We are Giving more than Bikes and Boards…We are Giving Love and a Sense of Belonging

PREVENT TRAFFICKING BY SERVING KIDS IN FOSTER CARE

Tamiko and Patti from Purpose Church

Last year we hosted a Foster Care Coalition Info Fair at Purpose Church in Pomona.  Members of the church and community attended to hear more about the foster care system here in Los Angeles and how they could be involved serving and loving the children in foster care.  Through this time Tamiko (the director of the Justice ministry at Purpose Church) gathered a team from her church to create a foster care ministry and an event “Bikes and Boards for Kids.”

Foster Care Coalition Info Fair

Studies estimate that between 50 and 80 percent of trafficked children in California are or were formally involved with the child welfare system. In a FBI 70-city nationwide raid, 60 percent of the victims came from foster care or group homes.  There is high need to prevent trafficking of children through serving kids in the foster care. system  Purpose Church is coming together to show the love of Jesus to the children in foster care within the Pomona area through donating bikes and skateboards to them.  Foster care children are targeted by traffickers because of their need for love, affirmation, and protection.

Victims are trained to call sex traffickers “daddies” and themselves “wifies” – a perverted reflection of the family unit that these children are seeking.  These children long for a family…even if it means being subjected to extreme violence and abuse. (CAS Research and Education)

As we are a part of the Coalition of Christian Foster Care Ministries http://www.fostercarecoalition.com we are thankful to see info fairs and trainings held in various churches and in turn these churches gaining a heart and a vision to make a different in the foster care community around them.  Please pray for this “Bikes and Boards for Kids” event.  That many from the church would be involved in serving the foster kids of the Pomona area and the children involved would experience the real love of Jesus through this event.

Empowering Women to Stop Sex Trafficking

Partnering together… Pastor Krishna and his ministry, Mercy Nepal; Kshamata (an organization in Mumbai, India that helps sex trafficking survivors begin new lives through job training) and Cru, Joseph and I.  Joseph has been meeting with Pastor Krishna as part of LA Reaching LA and encouraging/supporting him in his church planting throughout Nepal.

A Recent Church Plant in Nepal

Mercy Nepal has planted over 50 churches within Nepal and the believers there are passionate about seeing change in their community.  One sobering statistic in Nepal is that every year 5,000-6,000 women and children are trafficked from Nepal into India into the sex trafficking industry.  The traffickers target these women who live in poverty and promise good jobs in India for them (not knowing this job is sex trafficking).  5,000 to 6,000 women is unbelievable and the new churches in Nepal want to stop this evil.  Pastor Krishna approached Joseph to talk about how they could partner and help these women.  Through our connections we found the organization Kshamata located in Mumbai, India and asked if we could partner with them to help these women in Nepal.  We are raising the funds at this time to send 2 women from Nepal to Kshamata for one month.  There they will learn advanced tailoring and design, jewelry making, embroidery and embellishment.  Currently there are 4 training centers in Nepal that Mercy Nepal has formed.  These 2 women we send to Kshamata will bring these advanced skills back to the training centers and teach other women, therefore increasing the amount of women we can help and the advancing the skills needed for these women to be empowered.

Pastor Krishna at 1 of 4 Training Centers in Nepal

What we love the most about this partnership is the local churches in Nepal are coming together to share the gospel and serve the vulnerable women in Nepal— over 50 churches have been planted with over 500 baptisms. Please pray for this partnership.  Pray that we could raise the funds needed to send the first 2 women in December, pray for the churches in Nepal to continue to spread the share the gospel and be able to help these women and pray for the vulnerable women of Nepal.  That this evil would be stopped and the vast amount of women being trafficked from Nepal to India would end.  Here is a video Pastor Krishna created about the sex trafficking crisis in Nepal… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdp7HaoYF4

Thank you for your continual prayers, encouragement and support to us.  We are so thankful for each of you know the work we do here in LA would not be possible without all the prayers and support of so many.  Thank you!