It only feels like a couple of weeks ago we were celebrating NYE and now it’s March and we'll be flying out in 5 weeks!
January was all about packing up our home and moving out of our rental. It was amazing how much stuff we had hoarded over the last 28 years of life! We’ve de-cluttered now and boxed up everything worth keeping, ready for when we get back in 2016. We moved out of our rental on January 20th so that we could save 3 months worth of rent to put towards our time in Romania and we have been living with family and friends since (thanks guys!) Then at the end of the month Tim redesigned our website, so if you haven’t seen it yet make sure you visit it. |
The word for the month of February would definitely have to be “BLESSED”. It was a busy month with 3 separate events happening on 3 separate weekends.
The first one was an invitation from Tim’s Uncle and Aunties church to come and present what we are doing this year. This was the first time we had done any sort of formal presentation regarding Human Trafficking and our time in Romania, and we are really happy about how it went.
We want to thank the community at Encourage Church in Romsey and Pastor Marilyn for making us feel so welcome, being open to listen to what we are passionate about and how we feel God has been guiding us to the point we are at now. The continued support of Encourage Church is such an amazing blessing to us and we are very grateful for their generosity.
The first one was an invitation from Tim’s Uncle and Aunties church to come and present what we are doing this year. This was the first time we had done any sort of formal presentation regarding Human Trafficking and our time in Romania, and we are really happy about how it went.
We want to thank the community at Encourage Church in Romsey and Pastor Marilyn for making us feel so welcome, being open to listen to what we are passionate about and how we feel God has been guiding us to the point we are at now. The continued support of Encourage Church is such an amazing blessing to us and we are very grateful for their generosity.
Next was our Romania Afternoon, this was a time of good food and great people getting together to talk about the issue of Human Trafficking. We were so happy with the conversations that were sparked and the interest, in not just what we are doing but in what Abolishion is doing, by everyone who was able to come. | Then last Saturday was the Romania Fun Run, organised by Elisa Di Placido from Tim’s work. We had such a great time and felt so supported by how many people came along to support us, and what we are involved in this year. And the best thing was that it was almost a completely different crowd to the Afternoon event the weekend before, which meant that it has spread even more awareness of the issue of Human Trafficking! | Thank you so much Elisa for all the effort you put into organising the Fun Run, it went so smoothly and we are excited to announce that it raised $2,216 to go towards our living expenses while we are in Romania, wow! So thank you to everyone that came along and participated and also a massive thank you to all the people that wanted to come but were unable to, yet donated anyway, all of your support really means so much to us! |
We have been so fortunate to have Leanne Rhodes, the Founder and CEO of Abolishion, come to all 3 events. Leanne is currently in Melbourne to share what Abolishion will be doing this year in establishing Restoration Homes for survivors of Human Trafficking. We’ve manage to have a few catch-ups with Leanne in the last month in amongst all of our events and her speaking engagements to sort through some finer details of the first month or so in Romania and what we can be doing now in preparations for the move to Oradea.
It isn’t by chance that we have chosen Abolishion as the organisation that we want to volunteer with. We thoroughly believe in what they are doing and agree with their philosophy of prevention, equipping, care and restoration for survivors of trauma such as Human Trafficking.
This year Abolishion is raising funds to establish the first Restoration Home for survivors of Human Trafficking in their local area. Since 2007 there have been hundreds of survivors that have presented to police and legally have the right to care provided by the State, yet for many of them there was nowhere that could offer the services. Abolishion is partnering with the Romania Government as well as a Romanian support agency to provide care for survivors of Human Trafficking. If you would like to contribute towards establishing a Restoration Home, please donate to Abolishion or contact Leanne to talk about how you can be involved.
It isn’t by chance that we have chosen Abolishion as the organisation that we want to volunteer with. We thoroughly believe in what they are doing and agree with their philosophy of prevention, equipping, care and restoration for survivors of trauma such as Human Trafficking.
This year Abolishion is raising funds to establish the first Restoration Home for survivors of Human Trafficking in their local area. Since 2007 there have been hundreds of survivors that have presented to police and legally have the right to care provided by the State, yet for many of them there was nowhere that could offer the services. Abolishion is partnering with the Romania Government as well as a Romanian support agency to provide care for survivors of Human Trafficking. If you would like to contribute towards establishing a Restoration Home, please donate to Abolishion or contact Leanne to talk about how you can be involved.
This has turned into a really long update because so much has been happening. We just want to take one final opportunity to say "thank you" to everyone for their support so far. We have felt so overwhelmed by so many people coming along to the events, your encouraging words, and your commitments to pray for us. The financial support we have received has blown us away, I know a lot of you have given anonymously or haven’t made a big deal of your support. When we made the commitment to go for 9 months and volunteer in Romania we said to God that we trusted him and if we needed to spend all of our savings and come back with empty bank accounts that we would still be prepared to go, but God is so faithful and we are so grateful for His provision. So we really do thank all of you for all the different kinds of support you give us, it is a valuable thing for us to feel surrounded by people who care about us and are keen to share in our passion to see Gods justice and restoration extended to the broken and the abused.