Saturday, January 05, 2008

Christian mission to help girls rescued from human trafficking in Cambodia

First Christian Church group heading to Cambodia

Mission is to help girls rescued from human trafficking

Jan 04, 2008
The Register-Mail (Galesburg, Illinois, USA)

MONMOUTH - Eleven members of First Christian Church will depart Jan. 12 for a 10-day mission trip to Rapha House in Cambodia. Around 60 girls, ages 4 to 14, who have been rescued from the horrors of human trafficking live at Rapha House.

The church group’s mission is to help the rescued girls and staff of Rapha House and share their faith. Human trafficking is a serious human rights issue facing Cambodia today. Poverty, tourism, socio-economic imbalance between rural and urban areas, and lack of employment and education opportunities result in young people being abused, coerced, deceived and abducted into sexual and labor exploitation. Victims of human trafficking face the risk of physical and psychological harm as well as being exposed to sexually transmitted diseases.

American Rehabilitation Ministries established Rapha House in 2003. The organization started ministering to U.S. prisoners in 1973. Rapha House is committed to rescuing young girls who are victims of slavery and prostitution and providing them with a safe home where they can heal and receive an education. Training at Rapha House includes computers, cosmetology, sewing and English.

The church group’s team members have been raising funds throughout the year by working booths at the car show, Prime Beef Festival and Heritage Days, holding a concert at the church, selling coupons and candles and participating in Birdies for Charity. Through these fundraisers, their own finances, private contribution and with the help of the church’s mission committee, they have been able to raise the necessary funds for airfare, housing and interpreters. Any additional funds raised will go to Rapha House.

The members have been trained in working effectively as at team and have studied the language and culture of Cambodia. They also have gathered supplies for Rapha House. While at Rapha House, they will help teach English and leadership skills. They will also provide daily lessons on loving one another, obedience to God and increasing self-esteem. All lessons will focus on scripture, provide an opportunity for discussion and end with an activity.

“Somewhere, somehow, someone has to ‘stand in the gap’ and be advocates for these little girls,” said group leader Pam Epperson. “We are realizing that they have names and faces and are being exploited in the most terrible of ways. They are real little girls just like our daughter and granddaughters. It is the privilege of the First Christian Church and this team to be part of this, working hand in hand to initiate and perpetrate further advocacy for the little girls of Cambodia.”

For more information on this mission trip or Rapha House, contact Epperson at 734-9419 or visit www.freedomforgirls.org.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No offense to say that everything the Asian people have been originated from Africa or African is pure stupidity beyond reason! Asian people have God given brain power and they can think and reason and do great thing too!

According to human evolution theory that it is speculated that human being were first started in Africa but then the human family tree branch out to other part of the world such as to Asia and to Europe!

Even now the human evolution is still in progress! It is very misleading to proclaim that when something has similar feature or characteristic and it came from the same source!

We are living in a high tech modern time and the DNA testing can clarify any misunderstanding regarding where people were first originated!

For African people to proclaim that when something have curly , dark skin and broad nose or flat nose and it must be African! This is untrue!

For example Southern Indian people have some of the darkest skin color with straight hair with hairy body and pointed nose. And how is that possible? I used to think that only European people can have light skin with hairy body and pointed nose because of the colder climate which help protect their body from subzero temperature!

I don't believe for a moment that all Khmer people have dark skin and broad or flat nose! Khmer people are more diverse than the African people in term of skin color and facial feature! There are Indian, Chinese, and European skin colors! Most stupid people like to use an example of dark skin Cambodian farmer for everything especially dealing with something that is very backward to make their point but at the same these same people forget that when brown skin or even light skin color people worked on the farm with naked body for 20 to 30 years and the UV radiation, the mud, and dirt can cause serious damage to the skin color by turning it dark brown to protect epidermis from the Sun UV radiation and extreme weather!

By the way Khmer art derived from the Indian and the Indian art derived from the Roman!

Roman art with curly hair!
http://www.antiquainc.com/14a020x.html

Indian art with curly hair!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art
http://chdmuseum.nic.in/art_gallery/kushana_sculpture.html

Khmer art with curly hair!
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Sacred_Angkor4.htm

Khmer people have enough God given intelligence to create their own culture, language, and history and they don’t need to depend on anybody!