Barsha was born in West Nepal and was trafficked into India and sold at the age of eight. Completely abandoned by her parents, she was lost for years until she was eventually rescued and returned to her home village. Her parents had since moved to India and each remarried several times, with no interest in caring for her in any way. Barsha’s aunt and uncle still lived in the west Nepali village, but did not have the parental rights necessary to re-enroll her in school. With only a 2nd grade education, and little protection, twelve-year-old Barsha was at extreme risk of being re-trafficked back into India. When our team visited Barsha’s village, we learned about her story and met with her aunt and uncle. At a loss for what to do, they requested assistance with getting Barsha into a safer environment and re-enrolled in school to give her hope for a better future. Our local partners launched into a legal battle on Barsha’s behalf, navigating the bureaucracy of endless forms, loop-holes, and government offices. One of our local partners from India has connections with an NGO in the area which we leveraged for assistance. After numerous set-backs and government rejections, our team was finally able to secure a place for Barsha in a reputable children’s home where she has been receiving tutoring. Barsha is now thriving and has caught up to her peers. Her future is bright thanks to the tireless work of our Nepali team.

*Name changed for security

Barsha

2024 Highlights

Typically, this newsletter is written in 3rd person, but for this year-end highlight section, I am going to switch to 1st person, take a less formal tone, and include some of my own reflections. For this section, I envisioned writing about numbers; I am a math person, so numbers are my jam. And, make no mistake, we have seen amazing numbers. For example, in Nepal alone, the gospel has been shared more than 300 times this year, with more than 90 people accepting Christ, and at least 2 people getting baptized. The reality, however, is that red-light ministry is messy and not always easily or accurately represented by numbers. Ladies come and go. Sometimes it will seem like a woman is all-in and fully turning her life around and then, suddenly, something will happen and she will get sucked back in. Through the ups and downs, we persist and leave the details and outcomes up to God. We remember that our responsibility is to remain faithful to the truth of the gospel of hope and grace, to tell and keep on telling. The rest is God’s work and we trust in that. Instead of impersonal statistics, therefore, I feel it is more appropriate to recap some of the major life changes and accomplishments from 2024.

• The 2nd cohort graduated from the sewing center in Colombia and the 3rd cohort started
• Five women who graduated from the sewing center in Colombia now have jobs working as seamstresses in a high-fashion Colombian company
• We have been able to increase engagement with the ladies in the Colombia sewing program by implementing home visits; we are now seeing more women come to faith in Christ through these visits
• We officially started funding a local team of two ladies in Nepal for the first time
• We helped a Nepali family come to complete restoration, with the mother and children accepting Christ, being baptized, and moving to a new city to start a new life with vocational training and discipling
• We opened a new sewing center in far west Nepal with four ladies receiving vocational sewing training
• Of the two local teams we support in India, one has 20 ladies regularly engaged in sewing training; the other team has grown to seven ladies actively sharing the gospel and discipling women in red-light areas
• We helped two Indian families to relocate out of red-light areas; they are both now thriving with ongoing discipling and support
• We supported 20 Indian children from red-light homes in their education so that they can break the generational cycle of prostitution

Thank you for being on this journey with us, in your prayers, donations, and purchases. We truly count it a joy to partner together in God’s mission to seek and save the lost, to give hope to the hopeless, and to rescue, redeem, and restore the least of these. May your 2024 end in peace and joy and your 2025 be filled with hope and love.