I wanted to share a praise report from our connect group this week. We have a gal that is recently saved and back in church who has joined our ladies' connect group.

During our group meeting, she asked us to pray for a co-worker who was hit by a drunk driver that day (Friday), was in a coma and expected to die. We prayed for her healing and salvation and agreed to visit the hospital together the next day to visit the family (she is married with two small children) and pray for the young woman. Saturday, she came out of the coma and was transferred from ICU!

This was a great experience for the ladies to see first-hand the power of prayer and the Word of God --- Praise God for His miraculous grace!

Letter from Jamalyn, a missionary to Haiti who was in Fondwa, at the orphanage where our kids came from. It's quite beautiful to read about relationships being all that matter in life because in a minute, all things temporary can be lost: 

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors!

I am so thankful for your prayers and words of concern. It has been a long two weeks since the ground first shook. Many of you have asked what I saw, what I thought and so on. It is not real easy for me to put all these thoughts into words just yet, but I will share with you what is on my mind at the moment. 

The destruction was unbelievable. At first when the quake hit I was with the children at the orphanage and couldn't figure out if what had happened was something others felt around Fondwa or if it was just in that one spot. My mind just couldn't wrap itself around what was happening. All the older children thought it was the second coming. All I knew was they had to get away from the building (that somehow miraculously did not fall) and up to the main road. So I told them that I wasn't sure if it was Jesus coming back or an earthquake but if it was Jesus he would find us on the main road. Up on the main road, I was shocked to see that the shaking of the ground was indeed an earthquake and the further I walked down the road the further I keep seeing destruction. The protestant church where we worshiped. Our friend Dia's house where everyone hung out on her porch. My dear friend Jesula where I would sit and talk about life and drink coffee. All gone. Then, there was the guesthouse. All the memories Dave and I made there our first two years of marriage--gone. The work the peasants did to put that structure up and to create infrastructure--a radio station, a clinic, a business office--gone. The Sisters quarters--gone. It was just unbelievable to me. Then there was the news about Sister Oudel and Baby Jude--gone. All in a matter of 35 seconds. I was scared to ask about the school. I didn't have to - as people saw me they began to tell me. The school is gone. Lekol la te tonbe. I felt my stomach turn. The blessing was it was after school was done for the day so none of our students were hurt. However, two Masons working at the school lost their lives. My office at St. Luke's has concrete walls. It is an odd reminder of what is here and what can be gone in seconds. I figured it is too much to ask the trustees to put dry wall over it so I will just cope (or have my therapist write a letter for me). After the first night of sleeping on the road with all our neighbors and listening to their prayers that they would randomly cry out in the middle of the night I realized all this "stuff" is gone but my relationships within the community were still strong. Madame Chery gave us a mat and sheet to keep he team warm in the middle of the night. We all had shorts and t-shirts on and the temp dropped to about 50 degrees. In the morning, Jesula whose husband suffered a broken arm, leg and clavicle (he was working at the school too) boiled us water so we would have clean water to drink. She had lost her house, her husband was suffering with broken bones that were not yet set and she took time to care for us. Later the Sisters made sure we had some food to eat. These relationships are all I have now and they are really all I needed in the end. I am thankful for my relationships with all of you too. You all were the force behind the peace I felt when I should have felt panic. I knew that I had a community praying for me at home and I was so thankful for your love. 

As for Fondwa, Dave is going in two weeks to begin to assess the needsand then we will be able to decide what is next. If you are interested in donating to Fondwa go to www.familyhm.org <http://www.familyhm.org/> and click on Fondwa. If you are interested in going on a team with us in the future make sure to let us know. 

In May of 2008 my sister ran across a craigslist post by a mother of a 4 year old child who had lost all of his hair. He attended school a few hours a day and the children made fun of him. The post was asking people to donate money so she could by him a wig. The wig was going to cost $800. My sister told her husband about it because she wanted to help the mother raise the money. My sisters husband told a guy at work and he actually wrote him an $800 check. My sister delivered the check to the mother. This is when my life changed.

My sister came home and told me all about this gorgeous little boy that she met. I decided that I just HAD to meet him. I called up his mother, Michelle and asked her how I could help. I coordinated a fundraiser with 5 live bands, door prizes, a live silent auction and local TV stations in less than a month. All I did was ask for help from the community, we didn't pay for one thing. The fundraiser was a huge success, we raised thousands of dollars for the Edmondson family; and Michelle's son, Joshua, became a very good friend of mine.

It turned out that he has an autoimmune disease and an extremely rare tumor disease. Tumors infect his entire little body and he ends up getting a lot of them biopsied. He recently started chemotherapy with hopes of controlling the tumor disease. He has had numerous surgeries, lost all of the hair on his entire body and has spent entirely too much time in Dell Children's Hospital. Every time he was in the hospital I would take him toys, blankets and pajamas. After a while every time he had to stay he would tell his mom "Call Miss Amanda. I need to see her." I would always drop what I was doing and head straight to the hospital with gifts. I would stay and play with him in the play room on most days. He was on the special floor...the oncology floor, because he couldn't be around too many germs.

By having such a small friend that frequented the special floor in the hospital so much, I got to know a lot of children there with cancer. I decided that I wanted to start something where we would deliver toys to these kids. It meant so much to Joshua that he could call someone and they would drop everything to bring him Batman pajama pants. So, that's what I did. I came up with Battle4aCure and Hope Baskets because these kids are in the battle of a lifetime and they just need someone who cares. I started researching childhood cancer and I didn't like what I found. 11 Children die from cancer every single day. I started following a blog of a little girl named Samantha Hughes. She was the same age as my niece. She passed away shortly after her 5th birthday. I will never forget how I felt the day I read that post, I just sat and cried. Since I started, our group lost a little boy named William who was 2; a little girl named Katie that was 4; a little girl named Reagan that was 5 and many others that we weren't extremely close to but it was still heartbreaking. We are usually introduced to the kids when they have first been diagnosed. We see them go from good to bad to worse to unresponsive in some cases. It is the most heartbreaking thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life.

We have also seen a lot of children beat cancer, which is like winning the lotto. The excitement we share with those families is unmatchable! It has been a roller coaster of fun and sorrow and everything in between.

As for my friend Joshua, he is still undergoing chemo treatments. His doctors are hoping for a miracle and so am I. Joshua and I have spent A LOT of time together over the past 3 years. I've had him on his birthdays, during Christmas and Summer vacations and I've taken him just about anywhere he asked to go, whether it was the ice cream place or Sea World. He has been the most amazing little blessing and I love him like he was my own.

Battle4aCure started as a dream to make a difference and touch a life, and I truly believe it has done just what God intended it to. :)

Met with Mayor Lee Leffingwell and he asked, “How may I help you?” - we replied , “No, how may we help you better serve the people in our community?” Not sure he quite knew what to do with that offer, but we believe it is the beginning of an awesome opportunity to say “Austin, God loves you!”

This day was shaping up to be just another normal day on the record. Just when my mind was set that everything was to occur as a normal Sunday would my heart was shaken by this sweet girl, Shavonee. My encounter with her the previous week was not the smoothest. She had to be talked with about her behavior during worship. During this conversation she proceeded to inform me that she wasn’t a fan of anything I was saying, the worship music and she pretty much wasn’t a fan of any and everybody having to do with the youth room in any way that day. Before the end of the service we ended up having to move her away from her friends. I was sure she wasn’t going to grace us with her presence again after all of this. Despite everything that took place that day she showed up at jhi this week, face on and ready to go. This time she was a bit more somber and down cast rather than throwing daggers at my face. Through most of worship she was in and out talking with Donna and I’m sure she was highly protesting the fact that she was even still in the room. Donna saw straight through this and was able to remain faithful and persistent which kept Shavonee there through the end of service. At this point I realized there was something different in the air and something was shifting. Donna came to me after service and we talked about some concerns we had with the events of the day when Shavonee found us. As we sat and gave her a listening heart she unfolded her story upon us as if we had known her for months. A story of betrayal, confusion, abuse and racism were plaguing her thoughts and heart. In that moment she chose to also share with us her love and understanding of God as well that she was afraid to come back to God for fear He wouldn’t take her back. I broke in this moment. I had nothing but love left for this girl. I could see the hurt and complete torture coming forth as a blazing ball of fire in her eyes. She also told us that she loved to dance and wants to learn more dances. She then mentioned she wanted to go to the girls hang out we were having after service but couldn’t because of lack of funds, no car and she didn’t know anybody. Also on top of all that she didn’t like girls because they just create too much drama. I told her to not worry about the money, I would give her a ride home and I know plenty of people to introduce her to; now she was out of excuses. So upon this we set off to find her mother. We scoured the church for a good 5-10 minutes before her brother told us she was in the prayer room. Without even a second thought I showed them the way. Then it hit me what that room was used for after service, I almost cried. As we get to the prayer room we see their mother praying with somebody to dedicate her life to Christ. This moment completely did me in. I went and talked with her mother for a few moments. Shavonee ended up staying for the hang out and had a wonderful time and most of all she was socializing with the other girls that were there. Jesus had an appointment with this family on this day and He came with no delay.

Hi Rob and Laura,

I hope you are doing great! I wanted to write you a note to update you on all of the exciting developments with A21.

A few weeks ago we held a prayer meeting and decided to specifically pray that we would start seeing clients feeling guilty and helping get girls out of slavery. I am excited to tell you that just last Monday our prayers were answered! A girl broke down in tears with the client and told him how she was trafficked. The client then felt convicted, and instead of "abusing her", he took her to the police station! The police immediately called us, and now this beautiful young woman is safely in our shelter. This is such a testimony of the power of prayer!

We are now the first agency the police call when they have a girl or are planning a raid. In fact, the police just told one of our staff, “You have no idea how much courage you are giving to us with what you are doing.” We have seen a miracle taking place in the police force in Greece as they are increasingly more proactive! I believe that this unprecedented favour and cooperation is also a direct result of your prayers and God’s faithfulness! Please don’t stop praying!

I also wanted to let you know that we welcomed one of our youngest guests to the shelter two weeks ago. A 5-year-old little girl named Kayla*, and she has the biggest brown eyes you’ve ever seen! Kayla and her mother came to Greece after her mother was tricked into accepting what she thought would be a waitressing job. To her horror, she found herself a victim of sex trafficking – and her little girl was caught up in the nightmare with her. Thankfully the police were able to intercept, and called us as soon as Kayla and her mother were rescued. The most recent photo I saw of Kayla was one of her poking her tongue out at the camera. I love how she has come alive since being at the shelter, and that her spunky spirit has returned.

Police recently discovered 16 NEWBORN BABIES being smuggled into Greece and sold for as much as 40,000 euro each. Two of the traffickers involved in this case were LAWYERS – people meant to be upholding justice. Stories like this sicken me, and only highlight the great need for us to continue our fight against injustice!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. It is making a GREAT difference, and together, we are making significant progress in the fight against human trafficking.

Love,

Chris xxx

*For the protection of victims of human trafficking in the care of THE A21 CAMPAIGN, all names and details pertaining to specific cases are always changed.