How you’ve inspired us with your compassion and generosity

We had high hopes for you. And you haven’t disappointed us.

When we launched TCW’s first-ever Cause of the Year in our January/February issue, we knew we were taking a risk. Articles that focus on difficult issues are always a tough sell. And we selected a huge, complicated issue to tackle this inaugural year: sex trafficking.

We were inspired to take this risk because we know women today want to make a difference in the world. Thanks to the Internet and an increasingly global society, everyone’s more aware of the disease, genocide, famine, poverty, and other difficulties in every corner of the planet.

While all this knowledge can be overwhelming, believers in the God of the universe have a calling to be Christ’s hands and feet, offering help and hope to a broken world. It’s an admittedly daunting responsibility and a glorious privilege.

We hoped if we focused on only one issue and provided practical ways for you to get involved, you’d catch the vision and lend a hand to make an impact on a devastating issue affecting hundreds of thousands of our sisters around the world.

So taking on sex trafficking has been a step of faith. But you, along with our Heavenly Father, have met us in this journey.

In January, we received a letter from the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST), our Cause of the Year ministry partner, which had arrived from a TCW reader. In it she shared how her grandfather, a man who spent his life helping the needy, had become concerned about human trafficking shortly before his death last fall. When the reader saw our Cause of the Year coverage on sex trafficking, she’d already been praying about where to donate money inherited from her grandfather. In her letter, she wrote, “This little bit of money my grandfather was able to leave behind may not be world-changing, but I pray that it may help a few in need—that somehow his legacy and hard work might still live on.” Enclosed was a check for $3,000.

We also received a phone call from a women’s ministry leader in Texas. Her regional women’s ministry is in the process of opening a home for trafficking survivors. She requested 600 copies of TCW’s January/February issue to distribute to attendees at their upcoming annual convention, hoping to cast a vision for the positive change women—and God—can make in the face of evil.

We received another phone call from a Tennessee pastor and his wife, who'd just purchased some property to open a home for survivors of rape or trafficking. This couple didn’t know how to start until they read our Cause of the Year coverage. “The article helped us focus on what to do,” they told us.

We don’t share any of these stories to boast about ourselves. All the glory goes to God. And our gratitude goes to you—for catching the vision and joining the fight.

In fact, we saw God’s fingerprints on this new Cause of the Year venture as we were selecting our first topic. To help us choose one, I sent e-mails to a couple friends in ministry, asking about key issues affecting women. One friend forwarded my message to a national director of her organization, and within a couple weeks we heard from the marketing coordinator of FAAST, a wonderful alliance between four ministries with major anti-trafficking efforts: World Hope International, World Relief, The Salvation Army World Service Office, and Project Rescue.

Around this time I also received an invitation from an out-of-state friend to attend the conference on combating sex trafficking she was hosting. God obviously wanted me to go and make some divine connections. At that conference, I met several inspiring women on the frontlines in the war against sex trafficking. And we’re introducing you to many of those warriors in the pages of TCW this year.

God clearly pointed us to the issue of sex trafficking for this first Cause of the Year.

If you haven’t yet gotten involved, find practical ideas in our article “How You Can Combat Sex Trafficking.” And look for ongoing coverage about our Cause of the Year in each 2008 issue of TCW, as well as on our website: www.Todays
ChristianWoman.com/cause.

Here’s one other practical idea for becoming involved. You can donate toward TCW’s ministry project with FAAST: Rapid Response Kits. Many trafficking survivors escape with nothing but the clothes they’re wearing. FAAST Rapid Response Kits provide basic clothing and hygiene items, including a pair of rubber sandals, two T-shirts, a pair of pants/shorts or a skirt, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a small bottle of shampoo, a bar of soap, a small towel, and a comb or brush. Along with the kit, FAAST provides recipients with transportation to a safe place. These kits will be distributed in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cambodia, India, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and South Africa. The cost is $60 each, but you can donate any dollar amount.

You’ve encouraged us with your compassion and generosity. Together, let’s continue to encourage our hurting sisters with our attention, money, advocacy, and prayers.

Blessings,