Give Extravagantly

Mark 12 – “Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection.  Many of the rich were making large contributions.  One poor widow came up and put in two small coins – a measly two cents.  Jesus called his disciples over and said, ‘The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together.  All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford – she gave her all.’”

May God help us all to give extravagantly and to give us the wisdom to not judge others’ gifts.  He is the only one who knows every person, every situation and every heart.  Our girls, our daughters have probably never been truly loved extravagantly in the past but we are trying to do so now as they live in our home, their home.  Thank you for being a part of our TDP family.

Prayer Requests

• That Amy will diligently complete her school work before summer break and that Cathy will continue to adjust well to living in her new home.
• Thanks to Felicia and all the students & teacher who participated in the ‘One Dress’ event at Emmanuel Christian School.  They raised awareness and over $1,000.
• Wisdom and success for law enforcement officials as they work to find traffickers and rescue survivors.  Our local Wood County Sheriff and court system has convicted the first perpetrator in Ohio under the new Ohio Human Trafficking legislation written by our local representative Teresa Fedor – thanks again Teresa.
• Thanks to the recent group of people who donated some items from the wish list created by the girls & Moms.
• Thanks to the FBI & TPD representatives who joined us at our ‘Free 2 Laugh’ Awareness Luncheon at UT.  They helped attendees understand a little about the work they do and they also thanked us for building & operating Ohio’s first and only adolescent recovery home.  It is a great place to send the survivors they rescue.  Also, thanks to Lissa from Channel 13 News for broadcasting our story.

Give Freely and Spontaneously

Deuteronomy 15 – “Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.”

God said, ‘There are always going to be poor and needy people among you.’ and thousands of years later we can see that what He said is true.  However, He did not just tell us our problem.  No, He gave us the solution too – ‘Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.’  We are the solution and no one needs our help more than young girls who have been sexually trafficked – raped for profit.  ‘Don’t have a stingy heart’ – come join us in whatever way you can.

Items for prayer…

1. That Amy and Cathy will find love and healing at Hope’s House by God’s grace.
2. Thanks to YIPEE, Toledo Youth Philanthropy for their $2,000 grant.
3. That our presentation at Toledo First Adventist’s Mother’s Day Tea is well received.
4. Thanks for the opportunity to work with our co-workers at the Central Ohio Rescue and Restore Coalition.
5. Thanks for the warm welcome given to us by the Mission Committee members of Mayfair Plymouth Congregational.
6. That our TDP & ‘Free 2 Laugh’ awareness & sponsor luncheon will be well attended on Thursday at noon at UT.  Contact jeff@thedaughterproject.org for more info.
7. Thanks for our therapy dog Dwight and his graduation last Thursday.

Let God Do It

Mark 10 – ‘Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who ‘have it all’ to enter God’s kingdom?” The disciples couldn’t believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: “You can’t imagine how difficult. I’d say it’s easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the rich to get into God’s kingdom.”  That set the disciples back on their heels. “Then who has any chance at all?” they asked.  Jesus was blunt: “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.”’

Almost all of us are rich in America especially when compared to the rest of the world.  Sex traffickers want to be rich and powerful so badly that they will rape & sell children to have what they want.   May God help them, and us, realize that love is supreme and eternally satisfying while wealth & power alone are profoundly empty.

Please pray for each of the following…

• That Amy & Cathy will have the heart and hope necessary to walk through each day of recovery.
• Thanks for YIPEE – Toledo Youth Philanthropy for supporting our work again financially.  This is a group of high school students, not rich adults, who are sacrificing their time & talent to raise money for us and other good community organizations.  May God bless them for being wise and loving beyond their years.
• That our fourth House Mom will enjoy her visit with us this week and that she will return to us in June ready to love and serve our daughters.
• Thanks for the invitations to speak at Mayfair Plymouth (again), Toledo First Adventist Mother’s Day Tea and Hudson Presbyterian & that people will listen and be inspired to join our TDP family.
• That more people will listen to and purchase our TDP LP.  It was created by a record producer who gathered together 9 talented, local artists who wrote songs of justice and freedom.  The total cost of the project was at least $10,000 but they donated all of their work so all the money raised would go directly to helping girls at TDP.

Running To God

Psalm 7 – “God! God! I am running to you for dear life; the chase is wild.  If they catch me, I’m finished: ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions, dragged into the forest and left unlooked for, unremembered.  God, if I’ve done what they say—betrayed my friends, ripped off my enemies—If my hands are really that dirty, let them get me, walk all over me, leave me flat on my face in the dirt.  Stand up, God; pit your holy fury against my furious enemies.  Wake up, God. My accusers have packed the courtroom; it’s judgment time.  Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel, and throw out the false charges against me.  I’m ready, confident in your verdict: ‘Innocent.’”

Running to God for dear life is what we should all do but this applies especially to the girls in our home!  They have been rescued from a desperate situation and now they need much help to begin a life-long journey of recovery.  What a joyful privilege that we can be part of that recovery process!

Items for Prayer

1. That Amy and Cathy will be able to hope in a better future so they will be inspired to do the necessary work of the present.
2. Thanks for those who attended the UT trafficking event and that they will consider joining our TDP family.
3. Thanks for Rob’s (from the Black Swamp Conservancy) willingness to meet with us to discuss our property for home #2.
4. That many will choose (over 100 were invited) to attend our ‘Free 2 Laugh’ sponsor informational luncheon at UT on May 16.
5. Thanks to YIPEE – Toledo Youth Philanthropy for choosing to support our work again through another generous donation.
6. Thanks to those who have chosen to donate to us via their employer’s United Way.
7. That people will listen with sensitive hearts as we speak to Mayfair Plymouth Congregational, Toledo First Mother’s Day Tea and Hudson Presbyterian – all in early May.
8. Thanks to Buckeye Cable for joining our TDP family & offering to help us with our ’2nd Annual Free 2 Laugh‘ awareness/fundraising event.

The Simplicity of a Child

Mark 10 – “The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: ‘Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.’ Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.”

Jesus Christ said that children are at the very center of life in the kingdom of God.  May God forgive us for not loving and protecting them as we should – both our own children and those who live in our communities.  Also, what a joy to know that all of us may enter into God’s kingdom with the simple but sincere faith of a child.  It does not require great study nor great effort…

Ephesians 2 – “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

What good work has God gotten ready for you to do?  Are you doing it?  We are doing some of ours by loving girls at The Daughter Project.  Come join us.

Items for prayer…

• Thanks for God’s continued providence – creating and sustaining The Daughter Project since 2008 – five years!
• That Amy will continue to progress with counseling and schooling.
• Thanks to the Waterville Rotary for their warm welcome as they invited us to speak.
• That people will truly listen and be inspired as we speak at the United Methodist Women’s Conference and UT this week.
• Thanks to Blissfield High School for their donation of personal items to our girls.
• That the environmental study on the property for home #2 will be positive so we may begin building this Fall or next Spring.
• Thanks to Jenny and her friends for raising awareness and nearly $1,000 at a ‘One Dress’ campaign at Purdue University.
• Wisdom for the thousands of decisions that need to be made each week by our House Moms, Case Manager, Mentors, Teachers, Volunteers and Committee Members.

Real Help Comes From God

Psalm 3 – ‘God! Look! Enemies past counting!  Enemies sprouting like mushrooms, mobs of them all around me, roaring their mockery:  “Hah! No help for her from God!”  But you, God, shield me on all sides; you ground my feet, you lift my head high; with all my might I shout up to God, His answers thunder from the holy mountain.  I stretch myself out. I sleep.  Then I’m up again—rested, tall and steady, fearless before the enemy mobs coming at me from all sides.  Up, God! My God, help me!  Slap their faces, first this cheek, then the other, your fist hard in their teeth!  Real help comes from God.  Your blessing clothes your people!’

“Hah!  No help for her from God!”  The traffickers and sexual predators who abuse girls must certainly think this and sadly, the girls must think this as well.  However, God loves these young ladies and He is showing that He is faithful to rescue and restore them by raising up The Daughter Project family.  Together, we have planned and built a home and program.  Now we are helping girls – ‘real help comes from God’ through those who truly love Him.  Please come join us.

Items for Prayer

1. That Tina’s return home to her mom & family will go well.
2. Thanks to Blissfield High School, Threshold Church and Prince of Peace Lutheran Church for hearing our messages this week & that they will be inspired to help.
3. That Amy will continue working hard with school work and counseling.
4. Thanks to Andrea & Nancy for joining our team of volunteer teachers.
5. Wisdom for our board and committee members as they continue to lead TDP.
6. Thanks for the invitation to speak to the Waterville Rotary and the United Methodist Women’s conference this week and that they will receive our message well.
7. That we will find many sponsors to attend our ‘Free 2 Laugh’ sponsor luncheon on Thursday, May 16 at noon at the University of Toledo.

Childlike Believers

Mark 9 – “John spoke up, ‘Jesus, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.’  Jesus wasn’t pleased. ‘Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.  On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck.’”

Traffickers and sex abusers will wish they had not abused little girls on the day they answer to the God who created those little girls.  Let’s pray that they will repent now rather than suffer later.

Please pray for each of the following:

• That Amy & Tina will not shrink back from the extremely difficult work of recovery.
• Thanks to Alicia for organizing a ‘One Dress’ campaign for students and faculty at Emmanuel Christian School and that God will bless her efforts.
• That the sex trafficking documentary that Alyssa at UT is making, will be inspirational and widely seen.
• Thanks to Lisa, our master gardener, for helping us with all of our landscaping and for meeting with our Moms & girls to plan their garden.
• That people will donate material and labor to build our garden/bike shed and thanks to the members of Thrivent Insurance for donating money toward the purchase of a shed.
• Thanks to everyone at Toni & Guy’s Academy for conducting a Cut-A-Thon to benefit The Daughter Project and YES-FM.  They all generously donated time & skill, what a blessing!  Also, if you participated by having your haircut – thank you too.