Its beyond cool that we are partnering we people here in Mexico who give their lives to rescuing children and helping make things that are wrong be right.  But it also cool that God is using ‘the Church’ – not just one church – to come together to be a part of this.  As we prayed together – for our week, for those caught in slavery, for those doing the rescuing and for those being rescued – I was moved by how the Lord has united us for this purpose.  And because both unity and setting captives free is at His heart, we can know we in His will.

See, a month or so ago, a few of us representing several local churches met with the Boulder Valley School Superintendent, Dr. Chris King.  Chris has a high regard for the churches in Boulder.  Over the years churches have provided thousands of volunteers to help improve facilities through weekends called ‘Sharefest’.   In the past few years, Sharefest has evolved to more than just school projects but also smaller projects where we have helped local non-profits or single moms and widows in need.

In talking with Chris, he really wanted to see our partnership with the schools continue.  Considering we saved the school board a lot of money in manpower during tight budgets, who could blame him.  Together, we  came up with a “One Church / One School” plan. The idea is a local church would adopt an underachieving school for facility upkeep needs but could also partner in other ways too like mentoring at-risk kids, appreciating the teachers or whatever was needed.  Each church and school would work together to find the best fit of needs and assets.  Our motivation as a united church would simply be to fill the Great Commandment of loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Chris identified the schools with the greatest need and one of those was Ryan Elementary.  As a parent, you may not want to think your child attends an underachieving school but we saw this as an opportunity.  Not only does Luke and several other kids from our church attends Ryan but also six of the Burmese refugee kids our church helps relocate and transition to community.  Robin specifically serves as a liaison between the school and their families, so we already had the relationships and trust with the administration.

So back to the scouts… I thought this would be a good way to begin working with Ryan at a deeper level.  So I emailed the principal and ESL Teacher (who I knew and) Miriam Wright, the Family Advocate for all of the elementary schools in Lafayette, who I had yet to meet.  (By the way, Miriam is awesome and an angel!) The principal got her assistant involved and I met with them.  Together we came up with a plan to help 30 families who have kids at Ryan that are in need this Christmas.

A local business donated toys. The Cub Scouts donated food for 5 families – one per den.  Our church provided food for the remaining 25 boxes.  Each box had enough food for a family of five along with a gift card.  This past week, with help from others, I packed them all in nicely decorated boxes, loaded them into our van and delivered them to Ryan Elementary.  On Saturday morning the 18th, families came to the school to pick up the gifts and boxes of food.  These families, who had nothing, now have something for Christmas.

Robin & my prayer is that this is only the beginning of us loving our neighbor – Ryan Elementary and families in Lafayette.   Our prayer is that God will raise up others to help mentoring kids and serve the school & community with the love of Christ in tangible ways.

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.

Sekepe is a micro-lending and business skills training ministry that I launched with a friend and supporter in the summer of 2009.  We wanted to be a catalyst to ministries helping women break the cycles of poverty.

In September of ’09, I was in Mexico City and meant Rosi Orozco, a Mexican congresswoman, who through her civil association had started a foundation / safe home that rescued and restored girls from human trafficking.  Rosi and I sat next to each other over dinner and we talked about the need for some business training and experience to help prepare the girls for a new life once they leave the safe home.   The next day, I met with some leaders at Casa Sobre la Roca who were helping launch entreperneur projects but it never seemed to work to work on a loan.  Then last Spring, I felt lead to open the discussion again.  So when I was down last May, I met with German Villar, who directs the Camino a Casa foundation and we agreed to move forward.  And over the summer, we worked out the budget and got the loan approved by the Sekepe board.

Previously, Camino a Casa had a small bakery project where girls made baked goods and sold them on Sunday morning at church.  German’s desire with Sekepe’s help is to take this to another level and make it a legitatamate business.  We also talked about it being something the girls could get paid for more than just raise funds for the foundation since the last thing we wanted to do was re-exploit them.

So this month, I took $2500 down to Mexico and German and I signed official papers for a loan for “Milk and Honey” – the new name of the bakery and catering business.  They already had an oven and other equipment but our small loan will enable them to pay for culinary classes for the girls, baking materials and a marketing strategy.  German is lining up shops to sell their baked goods and will advertise catering options for parties.  Milk and Honey will be run by 20+ girl who are survivors of human trafficking who are experiencing the promised land…. and Sekepe gets to play a small part.

She came.  She plead.  She begged.  She cried.  Jesus seemed to ignore her.  Strange.  Not what I expect.  Does he look the other way?  Does he shut his ears to her cries? The disciples urged Jesus to send her away. Her begging is driving us mad.  Get rid of her.  Make her stop. Let’s face it, when someone is begging like crazy, its a little uncomfortable.   It’s not proper.  It seems out of order or uncouth.  Even when I respond to beggars, I respond out of frustration, not compassion.  Just stop bothering me!

Jesus finally seemed to wake up.  He told her that she wasn’t in his target audience.  Sorry.  Move along now. Next. But instead of leaving, she worships.  (Though I am not sure when I think of worship I think of begging & pleading all the more.) “Lord, help me!”  Desperation.

“It isn’t right to take bread out my children’s hands and toss it to the dogs.”   “Charity begins at home. I have to feed my children first.  You are foreigner.  You are of a different race, a different religion. You are probably poor and dirty too.” I can hear the disciples’ say: “Thank you, Jesus!”

But she doesn’t go.  Is she crazy?  But where else would she go?  What would she do?  ”Yes, but even the dogs are allowed to eat the leftovers.”   “I just want your leftovers, your miraculous crumbs, a small portion of your great mercy and power.  I have no hope if you don’t respond.  It’s hopeless without you.  Please. It’s my daughter whom I love.  She needs rescuing.” Jesus responds.  He praises her faith.  Immediately the girl is set free.  Rescued.  Restored.

I am heading out this afternoon for a 4 day trip to Mexico City.  Along with five others from the Boulder area, I will attend a joint US-Mexico Human Trafficking event and then visit those we are collabrating with in ending this tragedy.  Our desire is to come alongside them in this effort, to encourage them and to help bring about his mercy and justice.  At the congressional event, we will help tell the story using media.  My microleanding minsitry, Sekepe, is helping partner in a bakery where rescued girls will work and learn cooking/business skills.  So I am also bringing down our intial loan for this project.

And most of all, we also will spend time with ‘Syrophoenician women’ who plead for kids who are being tormented day and night by evil.  They cry for kids who are like daughters to them even if they are unknown.  They need his mircaculous crumbs of mercy as evil has a stronghold in the form of a heavily armed cartel.

Perhaps some may say its a distraction.  Not really what should be about.  Why leave your family for a week? Take care of your own.  Maybe they think the time, money and effort come be spent on a ‘higher calling’.

Maybe some only see this issue strategically. How it opens doors for proclamation. But Jesus didn’t deliver her daughter from evil so that he could be known throughout Tyre or even Syria or Greece.   In fact, he left this town and went up the coast to Sidon right after this.  Jesus acts because he cares.  He is moved by her faith that is shown through persistant desperate prayer.   It’s not a tactic to him.  It’s a person in need.

Lord let your crumbs fall… let the crumbs of your mercy, power and justice fall to those on the outside.  Those trapped by evil.  They who need rescuing.  Children.  Little boys and girls.  Precious to you.  Lord, let me be shameless in pleading for your mercy and justice.  May I  be about setting captives free.  May we be about seeing your Kingdom come, your will be done here on this planet as it is in heaven.

In Matthew 25, Jesus gives that famous theology-rockin’ passage of separating the sheep and the goats based on how they responded to the least of these my brothers & sisters.  It’s in the feeding the hunger, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, providing shelter to the homeless, ministering to the sick and visiting the prisoner that we meet Jesus and in turn receive the reward of entering into his Kingdom.  Parenthetically when we don’t do these things, we are cast out of his presence.  Paired with other passages found in James and I John will rock your theology!  …Hopefully.

This past week in the South African township of Nellamapius working with Beam Africa Network, our team has encountered Jesus.   Because kids are in school  (its winter here) our mornings are filled with going into the community and visiting people in their homes.   People either live in 1 bedroom cement block homes and tin shacks called Makukus.  The Makukus are often have no electricity or running water and are 1-room homes in that everything – kitchen, sitting area, bedroom are all one room smaller than most bedrooms in America.

The people are always at home because unemployment may be as high as 80% in the townships.  One family I visited had several generations living in the homes and surrounding makukus all trying to survive on just the granny’s pension.  It barely covers the rent, electricity and water bills.  We have come across sick because they can’t afford the clinic (or it has no medicine).  And since they can’t afford the clinic, the are still sick or injured.  And since they are injured or sick, they can’t work.  And since they can’t work, they can’t afford the clinic.  Do you sense the despair?

But the worst….  the most grievous, the most painful, the most unjust situation I have seen I first saw on Thursday.  A widow and her two children were living on the outskirts of Nellmapius on a farm.   Her husband had been a worker for this white farmer.   He died after being gored by a bull.  They live (if I can call it living) in a depapillated farm house with a partial roof.  There is no electricity.  There is no water.  There is no toilet.  They have to walk several kilometers to a river to bath or go to the toilet.  or they go in yard as it reeked of fowl odors.  The widow can’t work because she has arthritis.  She can’t get assistance for medicine.  The officials give her once look over and deem her not sick enough for aid.  She has nothing.  She has no kitchen.  She has no food.

But the worst is this cruel farmer.  His farm is surrounded by similar shacks.   He does not pay his workers.  He cares more for his cows than these people.  It is inhumane.  He is ruthless.  He is oppressing them.  He would force this woman off his land but she has no where to go and who would live in this ‘building’ anyway.

I had so much rage when I saw this condition.  This women is the six-fold least of these.  She has them all.  I had just led our team that morning to look at Jeremiah 22 where God condemns a king who did the same thing.  He compares this cruel king to his father Josiah who did what was right and just, who cares for the poor and the widows.  God himself says: “Is this not what it means to know me!”   But he pronounced judgment on the cruel king that he will die with no one mourning his death and his very body will be drugged outside the city like a dead ass.

Yesterday, we delivered a food parcel to this family.  It is still very small.  They will die unless this condition changes.  The red-tape of government and the racist hate of the landlord stand against her.  Beam Africa will continue to stand on her behalf.  To help her with relief and fight with her until change happens.  I don’t know what it will take perhaps the equivalent of 60 minutes needs to expose this to the nation and shame others into action.

I have resolved that I will not leave this when I return in a few days.  I can’t leave this from my mind.   I will cry out to the Righteous Father on her behalf.  I will be like the persistent widow in Luke 18.  I will not stop until this prisoner has been set free.

Of those 35 million, 23 million live in Sub-Sahara Africa.  Only one (Haiti) of the top 20 countries in the world with HIV/AIDs is not Africa.  Nine of the top ten are from Zambia southward – 1. Swaziland; 2. Botswana; 3. Lesotho; 4. Zimbabwe; 5. South Africa; 6. Namibia; 7. Zambia; 8. Malawi; 9. Central African Republic; 10. Mozambique.   South Africa while 5th in % of people living with HIV/AIDs, is #1 in terms of vast numbers of people people living with HIV/AIDs.

It affects everything.   AIDS & poverty have a symbiotic relationship.  The poor have AIDs are more likely to not be able to afford the anti-viral medicine or proper medical care and AIDs creates poverty, orphans and despair.  Fifteen million children are orphaned in Africa because of AIDs.  It leads to a life of hopelessness.  Why live for the future when the future may never come?

This trip, we will dive headfirst  into this issue.  We will go where those who suffer live.  We will interact with kids who live on their own or whos’ only parent lies at mom sick and dying.  We will serve alongside those who care for those dying of AIDs.  Not sure what we will do.  Maybe it will be preparing & delivering a meal.  maybe it will be helping administer medicine.  Maybe it will be holding a hand comforting them and praying with them.

My prayer is that we will serve and extend love as Jesus.  And I know the promise that we will be doing it to Jesus too. (Matt 25:36-40)

There was a book I read last year called – No Place Left to Bury the Dead: Denial, Despair and Hope in the AIDS Pandemic.  The book frustrated me and yet gave hope.  Yet it put a name and a story to the numbers.  That’s what I want to happen too.  I want to know names and faces who are suffering and yet whom God loves who need to experience his care and hope.

Kevin is an amazing guy.  He has been the pastor of Cool River, a church he planted 8 years ago.   About 15,000 people live in Superior.  It’s really unique place.  I remember when no one lived there.  It’s all subdivisions of homes that all look alike sprinkled with townhomes and upscale apartments.   The average person has a Master’s degree.   When I asked Kevin, how many churches there in Superior.  He surprised me by saying, ‘two’.  Two among a town of 15,000?  And this is America?   I know the other one as well as its a home church led by another friend of ours.   Lest, we think that perhaps most people just commute somewhere else, Kevin informed me that nine of ten people in Superior don’t attend church at all.  It’s an incredible mission field.  I am sure most people don’t think church or God is relevant to their every day lives.

I don’t know how large Cool River is.  I  didn’t ask and it doesn’t matter.  Kevin sees all of Superior as his church.  More happens outside the church walls (or technically the walls of the school in which they meet) than in.   Last fall, Kevin shared with me of how one of his members introduced Kevin to a city official saying, “This is my pastor.”  And even though she had never met him, she replied, “Oh I know Kevin.  He’s every one’s pastor.”   That made his day.

Kevin and I talked about our partnership together in Mexico City.  We are both humbled of how God has lead us to this point and what already is happening.  Kevin was the first pastor we asked if they wanted to join us in creating a network of working together somewhere globally.  He was the sole one who took up the offer to go down last September to scout out the land.  (The pic is from that trip.) He was the first in our group, as we met throughout the fall, who said, “I want to partner with Rosi Orozco to help her end human trafficking”.   One of the highlights of my past year was rooming with him in Mexico City for a few days. (Memorable too as he snored like an old man.) We had some great discussions. I watched him in his element speaking Spanish and relating to people in a culturally-revelant way.  Really the highlight is getting to know Kevin and other pastors and Kingdom leaders in the area like Kevin.   It’s been a joy to run with them and I look forward to more time together.

Kevin is a great thinker.  He is deep.  He is a learner.  He loves the Lord.  He loves people.  There are no pretensions when you meet Kevin.  He isn’t trying to impress you or list off his credentials.  He is without guile.  He is real.

We ended back up at Starbucks and sat outside and just talked.  We talked about what it means to follow Jesus.  We talked about leaving behind old paradigms that limit us being able to follow Him because we are too caught up in ‘building a church / ministry’.   We talked about how even the body often uses things like ‘reaching the least of these’ as a ploy to get money from ‘the rich of these’.    We talked about how we just wanted to follow Jesus and live the way He did and care for the things He cares about.

It was a good afternoon.

Some of the scenes are similar to what I witnessed a few weeks ago.   Some of the stats I was not aware of.

Wash and make yourselves clean.  Take your evil deeds out of my sight!  Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!   Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. ”Come now, let us reason together,”  says the LORD. ”Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson,  they shall be like wool.  ~  Isaiah 1:16-18

If I was nice like my friend Matt, I might sent an open-letter to the airport.  But alas, I fall way short of the standard of Mr. Mikalatos – humorist, author, do-gooder, and overall nice guy.

Here’s my story:  I arrived at IAH from Mexico City Friday afternoon around 5:40 CST.   I was on a United ticket but the international flight was with Continental because they are both under the Star Alliance.   I had an 1 hour and 13 minutes to make my connection.  So I go through customs, wait for bag, re-check it, go through security again and look on the board for my connecting flight.  I knew I had to hoof it because I was at terminal C and had to go to terminal A.  Now IAH has an underground train that goes all the way.  I had ridden that when I first went through the week before.  But as I followed the signs to terminal A it took me to an above-ground train.

I waited for this train but they said it was not working.  When it finally arrives it even stopped again on the middle of the tracks before getting to terminal B.  It was then that I noticed it didn’t go to A but you had to go to another spot to catch a bus to A.  So I ran off the train when it finally rolled into the station.  I passed everyone to make it first down an escalator.  I was like OJ in the airport.  Oops bad analogy.

I had to run down a long corridor, then another, then another, then another.  (Who designed this airport!) Finally I made it where you catch the bus.  It just left.  I had to wait another 5 minutes.   Whent he bus arrived, the driver was kind and took me first to my gate rather than the four others on the bus who had later flights.  I ran to my gate and the two United agents said “you’re late. It just left”.  I had to explain why I was late.  As I did another passenger came running up.  He wasn’t on my bus so I assume he took the underground train. The male United agent didn’t seem to be concerned of my plight.  But the lady showed pity perhaps realizing they could have held the plane for us.  She said, “I am going to get you on a Continental flight.”  She puts me on the flight and prints off a form.  I still needed to show my ID to Continental gate agent to get a boarding pass but I was on….  So I was told.

I went to back through security and back to C.  I was early for this flight by almost 2 hours.  My cell phone battery had died on me and wouldn’t recharge but I paid for internet and skyped Robin telling her I was coming home later than I thought.  When the gate agent arrived, I walked up handed her my official United thingy and explained my story a 2nd time.  She said she couldn’t find me in the system and sent me to the Continental service counter.

The line at the Continental counter was long.  The employees running the counter must have received training from the Post Office.  The longer I waited the more I realized I was gonna cut it close to make this Continental flight.  Finally a lady came off her break and taking her sweet time finally logged-in and called me over.  Again, I explained my plight.  She says I am not in the system.  I decided to plea for her sense of compassion.  No luck.  She said I could call United and so I tried to explain the cell phone being kaput.  I asked if she could call United for me.  She said she couldn’t.  (At this time I was tempted to explain to her the true definition of customer service.  You know that she was hired to serve customers.) She wouldn’t even put me on standby and told me my only hope was going back to United.  I vowed then and there to never do business with Continental again.

So I go back to Terminal A and through security a 3rd time.  I knew at this point, I was staying in lovely Houston for the evening but perhaps United would put me up for the night.  When I got to United’s ticket counter no one was there as no more United flights were leaving that evning.  I picked up the courtsey phone and a nice lady took my call.  For the 4th time I explained my plight and she sounded like she cared.  She looked up in her computer and said “you are on a Continental flight that leaves in 5 minutes”.   I about screamed, ‘what?!?’   I am not sure what the computer deal was but I believe she was right because later I looked up United.com and under my itineraries I was listed on that flight.  My only conclusion is that Continental is incompetent.

It was too late to go back to Terminal C and make that flight – even if I parachuted in with George HW, I had no chance.   The only United person left in the building was a guy in baggage area.  He wasn’t supposed to but he put me on list for 6 am flight in the morning.  I determined that I could go to a hotel and hope United reimbursed me but even if I did, I’d have to leave at 4 am to be back at the airport.  So for the first time ever in countless trips, I sleep at an airport.

I found a chair that was for massages.  Rather lumpy where the massage rollers were but leathery soft none the less.  I felt sorry for myself until I thought of these kids I had met the day before.  See I had visited Casa Alianza in Mexico City that ministers to kids that are displaced and without a home.  I thought of those kids who sleep in parks or under bridges or in sewers.  At least I had a place to sleep and it was only for one night.  They are not safe and are targets for traffickers.  I was safe.  I was warm.  I had my travel mask so even the lights didn’t keep me awake.  (I didn’t really sleep but at least rested.)  My circumstance was not ideal but it was temporary.  And certainly I wasn’t being forced to do vile acts like the women and children who are being trafficked.

I made it to Denver the next morning and I slept on that entire flight.   I made it home to my wife and kids who love me.  Though I wouldn’t choose it, my ordeal was a gift to remind me that life is not easy and even my discomforts are small in comparison to those who need to be rescued.  (I am talking about those in Mexico but could possibly apply to anyone who flies Continental.)