Hello everyone and happy New Year. I rang in the New Year last night in a small village outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We had a bonfire beside a lake and ate kebabs off a makeshift grill… it was a scene out of Anthony Bourdain’s show! This place is very different than I expected
and I quite like what I’ve found. Prime
example: I’m sitting in a lovely little cafe in downtown Phnom Penh drinking a
mango smoothie and surfing the internet… I’m quite OK with that! The countryside certainly looks like all of
the Vietnam War movies and it feels a bit surreal when walking along the long
winding roads of rice paddies and towering palm trees. I’ll write more about Cambodia as we move
along in the month and as I’m able to get internet (probably only on
Saturdays), so stay tuned!
Right now I want to make an attempt to explain the last month
in Thailand. It was such an awesome
month for the guys! This is why: We had
dinner the other night with the founder of the orphanage we worked with outside
of Chiang Mai and he told us quite a bit about how he got involved and how
extensive the Lord has blessed and grown his ministry over the last few years. They started with one orphanage in Cambodia
about four or five years ago and now operate multiple ones in at least five
countries in southeast Asia with plans to open many more… an enormous
task! I walked away encouraged with the
success they’ve had in keeping hundreds of at risk girls from being sold into
the sex-trade, but also appalled by how extensive and complicated the issue
is. Read any of the blogs of the o-squad
girls who are going into the bars trying to intervene and rescue the girls out,
and you will surely get a glimpse into the damage already done to those
girls. It surely is important to try to
rescue the girls already in it, but as this guy explained it is much easier and
much more successful to work on the front end of this issue and prevent children
from being sold or trafficked in the first place… it makes a lot of
sense! I didn’t know much about this
issue and I challenge everyone reading this to do some research… you’ll be
shocked at what you learn. This surely
is one of the most serious moral dilemmas of our time.
Last Saturday night I went out with the girls to the
red-light district in Chiang Mai and got a glimpse into what goes down
there. All I could think about the whole
time were the girls back at the orphanage who might well be working here in the
bars by now if intervention and rescue hadn’t happened earlier. To put it lightly I was very thankful the
next Monday when I returned to the orphanage to see the girls getting a good
foundation for life and love poured into them each day. The contrast of the two scenes and the
importance of this home for the girls took on a whole new meaning.
Please checkout this organization, I can assure you they are
on the ball and from the momentum they are gaining I believe will play a large
part in ending child prostitution and trafficking in southeast Asia and if they
have their way, all around the world.
Check out their website: www.RememberNhu.org.
