Friday, July 8, 2016

Change

It has been almost a year since I started with OM at the middle of last August. There has been many exciting adventures, times of great change, difficulty and unexpected surprises. As many of you know this is just a normal life with Christ. Times of growth, change and new perspectives as you grow closer to Christ with every day. Over all my year has been very positive. I have really enjoyed it and God has done great things in my life. I have been a little sad lately because this wonderful time is slowly coming to a close. I have had to say good bye to some good friends and will continue to do so in the weeks ahead. This week we are going hiking as a team. It will be the last day we will be all together as some of us are on vacation and then one of our team is leaving at the end of July. I am in the process of completing many of the ministries that I have invested my heart in over this year which means saying good bye to many new friends. Please pray for this transition time. My mind knows that the end is near but my heart is still so invested here. I never knew that I could love a place so much as I have grown to love this community that I have been in this year.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Bringing a Glimmer of Hope


Every person is important in the world. The reality is we cannot help everyone and some people think why try to help any if we can probably never solve the problem. In our world one of the biggest problems is slavery. Approximately 80 percent of these people enslaved are slaves of human trafficking. The estimate for the number of people who are enslaved in the world is between 20 and 30 million people. The majority of these are women. Last night I had the opportunity to go with an organization called Global Act in Zurich to go and bring a little bit of hope to a few off these women. We went to a place not too far from where I live where women will stand around a traffic circle while men will pick which one he wants. Then they go into a box with their car and receive the services she has to offer. Even though this is absolutely horrible to think about and even worse to look into these women`s faces or at the men who are leaving. The city of Zurich has tried to make this problem as safe as possible for these women. Men use to pick up the women and go anywhere with no protection for these girls. Now they have to stay on the property where there is security, help buttons for them if they are threatened and social workers to help them. Last night we picked up some really good food from a restaurant and brought it to the ladies. Unfortunately because it is a government run center we are not allowed to talk to the women about Christ but we are there to serve not only the women but bring hope to the social workers as well. I truly believe that God can work in this as well. You can even see it with the women. I was told that they were skeptical at first with Global Act but what I saw last night was that they knew why we were there. One girl saw us and she called the others. Soon they were all sitting at the table enjoying the meal like a supporting community with each other. Please pray that this ministry would continue, that God would be working on the hearts of all the people involved and that new doors would be opened for people serving in this area.