Portugal's Passionate Powerlady

(Posted by Bud Reed)

I just got an email from Alexandra Borges in Lisbon. She is the journalist from Portugal whom I was able to meet during the September Rescue Mission in Ghana. She and her team filmed the rescues of Kweitey, Isaac and Ormond. Alex documented the entire rescue process from beginning to end: scouting for trafficked children, negotiations, the actual rescues, parental interviews, physical exams and the beginnings of rehabilitation and education. Her documentary was televised a couple of weeks ago and we at Touch A Life have been thrilled with the interest from the Portugal.




Alex is not moving on to her next film project just yet. Her email included a cope of the back cover of "Children Born of the Heart", a childrens’ book co-authored with Luis Figo. Figo is, in Alex' own words "World's best fuutbol player several times!"

I'm sharing some of her words:

This is the back page of our book who is going to be announced to the press 13 th December...as you can see in that back we say that all the money it will be delivered to touch a life kids to rescue slave children in Ghana...and get all your staff ready because next year we are going to do another report there and rescue 20 more children with this money because I want people to see that the money we asked is used for that...

I AM AMASED ABOUT WHAT LOVE CAN DO...I DID NOT KNOW THESE TWO PEOPLE THAT I CONTACT TO DO THE BOOK WITH ME BUT I TRUST THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE AND IN LESS THAN A MONTH WE DID THE ALL BOOK TOGETHER AND NOW IS READY TO GO TO THE SHOPS?!!!

Isn´t it incredible?!!!!

I am going to send you the all book although it is in Portuguese but is a lovely story for kids about adoption that is called "CHILDREN BORN IN THE HEARTS".

I LOVE AND TRUST YOU GUYS AND THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THIS CHANCE TO HELP.

Yes, Alex, that is INDEED Incredible…and so like God! Wow! What an amazing God we serve!

The book will be released just before Christmas in Portugal and will be published in Italy and Spain as well. Alex says all profits from the book will be used to free more Touch A Life Kids in Ghana. It explains the love and commitment of parents who adopt children…children of the heart. And Alex most assuredly has children on her heart--one especially: Kweitey. And Kweitey certainly returns her love. As a matter of fact, he's renamed himself! You guessed it: Alex…Alex Kweitey.


Alex plans to hook up with us and use the profits to rescue twenty more children in Ghana next year so we (that includes you) need to get on with the completion of Phase I of Golden Village so that these children will have a place to be housed and loved.


Pray concerning your donating to Touch A Life, and if you are led to help in the completion of Phase one and the beginning of Phase II, please send your gift to Touch A Life (a 501c3) 400 Fox Ridge Drive, Joplin, MO 64801.


The TAL website will soon have continual updates on the building process and more updated information of the projects going on in Vietnam and Cambodia. We will keep you more informed on the lives of Touch A Life Kids via the website more regularly in the near future. When we update, we’ll post it on the blog so that you can log on and check it out.

Thanks!

Bud Reed

Remember the Victims

My heart today is on the victims and innocent children that have been trafficked into the sex industry. I pray for a BAND OF BROTHERS to rise up and help us fight this horrible crime that is happening to these precious children.

Remembering the Victims:

"But this is a people robbed and plundered;
All of them are snared in holes,
And they are hidden in prison houses;
They are prey, and no one deliver;
For plunder, and no one says 'Restore!"
- Isaiah 42:22 -

"Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute,
or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness."
- Leviticus 19:29 -

"They cast lots for My people and traded boys for prostitutes; they
sold girls for wine that they might drink."
- Joel 3:3 -

By you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and evil man;
call him to account for his wickedness that
would not be found out.

You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,

defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.
- Psalm 10 -

Happy Birthday to Ghana & George!

(POSTED BY BUD REED)

We Are Blessed! I just talked with George Achibra, director of Golden Village, our dream compound in Kete Krachi, Volta Region, Ghana, West Africa. Ghana is 50 years old this year...so is George...BUT TODAY IS GEORGE'S BIRTHDAY!!!



So I sang our US "Happy Birthday to You" song to him. Then together we sang the song we always sing to the children when we rescue them: "We are blessed, we are blessed. Evey day of our life we are blessed. When we get up in the morning, 'till we lay our heads to rest, we are blessed. We are blessed. We are blessed". I love that song. OUR KIDS love that song. As we sing it to them we can see the fear and dispair start to melt. They don't understand a word the first time they hear it but somehow the Spirit begins to soak the spirit of that song into their spirits.

Then George told me about how the children came to him this morning and laid their hands on his head and blessed his birthday. And WOW..Israel, who spoke no English two months ago READ PSALM 43:1-3 TO GEORGE!



(right, Isreal before rescue)

Oh, how I pray you catch just a glimpse of the joy that brings. Israel, angry, sad, bright, humble, wise 10 year old who's mom brought him from the Ada tribe near Accra to the wilderness of Volta Region to become a fisherman's slave on Lake Volta. Who now is free. Free to be a child. Free to learn. Free to play. Free to own and read the Bible.


Yea Israel. Yea George. YEA JESUS!

Kaelin McNew & Lindsey Moore--True Blessings

"When you walk with the Lord, You don’t get bored.
Sing Hallelujah, Amen! Yeah!"

The Gaithers were right when they wrote that song.

Recently, “Uncle Bud” was approached after Sunday School to be invited to the home of Brian and Valerie Moore. He was asked to share both supper and details of his recent trip to Ghana. He shared his stories with their children, Tylor, Kaelin and Lindsey.

The children were incredibly engaged in every detail and were intensely interested in what they could do to help children in Africa who had been sold into bondage to work long days in such dangerous conditions with very little food and the absence of love.

Before Bud left the Moore’s home, Kaelin and Lindsey asked him to leave some copies of a little handout we’d prepared about the three children rescued while Bud was in Kete Krachi, Ghana. The girls wanted to share it with some of their fifth grade classmates.

When Bud’s cell phone rang the next afternoon, a bright, excited voice greeted him, “Mr. Bud, this is Kaelin. Remember me?” (Now, Bud IS pretty old, but he hadn’t already forgotten Kaelin) He said, “Sure, what’s up?” Kailin answered, “ I went to my class at school and told them about the children in Africa and they told them they needed to give a dollar and I need some new brochures. Can you bring them?”

Wow! Just about the time you begin to wonder if people really care…

Then the phone rings again. “Bud, this is Lindsey. I need some more, too. I gave all mine away”.

Sunday, Bud took some more handouts and copies of the newsletter to church. Between services, he was at the front of the church visiting with a friend who is on the worship team when Lindsey and Kaelin walked up. Both girl's fists were full of dollar bills for their new friends in Africa! “Okay Bud”, they said, “where’s our stuff?”



Thank you Kaelin and Lindsey! You give a whole new meaning (the RIGHT kind of meaning) to “a fist full of dollars”. Thanks also to all your buddies in Neosho who care about the kids half a world away!

"Godwinks"

“Godwinks”. That’s what Pam calls it.

Pam and Bud were busy stuffing envelopes in the Touch A Life office. They were having their own “mini board meeting”, dreaming of ways TAL could extend love to more kids when Pam’s cell phone rang. It was Tommy Drinnen, the “Missionary Man” who’s in Feteh, Ghana, West Africa. He is in charge of Hope Christian Academy at Village of Hope. Eleven of our kids are there: the original seven plus the four Bud brought down from Kete Krachi during his recent trip.

“Mama Pam”, said Tommy, “Some students want to talk to you”.

With that, Pam and Bud were gifted with a chance to chat with Hagar, Sarah, Richard, Kojo and Kofi! They are a half-world away--yet, so close to our hearts. After only months of living in an atmosphere with Godly people loving, caring, healing and teaching them, these children have become…CHILDREN again!

Hagar--who had been so emotionally and physically wounded—is now a bright and cheerful young lady. She was so glad to talk to “Mama Pam”. And Kojo is still steadfast in wanted to become a driver for Village of Hope! (Do you suppose it’s because of the VOH driver who transported him and the other six from the hell they were living in to Village of Hope last December?)


What a miracle! Thank you, Lord, for allowing Touch a Life to do what you’ve allowed us to do!

And thank you, friends, for all your prayers and support!

Two new friends

Okay, I am so homesick but I know now what just one more day in Cambodia is all about. Aimee and I met today with two current sex workers. One was Vietnamese and said she was 18 but looked not a day over 15 and the other one was Cambodian and 23. Their stories are so sad. The Vietnamese girl was sold to a wealthy Khmer man at 15 and spent a week with him at a hotel. She shared how she was so scared. The 23 yr old started at 15 because her mother is mentally crazy and she needed money and food. The 15 yr old has 8 siblings and she and her older sister were the ones sacrificed for the family. She gives her family money monthly for food.

Aimee asked them how many men they were with just last night - one said 8 and the other 10. The older girl shared how she shoots up heroin every night. Thearin was interepreting and her heart is so tender for these girls. She shared with them numbers of people who will help them when they are ready to leave. They both feel such loyalty to their families and how would they ever not work and send money back home. It was just the saddest situation and we spent an hour and a half in our hotel explaining to these girls that a mother and father should never sell their child for sex. This culture just is lost in a certain perspective. So we all are hugging these girls and tears are being shed but they are so fearful of not returning and what will happen to their families. I immediately went to Maries and poured my heart out. She assured that we did the right thing. We left them with 300 reil which is the price of phone call and two numbers of people that will help and intervene immediately. She said they really do need to think about and make the decision 100% on their own or it will not be successful. She said this is the most labor intense ministry and I know what she means. I wanted to just lay down and take a nap after that session in our room with these two beautiful young women who were allowing other people to define their life and destiny. I felt such demonic warfare of demons fighting to draw them back. I felt so sad when they left our room smiling and hugging us. I wanted more but I know that God is in control and they have to fight back and claim their own life I cannot do that for them.

Thearin and Theara are my new heroes. I cannot believe these two young girls in their early twenties and they have such a love for these sex workers. I see huge visions in their future of saving many souls out of the brothels of Cambodia.

I spent an amazing afternoon with Marie at Rescue. We just sat in her quiet living room and shared at the deepest levels the suffering of Cambodia. She reminded me once again that I am just to return and share the stories. She said her job is to empower her Cambodian staff and they will be the ones to change the heart of their people. I left feeling such clarity. I just am to share the stories and empower the nationals to love and embrace their country. I, as a foreigner, would just bring in my twisted western ideas and make a mess of things.

So, I have major fund raising to do to support all of these wonderful people in my life that God has blessed me with. Hats off to Bao, Marie, George, Albert, Thearin,Theara and the many others that are the true Barbarians on the front line fighting to save many lives from the enemy.

I am thankful for my trip and even though it has been hard and filled with very intense spiritual warfare, today I found clarity on the call of my life. Just tell the stories. Empower the amazing staff that God already has in place. Yes, that sounds like a plan to me. Thank you Lord for continuing to give me grace and endurance to carry on and fight this hard battle of injustice. These horrible acts of abuse and injustice against children need to stop. I can't bear the thought of while I was eating spring rolls tonight as my last night in PP, my new friends that I met in my hotel room were applying heavy make-up and preparing for a night to be spent having sex with at least five men which would be considered a slow night.

My prayer is that the angels will protect them until they can face their fears and say no more. I claim back my life that was stolen, TODAY.

Robbed of Innocence

This morning we hit the pavement running and I wasn’t sure if my old forty-five and a half year-old body was up for the day. I was sitting there thinking about how I really needed to take better care of myself and put ointment on my scaly elbows. With that thought still on my mind I looked up to see the Phnom Penh street-cleaning women hard at work—picking up the garbage with their bare hands. The Cambodian people work so hard here. There is an unlawful energy about Cambodia that I don't remember absorbing before this trip. Everyone seems to be recklessly driving and the sex industry is so in our face.

We went to meet with Don at Agape. He runs a shelter for girls rescued from prostitution. He is really cool and was so helpful to Aimee with facts and numbers. He has been working here for two years and has several Vietnamese girls in his shelter. He is working in a Vietnamese area and said that ten-year-old little girls “expect” to be sold when they turn ten. Chinese and South Korean men are paying more for the lighter skinned girls--so the Vietnamese girls are in demand.

He told us the story of a little three-year-old who had to be examined by a pediatrician-friend who was staying with him…you get the point--there was nothing pretty about our conversation with Don this morning. It was confirmation that TAL needs to become more involved with working in Cambodia. I am going to talk to Marie tomorrow and run some ideas by her. I don't know what all this means but I know God is laying foundation on this trip.

We went to one of the brothels that had been shut down about two years ago. It is a vacant building that looks like a storefront from the outside. But behind closed doors there were chambers that were six by six feet. There were about 14 little rooms down a long hallway. Each room had a hand-painted number on the outside of the door. Inside was a wooden slat bed and nothing else. The rooms were personally decorated with magazine pages glued to the wall, hand-drawn crosses of markers and poems. The poem tells of how men come and tell these girls they are beautiful but they know they are called “dirty girls”. One poem told of how she was so unhappy (I will try to get all the words of this poem from Don). It is the saddest thing. In fact, Aimee and I said that the prison cells at least had ventilation and these girls were truly prisoners and sex slaves of the worst kind. I think I will have nightmares of those little rooms.

Upstairs there was a room painted bright pink where the girls had to go shoot up with heroin and then be filmed for sex videos. I sat at the doorway of this room and looked at the pink paint and thought, how sad, every little girl should have a pink bedroom but not a pink sex room where she is to perform the cruelest of sex acts with men.

It is really beyond and out of control. There are white single men just combing the streets here along the river. I think Aimee and I truly can only take one more day and staying here on the river. Thank goodness we are leaving because Aimee does not hide the disgust on her face very well. I laughed at her this morning when she shot a pissed-off look to a guy flirting with the waitress. It is just dripping with disgust here.

I came home this afternoon and had to lay down because I felt the trip was catching up with me. I thought about those little rooms before I napped and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up.

Well, I have to go. My workhorse of a writer said we must pound some things out this afternoon. She is really coming up with some neat ideas and ways of introducing each chapter. I am getting very excited about the book!

In spite of being tired and missing my family so much, I have to realize that God is not finished with me yet. I have one more day to see what all He needs to show me. Hearing the stories about little Vietnamese and Cambodian girls being tortured and robbed of their innocence is what I need to remember. I must find and keep a fighting spirit so that I might be able to do something about it. I can see Tay's little face in so many of these stories. I see MaiLia walking the streets selling books. I see young women like KeSey dripping in sexual body language. This is not acceptable that these men are coming here and these babies are being held prisoner.

Wait until you see the pictures of this place. It is the glue to all the stories I have heard through the years.