One of the primary ways City Impact serves children in the urban neighborhoods is through the Impact Reading Center.

Most Children entering the program are reading at 2-3 grades below their grade level. In about 2 semesters (18 weeks) most children graduate reading at their grade level.

Students achievement in reading also carries over into their school and home life as testified by many parents and teachers. When students gain confidence in their reading ability, it enables them to learn more readily and to better comprehend what they are studying.

Moreover, when students experience the small accomplishment of completing a story, they begin to understand they can achieve bigger things in life. They now have the skills and confidence to go into the world and be the person who God has created them to be.

Approximately 60 children are on a waiting list to be tutored.

Available Tutoring Spots are:

Monday-Friday
9:40 am-10:20 am
10:20 am-11:00 am
1:00 pm-1:40 pm
1:40 pm-2:20 pm

Our Goal in Campus Impact was to fill 15 tutoring spots during this semester. I am excited to tell you that 15 people signed up last week at Real Time! They are being contacted this week to discuss potential days and times for serving.

If you want to find out more about opportunities to serve in City Impact visit their web page at:

http://www.cityimpact.org

Tiny Hands is an local organization in Lincoln that ministers to orphans, street children and victims of the sex trafficking industry in Nepal and India. They run several homes to care for orphans and street children as well as “Princess Home” which is a home for women rescued from the sex slave industry. These homes provide opportunities for education, job training, spiritual discipleship and most importantly the opportunity to be loved!

Tiny Hands also maintains border monitoring stations along the Nepal/India border to intercept women who are being trafficked into India.
Check out these statistics:
* UNICEF estimates 1 million children are forced, sold, abducted or coerced into the commercial sex trade industry each year.

* 50% of all trafficked victims worldwide are children

* 200,000 persons are trafficked into, within or through India annually

* Only 2,000 girls are rescued from sex slavery each year in India

* 40,000 trafficked Nepalese children work in prostitution in India

* The average age of the girls intercepted at the border in 2008 was 13 years old.

The average cost to intercept a woman/girl at the border is $95.00. For less than $100 you can make a lasting difference in the life of a woman/girl you may never see, but God knows her name! You have the chance to save her from an existence that many would consider hell on earth.

Check out the next Blog Entry to hear Aasha’s story – From Bondage to Freedom.

See below for the goal we are asking God to accomplish through us in Campus Impact this semester:

Campus Impact Tiny Hands Goal Spring 2009

If you want to give towards this goal, you can bring your money to Real Time or College Worship Hour and give it to Matt Meyer or someone at the Information Desk.

You can learn more about Tiny Hands at their website: http://www.tinyhandsinternational.org

The following is the story (as told in her own words) of one woman who was rescued out of the sex slave industry in India.

Aasha

I was born in June 24th 1973 in one of the villages of Nepal. I was married to a boy when I was only 14 years-old. Right after my marriage my husband took me to India (Delhi). My husband always abused me saying my parents have not given him any dowry. One day my husband took me to a movie and after the movie he took me to a place where, without my knowledge, he sold me into a brothel. Later I was told that my husband had sold me for 90,000 rupies (approximately $1500).

In the brothels I was forced to wear short dresses and I was forced to sleep with many men everyday. Whenever I refused to do what they told me to do, they would shock me with electric current. Some times they would put me in containers and keep me in it the whole night. That’s how nine years of my life passed by in the cruel brothel of Mumbai.

One day I met a preacher who encouraged me a lot in the Lord. After hearing him I really wanted to change but didn’t know how I would be ever free from this hell. We lived in a very tall building of Mumbai. Everyday we would look from the top of the building to see if some help would come to rescue us. We tried to shout from the top of the building but it was of no avail. One day we saw one policeman walking down by our building so we planned to throw a bucket of water on him, thinking he would surely come up to find out who did it and that would be a way for us to pass the message to him of our captivity. After we threw the water, just as we thought, the policeman came up to check on who would do such a thing. We told the policeman all the truth about the brothels and told him how we have been trapped and tortured by the people. We ask the policeman to help us and by God’s grace he happened to be a Nepali man. When he knew I was a Nepali girl he felt for me and helped me to come out of that place. Not only me but 25 other girls also were rescued from the same brothel.

After I was rescued I went looking for the preacher who had told me about the Lord. I found him and got born again in July 2003. For my restoration I was taken to a jail where they tested my blood and found out I had HIV. After I was let go I came back to Nepal to my people. My family tried to remarry me to a boy. When I refused my own father tried to rape me. I was so frustrated that I decided to run away from my house.

After I came to Kathmandu I had nowhere to go so I lived on the streets for 9 months. One day a lady named Rosy Khadki took me to an NGO where I worked as a cook. I also got involved in taking care of the other HIV sisters. I was still not happy in that NGO because they would not allow me to go to any Church. I got so frustrated that I wanted die.

Later a sister (Nirmila) met me and told me about the Princess Home. She told me that Princess Home was run by some people who really believed in Jesus Christ. My heart was full of the joy again. This is what I was praying for. Now I am in the Princess Home and am very happy. Every day the Lord is helping me to see the purpose of my life. Now I go to Bible school in Princess Home, I go for tailoring training and I make many beads necklaces, bracelets and chokers. The Lord has allowed me to do things, which I never thought I could do before. This Home has done so much for me, that time will fail me to tell you everything. Above all I have found true parents in this home they are Dad Ranjit and Mom Sarah. Every one loves me and helps me. I want to thank every body who is so much involved to support me. Thank you for all your care and blessings. I will pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you.

Asha

Last semester in College Worship Hour we set out on a journey together. A journey to See God. We wanted to ask God to reveal Himself to us as He really is, not how we would like Him to be. We asked God to blow the lid off of our God-boxes. Your God-box is the view of God that you have in your mind of what God is like. At the end of the series in CWH, we showed a video where we asked people, “How have you seen God this semester?” If you were there that day, you remember the video froze. This is a scaled down version of that video – there aren’t any titles, but it does play all the way through. Enjoy! And remember, just because the series and semester is over, Seeing God is not over – God desires to reveal Himself to you and correct your view of Him today and tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that….what an amazing God we get to be in relationship with!

For those who you who remember the life-changing video of “Jesus is My Friend” by Sonseed that we played during Rest of the Story last semester at Real Time, you’ll get a kick out of this.  Apparently, the same video was shown during announcements at the church in which the David Crowder Band leads worship.  So instead of listening to the sermon – the entire band gathered around the computer and learned the song so they could end the service with it.  Here is the YouTube video:

Just for fun here is the original Sonseed video on YouTube:

Now that song will be in your head the rest of the day….enjoy!

The David Crowder Band will be in concert at Lincoln Berean on Thursday, February 12th.  Real Time will not be meeting that night – it will be a Small Group Night Out.   Maybe you want to go with your small group.  Tickets can only be purchased at http://lincolnberean.tix.com