Its funny, cuz its true.

So a friend forwarded this blog post along to me and I figured I would pass it along because I couldn’t agree more. It’s on “Awareness!”

Oh, and its funny.        Blog on Awareness

Now…

…its time to edit!!!!

We have roughly 100 hours of footage to go through (which is a lot by the way). Our first order of business will be to make a detailed catalog of what we have so we can begin to place the right shots/scenes within the outline that we created.

We will also be working on figuring out the best process for distribution of this film. Thanks for all your support while we were out there. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we put all of the pieces in place.

Peace!!

s

Final thoughts before leaving Mars

Our last day was a great one. Micah and I split up to maximize the diversity and amount of footage that we could acquire. He rolled around with Clay gathering the last bits and pieces that we needed while I spent the day roaming around the country with Moses. We traveled to one of the many churches to bring disaster relief (one of the areas affected by flooding) and the Gospel. When it was all said and done, about 100 or so wanted to be baptised. Moses surprised me by asking me to help baptize them. I was honored and humbled. One of the top 5 experiences of my life to be honest. In retrospect, I should have brought a change of clothes. Oh well. minor inconvenience is all.

We leave tomorrow at 12:45 in the afternoon. I am going to miss it here despite all of the horror that goes on. I really don’t think that I still even understand the depths of what really happens out here. I realized this about a week ago. Don and Bridget had invited Micah and I to eat lunch with them in the same hall with the girls. As we sat there is slowly dawned on me that these girls really are children. I don’t really know how to describe it. I knew the age range all along but I think that even I had subconsciously dehumanized the girls to emotionally cope with the stories that I heard. I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to beat the face in of every man who had ever touched them. I still do to be honest. I’ll need to spend some time talking with God about that.

Even with all the good that Agape does (and other NGO’s like IJM), it is not nearly enough. There are known, working brothels that if only one of them were to be raided today, there would not be enough aftercare centers to care for the girls. The global economy is being felt here as well. The price of rat meat (the cheapest meat available) has tripled in the last year or so. A very good NGO’s just had to shut down its after care center for girls who are 18 and older.

I have seen how good can, and does, triumph over evil. I want to be a part of that fight. I feel that it is time for us in the West to actually do something rather than binge out on “awareness.” If we do not get involved, then even Agape’s Restoration Center may be forced to shut its doors. It costs around 100 grand a month to take care of roughly 50 girls. If that sounds like a lot, then wait to watch the documentary. It’s not, and its more than worth the price.

This whole project has been about getting regular people like you and me involved in this fight. I feel the need now more than ever. Don told me a story about one man who fasts all three meals for one day a week and donates the money he would have spent of food to the center. What a great idea! The fields are ready to be harvested. Lets do this!!!

s

PS. Faith without works is dead. I am going to start a page on this site that is dedicated to simple and practical ways to join the fight. Until then, here’s a link to a page where we can donate via paypal.

AIM’s Paypal Account

Today we had the privelage to capture some footage from family members of girls from the center who have used micro loans from Agape to help them get on their two feet. One woman today showed us different kinds of vendor snacks that she would sell to the public to help generate money for her family as well as help pay back the loan offered to her monthly from Agape. Another sold books ranging from child sex slavery to the history of Cambodia. Many of her customers she said were Westerners and the money that she earned, she used to help feed her family and also pay back Agape. It was amazing to see how even the small amount of help that Agape offered her helped in such a profound way. Quite simple, but very effective. After our interviews with the vendors, we headed back to the restoration center to interview Don and Bridget together which also happened to be our last interview. The stuff they shared was gripping and at moments rather intense due to the graphic nature of what we’ve been covering. Again, Seth and I are both very humbled to be out here and the opportunity to partner with everyone out here has been such a joy. Finally, for the last part of our day, we visited for the last time Rahab’s House, located in Svay Pak, where many of the neighborhood children come and visit. Thanks to everyone for their support and prayers and we will see you soon!

-Micah

Prison

We got a chance to do some under cover filming at the prison here in Phnom Penh. Some of the girls were visiting their mothers who had been incarcerated for selling those very girls into the sex trafficking industry. It was sickening. One of the girls parents spent the entire time trying to convince her to lie about what she did so she could get a second hearing. The mother cared nothing for the child or for the hell that she sold her daughter into. It did not take long before the girl decided she did not want to be there anymore. There was an unusual ammount of guards there today as well so we had to film the scene secret agent style.

We also had a great interview with another girls parents this afternoon at there home. Agape will be helping to rebuild the families house so the young girl will have a safe home to return to when she is reintegrated.

Well, it’s off to bed for me. Only a few more days until we hop on the plane and head for home.

Peace!!

s

More Apologies

Hey everyone. If you have not yet noticed, I find it necessary to apologize from time to time (mainly, this is due to the fact that I am very good at making mistakes). For a second time, after having a day or so to ruminate on my previous post, I find that an apology is needed. I abbreviated a word that under normal circumstances, I would never even want to allude to. I was wrong to do so. We dealt with some very depressing stuff up in Siem Reap and I allowed my experience to influence my thought process. I believe that our speech should only be used to edify, and such words do not edify in my opinion. I am very sorry.

On a lighter note, today was a good day (even with its frustrations). We finished up our interviews with Don and Moses as well as went to visit One of the girls in her Taylor shop. Tomorrow we go with the girls to visit their mothers (who sold them into prostitution) in prison. I really don’t know what to expect. Also, there is a mosquito in my room taunting me as I try to fall asleep.

God bless and thanks again for all the support and prayers.

s

Back in Phnom Penh

Well that was a very busy, very short trip. This country is totally f*d up (sorry for the harsh letters). I really cant say any more than that at this time. You will have to wait for the documentary to come out to know more about the last few days since I do not know what I can talk about publicly and what I can not yet.

Needless to say, I am fighting the urge to just bomb the whole country to kingdom come (its a good thing that I have no way of actually doing that since that is not a good solution). I can not think of a darker, more evil place on the entire planet.

All that said, the church out here is this countries saving grace. I love these people. They are wonderful. They need our prayers and support. God Bless them!!!

Until my next post.

s

Prevention

After a 6 hour bus ride through rice fields and jungle forest, we finally made it to the modern city of Siem Reap. Much of the sex trade has moved up here due to the large numbers of foreign tourists who frequent this region to visit the ancient city of Angkor Wat (and increases pressure in Phnom Penh). The over abundance of foreigners and the extreme lack of governmental control has provided a virtual safe haven for brothels and pimps to offer enslaved children and women alike up daily, and even hourly, for rape and torture.

We are connecting with two of the pastors up here who have been going after the trafficking of children wholesale. The church in this country is really starting to work together with NGO’s (Non Governmental Organizations) to identify, assess, report and prevent sex trafficking. Their passion and commitment to saving these girls, irregardless of what it may cost them financially and physically, is humbling to say the least.

Please keep these children in your thoughts and prayers as they are in desperate need of rescue, intensive aftercare, healing, and effective reintegration.

Blessings!!

s

Siem Reap

We are heading on up to Siem Reap tomorrow for a few days. Not sure what our internet connection will be like.

We filmed at one of the killing fields today. Just imagine a 7 story building full of skulls. It was quite surreal. Walking around the actual fields, we saw clothes that were getting exposed by erosion. Moses let us know that those were the clothes of the people who had been killed 30 years ago. Again, very surreal. I can not begin to imagine what it was like for people living during those times.

We also filmed a segment with Clay tonight where he took us on a drive by tour of some of the brothels in Phnom Penh.

Well, time for bed. Getting up early to catch our bus!!

Good night (or rather, good morning to all my family and friends back home).

s

Interviews and Silk Ties

Greetings from Cambodia again!

We just finished our first interview with Don at the restoration center and it all went really well. He was gracious enough for us to recount some of the horror stories from the girls testimonies. It’s been amazing to see the joy on these girls faces after hearing the atrocities they’ve been through. But God is good and He is continually restoring them to wholeness through this ministry. It’s also been a joy for us as well to witness their transformation.

Moses, Don, Bridget, and Clay attended meeting today with some government officials as part of an ongoing relationship to work with the country in providing humanitarian needs for Cambodia. They seemed very happy with the work of AIM and spoke very highly of Don, Bridget, Clay and Moses. We were allowed to video tape the meeting which may or may not make it into the documentary, but good content nonetheless. For our morning before the meeting, Samantha, Moses’ wife, took Seth, Bridget and I to the market to buy nice clothes for the meeting. Were talking $1.25 for a nice silk tie! Not a bad deal!

Tomorrow we interview Moses and we feel this is a key interview, as he is very much a part of the documentary, but more importantly, the vision of AIM. Please continue to pray for us as we follow His leading,

-Micah