Year-end Update

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means God with us).” Matthew 1:23

The truth that God is indeed Immanuel - God with us - has taken on new significance for us. 2010 was a year in which we each decided to leave our jobs in China, move to the US to raise support, and prepare to move to Cambodia to work in a new area of ministry: anti-trafficking for sexual exploitation. Changes, changes, changes! We had many questions along the way: what would we do and where would we serve and how in the world would God provide for us? Last January these and many other questions seemed so overwhelming. We had to trust that God was going to be Immanuel as we took a step of faith.

One of our big leaps of faith was traveling for 14 weeks across the US to raise support. We originally sketched this trip out on a big piece a paper taped to a bedroom wall in China, based on hundreds of e- mails that were sent to friends and family. We were told a few times how crazy we were for even attempting this. We didn’t argue this point.

Now, on the other side of all of the flurry - it is awesome to recount the stories of God’s faithfulness and provision. Never once did we lack a home to stay in during our travels. So many friends stepped in and took care of us. And each day we had our daily needs met, sometimes through a gift card and sometimes through home-cooked meals. And then there were all the ‘random’ connections that allowed us to meet some of the most amazing new friends and partners in ministry all across the country. Two of our now biggest supporting churches were not on our itinerary when we started. These connections came through friends who heard our story and captured our vision and then called their friends and family to tell them about us.

The most meaningful way we learned that God is indeed Immanuel comes in the fact that on January 11, 2011 we depart for Cambodia with so many friends cheering us on and praying for us.

Thank you God for being Immanuel!

Grace and Peace, Becki, Rachel and Kimberly

Links

We've been posting some links on Facebook recently to various websites that have information about trafficking and other related issues and we thought we would repost them here for non-Facebook users.


Check out this blog post about a village outside Phnom Penh where Hard Places Community is working. Very hard and dark realities. Silent Images

A recent special about sex-trafficking in Cambodia by America's Most Wanted. America's Most Wanted

Kimberly stopped by The Body Shop in the mall to ask them more about their anti-trafficking efforts. She was impressed with what they are doing. The Body Shop

Check out this article about Hillary Clinton's recent visit to a Cambodian aftercare facility. Clinton

A friend of ours recently blogged about the book Sold. We highly recommend it as well! Sold

Check out this free documentary about trafficking in India and Nepal. The Day My God Died

Enjoy!

October Update

A lot has happened in the last month! One month ago we were in the midst of our travels and at 35% of our fundraising goal - now we are at 65%! We have been incredibly blessed by the loving and generous responses from those we have met. Currently we are in Missouri and Wednesday we finished our very last presentation to a church. It was very strange to unpack our various presentation materials for the last time. Next week Becki and Rachel will return to their home states and we all will spend November and December wrapping up a lot of details and spending time with our families for the holidays. We will be buying our plane tickets to Cambodia very soon!

If anyone around Missouri, Arizona/California, and Colorado would like to hear more in person about our work, please let us know. We're still available to do individual, small group or church gatherings in November and December.

Please be praying for our remaining time in the States as we finish up our fundraising, reconnect with family, and prepare (spiritually, mentally, and physically) for Cambodia.

If you are considering joining our support team, we would appreciate pledges of support being sent to International Outreach Ministries by December 1st (at the address below).

The Grace and Peace Gals
c/o International Outreach Ministries
P.O. Box 2140
McComb, MS 39649

Please make checks payable to I.O.M. Direct deposit is available.

DC, New Jersey and New England

The last few weeks have found us roaming the East Coast. We are enjoying the fall with the beautiful changing of the leaves and the cooler weather. All three of us haven't been in the States for the autumn for several years, so being here this year is a good gift.

Last week while in DC we had a neat adventure. When planning our road trip several months ago we all decided that we wanted to spend some time in DC, but we didn't have any real contacts there in terms of having a church/small groups to speak to. We decided to go to DC anyway and we asked a friend who used to live in the area to find us housing. Little did we know that the housing we would be provided would come from the head of the mission committee from a church in the area. This led to us speaking to a small group of interested people on a Saturday morning and an invitation to speak to a Sunday school class the next day. Then while at church on Sunday we were introduced to the COO of International Justice Mission (IJM). We talked to him about our future work with Hard Places and he invited us to visit IJM the next morning and attend their staff prayer time. So on Monday morning we made our way to their office and got an official tour. After prayer time we were introduced to the IJM Director of Aftercare. She proceeded to spend an hour with us answering our questions and telling us what aftercare looks like in their work. We left their office feeling incredibly blessed and a bit overwhelmed by all that we experienced. In the end we didn't see all the sites of DC that we intended to see, but God directed us to exactly the places we needed to be.

We are now in the Boston area speaking to a few churches/small groups here and visiting with Kimberly's college friends. Our road trip is slowly drawing to a close. We have about four weeks remaining. On Monday we head to Pittsburgh and then from there we are off to Kimberly's home in Mt. Vernon, MO. We are so thankful for all of God's protection we have experienced as we have traveled the highways and byways of America and His continued provision in our lives. It's true that "His love never quits!"

Elusive Rhode Island

Join us in celebrating: We completed our first game of finding all fifty license plates! We found this Rhode Island plate not in Rhode Island, but in Maryland.

We know it's a bit difficult to see, but we had to give proof :)

September Update

"You are going to Cambodia to do this great work, and you will fail. And God will do miracles. We look forward to hearing about it!"

"To God, success is measured in faithfulness."

These are two recent quotes from pastors we've met on our road trip. Both are very humbling quotes as we sit in the middle of such a big transition and our normal measures of success and productivity are non-existent. At the moment we are measuring our lives in a great variety of numbers - percentage of funds raised, monthly partners, miles traveled, states visited, new friends, e-mails per day, presentations given, and number of days left on this long journey. We get the feeling that when we begin working in Cambodia, it will be futile to measure our success in some grand number of lives changed.

"This week, 10 girls were helped!" But what are the stories behind the numbers? And what about the countless others who haven't been reached and continue to be abused? We must trust that Emmanuel, God-With-Us, is indeed who He says He is in the midst of terrible evil. We will respond to Him in faithfulness and keep looking to Him each day, even today, as He gives us new mercies. It is easy to say, but a little harder to do.

On a lighter note, here are some of the numbers from our last two months on the road: 11,000 miles traveled by car, 22 states visited, 602 friends on our update list, 25 homes stayed in, and 35% of our funds officially raised!

We have been carried by your faithful prayers and contributions to this work. Thank you!

Kimberly, Rachel and Becki

The Midwest

Our most recent excitement is that we have almost completed 2/3 of our journey! We have been on the road for about nine weeks and we have around six more weeks to go.

Please pray for our continued strength and joy in this intense time of travel. We currently have 25% of our support team and we hope to buy our tickets to Cambodia soon. We are planning to leave the States January 5th!

We are blessed to have so many great friends around the country and around the world. Everywhere we go, we get to see old friends and make new friends. Here are a few pictures of our recent reunions in the Midwest.

Hu Laoshi was Kimberly and Becki's Chinese teacher last year. She and her husband have recently relocated to the Chicago area.

Kate and Rachel went to Calvin together. Kate was working on a farm in rural Illinois and Rachel had the privilege of touring a nearby organic farm with Kate and her fellow farm hands during her visit.

Erin taught in the high school at Tianjin International School. We got to see her cross the finish line at the Chicago Half Marathon! Here we are loading up on carbs the night before.

Beth and Rachel taught together in Wuxi, China four years ago. Beth joined us on our tour of the Indianapolis capitol building.

The Pollocks are a family from our Tianjin years. We visited them in rural Kentucky at their beautiful retreat housing.