Have any of
you heard about the Slave Hunter, Aaron Cohen? He’s recently been featured on CNN, a tragic story about one
of the prostitutes he saved from sex-slavery. This teenager, a daughter of God, recently passed away
because of a failed liver: caused by all the alcoholic beverages she was
encouraged to drink, by her brothel owner, because the men who solicited her
would have to keep buying her drinks.
Lindsay and I are going to meet this guy once we get back to Los
Angeles!
Check out
the story through this link– http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/cambodia.wus.child.sex.trafficking/index.html?hpt=C2
The big
question that I have about his daring rescues, and which many have about the
flipside of this slavery, is “What next?”, “What is being offered as an
alternative income source to these young women?”
This is
where you and I come in. I know
many of you are not totally sure about what this G42 Academy is all about, and
kinda jealous about the fact that we’re in such a nice vacation destination,
but we are
really hard at work. We are using
this time to formulate our “now what?” after the World Race, to form our vision
for the future and make a strategic plan.
A key ingredient to that is building a network of people around us who
are not interested in maintaining the status quo, who are not content with the
world as it is and who want to make a difference.
Lindsay and
I have a vision to offer alternative income sources for these women through a
fair-trade business. This business will put money in our pocket, give these
women their dignity back and give you a stylish, unique, hand-made product to
keep. We don’t want any one buying
a product out of pity, though…that would take away their dignity. We want you to buy it because it is
beautiful, unique, well-made and practical. We are still working on the details about which products to
import, but if any of you saw our mulberry paper wedding invitations made in
Thailand, the recycled rice bag Lindsay used as her carry-on during the World Race (from
Cambodia), the beautiful jewelry that Lindsay wore or the sweet Tibetan rug we had in our apartment in
Brentwood, you can get a jist of the products we will possibly import.
to the Business as Mission website (www.businessasmission.com) “Business
has tremendous potential as a force for good, to tackle poverty, to stimulate
local economies, to bring social and environment improvements and to carry the
Message of eternal hope to people and places which are often otherwise beyond
reach. And because a profitable business is self-sustaining, it can help
to bring about sustainable social, economic, environmental and spiritual
transformation.”
that issue group sees a direct correlation between the benefits of BAM and the
ending of human trafficking.
“Report after report from the UN, the US State department, the OSCE and
others show that unemployment makes people vulnerable and creates high risk
areas for trafficking. Adequate prevention must include job creation through wholesome, intentional
business development focused on these people and areas.
BAM faces the question, “Out of
trafficking (most often for the sex industry)…into what?” It recognizes that
without jobs in healthy environments there can be no restoration and holistic
transformation of individuals.”
Not surprisingly, one big reason
these kingdom minded businesses aren’t popping up everywhere is that there is a
lack of initial capital investment.
Not to mention, the learning curve for someone just starting up a
business is huge.
We need your partnership with
us.
Continue to pray for us as we have
so many ideas floating around our brains, and passion in our heart…we want to
continue to be led by Him. We will
probably be asking you for professional business advice as well. Finally, we are still in need of 4
months of living and training expenses here in Spain ($8,000). Just as an encouragement, if we raise
above and beyond the required amount, G42 will donate the surplus to our future
business or ministry…because they believe in us that much!
