Human trafficking, particularly for sex trade, is one of the greatest evils
in today's world. And at last night's domestic violence workshop, we
learned that the greatest "consumers" of the sex trade in every nation on
earth are US citizens. Here's an opportunity for us to make a small dent
in it.
One of my seminary classmates and her daughter (Esther and Kate Berg) run
Zeteo Missions in the Philippines, focusing on poverty alleviation and
children's welfare. Here's a message I received from Kate yesterday.
*Dear Peter,I pray this message finds you well and continually refreshed as
you serve.I am writing to you because of an extraordinary opportunity that
has come up for a precious little girl in our care and the future of all
the children who will be served by our mission. I know that you have your
own mission connections and are very active, and I have great respect for
that. I am not looking to start an ongoing support relationship, but rather
I want to be bold and bang on every door I can to be able to say, “yes” to
a door that has opened for us in truly miraculous ways.You may or may not
know that our mission caters predominately to children who are either being
trafficked or are in imminent danger of being sold. Since opening
residentially, we have been involved in the lives of 12 children. Eleven of
them came from trafficking situations.We have a little girl, “Anna”, who is
currently 29 months old. She came to us at 18 months of age. She had
already been prepped for sale as a sex worker, and she had already been
forced to work. Anna had endured the many months of conditioning that break
a child in the ways necessary to enable them to perform like that. She was
kept in a cage and denied human contact and food. She was only let out to
receive candy and perform. Sometimes, the men would be too drunk and
replace her to her cage without locking it. At those times she would be
found on the roadside competing with stray dogs for food. Every time she
was returned to her parents who were running this business. She is the 6th
child of this mother. At least four of her siblings had been sold
already.When Anna came to us, she didn’t make a sound. She was
expressionless, even upon her hospital exam, blood draws, and other
procedures. She was completely shut off from the world. The deep attachment
wounds she has suffered and the trauma itself are profound……and yet an all
too common story here. Anna was our first child. But when other children
came, we had to move her out of the nursery because she was a danger to
others – her whole life to this point being a struggle to survive, she only
saw other children as competition for food and, quite frankly, life
itself.At that point, she moved in with me. I have been working with her
intensely personally since June. Today, she is still radically behind in
spoken words, but her receptive language skills are outstanding. She is a
bright, determined, resilient, precious little girl who consistently amazes
me with her compassion in the face of all she has endured. She still
struggles tremendously to make eye contact, and is plagued by horrific
nightmares. And as is common in trauma situations, especially when there
has been no healthy attachment to assist in regulation – even positive
experiences confuse and overwhelm her. She often experiences seizure like
activity when overloaded, her whole body shaking and becoming rigid before
completely going limp.And this is the intersection where I am banging on
doors and asking for your help. An experienced child trauma counselor and
attachment disorder play therapist in the U.S. has committed to DONATE 12
to 15 weeks of intensive therapy for Anna, and will train me as well to do
this process with ALL our kids when I return to the Philippines.
Additionally, because of the strong attachment needs Anna has, this
therapist will donate some babysitting hours as well to spell me while
keeping Anna’s environment as stable as possible. Someone has donated a car
for transportation. And some church folks are gathering cool weather
clothes for our little tropical baby. (The counseling is in Colorado.) What
we need desperately are folks who can help with airfare, a budget for
diapers, and a small amount of pocket money so we could have a few small
treats like going to the Denver Zoo or spending time at a state park. (Anna
LOVES animals and nature.) The “cheap” flights are around $1,500 each – but
those require an average of 40+ hours of travel – which I am honestly not
sure I can pull off alone with a traumatized toddler. The flights that get
us 30 hours or less seem to run around $2,500 each. I know that is a big
ask, but I have to bang on every door for this little one who has no one
else to fight for her. And I am also thinking of all the kids who will come
after her – benefiting from this training and process.Would you be willing
to consider a one-time gift to help make these last pieces fall into place?
And would you also be willing to think about folks you know? Is there
anyone you might be willing or able to pass this on to who has a passion to
stop the trafficking of children and a heart to invest in helping the ones
who have already suffered have solid opportunities to heal?The counselor
wants us to arrive in the U.S. as close to March 10 as possible as she
could clear her schedule then and we would not lose valuable time to her
vacations and other commitments. So our clock is ticking.If you have any
questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I would be happy to help in any
way I can. Thank you for considering this. I know you already do so very
much.With hope that God will open doors as we all knock,Kate*
The quickest and easiest way to donate is through PayPal:
https://www.paypal.me/ZeteoMissions ;(use kate@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx as the
verifying email). If you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with PayPal, we
can run it through the church's account.
Feel free to pass this along to anyone who may want to help.
--
Old Union Presbyterian Church
200 Union Church Rd
Mars, PA 16046
724-538-8672
www.OldUnionChurch.com
OldUnionChurch@xxxxxxxxx
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