Breakfast in Amsterdam, Dinner in Ukraine (quote spoken by Sue…first)

It’s been nearly a week since we departed from Toronto and I can easily say that it was actually one of the best weeks of traveling I have ever encountered! God is good, no joking around this time  We prayed for smooth sailing and that is exactly what we had – and more!

We caught all our connecting flights and our only hiccup (as far as hostels go) worked for the better.

Arrived in Amsterdam and connected with friends and family – first my friend Alef (from my DTS) arrived about an hour after we did and then an hour after that family, Ab and Henny arrived and we all spent a few most enjoyable hours (even through only having slept for 2 hours during our short night).

From Amsterdam we flew to Ukraine, grabbed three taxi vans (at cheaper price and quicker transportation than the bus/train) and headed to our first hostel for our 24 hour stay over in Kiev. To our discovery they had no reservation for us, but God has sent us an Angel in our one driver – who bluntly told us, this was not a good area anyhow and helped us find a much better host…Centrally Located! Not only was that the name of the hostel but it was and it was even 2 Euros cheaper/person. It was beautiful, our view reminded me of my stay in Argentina. From our driving what we saw of the city has made us excited for our return.

After a great nights sleep, we headed back to the airport (having reserved our previous drivers for a scheduled time pickup) and flew to Budapest.

Having a 6 ½ hour layover, we gave the choice to the team to head out and enjoy the city. Nine of us chose to go in (well the others enjoyed the time to sleep some more and use the wireless internet) and we grabbed two taxis at 25 Euros/car/one way - not bad at all! It was amazing to be back in Budapest, having been there just 10 years previously (Ukraine as well) on my Summer Missions Project trip with CRWRC. What an anniversary  It was so great to see the many familiar sights. We had 3 wonderful hours to spend in this amazingly old, historical architecturally city. We also had the chance to enjoy a true Hungarian dinner – pickled cabbage and Gulash with bread and for dessert – the amazing ice cream I’ve remembered all these years. What a treat!

We arrived back at the airport with plenty of time to catch our final flight that took us to Tirana, Albania. We were instantly met by our contact Sherry outside of customs and were swept away to our stay (for 2 nights) at the “Hope for Albania” missionary foundation housing. It was a late night, or rather early morning when we finally went to sleep, waking up nice and late for a TRUE DUTCH breakfast! Another treat. The couple of the house is from Holland and often receive food shipments of Dutch cheese and chocolate sprinkles and peanut butter. What a great way to wake up!

We spent the day in Tirana, Sherry was kind enough to take us on a tour of the city and to tell us her story as well as her part in YWAM arriving in Albania many years previous to spread the gospel and to plant a Church.

We were absolutely mesmerized by the city’s beauty and European feeling. What a beautiful place, everybody comes out in the evening, enjoying the slightly cooler weather at that time, and enjoy some drinks in the square or games of soccer, or other activities in the surrounding grassy areas or just each others company.

On Friday, at about 11am, we finally left for our final destination – Pogredec! It would be approx. 3-4 hour trip…through the MOUNTAINS! And here I was thinking how I missed my summer last year in BC. The scenery was gorgeous! However, it was not without a little nausea for a few, including myself, though it was not too bad. There were many twist and turns and FAR down drop offs that were definitely enough to make anyone’s stomach turn, at least a little.

We finally arrived and were greeted by our contact here as well as the couple who are house managers of the Bible college that we are staying at. Orientation followed and a brief tour of “The Nest” (school where we will be leading daily children’s programs) and of the city.

We certainly were truly blessed this past week and I just praise our God, the Creator of this amazing World. The ultimate Artist, thanks be to Him. Thank you as well for your prayers this past week for our time of travels, as you can tell, they definitely made for a great week.

The JAMM Team

Two of our students will also be writing a blog once a week to give updates on what the group is up to. You can check it out at:
http://jammdts.blogspot.com/

JAMM Cafe - 'Sold' movie

For our JAMM Cafe, our media group filmed and put together a short video clip on the issue of Human Trafficking. Just as a warning, it again is not suitable for young children, but I hope it shows you why we have such a passion for human trafficking especially in sexual exploitation of young women and why want to spread awareness about this horrific issue and be a voice for those whose voices have been silenced.

JAMM Cafe

Well, today was our final JAMM Cafe presentation. I'm so proud of all of them, they put together such a great service filled with urgence to action, love, and hope amongst a difficult issue as Human Trafficking. Below I have included a few of the speeches given by the students on the topic. Enjoy!

What is human trafficking?
Written by Kate Guther (student)

The United Nation defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labour or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, debt bondage, or slavery.”

This is also known as the stealing of a humans dignity.

Many of us shudder when we hear the word “slave.” Slavery did not end a hundred years ago. Today we are witnessing the most thriving slave trade in all of history.

Internationally, slave trade is the Third largest illegal business after arms trade and drug trafficking and generates approximately $32 billion a year to put this into perspective:
Apple made $4.8 billion for the year of 2009 which means that the sale of humans generated five times as much profit.

An estimated 27 million people are currently enslaved worldwide. The international labour organization estimates that there are 12.3 million adults and children stuck in forced labour and of those at least 1.39 million are in sexual servitude and most of them are women (wimin) and girls.

2 children sold every minute

Trafficking is right in our backyard.

It's tragic. It's horrific. And it's happening along the quiet 720 kilometers between Prince George and Prince Rupert, a stretch now gruesomely dubbed the Highway of Tears, the place where 510 aboriginal girls have gone missing or murdered since 1980.

More than 500 of the cases have not been fully investigated. Perpetrators remain unpunished
The United Nations have warned Canada to do something about this.

In August 2008, a 17 year old girl and two 16 year old girls, were rescued from an apartment in Gatineau Quebec, one girl was held captive for a year, the other two girls for six months. All three were continually sexually exploited, drugged, beaten and raped throughout their ordeal.

The first person in Canada convicted of human trafficking involving a minor, received a three year sentence for the trafficking of a 15 year old girl but was credited 13 months for pre-trial custody. He made over $350,000 sexually exploiting her over two years before she was able to escape. Essentially he will spend less time in jail than he did exploiting her.

As Kevin Bales author of “Slave Next Door” writes:
"In a country that believes in liberty and justice for all, how can we as Canadians tolerate slavery in our backyard?
What is wrong with our country that it allows slave masters to live - and flourish - untroubled among us? What more can we as citizens do to fix this problem? And what will it take for our government, which serves at the will and for the good of its people, to dedicate the needed resources, both money and personnel, to destroying this evil?”

Hope
Written by Sue Van Daalen (staff)

Have we lost hope? Have we lost hope in making a difference? We certainly do not lack the power, the compassion, the courage of the knowledge…no we lack the hope. But we, we the church have access to a hope that can change everything. This is the same hope that drove Martin Luther King Jr and William Wilberforce; the hope that changes nations. We have hope in a God who hates injustice, who defends the orphan, cries with the widow, walks with the weary, bleeds with the beaten and is captive with the slave. However this hope is not cheap and it’s not easy. But in it’s purest form it has the power to contend with even the most horrific of injustices, the hell we see on earth and in the darkest brothels of our city.

We are beginning already to see glimmers of hope in the thick darkness right here in Toronto. Timea Nagy, sold from Budapest to Toronto, is a survivor and a passionate abolitionist. In partnership with local law enforcement, she has rescued 23 trafficking victims this year, who are all on their way to freedom and rehabilitation.

This is a sign of God’s hope still prevailing.

So let us not become the unwitting hoarders of hope. No! Let us embrace our inheritance of hope. Hope in a God who never becomes numb to the pain and the suffering who hears every cry. For what good is hope if we hide it in the dark corners of our heart?
We put our hope in a God who does far more than sympathize with us, wish us well and be on His way, yes we put our hope in a God who suffers alongside the oppressed.
Translated from Latin, compassion literally means, “To suffer with”; Psalm 146:5-10
Hope in a God of compassion moves us to action! Feed the hungry, clothes the naked, bandage the beaten; free the slaves, fight injustice with injustice!

How
Written by Janet Bulle (student)
Our group will be traveling this summer to Albania and Ukraine, which are two main source and destination countries for victims of human trafficking. Women and girls from Eastern Europe are at the highest risk of being trafficked. Poverty stricken, unemployed and desperately trying to care for their family, what woman could turn down a job opportunity in the west? We will be serving alongside organizations and individuals who have dedicated their lives to preventing the most vulnerable from being victimized such as the Roma Gypsies and orphans. We also hope to raise awareness through media presentations about this issue in their country. We’re going to get first hand exposure and be broken by the things that break God’s heart and be filled with the hope in the same God who suffers with the oppressed. Micah 6:8 says, “What does the Lord require of us? To do justice, love mercy and walk humble with our God.” Please join us on our journey as we learn to seek justice, and love mercy in Albania and Ukraine.

Thank You!

Well, today was our final day of lectures in this JAMM DTS and next Monday, June 7 finds 15 of us flying off for outreach. How time has flown by these last 3 months. I still feel like I just came back from my own DTS and now I am already moving out of Port Credit.

We are a group of 12 students (3 guys) and 3 staff heading to Albania for our first month and to Ukraine for our final month. When we leave on Monday we will be traveling nearly 4 days to get to our first destination, which may even include sleeping overnight in an airport in Kiev, Ukraine. Please pray for safety and that we will catch all are connecting flights.

We will be staying in Pogradec, Albania and will help run a day camp out of 'The Nest', a home for Roma Children (some rescued from trafficking clutches), the nearby park and the area school grounds. This will put our team in daily contact with some of the most vulnerable kids there. A few other items we will also be involved with are: prayer walks, leading open air evangelism, home Bible studies with Roma families, Art Therapy lessons, etc.

Our second month will be in the capital city of Ukraine in Kiev. Here we will be bringing with us an awareness program, collaborating with a group that is already building up a program to bring awareness to young women about Human Trafficking and how to keep from getting trapped into the web of this nightmarish issue.

Two of the students (Richard and Ali) and one staff (Heather) are heading off to Vancouver for their outreach time as they are unable to leave the country at this time, due to applying for permanent residency and refugee status in Canada. They will be working with Missions Adventures in the heart of Vancouver. They will be sadly missed as they are a big part of our group but we wish them a great time and will keep them in our prayers as well.

Finally, I just wanted to take a moment to THANK YOU ALL who have been such a great support to me over these last couple of years and have followed along on my journey that God has called me into. Your constant prayers have made such an impact on my life in so many ways and I just thank you so much for continuing to keep me, and those I am with, in your prayers. Also I thank you for your cards and words of encouragements. I am only able to do what I do when I am inline with Gods calling and also the support of my community. Each are an equally important element. So again I THANK YOU! May you be blessed as you have continually blessed me.

Too Busy

Life . . . is busy.

It makes me wonder, however, what is it busy with? Have I made the most out of my busyness, have I used my time for myself, to make things better for myself or did I use it to serve others?

It hit me this morning, while reading my devotions. I feel like I hear the words "too busy" so often. From myself, from students, from friends, from people in the Church . . . I think from pretty much just about anybody.

Is busyness crippling? Is it a result of our individualistic nature that we find ourselves so embedded in? Everything seems to be all about 'me' now. We are fed this line everywhere we go. It's about what makes 'us' happy, what fulfills my wants, desires, needs. We are a hardworking society, which is not all-together a bad thing but if it is on account of sacrificing relationships or having time to help those around you . . . well . . . what do you think?

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave" (Philippians 2:5-7, NLT). Paul tells us what our attitude should be; "Don't be selfish . . . Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too" (Philippians 2:3-4, NLT).

Over the last few weeks, our group has often talked about how yes we stop to talk to a homeless person in Toronto, handing them a bagged lunch, but all of this is during our alloted outreach time each week. What about outside of that time? Do we find ourselves stopping in the same way to sit and just chat for a bit? or are we headed to our destination in haste having no time to take a moment for another. I know I, myself, have done this many times. We all have our excuses as to why we don't have enough time . . . but it makes me think that God is bigger than our excuses, he sees right through them and though he does not condemn us in them, he continues to encourage us to walk in his ways, to love our neighbour as ourselves to the point of putting their needs ahead of ours. Anything less, simply put, would be unchristian and disobedient.

I like this one paragraph in my readings this morning, that really ties in that I would like to share with you:

"I think of how Jesus lived. I've heard many a sermon on what a busy man Jesus must have been. I'm not so sure about that. He had many demands pressing in on him from every direction, but he wasn't busy in the same way we are. He wasn't running from meeting to meeting or from practice to practice. He very well might have spent many nights sitting with a group of friends over dinner, lingering for hours and hours, just talking about life. By today's standards, that might even be called lazy and self -indulgent. But what mattered to Jesus was people - listening to them, loving them, and helping them. He was busy with the slow work of taking time to care for people. He was never too busy to stop and help someone" (A. Van Schooneveld, Hope Lives, p30).

That is my prayer, that I will learn to never be too busy to stop and help someone in need. This is part of my journey in following Jesus and his call on my life. To put aside my own wants, to put aside the ways of western society that have dictated my life for so long, so that I can follow God to the fullest. This is a process, one that he will continually help me with and through and there will be many times still that I will fumble and fall short but thankfully God is patient and he will continually encourage me and help me in this. What a wonderful Father we have, that Jesus might come and be like one of us to show us the true meaning of relationship and the utmost importance it has in our lives and in the lives of all our neighbours.

I encourage you . . .

Don't be too busy!

Constance

As we are preparing for our first JAMM Cafe this coming Sunday, going through various information and facts on Human Trafficking I remembered back to one of the projects I worked on with my group and presented on my DTS. In it my group discovered a music video entitled, "Constance." We instantly found it incredibly moving and wanted to include it in our presentation. It shows a 'closer to home' side of human trafficking.

Watching it again and sharing it with the girls in my room, I felt I wanted to include it in my blog. Constance is a story about a girl in the Philippines victimized by Human Trafficking. It was created by Mr. J Medeiros. It has inspired an international human rights movement called the "Constance Campaign." Mr. J spearheaded the movement, and has partnered with Non-Profit's like XXXChurch and HumanTrafficking.org.

Though the video doesn't show anything, it does elude to things that may be uncomfortable and not suitable for young children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqyLRpGgxRs&feature=player_embedded

Lyrics:
1st verse:
An old man vacationing, he stands patiently
under a hotel sign that blinks vacancy
he’s thinking maybe he’s too late to make the drop off
till a truck coming his way breaks and stops short
and now he's out of sorts and you can see he’s sorta nervous
walking to the passenger door to meet his ordered service
this is someone’s daughter working blames his conscience
when the driver says “she’s my youngest, her name is Constance”
he comments “and its only 6 dollars per visit
just don’t leave any marks on her, it hurts business”
thought for a minute and he confessed “that’s fair”
since it was three dollars less then his cab fare.
“how old are you honey” she says “I’m thirteen.”
her nose was runny, its raining in the Philippines
he handed over the money in a chilling scene
the truck drives off and now he’s on the hunt to kill her dreams
the sign reads no vacancy, he leads Constance to a room
he has rented for taping see,
he’s about to turn six into six thousand
and all you have to do is click on your web browser
its not illegal to use raping as cash crop
as long as it says she’s 18 on your laptop
the sound of rain is her backdrop laying there
like she’s waiting for somebody to say they care
while the tears of God fall down the window pain
she feels unholy like her Father doesn’t know her name
Marry Magdalene and the Woman At The Well
He knows everything that happened and in His arms she fell.

hook:
repeat x2
in his arms she fell
will you stay with me

2nd verse

He’s 21 and all alone in his household
he’s tempted by the quiet he feels and the mouse he holds
the silence of his spouse is cold
so he’s about to help that man get his six thousand gold
one click and now she’s sold
withholding his conscience scrolling through the comments
there she is looking confident a picture of Constance
in a series of video clips, “adult content”
the title blinks in bold letters like the vacancy sign
its his time to go get her
its like his mind doesn’t know better
her soul is crying out “let me go” but he wont let her
he got her trapped inside his media player
held captive by his need to replay her
its a matter of he being here and she being there
that’s why he doesn’t feel the need to care
guilt is in the seed he bares
spilling his shares of the profit
on a 500 million dollar market
where children are regarded as product
and traded like stock tips
and raped for the sake of our pockets
his lap top sits like a window into Constance room
where he exits cause its almost noon
and he’s expecting his wife home soon
with new clothes for the baby
she’d be angry if she saw his new lady
a thirteen year old Filipino named Constance
trust me girl God has not forgotten
He knew Marry Magdalene and the Woman at the Well
He knows everything that happened and in His arms she fell

hook:
repeat x2
in his arms she fell
will you stay with me