A Plea for Help

I hope this blog finds you well, that your Christmas shopping is almost
finished, and the crisp winter weather is to your liking. I hope the nights are
filled with hot chocolate and warm beds. I hope you are surrounded by your
friends and family. Tonight I hope you are loved. Tonight I will be sleeping in
front of a fan to keep cool, as the weather in Phuket Thailand feels like 99
degrees thanks to the humidity, and hundreds of men will be going fishing,
hoping to catch enough fish to feed themselves and their families. There are a
few more things that will be happening tonight, as you are waking up in the
morning, seeing as how West Palm Beach, Florida is directly across the world
from Bangkok, we are exactly twelve hours apart. I wanted to let you know what
may be going on while you are getting ready to go to work.

Tonight 20,000 – 30,000 street children are impoverished, hungry and in danger
of being exploited on the streets of Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

Tonight girls, age 13-15, who were sold to pimps by their parents for 5,000 –
10,000 baht ($160- $325), are working in bars and brothels of Chang Mai.

Tonight a rural family will eat thanks to the 300 million dollars transferred
yearly by women engaged in prostitution in urban areas.

Tonight 18-20% of all Thai women aged 18-30 are in sexual slavery

Tonight the streets are walked by men who sell sex because it is the only work
they know, the work they have been doing since they were children.

Tonight the industry is booming and 2.8 million sex workers, including 800,000
minors under the age of 18 are available for purchase in Thailand.

This past weekend over 1 million people changed their face book profile
pictures to favorite childhood cartoons to combat child abuse. Over 1 million
people were willing to take the time to change their profile to voice an
opinion that child abuse is not acceptable. What if they were willing to do
more? What if those 1million people descended on Thailand and outnumbered the
500,000 foreign tourists who buy women and children for prostitution every
year, 2 to 1? What if each one of those 1 million people took personal interest
a woman or child trapped in Thailand’s sex industry and showed them real love?
What if?

I can’t stop sex tourism, I can’t deliver a crushing blow to the sex industry
or end human trafficking. What I can do is buy a woman or child for the evening
and keep them from having to do sex work that night. I can talk to them about
the foundations and the resources available to help them out of trap of the sex
industry. I can become their friend and let them know not everyone in the world
wants to use them… I can’t do these things if I am not here.  Thankfully, I am not in danger of being sent
home, because you have been more than willing to help me raise my funds, and
thanks to you, I have been fully funded since the beginning of the race.
HOWEVER, there are some members of my team that are in danger of being sent
home.

Currently, there are 43 June 2010 world racers in Thailand. We are working with
orphans, street kids and sex workers. We are building houses, doing out reach,
making friends and even picking up trash. We have spent the last six months and
hope to spend the next five (11 total) working with existing ministries in
Europe, Africa, Asia and Central America to bring the Love and the word of God
to the people. On December 15th,the final support goal for the world race
requires each of them to have $14,300 donated or pledged to continue on the
race, without it they will be forced to abandon their work and have to return
home to the U.S. There are currently 11 racers in danger of leaving the field.
11 racers! That’s 11 friends, 11 pairs of hands and feet, 11 smiling faces, 11
people doing the work and giving the love that you want to. I know finances are
tight, I know Christmas is coming and there are so many things to do and to
buy, I know I am asking a lot but if I don’t ask you can’t help.

This is a personal plea to help. These people have become more than just the
hands and feet of Jesus, these people have become MY family and MY support
while they have been here on the race. Seeing them go home would be simply devastating
to not only me, but the rest of our squad. I know they are doing everything
that they can to raise money, and I believe that God is more than capable of
funding us, but I will do everything in my limited power to pray and ask on
their behalf. If you believed in ME, if you believed in the work that God was
doing in ME, then please, trust me when I say that God is also working in
them. 

Below is a link for each at risk racer and the amount they
need to raise in the next 7 days, take a little time (maybe the amount it would
take to change a profile picture) and read their blogs, read about what we have
been doing, what we have been learning and who we are becoming and if you feel
moved to help please pick a racer and commit to make a one time or monthly (for
the next 5 months) donation to support their mission.  If you have donated to me before, please
consider donating something to them as well, even if it is a small amount, many
small amounts can add up to a big miracle.

James:2-14-17 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith
but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and
destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be
warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed
for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not
have works, is dead.

The Lord has called us to this and I have no doubt He will provide the finances
necessary for His will to be accomplished. We are inviting you to partner with
us, with God in the work he is doing in Thailand, Cambodia, Nicaragua,
Guatemala and wherever else He sends our squad.

Thank you for reading, may God bless and keep you!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I miss you all dearly. Much Love.

Kirsten