According to UNICEF, two children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation – 1.2 million per year.

                          Human Trafficking is a global problem: What is the response of the Church?

Join We Love Kids in cooperation with Vision Beyond Borders for a dinner presentation on their solution in SouthEast Asia

    Join an intercessory prayer network to pray specifically against human trafficking, both locally and internationally.

Join a short-term team with Vision Beyond Borders to work with We Love Kids and other anti-trafficking ministries in S.E. Asia.

Partner with We Love Kids community program for children at risk in Phnom Penh Cambodia

Date: Friday, February 3, 2012 from 6:30 – 8:30pm

Location:   The Barn at Life Church  16111  Lone Elm Road ( Lone Elm exit and I-35)  Olathe, Kansas 66062

Cost: $15.00 – A catered Vietnamese buffet will be served.

Tickets may be purchased through online by clicking the “donate button”  (please contact us on our contact page so we can send you an email ticket)

Or by calling:

Pat Shaw, 913-663-2128 or email: sbshaws@mac.com

 Sophea (not her real name), lives in the Vietnamese slums of Kratie, right above the banks of the Mekong River. Her mother has recently opened a secret brothel in this small market town, and her two older sisters both serve clients there. One of them is HIV positive. Living in this sort of hell, what hope is  there for Sophea’s life? Yet, in the midst of this, God has brought into her life a wonderful young woman, Sambath,who has taken on the task of not only of planting churches in this unreached area, but of helping kids like Sophea. Due to Sambath’s influence in the slum, Sophea’s mother agreed to place Sophea in a local hairdressing school, which is a paid apprenticeship: meaning that her mother had to lay out money to get her into the program! Due to this, Sophea is now living in a totally different environment, with several other Christian girls, and receives her meals there as well (she was previously one of the children in our feeding program). *PRAY* for this young girl that she continue to be trained, and trained by Sambath to become a dedicated Christian. Sambath visits her as well as many other children in our programs in Kratie.

Thu, the 16 year old girl featured in the last 2 blogs is still on our hearts in a big way…as I mentioned in the last blog, we (that is  myself, Joni and my wonderful staff of Vietnamese people at our center) were delighted that Thu told us she had STOPPED working at the coffee shop and started coming to our Sunday cell church again. However in the last few weeks she has suddenly stopped showing up again. My staff coordinator, Trang went to her house and met her older brother, a drug dealer….he refused our help to have Thu registered in a special job training project and insisted that “Thu’s family would care for her”…However, looking at his occupation, we have serious doubts about that! Vietnamese families are bound by confucian ethics, and no matter how desperate they are, they will never admit that they need help. Battle with us for Thu’s life that she will come to a truly realization that she must break free from the dysfunctional family ties that will turn her life toward darkness..

Stand with us in the battle!

Several months ago, I penned the story of a 16 year old girl I’ll call Thu, who comes from the Boueng Tra Bek slum in Phnom Penh. Thu, though Vietnamese, was born in Cambodia, as are thousands of other young Vietnamese, born in exile, far from the country they call their own. That in itself creates a feeling of alienation. Their parents, as Thu’s parents struggle to survive in horrific slum environments. The Boueng Tra Bek slum, a festering sore in a developing Asian city, is filled with open sewers, (in the tropical heat) filth (due to lack of sanitation) rats, and at night, heroin addicts roam the streets with knives, looking for a “soft touch” or anyone who might have a few dollars on them. Recently, a elderly street beggar who had a sum of money from several weeks of begging was killed in a scuffle with addicts desperate to support their habits. Thu’s older brother died of a heroin overdose, and another older brother is dealing it- something we have figured out in our dealings with Thu’s family. Thu’s mother, who told us that her family had always been fortune teller/shamans by background, fears leaving her practices because the demonic forces will cause sickness, even death for family members. Thu’s father was a severe alcoholic who, in a drunken rage, fell down the steps of their shack, hit his head, and died. Thu came to us at 12, totally illiterate. We Love Kids helped Thu to receive a second grade education in Vietnamese, and then she seemed to vanish. My wonderful foster mom, Trang, and I, (Joni) kept praying and visiting their room in the slum. Suddenly, Thu reappeared, and began coming to our emerging cell church on Sunday. Soon thereafter, she asked to be baptized. We then managed to place Thu in a wonderful Christian hairdressing school, in spite her 15 years. Thu graduated a year later, but still too young to legally keep a job, she began to flounder. We applied to another agency, and was rejected because of her age (she is now 16).  However, the dark pull from her family background exerted its nefarious influence- her older sister, in the coffee shop/prostitution world, persuaded Thu to start working in a coffee shop for $70 a month. This is a huge salary for a girl her age. Out of options, our We Love Kids staff and I just KEPT praying, and seeking Thu out whenever we could. We even hunted down the coffee shop that Thu worked at, even though she wouldn’t tell us clearly where it was, due to an uneasy conscience on her part! Several weeks ago, Thu of her own accord, came back to our Sunday cell church and tells us she has stopped at the coffee shop. We can only credit this to two things- LOVE and INTERCESSION. Thu knows we truly love her and want the best for her…..IT”S ALL ABOUT FAMILY.

Please, continue to pray!

Many folks have likened the stopping of trafficking to “trying to kill a snake with seven heads”, if you chop off one head, another one grows in its place- or, closing the barn door after the cow gets out. Since most trafficking starts within the family, what can an agency or an organization, even as well intentioned as most are, do to REALLY prevent a girl from being sold? This is hidden in such a way that by the time an anti-trafficking organization finds out, it’s too late…the girl has already been persuaded to follow a sister into the same lifestyle, or sold without her knowlege and consent. Are there really any viable solutions within a society that doesn’t enforce its own anti-trafficking and prostitution laws? In a society which doesn’t care about marginalized groups that don’t have legal status, and are virtually stateless peoples? Girls who are forced into prostitution usually, if not always, do so to reinforce dysfunctional family relationships. What is the real solution to this? One day, it came to me: the real solution is a new family: one that is based on what families are intended to be built on: unconditional love and virtue. One that not only trys to help you become the person you can be,  but provides real accountability and sets the boundaries of right and wrong…in other words, a loving family community. That is what We Love Kids began building in Phnom Penh Cambodia in 2005. It’s been a battle: one of the kids in our family has begun taking drugs. One of the girls, under severe pressure from her older brother and sister, has gone into a coffee shop. On the other hand, many children have become Christians and are living stable, happy lives. They join our cell church/youth group every Sunday. We go swimming, bowling, have Bible study, VBS, Christmas parties, Vietnamese New Year parties and trips to the beach. WLK gives kids a loving environment with foster moms and big brothers and sisters. For four years, our Vietnamese teachers have  faithfully taught  kindergarten,  helped mainstream kids into school at the proper age. Literacy and higher level classes are taught during the week. These kids’ parents may be alcoholics, gambling addicts, prostitutes,  junk recyclers, construction workers. One of our children lives with her grandparents since her mother died of AIDS. Upstairs in their little apartment, an illegal gambling den thrives.

In the midst of this sad world, , We Love Kids is trying to build a city on the hill, be salt and light in a dark place. Stand with us.

Many efforts have been focused on helping girls at risk in Cambodia. As mentioned before in our posts, two-thirds of the girls being trafficked in Cambodia are Vietnamese- a terribly high percentage. But the problem isn’t solved just be waiting for these horrifying events to occur, then trying to rescue. These problems, I believe, go back to the fact that there are really almost no child labor laws in Cambodia. One of our ten year old boys, (pictured without his name to protect his privacy) is being forced to work on a construction site for 5000 riel per day ($1.25).

This brings the family $30 per month in income. While there is desperate poverty among many famililes  in places like Cambodia, there are also ways around sending young children out to work. Aid is available in various ways…. Looking at the source of this problem breaks down this way: if there were properly enforced labor laws in Cambodia, the risks of girls being trafficked and boys being forced to go to work at nine and ten years old would be considerably reduced. I was recently talking to the head of an anti-trafficking NGO in regard to this issue, and at least, she told me, there has been some negotiating with the government to encourage the enforcement of these laws.

The little boy in the picture has recently become a Christian. We Love Kids helps him to receive a meal a day. That is at least one way we can help him. He is a gracious, polite, gentle natured boy. At the work site he is verbally abused, cursed and, one of my staff told me, “spoken to as if he is a dog”. Construction sites are not places for children.

I believe that at least half the children in Cambodia must WORK to help their families. This is a horror that won’t end poverty. Putting children into school and giving them decent food, will. Within one generation. Guaranteed.

Sambath sitting in one of the houses in the Vietnamese slum area of Kratie

Sambath is one of our greatest champions for the forgotten Vietnamese kids of Cambodia. Her and her family migrated over from a very poor province of Vietnam some years ago, hoping for better economic opportunities. Unfortunately, the poverty in Cambodia is more severe than the Mekong Delta, and life in Kratie has been a struggle for them. But they always find some way to survive. A few years ago, Sambath became a believer and follower of Jesus, and that changed her life dramatically. She developed a great desire to help those around her who were even more unfortuate! She started going into the slum areas of Kratie next to her house in her Vietnamese village, and found all kinds of horrors…kids who were born HIV positive, kids with malnutrition, kids who go out to recycle cans and bottles at 8 and 9 years old. ..and kids who were being sold into prostitution and coffee shops at 14.  She was determined to do something about it. When I (Joni) saw what she was attempting to do, we started the Kratie Kids feeding program, and every day 8 kids come to her house for a nutritious meal. She teaches some of them basic literacy, and Bible lessons on Sunday. Sambath has incredible courage, and has perserved in very tough circumstances. Some of the kids have become dedicated Christians. Stand with us in your prayers and support to help great workers like Sambath!

These are some of our kids inside Vietnam. Most of them are underground Christians. If this were 1995, we wouldn’t dare post this blog…but fortunately, things have changed for the better in Vietnam in the last few years. Many of the underground Christians have even registered, and meet openly. But in some of the back areas, it is still sensitive to be a follower of Jesus. These pictures are of kids who wouldn’t have a chance to go to school. Their parents, living in remote villages and hamlets scattered throughout the rural areas of Vietnam, attend tiny cell churches in little thatched houses. Their chances of helping their kids get any kind of an education are slim to none. The political environment toward Christians remains uneasy at best and hostile at worse. Their names aren’t listed, for obvious reasons. These kids treasure the chance to go to school. We at We Love Kids are dedicated to helping them get at least through high school.

These 6 girls from a minority village go to school because of WLK

Seven kids in this remote village receive WLK scholarships

We Love Kids has run a literacy school for nearly 7 years in Phnom Penh Cambodia for Vietnamese kids who have “fallen between the cracks” when their parents came to Cambodia looking for temporary work, trying to escape the grinding, endemic poverty still devestating parts of the Mekong Delta. There is dramatic economic growth in Vietnam, but many folks haven’t been a part of it…

Nhiep’s family is an example of that. Nhiep (ny-iep) came with his parents over 15 years ago, and his dad, though well over 60, still works construction (heavy manual labor) on various construction sites in Phnom Penh. Nhiep came to our literacy school over 5 years ago, and learned just enough Vietnamese to enable him to be able to sign his name and to be able to survive, though he speaks Khmer (Cambodian) fluently. We hadn’t seen Nhiep for several years, though his sister is one of our star students (Diem is 15, and going to one of our partner schools). Suddenly Nhiep started coming to our Sunday discipleship group, and said he has made his decision: he wanted to be baptized…he told us that one of his Vietnamese teachers at the We Love Kids literacy school several years before had helped him to pray for the Lord to take control of his life, and now he was choosing a new path! Needless to say, we were totally surprised…Nhiep has been as faithful as anyone could be about coming to our Sunday group, and is now bringing his friends!

Nhiep also works construction…what else can he do? He has no other options but the daily grind of heavy manual labor (in places like Cambodia there isn’t any fancy machinery, it’s all done by hand, with very few safety laws in place).

Spiritually, Nhiep is really growing. But, he is still only semi-literate, and we at We Love Kids have a goal to change that. We are trying to start adult literacy in Khmer and Vietnamese. We need to increase our staff to be able to do that.  We need all of  you to help us move things forward!

Nhiep, a young man whose life has changed