Depraved…

I have just finished watching “Nightlines” report on tracking a pedophile in Phnom Penh Cambodia. I feel much like i do every time I encounter this. I feel a full spectrum of emotion. I want to cry for the hopelessness of the situation, I’m enraged at a person who could be so depraved as to move from one country to another and make a life there for the purpose of sexually abusing children. Its appalling, so much so that your mind almost wants to say “is this really happening?” Its the ultimate in Surreal.

I probably would say that like so many americans do, except I’ve been there, and I have worked with many children who have been rescued from the sex trade, and our ministry spends time and money to help keep this from happening to other children and helping those this has happened to.

Make no mistake, this is happening all over the world. It is interesting how it happens. The culture is ripe for it, because of what has happened in the history of Cambodia, there are some in that culture that do not have the same respect for human life as others, and there are predators many who are american who take full advantage of this. They see children as a product not a person. Couple that with poverty beyond the pale and you have the makings of using human beings as slaves. Let me just say however, that so much of the cambodian population are very loving, caring people, we have many great friends there, that frankly are changing their nation for good from the inside out.

Its very interesting to me that this man they are reporting on, “Harvey Johnson” an american has gone there and is living there, he is a pedophile disguising himself as an english teacher. The people of Cambodia want to learn english very badly, and its a perfect front to trap kids. He can set himself up as a trusted american there to help them, and make a living in doing so. While there are many organizations that use this tool for good, this man is taking advantage of the culture to please himself.

What is so profoundly treacherous about this situation is that it is in mass destroying the lives of innocent children. Effecting them mentally, spiritually, emotionally and Physically, many times at the hands of their own desperate parents. I can’t tell you the stories I have heard and witnessed for myself of little girls as young as 5, that have been abused. Some that have lost their mind, some have lost their ability to ever have children of their own. Some have been so deeply scarred their future looks bleak at best. However there are many great organizations working with these children around the world. Some who are literally rescuing these children right out of the hands of their abusers. Others have taken the role of aftercare, and counseling. Many organizations are helping pro-actively by getting kids off the streets, and out of situations where they could be taken, or bought for human trafficking purposes.

I have also seen so many of these children who are such success stories of what compassion, love, counseling and ministry can do. Turn their whole world around and give them a safe, second chance.

We work with several and know others, but there are a lot of people out there trying to do something about this travesty. Lest you bury your head in the sand, don’t think it is not happening right here in america. the statistics of children who are being used and abused in sex trade settings in our own country are astounding. WAKE UP! Help! do something, we can not let this stand. Its our responsibility to help the innocent to speak up for those who can not speak for themselves. Who have no choice, who are in the clutches of people who will use them for profits until they are not worth using and then toss them aside like little more than an old dish rag.

We are doing what we can, and I am continually pursuing partnerships, and relationships to work with in this endeavor. How can you help? You can support the organizations that are doing something, or you can get on the front lines and help that way. We are doing both.

Come and see and support what Global reach for justice (Church of the harvest’s global initiative) is doing around the world, to help in this arena and others.

November 13 Friday night, our global reach for justice banquet (fund raiser) withe special guests the Watoto children’s choir from Uganda Africa. It will be a night to hear what we have done, and what we are going to do in 2010 and beyond.

Other organizations to help as well are, International Crisis Aid, International Justice Mission, A21 campaign (chris Cain).

When I saw this for the first time, the little baby girls that are so precious and was told their stories, and read the case files, i was left in a heap, and could only think about my own daughters, and how I would turn the world upside down, if someone were to try to harm them like this. Well, I believe that God has made us as responsible for the innocent as he has our own families and we must stand for them, we must act for them, we must speak for them, we must give for them, and we must stop this for them.

I am not writing this as a spectator on the sidelines, but as a person who has been there, who has seen this first hand, and who is doing something, although I wish much more, we are doing what we can. There are a lot of ways to help, we can all do something.

I will be writing on this more in the next few days. Lets take this head on and lets stop this madness. Kudos to Nightline for exposing this evil.

Thanks
David

Global Reach for Justice Cambodia 2009

Teaching English…Courage

Harvest superstar 2…

Andrew and Allison Morris. Andrew and Allison are our Edmond Campus Pastors. This couple are definitely “go getters.” Allison also serves as our RTG director. They are superstars because of their heart for people. When they talk about reaching out to people or projects we are working on, you can hear their passion for God. This will be their third trip to Cambodia. They have literally raised over thirty five thousand dollars for their trips and projects over the last 3 years. They have made ongoing relationships with people in cambodia and Andrew has gone as far as to connect with local cambodians to learn the Khmer language.

They are hard workers, and great team leaders, and most importantly they truly care about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through words and actions. Yep, definitely global reach superstars.

Pumped…

I am so excited about all the great things happening with harvest. We are leaving for Cambodia in just over five days. This trip is going to be awesome! Be watching the blog for all the updates. Some will be written, others video, its going to be a fascinating and life changing trip. If for no other reason then i get the privilege of taking my oldest daughter, Taylor with me. She is 15 and a passionate Christian. Locally she is involved in our Creative team at harvest, she plays the acoustic and is starting to lead worship in some settings. She is very committed to the cause of Christ and has a real evangelistic spirit in her school. She has known for years that she is called to be a world changer. I have done my best to inspire her about life, but leave the destiny and purpose things between her and God, and She believes she is called to live her life in ministry.

So I am proud that another generation of Gadberry’s are stepping up to the plate to make a difference in the world. She will be the fourth generation ministry leader.

Let me move on before i get carried away and ahead of myself. It is such a thrill to take her and to be able to partner together to help people. If I haven’t learned anything else as a parent I have learned its always better to model what you want for your kids than it is to merely talk about it.

So what better way to teach Taylor how to help people, how to reach the world with the love and Gospel of Jesus than to take her, and let her do it with me.

I have also learned that these times provide for some of the greatest bonding experiences in a parent/child relationship. I love it that I am not struggling, or fighting with her about teenage issues, but rather partnering with her to change the world.

I love it that my kids love God, love the church, and love the ministry.

Its gonna be fun! Here we go!

David

Guest Blog

Travis is the Pastor of Faith Christian Outreach in Shawnee, Ok. He is a good friend, and great Pastor/Leader

Don’t Demas (dee’ mus)
July 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Demas was a companion and fellow-laborer of the Apostle Paul during his first imprisonment at Rome and joins Paul in sending greetings to Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus (Philemon 1:24; Col. 4:14).

Later on, Paul wrote this note to Timothy:

“Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone…” 2 Timothy 4:10

It appears that the love of the world mastered Demas, and he deserted the apostle.

I think of Demas a lot since I read this story. Many of the people who will read this have never heard of Demas. Why? Could it be because he forsook his calling and exchanged it for the things of this world? Demas could have been one of the greatest men of the New Testament, but all we know about him is that he served with Paul for a season, and deserted the Apostle for questionable reasons.

Sunday night I sat with a mission’s team from Church of the Harvest- www.Harvestokc.com. As we began to discuss the many aspects of the trip, excitement began to fill the room. Thinking of the differences we will be making in the lives of so many people is as exciting as it is humbling. I think I can speak for the whole group when I say, “We can’t -not do this. We are called to this mission work”

The only thing that could keep us from doing such a great work in this life… is life itself. We can’t let life, or the love of this present world get in the way of what God has called us to do.

Most church members will live their whole lives without ever experiencing what it is like to go on a mission trip. Why? Is it because we are too busy? Is it because we think we don’t have the money? Is it because we are in love with our world, just like Demas?

Trust me, I’ve had some thoughts: I am about to travel half way across the world to Cambodia with a team of people of whom I just met. I will leave my family for 17 days (my wife and I have never been apart for more than 7 days). I will not be at the first 10 days of my son’s football practices (I am his coach). I will not be preaching in my own pulpit for 2-3 weekends, and I will be missing my wife’s 40th birthday. I could go on, but you get the point.

Why am I doing this? Because He has called me to do this –life happens to us all but we cannot let life stop us from fulfilling our calling.

Don’t Demas.

Now Go………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Are you still sitting here?

Check out Travis’ blog….http://travishurst.wordpress.com

Second day in Kampuchea (cambodia)

Our second day in Phnom Pehn, has begun with a bang. Before I share about today, I want to recap yesterday. One thing I love about working with teams is to watch different team members grow and develop, and stretch themselves beyond their comfort zones. The great thing about harvest teams though, is they all seem to be consummate pro’s when it comes to relationship. They all act as if they have never met a stranger. It is so easy to love harvest people, but I wish everyone had the opportunity to see how our culture truly translates everywhere we go.

We believe in servant leadership, and it shows when we work in these type of settings. We believe that relationship with Christ and relationship with other believers and even those who do not know Christ yet, are very important. This team of Andrew, Allison, Amy, Kelsi, Shane, Jennifer, Jenna, Nicoli, Terry, Travis, Jordan, Kerri, Kelly R., Kelly K, Hannah, and Autumn simply put, are a collection of superstars. They are flexible, inspiring, compassionate and caring people. I respect each of them deeply; I also respect those responsible for sending them. Family, friends, loved ones and people inspired about changing the world. You would be so proud if you could see them in action.

Yesterday, we connected with our friends at new life church and jumped right in to ministry. We Toured their facility, and ministry offices and began to interact with students, with teachers, with church staff and with people just wanting to learn English. Different ones of the team had the opportunity to use their gifts and skills to help in areas that were a good fit. Travis, you guessed it, is doing his best to get all the “IT” kinks out of their system; yes it’s an issue everywhere. Jenna was able to help in the admin offices of the “at risk kids dept.” With her knowledge she was able to do some things in 30 minutes that will literally save them 100’s of hours over the long haul. Shane had the wonderful opportunity of traveling into the village with a couple of pastors from “New Life.” A couple of years ago they planted a church in this village. The village is with all handicap people. They were a part of the Khmer Rouge and in the process of the government telling them to lay down their arms, and giving them amnesty, they became outcast, banded together and live in this village. New life has gone there and started a church and now has a great work there. Shane was able to go, and do a leadership session with the leaders and then a church service in the afternoon. His testimony of the stories when he returned had us all in tears, as he had an awakening and God used him to touch others. Terry and Nicoli went to one of the pastor’s homes and did some work, that was needed, they were having issues with flooding and we were able to solve a major problem for them with minor difficulty and little money. It is amazing how far, our knowledge, our money, and our skill sets will go in this culture. We are able to help them and then educate them on how to continue that new skill. They were having flooding issues around their septic tank, with a bit of money and effort Andrew, Nicoli, and Terry were able to get a sump pump, hose, and solve their problem. Then educate them on things that need to be done to keep the problem from recurring. They also trimmed back some trees, “had to create their tools.” But did a great job.

Shane, Kelsi, and Jenna, set in a “youth party” meeting which is their major outreach and weekly bridge from the English classes to the church. They prepared for our team to do it, which is right down their ally and will be a lot of fun.

The rest of the team and many of the people already mentioned were a part of the “joy club” which is basically like a weekly vbs for street kids. They literally wash their feet clean up cuts, play with the kids, and make sure they are cared for with certain supplies and ministered to with music and teaching. No worries, they took every sanitary precaution, realizing, many of these kids are hiv positive, or have some type of physical problem.

We wrapped up the day with dinner with Pastor Jesse and Soar, and their Baby Girl Jessica. He spoke to us about the value of what we are doing, it was a great moment. We ate lunch and had a great cultural experience with Pastor Pisit and his wife Sei ha.

Then we had a team meeting to prepare for today. We are teaching English classes all day long. This is a great contribution to society and is also the major outreach to getting people into a relationship with Christ and the church. Our team put together a dynamic, interactive program, that develops basic English language skills and tons of great relationship, and then we invite them to come to the youth party with us Saturday night, this process is truly genius.

We will eat lunch with all the regular English teachers and develop relationship with them, as well as hear their testimonies and how they came to faith. Many of which were saved through this process. We are having the time of our lives, and the people of Cambodia are getting deeply engrained in our hearts. It is so incredible to see the faith of the Christians of this country and their dedication.

As the day continues, we will continue to teach English, some of the team will run for supplies for another ministry opportunity, and a small team of four will be going with the outreach team to minister to children in the slums. Tonight we will eat at the dorms, 30 men, and 30 women. This is a place they allow people to live, if they commit to come to church. Many of these people are orphans, once they reach the age of 18 they are made to leave the orphanage, so they literally have no place to go, and need help learning how to take care of themselves etc. So this is a ministry they have begun. We are having dinner with them tonight to fellowship and witness, and invite them to the “youth party.”

Then we start again tomorrow. I will be introducing guest bloggers to write some experiences they’ve had to give you a personal look at the affect of being in this atmosphere.

Again, let me say thanks for helping us, to help them.

David.