what you might not know

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 1 million 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 in 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… but I can’t do these things if I am not here.

At the moment there are 43 June 2010 World Racers in Thailand. We are working with orphans, street kids and sex workers. We are building houses, doing outreach, 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 people. On December 15th, the final support goal for the World Race requires each of us to have $14,300 donated or pledged to continue on the race; without it we will be forced to abandon our work and have to return home to the U.S. There are currently 10 racers in danger of leaving the field. 10 racers! That’s 10 friends, 10 pairs of hands and feet, 10 smiling faces, 10 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.

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 our 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.

James 2:14-17 says, “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.”

Tom and Casey Kowatch
http://www.thomasandcaseykowatch.theworldrace.org

Rachelle Uribe
http://www.rachelleuribe.theworldrace.org

Lili Mejia, Texas
http://www.lilimejia.theworldrace.org

Anna Matthews, South Carolina
http://www.annamatthews.theworldrace.org