What follows is a press release that Troy sent out last year before Christmas, and everything in it goes for this year too. Essentially, he’s had the fantastic idea to encourage churches, particularly church youth groups, to sell Christmas wrapping paper to raise funds for Rapha House. 100% of money received will go to the effort to rescue girls from slavery, provide them counseling and teach them valuable vocational skills to have a better life. Please read on for more information, viewing the video at the end of this post as well, and consider getting your church youth group, Sunday School class or family group involved. It’s early in the year and Christmas is months away, but it’s time to start thinking and praying about this project, and time to talk it over with people. Contact Troy Titus for more information.

When You Shop for Christmas Wrap, Save a Life

When you select your Christmas wrap this year, consider purchasing some that already comes with a gift – freedom for a child victim of slave trafficking.

Troy Titus, a youth minister for Martelle Christian Church in eastern Iowa, hopes many online shoppers in America will find First Christmas( www.firstchristmasgiftwrap.com) and do just that. He sponsors Youth 4 Rapha, a coalition of youth groups in the Midwest who are fundraising this Christmas to help build safe houses in Southeast Asia where young girls who have been rescued from bonded servitude and sexual exploitation can heal and gain necessary skills for building a normal and fulfilling life. Rapha is the Hebrew word for healing and the name is taken from Rapha House, an organization that runs such homes and the one Troy selected to receive the funds they receive.

Modern Slavery

At a Christ in Youth summer camp a few years ago, Troy’s high school youth were introduced to the reality of modern worldwide slavery. They learned that an estimated 27 million people are in bondage, more than were seized from Africa during four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade (Kevin Bales, Disposable People) and that in 1850 a slave that was sold in the southern United States for the equivalent of $40,000 today now costs an average of only $110.

Most of these people are in bonded slavery – forced labor for an employer who requires long hours often seven days a week for little or no wages. Many are attempting to pay back a debt their parents or even grandparents contracted that increases at such exorbitant interest rates that full payment can never be made.

The youth group also heard that human trafficking is the world’s third largest criminal enterprise after drugs and weapons (U.S. Department of State) and over 2 million children a year are exploited in the global commercial sex trade (UNICEF).

Can anyone really make a difference?

The problem seems unsolvable. But International Justice Ministry (IJM) (http://www.ijm.org/).and Rapha House (http://raphahouse.org/#/who-we-are) think action makes a difference. IJM, which investigates and documents cases of bonded slavery, then works with local law enforcement within a country’s legal system to free the slaves and bring slaveholders to justice, notes that when one offender in a neighborhood is successfully prosecuted, others take note and abuse is curtailed. On their website, Gary Haugen, IJM President & CEO, says, “We’ve discovered that slave masters and traffickers expect their opponents to show up late and quit early – and they are simply not intimidated. What they do not expect is fearless, sacrificial love that does not go away.”

Children freed by IJM are placed in temporary care to await a permanent place of safety. That’s where Rapha House comes in. It offers four levels of help: safehouses (“a place of physical rescue to girls who have known severe abuse and exploitation”); halfway houses (where girls “experience transformational healing . . . and are given the tools necessary to rebuild their future,” like vocational training); reintegration programs (where girls may stay a few days or several years receiving family counseling, job placement help, start-up loans/grants); and prevention programs (services for at-risk children and even “income generation projects” for a girl’s whole family”).

Finding the Right Fundraiser

“We were shocked by the horrific practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them to ‘work’ as prostitutes until they are so filled with disease they are literally thrown out,” explains Troy, describing how his fundraiser evolved. “I felt moved by God to do something about it. My youth group also wanted to help, but none of us knew what to do.”

Fundraising was the obvious task, “but there were things I didn’t like about most fundraisers,” states Troy. “Huge mark up – people paying 10 times more for something they really don’t want, just to support the young person; also, one-time fundraisers where kids knock on the door, get their money, and that is that. Kidnapping young girls for someone’s selfish gain is not going to go away with a single fundraiser.”

Troy wanted to offer a product at a fair price that people need every year, something people would not feel pressured to buy. Eventually the idea emerged of combining with other youth groups to sell Christmas wrapping paper. “I pictured youth groups across America selling wrapping paper glorifying Jesus during the Christmas season as a witness to those we give gifts to. I could see this becoming an ongoing source of revenue to help put an end to slavery. All of the profits would go to Rapha House and IJM, two ministries that fight against sex trafficking and other forms of slavery.”

However, such wrapping paper would be difficult to find. As Troy puts it, “I’ll be honest. I didn’t think any company would give up profits and print the kind of paper we wanted.  But God knew differently.” Troy’s wife discovered First Christmas, a wrapping paper company recently started by Cheri Loveless (an LDS Meridian author). Not only was First Christmas producing Christmas gift wrap with the theme of Christ’s birth, but Cheri’s husband had worked with a Center that followed issues like international slavery.

“When I first spoke with Cheri, I laughed as I told her that I wanted her company to give up their profits so we could give the money to Rapha House,” remembers Troy. “I will never forget what she said next.  She explained to me that she was very familiar with sex slave trade issues and had hoped that someday their gift wrap would be used as a fundraiser to help such a cause. I couldn’t believe it!  I was hit with a mix of shock, disbelief, shouting praise to God, thankfulness to the Lord, and sadness that I wasn’t more faithful to God in my efforts early on.  That’s when I realized this was God’s idea, not mine, and He had been working on it long before I ever thought of it.”

That moment was also a defining one for Cheri. “I immediately wanted to do it. But people have no idea, when they come to our site, how small and new we are, or how little profit we make because we don’t print our paper overseas. I had to explain to Troy that I couldn’t just donate the paper. I would need to recoup my costs. Also, that if he were too successful, he would put me out of business!”

Nevertheless, Cheri felt strongly about participating. In late November, five youth groups in the Midwest agreed to be part of Troy’s trial run. In two weeks, with very little preparation, they sold over 150 orders of First Christmas gift wrap. Several other churches did not participate simply because they needed more time lead time. They promised their support for next year.

The same week, Cheri surprised Troy with a call. She felt she should put the Youth 4 Rapha fundraiser on the First Christmas website for the month of December, something she thought she would do only after her business became profitable. “I’m uncomfortable trying to sell wrapping paper. I created it because of its message, not because I wanted a business. I am much happier thinking part of my profits will go to a dynamic group like Rapha House, doing such difficult and important work.” They agreed that 20% of First Christmas profits on certain gift wrap products will go to Youth 4 Rapha.

“Maybe I’m crazy,” said Cheri. “But it just feels right to me. It feels more in harmony with celebrating Christmas.”

First Christmas gift wrap is available online at www.firstchristmasgiftwrap.com.

On Saturday, October 23, 2010, my wife and I participated in an event that we almost missed. Over a month before I had received a brochure in the mail about this conference and, mistaking it for an appeal for donations, almost tossed it as junk mail. After I registered online to attend I lost both the link to the registration page (which offered no information anyway) and couldn’t find the brochure. In the end it took a tweet to Jeremy Del Rio and a call to the American Bible Society to get the date and location information again. I’m so glad I put the effort forth.

The day began with a great breakfast. I mean really good. Eggs, bacon, juice, coffee…the works. From there we went into a time of worship and prayer, followed by a video about the work of the American Bible Society.  Here’s the video:

The first session of the day was led by Jeremy Del Rio, described on his website as “Youth Specialist, Organizational Strategist, Author and Speaker, Justice Advocate.” He spoke on the challenge of literacy, providing an example from his own experience helping a boy from his son’s grade school class to improve his English and reading/writing skills. This boy in particular is from a Muslim family. This isn’t just a New York thing, it’s a matter of the kingdom of God reaching across cultural and religious lines and barriers. It’s about disciples of Christ extended a hand of friendship and help to their neighbors. It’s good.

After a brief break, Abel Lopez gave an excellent presentation of the work of CLAY Student Leadership. This is an effort to encourage churches to partner with local public schools to provide a non-sectarian (but harmonized indirectly with Scripture) curriculum that teaches solid values, self-worth and leadership. The point was made that just in New York there are five churches for every one public school. What if those churches could just agree to pray consistently for their local school? What if just one of those churches took the initiative to reach out to help the schools in whatever ways they need?

Lunch was provided (it was great!), and then we worked at our tables discussing how to implement something along the lines of CLAY in our own communities. It was a worthwhile discussion. Some questions were raised about implementation, such as finding volunteers who would be available during school hours to help, but these were set aside for future training and orientation from CLAY.

Our discussion concluded, we moved on to the announcement of the relaunch of Elementz of Life magazine. This periodical, a project of the American Bible Society, is aimed especially at urban youth and deals frankly and biblically with the sort of challenges they face. Each participant received a free copy of the magazine, and my wife and I were both impressed. It appears that rather than a subscription magazine, each edition will be sold individually and in bulk. At the end of the day a reception was held, complete with food and drink, to celebrate this relaunch. They certainly fed us well at this conference!

The final session of the day was led by Fred Lynch, lead pastor of  Tha Myx church in Dallas, Texas. He gave a moving message from Scripture and his own life, focusing on lessons learned.  Here are some of his best lines:

“The thing I don’t have going for me is the best thing I have going for me.”

“My weakness sure has made me strong.”

“Hey, I know me, so I know if things are turning out successful, it’s God.”

Point is, those of us who feel led to work with youth may feel that we are facing giants and mountains, but our success doesn’t depend solely upon our efforts. If it did, we’d be in trouble.

We closed out the day taking tours of the Society’s museum of Biblical art, and enjoyed the reception I mentioned above. We were presented with certificates of participation and each received a “goody bag” including booklets and a copy of The Poverty and Justice Bible (click here for my comments on it).

Last year I was less than impressed with the “Christian” aspect of this event.  Jesus was rarely mentioned, from what I could tell, and I’m pretty sure some kids attended without a clue it was a Christian music festival.  This year was far different.  There were messages by evangelical pastors throughout the day, and every band I heard made some mention of the Gospel, and pretty clearly too.

There are five stages representing five genres within Christian music.  The kids in my group stayed mostly at the Philadelphia and Come&Live stages where the “hardcore” music is played, complete with mosh pits.  I preferred to stay over at the New York stage where contemporary Christian music is featured.  For one ticket price attendees can sample every style available throughout the day.

Oh, and we got a deal on tickets. Because I’d attended the Reload 1.2.3. youth workers conference this year I was offered a discounted rate. Sweet! It made it really easy for all of us to attend.  A special thanks to Jack Redmond and Fourth Generation for coordinating the tickets.  I only wish I’d had a larger vehicle to take more people. Something to work on, for certain.

One continued aggravation is the food and drink policy. RevGen does not permit any outside food or beverages, including water. Although it’s obvious that this is to drive up revenue for vendors, they continue to explain it as follows on the FAQ:

“Due to a request by the NJ State Police; coolers, water bottles, etc. will NOT be allowed into the festival grounds. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. If you wish to bring a cooler you must leave it in your car. Your hand stamp will allow you to re-enter the festival grounds as many times as you wish.”

This year I ran afoul of this rule, not by trying to bring something from the outside in, but by trying to re-enter with something I’d bought inside. I’d ordered a cheeseburger and chips, ate the cheeseburger then ran to the car for something. On re-entry one of the guards checking my backpack chastised me when he found the chip bag for trying to bring outside food in. I told him I’d bought it inside, he tried to enforce the policy anyway, then referred me to a supervisor. The supervisor questioned me about it then grudgingly let me pass.

What aggravates me about this is two-fold:

1) This is a “Christian” event. It seems obviously false that the NJ State Police would ask that no outside food or drinks be taken into the all-day, outdoor event.  Why lie about it? Just tell us that no food and beverages can be carried in, without the accompanying falsehood.

2) There should be some way for people to get back in with food/drink purchased from vendors inside. Some sort of marking system or something.

The merchandise tent was a busy place, as usual, and my daughter got a few good deals on shorts and T-shirts. A number of regional evangelical institutions were represented, and I was a little disappointed (but not surprised) to see that Ohio Valley University and Mid-Atlantic Christian University were absent.  The former being an a cappella Church of Christ institution located in a fairly conservative area of West Virginia, it makes sense that they would eschew the alternative, contemporary climate of RevGen. Mid-Atlantic’s absence could be a matter of not knowing about the event, or perhaps cost of participation being prohibitive.  I’m not sure.

Skillet closed out Saturday ROCKING THE HOUSE!!!

One of the featured non-profits this year was The Blind Project, an outreach to help women and girls to escape from slavery and the sex trade in Southeast Asia. They are doing good work and deserve support. Through their Twitter feed I also learned about Restore NYC, an effort to help immigrant women in the NYC area to escape from the sex trade.  It’s great to know about real steps being taken to fight this ongoing evil both locally and around the world, and I’ll be watching to see if there are concrete ways I can help out.

Music and ministry really came together at this year’s RevGen, and everyone in my group had a fantastic time, as I’ve already mentioned. This is the sort of event we leave already talking about attending the next year. If you are going to be within 100 miles of Frenchtown, NJ over Labor Day weekend in 2011, RevGen is the place to be.

For the general sessions it may have been better to have been at the Queens location.  These were transmitted and displayed on a large screen at the two other locations.  A couple of times the signal failed and we missed significant portions of the conversations.  Fortunately, both sessions are available online for free (see below).

Workshops were available during the day covering a rage of youth ministry concerns.  It was a great pleasure to attend the two community development workshops led by José and Mayra Humphreys.  José is the pastor of Metro Hope Church in Harlem.  Community development is an area of ministry I hope to understand more fully for future ministry in Brazil, and their knowledge of and passion for community transformation made the workshops all the more meaningful.

The price for this day-long event was incredibly reasonable, only $25 for two general sessions, two workshop sessions, continental breakfast and a sandwich lunch.  My only regret is that I didn’t take my wife along.

Overall it was a good experience, and one I’ll be glad to repeat in coming years.

[VIMEO 13012427]

[VIMEO 13026396]

The video above seems pretty accurate, doesn’t it? I don’t know if I’ll ever be cool enough to be a good “fit” for this role, but at least I have a beautiful wife (it’s in the lyrics)!