Grand Opening

Hi! It's been a while because we've had dodgy Internet for the last little bit. We're in the head office of Victory Children's Home's in Cambodia which also serves as our project managers' home and is where the church they've started is held. We have a great connection so I can tell you about our week.
Our grand opening on Monday was awesome! The house moms, teacher and cook (along with Julia, a young woman from Calgary who has been here volunteering for 3 months on her Bible School practicum) put on a traditional Cambodian dance that symbolized the girls breaking away from their oppressors and living free. So cool.
We had a wonderful meal prepared by the staff and some of the pastors of the area who are a part of Victory. They made skewers of curried chicken and beef as well as rice - always rice :) -, salad, and lots of lyche fruit (something I have fallen in love with). Then we ate cake and celebrated.
Reps from different rescue organizations in Cambodia came to support us, which was very encouraging. In the time we've spent here we've not only seen how much amazing work both Pastor Carin and Patrick do every day, but that they have become family with the people here working toward the same thing - seeing these children safe and loved and abolishing the sex trade in our generation. It does my heart good to know that they have such a great extended team who know what they go through on a day to day basis and have some suggestions and experience as well as support to share.
We met the head of Destiny Rescue for Cambodia and she and I shared some words about how this mission started and how we are so excited to see the fruit of the seeds so many have planted and cultivated these years.
The grand opening was held at the head office and at that time we hadn't seen the safe home, yet. We went the next day and loved it. It's not fancy by any stretch, but it's got lots of room to house girls and places for them to play and learn and eat and rest. It has a big yard that has no grass, only sand, but that's typical for here. Lot's of fruit trees and room for a garden. There is also a chicken coup...very sorry looking so the plan is to either get it to stand up straight or build a new one. We will take these opportunities to become as self sufficient as we can, fruit trees, gardens, chickens. We are getting two rabbits donated - a boy and a girl - and you all know what that means :) And a couple of fish ponds will be built. We are looking for as many ways as we can to give the girls fresh, healthy food.
A working crew is there finalizing the work needed on the home. There are many security considerations, so walls are being built& barbed wire placed on the top of the walls as well as around any trees that could be climbed up or down.
Some electrical and painting needs to be done yet and cleaning and stocking before the girls are moved in.
I got the honor today of going to the center where the girls are waiting to come to our home. This is an assessment center where they go right after they're rescued and get some counseling and medical treatment, they contact any guardians and work with lawyers and social workers, getting everything in order to have them come to the next level facility, which our home is.
At this center I played with the girls and gave them suckers. I learned new games, just by their actions because I couldn't understand their sweet little voices speaking in Khmer.
They got louder and sillier as the sugar from their suckers kicked in. I had a wonderful time with them and met one little girl who will come to our home for sure. What a great experience!!
We have had a wonderful week in Cambodia and are headed out to the airport in a few minutes, so...I'll share more later. Thanks for your patience with crazy internet connections and busy schedules. And for your support and interest in this journey. I know you have been praying for us and Not4Sale and we have certainly felt it.
Heading home, soaking in the heat here, maybe we'll bring it back to you.
Talk to you soon,
xoxo J

Quick blog post as we wait for our ride. Today is the grand opening of our safe home!! I have a bit more of our Not4Sale story to share, but I will do that when I have a little more time.

Cambodia is beautiful; hot and humid full of smiling faces. It is said to be about 20 years behind Thailand in its modernization and Thailand is quite far behind us in most places. They just had on of their main roads paved and everyone is excited about it.

We have met a few of our staff and will meet the rest tonight. We're headed to see the safe home today, and I'm looking forward to seeing where our girls will live and heal.

Thank you for your prayers, we are feeling them are excited to share with you all about our celebration tonight.

Psalm 82:3&4
Defend the weak and the fatherless;
uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

xoxo J

Cambodia

In 2010, Kelly and I came over to Cambodia with Dr's. George and Hazel, to scout out what it would take to set up and run a safe home here. We saw many NGO's (non-government organizations) with the same passion to abolish the sex trade in our lifetime. They we so open to sharing their experiences, good and bad with us.

One of these groups was Destiny Rescue. They were an organization that started with a couple of guys from Australia who moved their families to Asia and dedicated their whole lives to rescue children. In the ten years they have been running, they have set up many safe homes, have gained a good reputation with the government and other organizations, have developed a team working in several countries and, most importantly, have rescued hundreds of children and have given them a home and hope for a good life.

We really felt a connection with these guys and over the next year formed a partnership with them. Our home that is opening this coming week (yay!) is in partnership with Destiny Rescue. We are so thankful God wrote them into our story.

During the time that fundraising was getting off the ground in Canada, God was bringing people forward who wanted to spend some time in Cambodia and be the ones who would run the safe home. A young man named Patrick Meir spent some time there training with Destiny Rescue as well as networking with other organizations. His time here was invaluable as he made some great contacts and gained much of the necessary knowledge about setting up and running a safe home in Cambodia.

Pastor Carin McCoy came over later from Canada and brought her giftings to the table. Together they make a great team, taking care of the day to day needs as well as seeing what God can do in the future.

We are so blessed to be serving beside them, all working in our different roles, with the same heart to rescue and restore children.

We arrived in Cambodia tonight and our internet is in and out, so I'll post when I can. We have a busy week to look forward to.

Our safe home grand opening is in Monday evening...I will tell you all about it!.

Thank you for your prayers and your support,

xoxo J

Making Friends with the Wildlife

We had a very touristy day yesterday. After Kelly taught an awesome class in the morning, we headed out to the Tiger Zoo with Pastors Ken and Donna Haase - missionaries at the Victory Bible College in Sriracha.

We got great pics at the zoo and made friends with the animals...Kelly was a little jealous of the orangutang and me, but he, (the monkey) wasn't too interested in me. He was hugging the guy before me and playing with his hair, didn't even look at me. Kelly thinks he's smirking in the picture :)



Ya, we look comfortable together...



That's a real tiger...so beautiful. He could've eaten us at any moment if he wanted to.



Baby wasn't too happy to be held.



Weirdest feeling ever! But really cool :)



Always wanted to ride an elephant. Neat experience!

Then we ate crocodile - no big deal. Well, actually it was a big deal because crocs were one of the main attractions at the zoo. Don't know if buddy we ate was part of the show earlier that day or not. Well, at least I can say I did it, not sure if I'd like to eat that again.

I ended the day off with another Thai massage with girlfriends. The best yet because I learned the work "jep" (not sure if I spelled that correctly). It means gentle.

Awesome day! And the countdown is on to our trip to Cambodia - two more days. So looking forward to seeing our project managers, meeting our staff and opening our first home for the girls.

xoxo J

Pendants

It was pretty amazing to see the way people stepped up to lend their talents, experiences and ideas to the next stage of Not4Sale. Our team planned breakfasts and events as opportunities to educate others on the crime of human trafficking. At these events we sold necklaces and pendants, not only to raise funds, but to raise awareness and to remind our supporters about their part in the solution.

Not4Sale pendants were, and still are, a huge hit. What started as an idea from Dr Hazel - a suggestion that we create a little token with "n4s" on it to hand out to people who gave to the mission - became a busy team of designers, producers, marketers and managers of pendants. For a year a team of committed, giving ladies served with their time, money and passion into this opportunity that kept getting bigger and bigger.

Our team got together images of Asia, such as elephants, landscapes, flora, Asian children and Thai silk. The first pendants that we had were ordered from creators who used pieces such as Jenga, Domino and Scrabble tiles. We used these as reminders that we are all small parts that make up the whole of the solution to human trafficking; that together, each using what we can bring, we can do something significant.

We also used glass tiles and placed our images underneath them to create pendants - these were by far the best sellers and are what we have stuck with to this day. Since the early days many more designs have been added and taken away from our collection. Some of my favorites have come from our Kid4Kids collection.

Kids4Kids was contest we held within the schools of our area, inviting children to design images that they felt helped raise awareness about human trafficking. Some schools advertised this contest as something the children could do at home and some put it right into their art curriculum for the students. We were blown away by the support and the response!

Around 1000 entries were made into the contest - some amazing designs from children in elementary school all the way up to high school.

This also opened the door for us to go into the schools and educate the students on human trafficking and what Not4Sale was doing to combat it. This awareness for our young people is a huge passion for me and I'm in awe of how God used what we were already doing with the pendants to make these opportunities available.

In that time and the time since, we have sold our pendants at trade fairs, churches, schools, events and businesses and have had a tremendous response to the place where almost everyone you talked to in our town of 20,000 at the time had heard about Not4Sale and either had their own collection of pendants or knew someone who did.

Looking back over this time of getting this fundraiser off the ground, I am so blessed with the people who jumped on board and gave their all to be world-changers for these little children.

Honored to be used by Him alongside you,

xoxo J

Randomness

Some random thoughts on our travels...
* I just had a two hour massage for $10.
* I didn't know I could fold in half - now I do...fold and know.
* I miss my kids.
* I love palm trees.
* Sticky coconut rice and fresh mangos are really good.
* You eat sticky rice with your fingers - at least I do now that I got laughed at for using a fork.
* They don't use chopsticks in Thailand. They do use a fork to scoop into a spoon.
* Traffic is crazy.
* You can fit a family of five on a scooter.
* We are selling the minivan and buying two mopeds when we get home.
* I love walking, I don't do it enough at home.
* Thai chilies are awesome.
* It doesn't smell fantastic here...except at meal time.
* Air conditioning is a gift from God.
* I get up before the rooster crows...literally.
* We can see the ocean from our place.
* Starbucks green tea frap's are not the same here. I'm going to stop trying to find one I like.
* There are 7-eleven's everywhere here...and stray dogs.
* They love my white skin here.
* I have been warned to wear a hat lest I ruin it with a tan...or any color at all.
* The beauty industry is obsessed with skin whitening products.
* I had a hard time finding a moisturizer that didn't have lightening agents in it.
* I finally did - was scared I would come home translucent if I got any more pale.
* I'm going to try to grow a mango tree when I get home.
* We are having a wonderful re-creating time.
* I still have to think really hard about what day we are living in :)

xoxo J

Growing the Seed

When you get pregnant there is a period nine months where that seed grows into a little human and takes on a life of its own. During that time you don't see it; no one else sees it, but you can see the effects of it growing inside of you - you can feel it and those who are close enough to you and care to share the intimacy of their hands on your belly can feel it as well.

It's the same with a dream that God plants on the inside of you. Sometimes it's there for a while before you notice the changes. Sometimes it's a big event where you know you just started creating a new thing, where you allowed Him into the deepest recesses of your heart and together you will birth a dream.

With a dream, as with a baby, there is a time of incubation. A time where sometimes God asks you to keep it to yourself, to take the time to pray and gather wisdom and His strategies as well as to let Him bring the right people and circumstances around you for its optimum health once it's born.

I came home from that conference in 2008 and told my husband about what I wanted to do; that somehow I needed to be a part of rescuing and restoring these children to wholeness. We had no idea where to start, so we incubated.

A while later, Kelly was visiting our pastors, Dr's George and Hazel Hill, and told them about the passion and desire we had to help abolish this crime. Dr's George and Hazel lead Victory Churches International and have started many orphanages, slum schools, sewing schools, Bible schools and micro-loan projects, all with the heart to serve the poor and needy. However this was the first time Victory was able to reach out into the sex trade.

Dr Hazel said that these children caught in slavery had been on her heart for a while and that the right people had not stepped up to take on the project. She commissioned us and said that if we were willing to do the work, she would back us.

We were willing to do the work and were honored to have the support and wisdom of her 20 some years experience on the mission field.

Even though I had never been to Asia and didn't even know where Cambodia was, I really felt like God was asking us to start a safe home there. A home where these children who had had their innocence and purity torn away from them so violently could come and just be kids. A place where, as much as we could, we would give them back their childhood. A place for them to be safe, loved and at peace. A home.

We realized that if this crime was so rampant in our world and we had only just learned about it, that awareness was lacking. We started to educate ourselves and share our findings with others. We also knew that in order to do anything to practically help others we needed money, and so the fundraising began.

People started coming to us from our church, from the community, from schools and other churches wanting to help. The more we understood about this issue, the more we knew we had to learn. We grew together, dreaming about the ways we could help these children, how we could get others on board and soon we had an amazing, diverse team around us of people who gave of their time, finances, giftings, talents and lives to share their blessings with those they may never even see.

Stay tuned as I share about the favor of God on the next chapter of our story...

xoxo J