A year and half ago, a small group of us formed a network of churches in Boulder County (BoCo for short) with a desire to partner together in Mexico.  In the beginning, we represented 4 churches but we decided to call ourselves a ‘Boulder County’ network welcoming anyone else who wanted to join us.  We now have 10 churches collaborating together.

Last fall as we met, we discussed what was the ‘big ah’ of our group - where was there a unique opportunity and what did we all have a heart for.  It was clear to us that the opportunity was to partner with Rosi Orozco and her efforts to help end human trafficking in her country.  The only problem was Rosi – who several of us had met earlier that fall – had not asked us for our help and we knew we needed more expertise on human trafficking.  On the human trafficking end, we were all passionate about this issue because of one man – Brad Riley – so we decided we needed to invite Brad into our next gathering.  Brad Riley, who had been a pastor in Boulder, is the director of iEmpathize which  uses arts, film and photography to tell of both this terrible injustice and the hope found through ministries on the ground.

I also contacted Rosi, a Mexican congresswoman, and turns out she had just been won approval for a Human Trafficking Task Force that she had been lobbying for and was appointed its head.  There was going to be an initial event in February of this year and she invited us to join her.  So Brad came to our January meeting and even though we were just looking for his guidance, he jumped on board.  Brad joined us on the February trip, met Rosi and got a picture of the work being done there.

After that trip, we decided that the first BoCoMexico initiative was to send Brad and his team back to Mexico to create a Mexican iEmpathize experience which would be a tool to raise awareness (both in US and Mexico) and raise funds for Camino a Casa, the safe home Rosi started.  We all pitched in and raised the funds to launch the project believing that it was an investment that could help raise exponential resources.

Fast forward to October…   a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of joining Brad and 4 others in our network on trip to Mexico City.  We premiered the short film that iEmpathize had produced at a gathering hosted by the Anti-trafficking task force.  We spent time with Rosi and German & Lorena Villar who lead Camino a Casa further building our partnership. And we visited the girls at the safe home which is a highlight to be with these precious kids have been set free and given new lives because of some amazing followers of Christ.

Last Friday evening, we held a gathering at an art museum in  Boulder with 50 church leaders and their spouses. We each invited key people from our churches as well as friends from other churches who ahd not yet joined us.  We wanted to give these people a sneak peak at what we are doing and a chance to all be aligned to what we have agreed to do next.  We previewed the iEmpathize film and shared where the LORD was leading our effort.  As one church united together, we are trusting the Lord for a new safe home, vans to transport the girls and for the final production costs for the iEmpathize experience that will continue to tell the story in hopes of rescuing more kids.

There is a lot of cool things for me – one I get to be a part of seeing churches unite.  Also we get to build deep friendships in the process.  But the coolest thing is that we can make a difference.  Not just network for network sake.  But come together and make a difference in giving new lives to those held in bondage and hopefully prevent other girls and boys from experiencing this same horrific fate.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 29th, 2010 at 2:46 pm and is filed under JACK, Missions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.