Wow. What an insane couple of weeks it has been.
I didn’t journal very well and I can’t remember all of the small
details, so here’s a brief summary of weeks 5, 6, and 7.
***Names with an asterisk next to them have been changed for security purposes***
***Names with an asterisk next to them have been changed for security purposes***
Week 5:
This week was so great! I started preparing to teach art
classes at one of the local church that I have been going to. It’s basically an afterschool
program we are putting together where we tell a Bible story and then make an
art project to go along with it! This is what we are planning to do in the
village in a couple of weeks, so we thought we would test it out on the kids at
our church, to make sure they enjoy it and that the projects aren’t too
complicated!
I think one of the coolest things about the projects is that
they are all made from recycled materials! The only thing we bout were some
crayons and watercolors. Everything else is recycled cardboard, egg crates,
cereal boxes, sticks, leaves, etc. My goal is to make projects that show the
kids they can be creative with whatever they have and encourage them that they
don’t have to go out and buy things to be creative!
So far we have had about 5 or 6 kids coming to the classes
and we will have more classes next week! They seem to be really enjoying it and
we’ve been taking picture of the kids when they finish their projects, which
they love!
Week 6:
This week was interesting… that’s for sure.
The ups:
Our art classes continued to go really well! One day, some
of the kids were out of town, so we only had about three show up. The next day we expected to have about
the same… But we had 12 kids show up! We didn’t even have enough supplies for
all of them. Luckily, I had a sketchbook in my backpack, so we were able to give
everyone some paper to color on. On Fridays, kids get out of school at 1 here,
so we told them to come after school for a special treat! We made popcorn,
brought juice boxes, and watched the Jesus movie for kids. It’s the Jesus
movie, but it’s been edited down to about an hour, translated into their
language, and has stories that are relatable to kids, plus it has a group of
about 4 kids narrating the movie. It’s really good! And we had about 15 kids
show up! Praise the Lord!
The downs:
So a week or two ago, we had a going away party for our
friend Grace*. She had been offered a job in another country. She’s a single
mom of two boys who will be approaching high school soon. She works at our
friend Jane* and her husband's restaurant as the head chef and she is a really sweet girl. But she
needed to make more money to be able to pay for her boys to be able to go to
high school. If she took this job for two years, she would be able to make
enough for her boys schooling. Our friends assured her that the minute she came
back they would give her a job at the restaurant again! So, as hard as it was
for her to leave her family, she went.
On Wednesday of this week, February 13, our friend Jane received a call in the middle of the night
from Grace. She was panicked and stressed. Her passport had been taken, she
didn’t know where she was, and they told her that she wasn’t going to be making
the amount of money that she had originally been told. She had been trafficked.
So Jane informed us the next morning of the phone call from grace and we
started putting together a game plan. After many, many, emails and phone calls
we found out some more information and began trying to raise money. Grace had
been purchased by a man for 3500 euros to work for him for 4 years… not 2 like
she was originally told. [also, let me just clarify that this was a forced
labor form of trafficking NOT sex trafficking, some people have been spreading
that rumor and that is not true. She was forced to work for the man, not be a
prostitute. Please do not continue to spread that rumor.] Our original plan was
to try to raise money so that we could just pay him back for her, buy her a
plane ticket, get her a new passport, and get her home.
We asked our churches and friends back home to pray, donate, etc.
It was incredible the response we received. Almost immediately people started
donating.
So the rest of the week was spent planning, praying, not
sleeping, and going crazy trying to send out updates, prayer requests, and
figure out the next steps.
Week 7:
**I’ve decided to post all of the village trip under Week 8,
even though we were there for 10 days and to post the rest of Grace’s story
here, even though that actually happened during week 8.**
We continued to go crazy as we found out more information
about Grace, made plans to try to bring her home, and prepared to leave for the
village on Thursday [February 21]. Jane ended up finding out that Grace had
taken out a loan from a money lender in order to pay the job agency that sent
her for her insurance, plane ticket, etc. The idea is that you pay the job
agency, they send you off, and then you pay back the money once you get to your
new job. Because here, money lenders are very corrupt. The interest rates are
ridiculous, and until you pay that money back, you are bonded to that person
[another modern day form of slavery]. Even if you die, that money still has to
be paid back, so then your family becomes bonded to the money lender. This article explains what is going on in Nepal. But it’s not just Nepal, this
happens all over South Asian countries, and the world. But it might help you to
better understand the situation. So, basically, we needed about 5000 to pay
back this loan so that we could bring Grace back and she wouldn’t have to worry
about being bonded to the money lender. I mean, why should we rescue her from
one form of slavery just so that she could come back home and become someone
else’s slave?
Due to all of the craziness we decided not to leave until
Friday, and it was a very good thing that we did, because Wednesday night I got
very sick… and then everybody got very sick. Like the whole town. Some sort of
virus was going around and everyone we know got it. So that was no fun, but we
did set out Friday morning for the village [in a very bumpy jeep that isn’t so
fun when you’ve had a fever and nausea for 24 hours…], but we made it! We
didn’t have much phone service, and no internet access. We were really praying that Grace would be able to come home
while we were in the village.
Then one day, we got the news! A text from Jane that said she
was going to the airport tomorrow to pick up Grace!! Praise the Lord!! I don’t
know if you know much about rescuing someone from human trafficking, but… This
kind of stuff doesn’t happen. She was home within two weeks of us finding out
she had been trafficked. That does. not. happen. Ever. Even all the officials were surprised at how fast this
happened. And we had all of the money to pay back the money lenders!! So, Grace
is home. She’s home! She’s home! She’s home! Praise Jesus. What an incredible
story of hope.
Her family has not been very supportive, so if you prayed for her during this time, or you donated, or you just like encouraging people, we are going to make a book of little notes from all of the people who supported her to give to her to let her know how much we love her! You can send me an email, facebook message, or comment on this post with a note for her and I will print them out and give them to her! Thank you all so much!
Her family has not been very supportive, so if you prayed for her during this time, or you donated, or you just like encouraging people, we are going to make a book of little notes from all of the people who supported her to give to her to let her know how much we love her! You can send me an email, facebook message, or comment on this post with a note for her and I will print them out and give them to her! Thank you all so much!
Blessings.
