CQ

This is a short talk I gave at church this week

We serve a just God, who grieves deeply for the exploited and oppressed. Our God loves children and values them intensely.

Those priorities are vividly clear in scripture and in the example of Christ.

Matthew 18: 5-6 says…
And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Isaiah 1:15-17 says…
…Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

I would like to summarize for you our journey over the past year that has led my wife Marta and I into uncharted spiritual territory.

While we were on vacation last summer, Marta and I stumbled upon an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Ricky Martin was her guest and child trafficking was the subject. We were stunned and horrified to hear that over a million children around the world are being enslaved and forced into prostitution. UNICEF reports that worldwide, an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. As these statistics sank in, our hearts began to break for these children who are being exploited for profit. That night we got on the internet and began researching to find out what Christians were doing about this. We initially found only a few organizations including one ministry called International Justice Mission. They are a human rights organization made up of Christian lawyers, law enforcement, and social workers. They work with local governments in the developing world to rescue slaves, and to protect the weak, oppressed and exploited – including children.

Soon after that trip we talked to our small group about this horrible practice. Come to find out, another couple from the group had seen the same show and had a similar reaction. They also searched the internet and discovered through a Barclay Press article an organization called Remember Nhu, founded by Carl Ralston. Josh called Carl and the next thing we know he’s flying out to meet with us and speak at our church.

At the same time, in my role as the administrator of a Christian High school, I had been working with a team of teachers and staff to find an organization that we could partner with to provide missions opportunities for our students. Partnering with Carl was beginning to seem like it could be a good fit.

A few months passed and in one of our small group meetings Josh told us that he was going to Thailand with Carl in January. I immediately felt moved that I should go as well.
Three months later Josh and I, along with a member of my staff from school (Steve), were headed for a visioning experience in Thailand. We spent time visiting and learning about various ministries that are serving children at risk of exploitation. In the Northern Thailand hill tribes area it was estimated that between twenty to forty percent of the children will be trafficked into exploitive forced labor.

One day on our trip, as we arrived at an orphanage home, the children were singing praise songs. One girl captured my attention as she sang with an incredibly worshipful spirit. Her eyes were closed, and she looked so present with God in that moment. After the singing, while the children began to play some of the games we brought for them, I walked around looking for the opportunity to meet this little girl. I found her and gave her a hug, and she asked to be picked up. Through an interpreter I asked her what her name was and she said it was “Mae”. We walked into the open air dining hall made of grass and bamboo and found some coloring books. We picked a picture and began coloring it together. This is a

I asked the orphanage director Tutu to tell me Mae’s story. She said that Mae’s father was a drug dealer and was killed by police in a raid. Her mother has a birth defect and cannot earn enough to support Mae and her brother. This puts them at risk of being tricked into exploitive labor. Thankfully for Mae, Tutu was able to take her in and will provide her with a high school education and possibly college. This is a very typical situation and reason for a child to move into one of these homes.

After meeting the children I was compelled that I must do something. I was committed, whether my school would be able to commit or not. This kind of intense passion typically finds a way of disappearing from one’s mind as time passes, but this time, that was not the case.

Gary Haugen, president of International Justice Mission addresses why we, as followers of Christ, many times do not act even when we have knowledge of the oppression and poverty of others? Haugen’s response is that it is because of our own poverty. It is because of our own poverty of compassion, poverty of hope, and poverty of purpose.

Compassion:

On this journey I have learned that compassion is about humbly and honestly suffering with others. On the train ride back from Northern Thailand toward Bangkok I felt a tremendous burden for the people I met. People like little Mae and Tutu, the home director. They would be staying while I would be leaving and eventually make my way back to a very comfortable life. But the burden has not left me and I pray that it will not. It is from that burden that I am compelled to act.

Purpose:

God has a plan to demonstrate his goodness to the world. He could send a spiritual vibe from the sky, but his solution is you and me. He is not asking much, but just that we take that first step. One step at a time in obedience and faithfulness toward the things and people God cares about.

Hope:

Our hope is not in what solutions we think we can offer. He is the director of this orchestra and we have a small part to play. Scripture is clear that he cares for children and the oppressed greatly. If we are faithful to our little part he will multiply our efforts as he did when the little boy gave his lunch to feed the 5000. If it were my daughter, I would want someone to do something for her. There is hope in saving just one child from this sort of life.

After much prayer and discernment, my school has committed to partner with Remember Nhu. Our desire is to have an ongoing relationship with the children and staff of a new orphanage home and to take ownership of the responsibility and blessing that comes from funding and support its work. We plan to take a group of students, staff and parents there at least annually. Our first trip back is this summer. Our team is going to develop relationships, capture vision, and begin making plans to implement the orphanage home. We expect to be stretched, challenged, and changed by God during this trip, and we are committed to pass on the vision to our community when we come back.

I have recently been challenged to closely examine the things that Christ cares about. I have asked myself if I care about the same things. It is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that Christ is aware of all the suffering in the world. He knows of every child in forced prostitution, every lonely widow, and every hopeless soul. In fact, he not only knows about them, but also is suffering along with them. He is seeking redemption for every last one of them. If only my heart were able to feel that kind of compassion for just a few.

Gary Haugen writes, “Perhaps a next step in our development as children of God is a capacity for compassion permanence- a courage and generous capacity to remember the needs of an unjust world even when they are out of our immediate sight.”
This is the kind of compassion and courage I humbly pray for.

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This past week we had a few students over to our house who will be traveling to Thailand on a vision trip. The adults who came filmed the students’ reactions to the following questions. It will be fascinating to see how the answers to these questions may change after the trip. I decided to give the questions a shot. This is a long post so you may want to bite it off in chunks.  How would you answer the questions?

1. There is an obvious need for us, who have so much, to help the lost, hungry and oppressed. What makes it so easy for me to let these needs pass by without responding?

2. Put yourself in the place of a parent of children born in the hill tribes of Northern Thailand. Your family has experienced severe illness and without money your entire family will be at risk of hunger, disease, and exploitation. You are approached by a “business man” from Chiang Mai (the big city) who offers to take one of your young girls to work in his “laundry mat.” He is prepared to give you a year’s wages upfront. How will you respond?

3. Imagine your own elementary school experience growing up. What different types of safety surrounded you on a daily basis?

4. What do I have that is of importance to the people in the hill tribes who experience oppression, injustice, poverty and sometimes a lack of hope?

5. What could the people in the hill tribes have that could be of importance to you?

6. What could be considered blessings or accomplishments in our society?

7. What do you think could be considered blessings or accomplishments for those in the hill tribes? 

8. Knowing that today hill tribe children and their parents are facing danger and impossible moral dilemmas, what could be your immediate responsibility? 

9. How does God feel about the oppressed, the hungry and lost? What is his plan to demonstrate his goodness to the world?

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Last night I was very encouraged by a meeting at Westside for parents of students who are interested in the Thailand trip this summer. The more I talk to people the more passionate I get about what God is doing in me and our school. We are being challenged to move outside of our building and ourselves toward meeting the needs of others. There is no doubt something special is happening and people are catching the vision. I can’t wait to see what will happen when we actually go.

Before the meeting Don and I were talking about names for this movement in our school. A few weeks ago in another conversation Rob (our development director) called the movement “Westside Outside.” I will just leave it at that for now. This could mean a lot of things especially if we realize that we can compliment outside with “Westside Inside.” I believe the combination of these two phrases could be used very powerfully to communicate what God is doing in our school on multiple levels. Before I give you my thoughts I would love to know what Westsiders and others think?

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Thailand Vision Trip 2006

Fact Sheet

Purpose:

The purpose of this trip is to catch the vision for this kind of experience, and develop a team of people that can help cast that vision for the future. This is a pilot trip and will not have the same focus as experiences that will be planned in the future. Those going will need to understand that we are charting new territory. Upon returning, students, staff and strategic partners will become ambassadors back in our community.

Team Profile: 

The team will be a mix of Westside Christian High School staff, students, and adults interested in partnering to expand the vision and passion as ambassadors. 

Vision Trip Dates: 

June 20th – July 4th  

If one of these date ranges is a problem for you please let us know ASAP.

Cost: 

$2450

Includes:

• All Food
• Lodging
• Ground Transportation
• Airfare
• Cultural Events
• Funds to Provide for Ministry

Timeline:

• Application deadline – turn in to school office by March 21, 4:00PM
• Team selection communicated – March 24
• TBA – Five team meetings to be scheduled between April 15th and June 19th (most likely evening meetings)
The purpose of this trip is to catch a vision for this kind of experience, and develop a team of people that can help cast that vision for the future. This is a pilot trip and will not have the same focus as experiences that will be planned in the future. Those going will need to understand that we are charting new territory. Upon returning students, staff and strategic partners will become ambassadors back to our community.

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WESTSIDE OUTSIDE  THAILAND - A Project of Westside Christian High School Students and Staff 

In March of 2005 we began a conversation about transforming the hearts of our students. Our hope was that we would all begin to have hearts that break for the things that break Christ’s heart.

The result was a trip that turned into a journey… it is ongoing.

We have returned from the trip, but our hearts still ache for our new family in Thailand.

You see, we have fallen in love with the children and staff of Grace Ministries. These are children of extreme poverty, some are orphans, and all were at risk of exploitation. These children are inspiring. They are passionate to become leaders within their country and to change the future for other children.

What happened is they changed us. We came with a lifestyle distracted by entertainment and over indulgence (we still struggle here), now we see Christ much clearer and desire to be captivated by Him. We don’t want to be ordinary, we want to be extraordinary.

While on the trip a vision emerged. We could see very clearly that out of our admiration and love for one another we could develop a partnership that would be mutually beneficial. We would love them like brothers and sisters and tell their story to anyone who would listen. The result of our story telling has been that people feel compelled to respond. Children are getting sponsored and new buildings are being built. More children are being saved.

Grace Ministries is becoming a hub for this kind of work. They will train others to start similar types of work and more children will be saved and groomed into leadership. We will keep telling the story and churches and organizations will be compelled to support these new works.

We also benefit from this relationship. We get to go back and live with them each summer. We get to love them and be loved. We get to learn to put ourselves last.

Join the conversation - Let us tell you our stories - Fall in love

We are developing a learning experience for Westside students. In addition to providing a missions experience for our students we will also be making a multi-faceted commitment to Remember Nhu and Grace Ministries, Thailand. We want to own the responsibility and blessing of raising funds to support facility development and ongoing expenses of expanding their ministry.

Commitments:
-We are committed to raising funds for the development of the Grace Ministries site so they can provide housing and support to at risk children.
-We are committed to taking on the responsibility of supporting a large portion of the operating costs of the growing ministry.
-We are committed to sending our people to support the educational, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the children and those who work with them all year.

Prayer
Please join us in praying that God will use this opportunity to impact the lives of children. We believe that our God is big. We believe that He could use children in Thailand and Oregon to change our world.

Partners:
Remember Nhu- This Christian non-profit organization will provide support to the school as a liaison between us and Grace Ministries. They will also serve as a consultant, helping with trip planning, and handle administrative functions. All support that is generated for Grace Ministries will be directed through Remember Nhu.

Grace Ministries- Grace Ministries aims to give boys and girls from impoverished backgrounds and broken families an alternative to sexual and labour exploitation. This is hoped to be achieved by providing an opportunity to pursue a primary/secondary education in a safe, protective and nurturing residential environment, and in turn for them to free their families, from the debt culture. .

Current Financial Needs:
Following are the current financial needs. Meeting these needs will allow us to provide a loving environment for children at risk of slavery.

Child Sponsorship (operating costs):
Time Frame: We are currently accepting donations to support the operating cost for children.
Cost: $50 dollars per month will provide for nearly all of the needs for one child - food, medical care, education, clothing, etc.
Please send us an email if you are interested  EMAIL
GET A CHILD SPONSORSHIP PLEDGE FORM HERE

COMPLETED PROJECT
Construction of Grace Ministries Home for Boys (Hebron House):
Time Frame to Raise Funds: 4/06 -10/06
Description: Aprox. 6000 sq. ft- Home with house parent quarters, sleeping area, and meeting area.
Funds Raised: ALL FUNDS RAISED 
Construction Completion Date: 3/07
Structure Life: Long-term

NEXT CAPITOL PROJECT 
Construction of Grace Ministries Missionary Housing (Home for Charles and Yok Fong):
Time Frame to Raise Funds: 03/07-10/07
Description: NA (coming soon) 
Construction Completion Date: NA
Structure Life: Long-term 
Now excepting donation for this project - Email if you are interested in being a part of this project.
GET A PLEDGE FORM HERE

Plan for Raising Funds:
Each time we send a team of people to Thailand we will request that in addition to raising support for themselves, they also raise additional funds toward meeting the needs of capital expenditures for Grace Ministries. We will also challenge each person that goes to seek sponsorship for at least one child.

We are committed to speaking about our experiences in Thailand to anyone interested in hearing. I believe that God will direct us to people who will feel compelled to get involved. Contact us through email if you would like to learn more.

EMAIL CONTACT

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Originally Written for the Westside Way- Modified to communicate the current planning
Over the past month I have been challenged to begin documenting the collaboratively developed vision for our school. This is a process which includes prayer, study, brainstorming, discussing, listening, and openness to God’s leading. I love to talk about the future and prayerfully join God as He unveils His plans. It is a temptation to move faster that God as well as be distracted my own desires rather than His. The last month has brought some clarity to one part of our vision, and we are beginning to work that out prayerfully.

As you may know, last spring we felt called to focus our attention on being more intentional about developing the hearts of our students. In the process I think God has done work on me. Isn’t that typical? I have been forced to grapple with my own leadership approach as we have been talking about the kind of leaders we want to equip our students to be. Our conversations have been about doing a better job of inspiring students toward becoming Christ-centered leading servants.

I have been challenged in my reading through the gospels and through conversations with Christian leaders to look at Christ as the example of leadership. His leadership style is not self seeking. It is honest, loving, and passionate. I have been reading Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” where he (through research) identifies organizations that have moved from being good to great and have been able to sustain that greatness over time. In his research he identified that every organization that was able to sustain that greatness had an atypical leader at the helm. This is not a Christian book, but every leader they identified in these companies had two seemingly dichotomous characteristics; humility and a passion or overwhelming will for their cause or organization.

Diane Moore describes her sixth stage of moral development as a place of leadership. This is a place were decisions are made out of the combined motivation of truth and love. Obviously these characteristics (humble, passionate, truthful, loving) aren’t a complete picture of the character of Christ, but it has been a challenge for me personally to truly seek God in these particular areas.

It is mind boggling for me to think of how much could be accomplished if we were truly humble, yet on the other hand passionate to fulfill the calling God has given us. It would be amazing to live out that passion in the spirit of Christ’s love and the truth of God’s word. How do we work this out in our own life and present opportunities for our students to work toward being a Christ-centered leader? There isn’t a formula or three step process that will get us there.

I believe our community building focus, grace filled environment, and challenging Christ-centered academics over the past twenty-five years has placed Westside in a unique position to work on developing further the hearts of our students. It has been happening for the past twenty five years, but I believe God is positioning us to do even more. As I’ve reflected on the readings and conversations I’ve had over the past year I’ve come to believe that for learning to take place at the heart level, it may need to include two components.

One component is first-hand experiences. These are experiences that allow us to see, hear, feel, and smell the realities of God’s working in this world. Another component is emotion. To couple emotion with God’s truth in an experience forces us to grapple with heart level commitments and convictions, and fuels our passion for Christ’s calling in our life. Imagine what it might look like if our students were to understand more clearly the world they live in and were more equipped and passionate about living out God’s calling for them in this world.

Over the past year our Spiritual Life team has been working on developing local, national, as well as international opportunities that would help us accomplish our goal of moving forward with heart level learning. As a first step in this process Westside is developing a relationship with an outside organization, Remember Nhu. Cooperating with Remember Nhu will provide our students with a powerful experience that will help us continue to fulfill our Westside mission.

“Our school exists to equip servant leaders in God’s kingdom for the next generation by educating and developing the whole person to the glory of God.”

*Equip servant leaders – To give the practical tools required for Christ-modeled leadership
*Develop the whole person – Encourage the development of a heart that seeks to glorify God
*Glorify – To bring glory to God through one’s actions.

Through Remember Nhu, Westside will partner with a ministry in Thailand to provide a home to children who are at risk of falling into slavery. Remember Nhu will serve as a middle organization providing the administration, consulting, and logistics of our relationship with our Thailand partner. In a grassroots way (not out of the school budget) Westside will fund all capital expenditures and operating costs of this orphanage. In addition we would send a group of our students to this location on an annual basis (with staff and strategic partners) for an extended short-term experience. Our students will be challenged to humble themselves to understand the complexities of another culture, join in the working of God through a ministry to Thai children, bring back that experience, and apply it to their life in the States.

There is no doubt this experience will develop the hearts of our students to glorify God in a new way. I believe this experience will result in a dramatic challenge and heart transformation. Those who go will be challenged to evaluate God’s calling on their life. They will be inspired to a form of leadership perspective that is humble, passionate for the cause of Christ, seeks the truth, and expresses that truth in love to others.

The Next Step:
This summer a pilot trip is being planned (late June, early July). This trip will include a small number of students, faculty and staff, and strategic partners. We realize that this announcement will develop more questions than this article will answer, and for that reason a letter will be mailed in the next week announcing an evening where the details of the vision of this movement in our school will be communicated further.

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Tutu is the woman who runs the orphanage home that Steve and I visited near Chiang Mai. She is native to Thailand and an amazing example of servant leadership. Below are her own words describing her story.

My name is Tutu. Before I was born, a Christian Missionary trekked all the way to my village by foot to tell my village about Jesus Christ. We were very fortunate to have a missionary come. I am so thankful to God for bringing that missionary to our village. Because of him we can know Jesus Christ and tell others about Him.

When I was young, my family never had very much money, so we would eat food from the jungle such as fruit, vegetable, crabs and fish. Every Saturday we would trek all day through the jungle to gather vegetables. I had a basket on my back and we would go up and down the mountain. I have very fond memories of those days. We would gather these vegetables for worship on Sundays.

We lived in a village that was very far from the city. When I was six years old I would walk to school every day all by myself. The journey was about one hour each way. I had to wake up at 6am to get to school on time. I would eat breakfast and go to school all day long without any food and return at 6pm. My parents had no money to pay for my schooling so my dad would do work around the school, like cut the grass to pay my schooling. All of my teachers were from the Karen village.

When I was in fourth grade, I prayed that God would provide a husband for me that would serve the Lord. From grades four to nine I received a scholarship from Compassion International and was able to go to school. During 7th grade, my teacher asked my parents if I would marry him. I did not like my teacher and said that I would not marry him. My parents were upset with me because they thought it would be a life for me. It made me sad that they were so disappointed with me. English was my favorite subject to study. I had a big desire to learn English, but I had no book. During my free time, I would write the alphabet on the dirt road to practice. When I finished grade nine, I really wanted to come to the city to study, but my parents had no money to send me there. Finally I asked a lady in Chiang Mai to do housework for her and study English with her on Sundays. I worked all day long and cleaned the house and took care of her daughter all week and then she would teach me on Sundays.

I started gong to church in Chiang Mai and after one month I met my husband Luke. Luke invited me to English class and it was for free. Shortly after that he asked my uncle if he could marry me. I made a decision to marry Luke and we had the wedding in Chiang Mai. I was so scared that night that I slept with my mother. Luke still teases me about it today. At that time I was nearly 17 years old.

After three months of marriage, I became pregnant with my first son, Zechariah. When I was pregnant with him I prayed that he would serve the Lord. I wanted to give him to the Lord. After he was one year old I went to adult high school every Saturday and Sunday. I finished high school after two years. After that I was pregnant with my second son Daniel. When Daniel was two and a half years old I went to Bible school. During my third year of Bible school I became pregnant with David. Every day I would ride my motorbike to Bible school. When I graduated in March, my 3rd son David was born.

For many years I have had a passion in my heart for the hill tribe girls. I have always wanted to do ministry with orphan girls and poor girls. I prayed every day that God would open up the doors for me to do that. I knew that many of the hill tribe girls wanted to study but had no chance. I remembered two of my girlfriends that hung themselves from a tree because they were so hopeless and wanted a better life. This grieves me deeply and gives me such a burden for these people.

Another thing that drove me was the problem with prostitution. Three of my cousins went to a Buddhist monk school and were raped by the monks. Other friends of mine were taken into prostitution and the police would not close down the brothel because they were bribed. This has been something on my heart for many years and I would pray every day, all the time that God would open up the doors for a ministry.

After David was born I would serve the Lord with Luke full-time and go to many villages. I loved to evangelize the people in the hill tribes. We taught Bible school and discipled many. We opened up a church in Chiang Mai in about 1998. Soon after that we had to move the church outside of the city to cut down on costs. After much prayer and consideration, God opened up the doors for Luke and I to run a home for hill tribe girls. We now have 26 orphan girls that are learning about Christ and His wonderful love and are being given the opportunity to study. I am so thankful to God for His faithfulness!

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Originally Written for the Westside Way on 01.17.06

Steve and I returned from our thirteen day vision trip to Thailand a week ago. The purpose of our trip was to scope out ministries to determine if and how we might develop an ongoing relationship with a ministry that would be mutually beneficial. Our desire was to evaluate whether these ministries could partner with Westside in further developing our students’ hearts toward compassion for the poor and the oppressed.

On the third day of the trip we visited a ministry called Asia’s Hope in the city of Chiang Mai. This organization provides safety, housing, and education to children at risk of being victimized in the sex trade and other exploitive labor. As we arrived I got out of the van before anyone else, and a little girl about my daughter’s size ran from a very primitive grass hut and clung to my leg like I was her father returning from a long trip. I was taken aback and was not sure how to respond. My only thought was to try to react like I would if this were my daughter or a child from our church nursery. Later that day I played volleyball with some of the older children. They laughed and joked with us in the same way as the students at Westside would.

The next day as we arrived, the children were singing praise songs. One girl captured my attention as she sang with an incredibly worshipful spirit. Her eyes were closed, and she looked so present with God in that moment. After the singing, while the children began to play some of the games we brought for them, I walked around looking for the opportunity to meet this little girl. I found her and gave her a hug, and she asked to be picked up. I asked her what her name was, and she said it was “May”. We walked into the open air dining hall (again made of grass and bamboo) and found some coloring books. We picked a picture and began coloring it together. This is a common occurrence in our home, making this moment with May so precious.

I asked the orphanage director Tutu (an amazing woman who grew up in the hill tribes) to tell me May’s story. She said that May’s father was a drug dealer and was killed by police in a raid. Her mother has a birth defect and cannot earn enough to support May and her brother. This puts them at risk of being tricked into exploitive labor. Thankfully for May, Tutu was able to take her in and will provide her with a high school education and a trade. If she is capable, she may also be able to go on to college.

We were in a very busy market (like Saturday Market times 10) after dark. I would not let my children out of my sight if they were here, let alone allow them to walk around by themselves. I could see my daughter in the eyes of this little girl who looked like she was about the same age (approximately 5 years old). I wanted to bring her home with me. I knelt down to her and offered her 10 Baht for her bracelet. She grabbed one for me and ripped it from the bunch; it broke. She looked very disappointed. She pulled another with the same result. To my surprise I said “I would like to buy the broken one.” Steve gave her enough money for the rest of the bracelets. I will cherish that bracelet, broken like that little girl, broken like me.

This trip inflicted a wound to my heart. The wound quickly turned into compassion and affection for the people I met. That affection gave me an authentic desire to seek God for His hope and direction to act. This is one thing I learned from this trip. That God can break our hearts with the things that break His heart. He can plant His compassion within our hearts. And He can show us the ways in which we can join Him to bring about His healing and hope in the world.

Psalm 10:13-18

Why do the wicked get away with cursing God?
How can they think, “God will never call us to account”?
But you do see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You are the defender of orphans.
The LORD is king forever and ever!
LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them.
You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
in order that they may terrify no more.

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Originally Written for the Westside Way on 11.14.05

In the past few months I have been challenged to honestly examine the ways that I am responding to Christ. Do my choices reflect Him working within me? Am I willing to listen to God’s calling and move when He says go? This year we have talked about being intentional about developing the hearts of our students through modeling principled decision making, partnering strategically with parents, and providing opportunities to practice what we are learning.

I am inspired by people who authentically seek to practice being like Jesus. It is so easy for me to rationalize my decisions to fit my relatively cozy life. It is easy to overlook the things that God loves, flirt with the things He hates, take on causes that don’t matter, and ignore the things that do.

Over the past year, our Spiritual Life Committee has conversed with each other, local pastors, and various missions organizations about ideas for creating an experience for our students that could challenge them to see the world more clearly through the heart of Jesus. One of the possible ideas we have discussed is providing an opportunity for our students to apply their faith and education in a practical way by serving others in an overseas mission/vision trip. This type of trip has the potential to provide perspective and cast a lifelong vision. It can provide them with a sense of compassion for others in whatever calling they find themselves looking to fulfill. Over the past year the idea of this Compassion Quest has not died or faded away, as so many ideas do. God seems to be leading us to continue to investigate the possibilities.

If we move forward with this idea we want to develop a long-term partnership with an overseas missions organization. One possible partnership, that seems to have progressed faster than others, began over the summer when I felt God’s nudging to notice more closely the horrific tragedy surrounding child slavery and the sex trade. With a new burden on my heart to learn more about these children, I eagerly followed up on a potential link with a businessman named Carl from Ohio. Carl has responded to God’s calling on him regarding this issue by starting a non-profit organization called Remember Nhu. (Nhu is the name of the child that first touched Carl’s heart and drew him to respond to this issue). One of the functions of his organization is to link lay people from the states to missions organizations in Thailand and Cambodia that are strategically working to eliminate the use of children in the sex trade.

In July, I had the opportunity to meet with Carl, and I told him I would be very interested in learning more about how a high school could link with his ministry. Carl began to describe a missionary in Thailand named Charles who was saving children before they were sold into slavery by their parents. It is common for parents to sell one of their children as a sacrificial lamb so that the rest of their children can survive. Charle’s innovative approach to this problem is to provide a home and a Christian education for these children through college so that they will have the skills to earn a professional wage. These children grow up in his care being educated and saved (this term has tremendous depth of meaning to them) to the Glory to God. They have the skills to support their families and end the cycle of slavery. Harvey’s vision is to start more homes like his that are run by Thai graduates of his school.

About a month ago I became aware of a vision trip to Thailand that Carl was planning in December. I felt a nudge to call him and learn more about the trip. When I called I described to him the vision that our Spiritual Life Committee has to link closely with a ministry overseas. It was at this point that I learned that Charles was visiting Ohio and listening in over the speaker phone. Charles expressed an excitement and enthusiastically felt the impact that a high school from the States could have on his ministry. Carl shared a desire for us to think about sending people on the vision trip at the end of December to learn more about what Harvey’s ministry and others are doing in Thailand.

This is one of those moments where I felt a powerful leading to respond. After checking that leading with the school board and receiving the blessing of our Spiritual Life Committee and my wife, I made a commitment to join Carl on his trip. Steve will be partnering with me. We will travel throughout Thailand visiting various ministries. We may have the opportunity to visit a location where the tsunami hit. It has been reported that there are still thousands of orphans as a result of this disaster that are at risk of becoming victims of the sex trade.

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