Wonderful news! We have received a grant to purchase the land needed to be used as our safe house for kids at risk, for community development and to help our church planters become self sustaining.Over a year ago, we began this journey to see how we could acquire a small piece of land for several of our Christian leaders, who both farm and preach and teach! Many of our Christians live in conditions pictured, but we believe things can get better!
Our goal is to help plant community gardens, which will benefit our kids on our nutrition program and help families to have a “hand up” rather than a “hand out”!
A Safe House for Girls
Currently we are renting a small house, but without land, it is impossible to grow food which will offset poverty, and provide economic development for both the Christian community and the community at large.
Rejoice with us! And, remember to pray with us as we try to provide special, cutting edge agricultural training such as aquaponics which have high production yields at little cost!
An excerpt from the American Minute with Bill Federer:
William & Catherine Booth fought sex-trafficking, founded Salvation Army
Millions of people in 118 countries are helped by The Salvation Army, founded by William Booth, who was born APRIL 10, 1829.
At the age of 13, he was sent to apprentice as a pawnbroker.
His job made him aware of poverty, and the humiliation and degradation poor people suffered.
Becoming a Christian as a teenager, he studied American preacher Charles G. Finney’s writings on revival and witnessed his faith to others.
At age 26, William married Catherine Mumford and together they founded The Christian Mission to minister to the poor, drunk, outcast and wretched on the dirty and dangerous streets of London’s East End.
They fought to end sex-trafficking and teenage prostitution in England.
Catherine Booth said:
“I felt as though I must go and walk the streets and besiege the dens where these hellish iniquities are going on.
To keep quiet seemed like being a traitor to humanity.”
The Booths helped expose a child prostitution ring that took advantage of poor families by buying their young girls with the false promise of a giving them a better future, but instead sold them to brothels throughout Europe.
The Booths arranged to buy a girl out of this trade, but those profiting from the prostitution entangled the Booths in a much publicized trial.
The Booths were absolved of any charges and the publicity increased their support to end this evil.
With the help of Josephine Butler, the Salvation Army worked to pass England’s Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1885, raising the age of consent, which before was only 13 years of age.
In 1884, the Salvation Army established the first rescue home for women and girls escaping sex trafficking and prostitution in London, England.
In 30 years, the number of the Salvation Army rescue homes grew from one in Whitechapel to 117 homes around the world.
William Booth wrote:
“While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while little children go hungry, I’ll figh while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight-while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God-I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!”
These great pioneers were some of the first Christians to see how important it was for the Church to get involved in ending trafficking. The good news is that we have taken that battle to the end of the earth!
Stand with us us in prayer as we fight trafficking in Vietnam and Cambodia!
Let me introduce myself, my name is Chuck Sailors, and I am the newest member of the We Love Kids team. I met Joni last year at the Vietnam Cafe in Kansas City after hearing about the good work of We Love Kids. Not long after I started volunteering and then working for this amazing international organization.
I blame my daughter. After 7 trips to visit her, I fell in love with Vietnam–the people, the food, the hospitality, the culture–and was especially moved by the plight of children in poverty in the cities and countryside. Begging is a way of life for far too many. Encountering children who sell bird eggs and lotto tickets is common. I began to dream about what we might do to help these children.
In January this year I traveled to Cambodia and Vietnam to see the work of We Love Kids firsthand. Our centers are providing holistic care and education for children at risk. I also traveled to my daughter’s hometown in Ca Mau, Vietnam, to investigate the possibilty of a new work for children in need there. The affirmation we received was tremendous. I had the opportunity to establish scholarships for some truly needy kids who are now in school due to your donations to WLK. And my trip ended with a pleasant surprise . . . the English language school where I’ve taught over the past 4 years offered full scholarships for these kids to learn English.
43 children across VN now receive a scholarship to obtain an education. In Cambodia, 50 children are in schools, and over 200 others have obtained literacy.
I would welcome your help as we start out. You can sponsor a student in Cambodia for $30 a month or $360 for the year. We also are seeking 10 donors who will give $500 this month to help us expand our work. Please take a moment to make an investment in a child today.
We Love Kids is holistic! Our LONG TERM goal is to purchase a piece of land
to help our kids (and our staff and church planters) not be reliant on
us…their greatest need is, as for all of us, having too many mouths to
feed. Our people in Kratie are landless, and if we have a community owned
piece of land, we can do simple projects, such as tilapia ponds, raising
pigs and chickens, and community gardens. We CAN become self-sustaining.
The good news is that area we are working in has very little local
vegetable production, and if we do well, we could sell this and become
profitable.
Help us reach our goal of $15,000. This is all we need FOREVER to help a
young Christian community stand on its feet! THANK
YOU!
Below is a link to a beautiful music video made by one of our wonderful volunteers in Cambodia, named Van Dy. we used this at our W Love Kids event on April 26th and it was a hit! Every child in the video is one of our kids!
It is that time of year again for our annual fundraising banquet– Friday, April 26 at 6 PM at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe, Kansas. This year you do not want to miss delicious Vietnamese food and the amazing updates of our new works and missionaries Steve and Lucy Otradovec in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Chuck Sailors in Ca Mau, Vietnam and from our Director, Joni Wise who has just returned from three months of ministry at our child care centers. Come hungry and be prepared to be inspired by what God is doing in and through the lives God’s amazing children.
Tickets are $20 per person (a table of 10 is $200). Please RSVP today so that we can plan accordingly. If you or your company would like to sponsor or donate a table please let us know. You can buy tickets for $20 in advance with this email, or at www.welovekids.org, or for $25 at the door.
Or please mail checks to:
“We Love Kids”
10349 Century Lane
Overland Park Kansas 66215
As you know WLK’s purpose and mission is to work with children at risk for human trafficking through prevention and by creating a safe place for kids to learn, be loved and grow. If you’ve been to our event before be sure to invite a friend this time to let them know about the work that is being done in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Can’t make it? Because we are growing, we still need you!!! Take a moment to give today. You can still invest now by coming to our “no-show banquet” by giving a $25 “No Show Donation” above.
You can get more information at www.welovekids.org We will make sure you get all the same updates that you would have gotten if you had been with us at the banquet!!!
We are looking forward to a wonderful evening together! See you on April 26!
* If you would like to be a server, please send an email to joanmwise@gmail.com
It’s a fallen, evil world. Sometimes, no matter how hard you fight, sometimes the news is bad. Our darling girl, Bopha, next to me below, has been diagnosed with incurable cancer. We took her to a Vietnamese hospital, and it was confirmed by several excellent doctors. Until 3 days ago, we still had hope of a cure! Bopha has been battling for her life for about 2 years now, and has been a trooper. But she is tired of being far from her siblings and grandma, and the docs told us, “let her go home and spend the rest of her time with those she loves.” We agree! Even though it means sending her back to a terrible slum, we are determined to give her WHATEVER she needs in these next months! We also know that God is a big God, and He can heal her! Please stand with us in prayer every day that God keeps her in His protective hand!
Two years ago, We Love Kids began helping 7 kids in Kratie, Cambodia, who, living in the slum areas, were in obvious and serious need for better nutrition. Since that time, new doors have opened and we are helping 25 kids per day have at least one meal to supplement their nutrition!
One of them, Yen, at left, born HIV positive, was so frail, that we were afraid she would not live to adulthood. After being given 2 meals a day by We Love Kids, and given nutritious supplements, she is now enrolled in first grade- this is the first time in her 12 years that she has been able to go to school.
It’s been a stretch at times, to see so much need and no one to help….so– without any committed funds, and because of the heroic dedication of the Vietnamese and Cambodian evangelists and church planters, we moved forward, working with kids in the slum areas of Kratie.
We know that we are helping our kids to truly have a future and a hope, both temporal and spiritual! Along with giving them hope by offsetting malnutrition, through going to weekly Bible clubs, over 100 of these beautiful children have made strong committments to the Lord, are studying the Bible with audio Bibles weekly, and going to youth group in an area home in the slum. Over the last year, so many children have come to the Lord, that we can soon confidently say that EVERY child and young person will have heard the gospel….and MOST of them have responded to Jesus!
KC Heart 4 Orphans 5K 
