had planted, I was now watering.

This realization encouraged me.  Because I knew that the ministry I am doing here will be continued.  The doors that have been opened for me, will allow someone to go further than I have gone. 

Maybe you are like me and can get discouraged by the lack of harvest in your life.  You want to see change, you want to see movement, and you want to see people move forward. 

But sometimes you are there to plant, pull up weeds, remove stumps, and clear the path for someone else.  Sometimes you are there to water, prune, care for, and grow the fruit for someone else.  & Sometimes you are there to harvest, reap, and receive the blessings of someone else's hard work.  But remember this....

All 3 are important & all 3 are needed in order to reap the harvest.

Her name is Sam. She is a daughter of the most-high King.  She has been paid for in full by Christ's death on the cross.  She is redeemed.  She is His beloved.  She is His bride.  She once was lost, but WILL be found.

Another girl from the bar

Helena was afraid to go next

Us with the bar owner

We are going to be awesome at pool after this month!

The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, 'One plants and another harvests.' And it's true. I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.

John 4:36-38

It's not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What's important is that God makes the seed grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God's workers. And you are God's field. You are God's building.

Because of God's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have-Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:7-11

I knew I would be working with human trafficking here in Thailand.  But I was never expecting this...

I feel like most of us have seen, heard, or even read about human trafficking. We see the statistics...and that is all it is.

A number on a page.  A video we once watched.  A story we once heard.  But it was never real for us.  It never was staring us in the face.  So we can somehow still live our lives and pretend it doesn't exist. But it does.

I have learned this week that human trafficking has a name and a face.  I met two girls at the New Star Bar this week.  We spent our time playing pool and jenga.  We had so much fun hanging out that I almost forgot they were there to sell themselves. 

Half way through our time together, a European man returned to the bar with a Thai women on his arm.  She was returning from a "days work".   And there it was...sex slavery...right in front of my face.  I did not even flinch, my mind could not even wrap around what all of this truly meant.  As if the extinct of darkness or evil could not be understood.  And now I know that I am forever changed...because I have seen the face and know the name of sex trafficking.

Human Trafficking: the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery.

Trafficking primarily involves exploitation, which comes in many forms, including:

Ø     Forcing victims into prostitution

Ø     Subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude

Ø     Compelling victims to commit sex acts for the purpose of creating pornography

Ø    Misleading victims into debt bondage

Thailand is a country with internal trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation, and labor trafficking.  Ethnic minorities and women and girls from the northern Hill Tribes are especially vulnerable due to their lack of citizenship. Lack of legal status is the single greatest risk factor for trafficking or other exploitation of highlanders.  There is also an issue of rural-to-urban trafficking, where ethnic Thais are trafficked from the relatively poor areas of Chiang Rai, Phayao and Nong Khai to urban and tourist areas.

Sex tourism remains a problem. According to the Thai Government, there are no laws that specifically address sex tourism. Children from poor families remain vulnerable, and there are some incidences of Thai parents who force their children into prostitution.

Modern Day Slavery Facts: 

• A child is trafficked every 30 seconds. - UNICEF
  
  
• The average age of entry into commercial sex slavery in the United States is 13 years old. - United States Department of Justice
  
  
• Human Trafficking occurs in 161 out of 192 countries. - The United Nations
  
  
• Up to 96% of women in prostitution want to escape but feel they can't. - United Labor Organization
  
  
• Human Trafficking is a 32 billion dollar per year industry. - The United Nations
  
  
• In some countries it is estimated that 70% of men purchase sex. - Victor Malarek; The Johns
  
  
• There are nearly 2 million children in the international commercial sex trade-Unicef
  
  
• An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year
  
  
• Human Trafficking Is The Fastest Growing Criminal Enterprise In The World

  
  
• Human Trafficking Is The Second Largest Criminal Enterprise In The World

  
  
• There Are An Estimated 27 Million People Trapped In Slavery At This Moment

  
  
• There Are An Estimated 13 Million Children Trapped In Slavery At This Moment

  
  
• Human Trafficking Is Often Run By Organized Crime

  
  
• An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect. Eighty percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under 24, and some are as young as six years old
  
  
• A Relatively Large Percentage Of Young Women And Children That Are Trafficked For Sexual Exploitation Will Become HIV Positive

  
  
• Approximately 20,000 Individuals Are Trafficked INTO The United States From Other Countries Every Year
  
  
• Human trafficking has been reported in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and in some U.S. territories.
  
  
• It is estimated that 14,500 to 17,500 people, primarily women and children, are trafficked to the U.S. annually.
  
  
• Over 100,000 Of Our Own Young Women And Children Are Subject To Commercial Sexual Exploitation In The United States Every Year

  
  
• According To Interpol, Over 30,000 Young Women Are Missing In Romania

  
  
• The Average Age Of A Young Woman First Being Trafficked Is 12-14 Years Old
  

• According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), over the past 30 years, over 30 million children have been sexually exploited through human trafficking.
  
  

75% Of Human Trafficking Is For Sexual Exploitation


75% Of All Victims Of Human Trafficking Are Female


Over 50% Of All Human Trafficking Victims Are Children


Sex traffickers use a variety of ways to "condition" their victims, including subjecting them to starvation, rape, gang rape, physical abuse, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the victim and victim's family, forced drug use, and shame.

A human trafficker can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl. Provided the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty, the pimp could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle. A 2003 study in the Netherlands found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp at least $250,000 a year.

Regardless of nationality, victims are systematically stripped of their identity, battered into gruesome submission, and made to perform humiliating sexual acts on up to 40 strangers every night. 

Most are held in dingy apartments and brothels, forced to take heavy doses of illegal drugs, and monitored very closely. Victims are often thrown into such ghastly oppression at 13 years old. Some are abducted outright, while others are lured out of poverty, romantically seduced, or sold by their families.

^{Do your part:
Pray}

<sup>Slavery is first and foremost a form of spiritual oppression that must be addressed through spiritual means. Through prayer we can defeat the spiritual forces of darkness that today enslave over 27 million people worldwide. Pray once per day for the ending of sex trafficking. 

Give
If you cannot physically fight against human trafficking, you can still give to organizations that are battling against trafficking.  Give to those that are on the front-lines.</sup> 

^{-Love Acts http://www.lighthouseinaction.org/loveacts/}

^{-Watch the Nefarious documentary & host film screenings to bring awareness http://nefariousdocumentary.com/}

^{-International Justice Mission: www.ijm.org}

^{-Unearthed Pictures: http://www.unearthedpictures.org/}

^{-Love 146: http://love146.org/}

^{-Not For Sale: http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/}

^{-Freeset: http://freesetglobal.com/}

^{-Nightlight: http://nightlightinternational.com/}

^{-Men Against the Trafficking of Others: http://mattoo.org/}

^{-Rapha House: http://www.raphahouse.org/}

^{-The A21 Campaign: http://www.thea21campaign.org/}

This is a trailer to the documentary called Nefarious. The movie will be coming out in May. I pray you take your family to go see it and allow God to break your heart for the hurting all over the world.  
To learn more about the documentary CLICK HERE

This month my team is working in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  We our working with an organization called Lighthouse in Action.  The ministry group we are working within is called Love Acts. Love acts works within the Red Light District here in Chiang Mai.

Their motive is to:
Protect lives from being trapped in trafficking.
Prevent harm that is happening to local Thais

Preserve life that has been destroyed by the enemy

Restore lives to the fullness of their existence

They are here to protect, prevent, preserve, and restore LIFE.


Hands on ministry involves visiting the bars four times a week and talking with the women working there.  Our ministry host told us not to say we are missionaries or preach the gospel.  Many people might be shocked that we aren't preaching the gospel, but the reality is they want us to share the gospel by our actions.  Love in Action. That is the focus of the ministry.  The gospel is shared by our own actions and testimony we share with the girls.  It is almost crazy to think that someone can know who Jesus is without ever mentioning His name...but that is the core of what it means to be a Christian. To shine in the darkness through our actions, not words.  Walking in the light.

Many of the girls in the red light district have "chosen" to work there.  Most of them come here from the slums in Thailand.  Most of them have poor families that they are supporting or children they have to provide for.  Many girls don't have the right documents to get a regular job or schooling.  So the only answer seems to be the bars.  The typical Thai person earns $300 a month, whereas these girls earn around $2,000 a month.

Once we had our orientation, Bethsaida (one of our ministry host) said that our job here is not to rescue the girls from sex trafficking.  She said that our success is instead measured by how much we listen to and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.

We are here to plant, water, and harvest.

The first night here we simply walked through the district and prayed.  I prayed that God would open my heart to where He desired me to be, who He desired me to pour into, where my presence would benefit the kingdom the most.  Once I stepped onto the street, my heart began beating faster and I felt the sudden spiritual darkness press in around me. 

Women wouldn't look me in the eyes...lady boys came up to me and tried to get me to come to their bars.  Western men would put their heads down when I passed by.

As I sit here in the Beijing airport here in China...half way through our 72 hour travel... I have decided to share some information over what has happened this past week.



Tuesday of this week all 43 people in my squad traveled back to Granada, Nicaragua in anticipation of team changes.  

My team and I had become particularly close. We learned over the last three months how to love, serve, & prefer each other.  We had come a long way...and even though we weren't perfect, we had hoped our team was good enough to stay the same.  So as the squad leaders stood in front of us and began to name off the new teams, my heart sank.  I had a feeling my team would change, but I did not realize how upset I would be until it happened.



As I walked over into the huddle of the five girls that were now my new teammates, I began to feel a peace.  Each of us had tears in our eyes, not because we were upset with our new team, but because we had to give up our old ones.  The ones that had become family, the ones that at times we didn't like, but somehow had learned to love.  And here we were; having to start the process all over again.


I know that God does things for a reason.  And as we got into the huddle, I looked each girl in the face and reminded them of God's goodness and faithfulness.  Even though we were grieving our old teams, we knew that God had even more in store for us in our new team.  All we had to do is trust.

As I sit here in the airport and think about these changes, I begin to think about how life is the same way.

Things change in life, sometimes slowly, and sometimes drastically.  A lot of times we want things to stay the same. That way it is comfortable.  But that is not what God wants for us.



He does not want us to be comfortable in our walk. He wants us to be constantly moving forward, challenged, and seeking a deeper walk.  We can mourn the past or even shed a tear when life changes. Because change is hard. But in the end it comes down to trusting God's plan for us. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understand. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Do you trust God with the next step in your walk?

Will you allow him to change things how He pleases?

God has been teaching me a lot about prayer this month.  This month I was prompted by my father and best friend to read the book,  The Circle Maker,  by Mark Batterson.

The author constantly uses one story about a guy named Honi.  

Honi lived in the generation before Jesus was born.  During his life, a devastating drought hit Jerusalem.  Many of the Jewish prophets had died off nearly four centuries before. 

Miracles had not been done in ages. 

But Honi was a faithful man of God that believed God could still provide a miracle for the people. 

So he walked into the center of the city and began drawing a circle with a stick.  He finally made a complete circle around where he stood and knelt down.  He then began to pray to God and even proclaimed that he would not leave the circle until God sent rain.  And as he finished speaking rain began to trickle down.  Yet again he cried out that he desired a downpour of rain not just a trickle.  As he finished speaking the heavens burst forth into a torrential downpour.  And yet he prayed once more, not for a torrential downpour but for God's favor, blessing, and graciousness.  And at that it began to rain peacefully with the sun shining through.

One thing that I have been learning is that big prayers honor God, and God honors big prayers.

Once I believed this, I asked myself.

Do I pray prayers that honor God? Do I pray prayers that even require God to act?

Honi did something crazy.  He told God he would not leave the circle until He answered.  He was bold. He was maybe even a little crazy.  But most of all, he was a circle maker.

As I have read this book, I realized that there are several promises in the Bible just waiting for us to claim.  Not only claim, but also expect to happen.

Many times I have allowed my prayers to be so vague that I wouldn't even know if God answered or not.  "God please make my day good" or "God please help me to do good today at work"

I think sometimes I have been afraid to pray bold prayers because what if God doesn't show up or I look stupid.  But if you aren't willing to risk your reputation, you'll never build the boat like Noah or get out of the boat like Peter.

When you live by faith, it often feels like you are risking your reputation. You're not. You're risking God's reputation.  It's not your faith that is on the line.  It's His faithfulness.

I hardly ever pray bold God honoring prayers.  So I began to think to myself...

What could I pray for, that would require God to show up?

And this is when I began to ask myself. 

What does God want me to pray and what circles can I start drawing in my life?

So here is my top five so far-and the Bible promises I have circled.

1.  God will supply all the money, by the end of this year, needed to pay off my student loans.

"God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work."
2 Corinthians 9:8

"My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19

2. God will save two significant people in my life.

"Our God is the God of Salvation"
Psalm 68:20

"Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of Salvation."
2 Corinthians 6:26

"Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."
Exodus 14:13

3.  God will teach me how to love those that are my enemies, hard to love, or dislike.

"Behold let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."
1 John 4:7

"Bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do."
Colossians 3:13

4.  The Holy Spirit is going to move in a more profound way in my team.

"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all."
1 Corinthians 12:7

"The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercessions for us with groaning which cannot be uttered."

5.  God will allow me to give more financially.

"Give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."
Luke 6:38

"A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."
Proverbs 11:25

I am waiting expectantly for God to answer. I encourage you to start praying bold prayers.  Start praying things that require God to intervene and show up in your life. Claim the promises in the Bible that God has given you.

Pray bold prayers that honor God, and God will honor those prayers.

Drawing prayer circles is nothing more than laying our requests before God and waiting expectantly.

&

Drawing prayer circles isn't about proving yourself to God; it's about giving God an opportunity to prove Himself to you.
&
Don't let what you cannot do keep you from doing what you can. Draw the circle. Don't let who you are not keep you from being who you are.

You are a circle maker.

Photos of my team-team Abide 15:5

This month we have been working in a city called Diriamba.  We live on a property that houses about 12 children that have been taken off the streets or from parents that could no longer provide for them. 

The poor communities here are called Barrios. The children living in the Barrios are thought to be throw aways, the lowest of the low, and essentially insignificant.  

The children are molested and raped by their family members from the age of a toddler until their adult years.  They are passed around in their families throughout their childhood for different family members to use.  All of this is the normal life of the children here.  By the time they are 18 their own father, uncle, grandfather, brother, & cousin have raped them countless times.  

It is easy for us to forget the heartache and pain these children have gone through when we meet them, because we never have lived through such a nightmare.  We have never experienced being thought of as worthless.  I wouldn't blame them if they thought themselves better off dead.

Many times they will never have freedom from that nightmare.  Most will never be able to leave their already set life. But then there are a few, the 12 children here, that have found freedom from the constant use and abuse.  The 12 free from the nightmare.  The 12 that have hope for a better future.  And the 12 that have learned that there is a God who loves them.

It is because of these 12 that I have hope for these children here.  God has used and moved people here to save the 12.  And God can and will send more people to save the next 12, and the next, and the next.

Satan's hold is never permanent.  And nightmares can be ended by the truth of the light.

These are their stories.  God is their hope.  

And YOU might be His answer for their freedom.