Follow us on our Vision Trip through Thailand &
Cambodia
to help free women through design! 
Starting in the fall, we are launching a new
fair trade business entitled “Freed By Design” which will directly help
women who
have been and are being freed from the sex trade industry. We will work
alongside several amazing ministries to help redesign products and
create new
lines of fashion that will not only make a statement, but bring about
real
change in the lives of women around the world.
June 19-24th
Our journey starts in Phuket, Thailand,
working with an
amazing ministry known as SHE (Self Help and Empowerment) (www.shethailand.org). Lins will be personally hiring these women to make her new jewelry line which she
designed during our time here in Spain and I will be busy in the kitchen working
with the
catering side of SHE, teaching these women new delicious recipes such as my famous cinnamon rolls, scones and biscotti. We will be learning
more about
how to best support these women and organizations and our main desire is
to be a
source of great encouragement, fresh ideas and light.
June 24-July 3rd
Chiang
Mai, in Northern Thailand to work alongside a ministry that has
grown very dear
to our hearts, The Garden of Hope (www.thegardenofhope.org/). We
will concentrate
on several important tasks including meeting up with the leaders of TGOH
and discuss
new and creative business ideas (such as SAA mulberry paper products) to
help
get and keep these women out of the bars. Lins is looking forward to
visiting her
dear friends, Da and Ploy, two precious girls she met in the red light
district
last year and who give her the passion to do what she does.
voluntourism trips. Voluntourism is a growing industry which seeks to provide service opportunities with local organizations while also enjoying some local sights and comforts. We hope to bring
volunteers like YOU on our Freed by Design trips, visiting and serving alongside
these amazing organizations. To find out more about voluntourism, check out www.voluntourism.org or the seven minute YouTube video below which showcases the type of trip I am aiming for.
July 3-8th
Last, but definitely not least, we will be heading
over to
the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, to work with two other
amazing faith
based organizations that reach out to victims of sex trafficking. StopStart (http://www.stopstart.com.au/node/9
), formerly called Hagar, has a line of recycled rice bags that I
absolutely
fell in love with last year and would love to create my own line for
Freed by
Design to be sold all over college campuses! Our
last appointment will be with the CEO of Daughters (www.daughterscambodia.org/
), a
fair trade business who is looking for new markets overseas to help sell
their
hand sewn products. My goal is to
work with Daughters to create some amazing new lines of products that
Freed by
Design can carry and in doing so, represent freedom for girls who were
formerly
enslaved and did not know there was another way!
Praise God for the many ministries who work day and
night
helping counsel, support and love on these women. We are thrilled to be a
part
of their story and so can you! We need to raise another $3,000 to cover
flights, lodging and food for this packed out vision trip. Although we
are
graduating from G42, you can support us through G42 through next June,
2011. Anything
we raise above and beyond this amount will go towards future trips and
costs associated
with helping us help free these women through design.
http://www.g42leadershipacademy.org/donate
(Click on intern support tab)
Mail any checks to:
77219 – 0611
Please be praying for us during the next month and
stay
tuned to our blog for more updates including pictures and stories as we
move
forward in the vision God has given us to help women know their true
identity
in Christ.
Thank you for your continued love, encouragement
and
support! We could not do this without YOU, at home, believing in the
kingdom
message being brought around the world.
“Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly
with your God” Micah 6:8
Dave & Lindsay Hoogendam
