"People take your example far more seriously than they take your advice."We have written to you over and over about how our family is a large part of our ministry. Many people ask if it is hard to be a a family in missions. We usually reply: "It's all we know!" This is true. But just to be real for a moment, of course there are challenges! They may be different than you would expect. We have been doing this all of our children's lives so there are some things we have become really good at. Traveling 20+ hours with kids by plane, car or bus- check! Adapting to foreign cultures and foods- check! Keeping our kids healthy and taking care of them with weird tummy things/fevers and no resources- check! The challenges: We know that our family is under a giant spotlight 24/7, we share our lives with EVERYONE around us, and our kids say goodbye... ALOT.
The things that are challenging are also beautiful. If we balance and have boundaries they can be channeled and used to bring glory to God. We DO believe that God has asked our family to lay down some of the comforts and securities of typical life, but we DO NOT believe that has asked us to sacrifice our family at all. There is a great difference between laying our lives, our family and our children down as a sacrifice before the Lord, and another thing to neglect our call to be a family. We are still students in this. Thankfully God has given us VERY patient children and some incredible people in our lives to help us as we learn to do family well. Even in our messy moments our family really has been a HUGE part of our ministry. So many of our students and staff have told us that they have been learning a lot from our family and many have said that our example has been a tool God is using to bring healing and restoration to their lives! It is so encouraging to see the fruit of this. We really believe that it is important for us to keep pursing this. NOT being the "perfect" family... at all; but being healthy, full of love, purity and realness. We are discipling young adults from a generation of broken families and working with victims that have had every sliver of purity, love and authenticity stripped and robbed from their lives. That is why our family MUST continue being a part of our ministry.
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ThailandWe just got home from three months in Thailand. It was absolutely amazing. Our focus of the trip was Human Trafficking. We did prevention work, outreach to victims and recovery work. Our team was able to impact many men women and children who were in vulnerable situations. The main problem that puts people "at risk" is being poor or generational debts. In the Red Light Districts our girls built relationships with women being trafficked and our men reached out to the tourist men who were there to purchase women.
We spent the first 4 weeks in Chiang Mai. There we did prevention work with children in the slums and a nearby village an we worked in the Red Light Districts. We were able to help 2 girls come out of the sex industry and begin to rebuild their lives. The next 5 weeks we were in Pattaya . This city was literally founded for sex tourism. On one street alone there are approximately 20,000 men, women and children being enslaved and sold for sex. Here we worked in the red light districts building relationships with girls, teaching English classes to prostitutes as a form of outreach, worked with at risk children and were a part of assisting women that had been rescued and are rebuilding their lives. During this time we were apart of 23 children being rescued and 91 women being introduced to the organization that is rescuing women from trafficking. We also had the plessure of painting a playground, building wardrobes and painting a home for children who have been rescued from at risk situations! We finished our time in Phuket. Another city known for sex tourism. We did outreach in the Red Light Districts and assisted the organization there reaching out to women who have been trafficked. Our trip was incredibly fruitful and we had the honor of truly taking action and standing for those who cannot stand for themselves. Our team had moments of real brokenness as we faced the reality of trafficking but left Thailand with so much empowerment and hope for the future. |
AuthorWe are a family that has given their lives to the service of Christ. Archives
May 2015
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