Below is a recent email we received from our dear friend, Alli, who is working with AIM in Svay Pak. We thought we’d share with you the news update in hopes that you would join us in continued prayer for the children of Svay Pak & AIMS’s fight to end sex-trafficking in Cambodia …….

Dear Friends,

Christmas came early this year in Svay Pak! The day after Thanksgiving, to be exact! We spent four whole weeks building up to it, focusing with the children on the details of Christ’s birth. It was truly an anointed time, and I’ve found in India, Africa, and Cambodia that nothing thrills my heart like telling someone His story for the very first time. There is a magical wonder to the story of the birth of Christ; it’s like hearing a glorious mysterious secret that makes your heart pound and is way too good to keep to yourself…stars shining and leading the way…Angels appearing in a field to shepherds…Mary and Joseph’s courage when they first learned what was going to happen…Going through it all with the children brought it all to life for me again. It’s so easy, I think, to go through an entire Christmas season in America without feeling Christmas…without feeling the power of the Holy Spirit come to life in flesh and blood…but this year I am reminded of what it really is.  It’s a story of bravery, of obedience, of worship, of salvation…who needs to hear this story more than six year olds who are sold for sex?

Just yesterday two American men came to Svay Pak. It was the fourth day in a row they had come. They came to have sex with little girls, and took three of them under the age of ten into a building very near our Kids’ Club to do it. Our pastor called the head of our ministry, Don, who promptly called the sex trafficking police, and the two men staked out in front of the building to wait for the police. They expected the police to race out and rescue the girls. They expected it to be minutes, not hours. But an hour and a half later, after the American men had calmly walked out of the buildng and left Svay Pak, the police showed up. An hour and a half. My two co-workers had waited, knowing that three tiny bodies were being raped. They had waited, having heard the words of the chief of police to not act, but to wait and they police would be right there. Don has given his life to see girls set free, and yesterday, he had to watch them taken captive and do nothing about it. When the chief of police got out of his vehicle, this beautiful man of God lost it. Don explained in so many words what had happened to the little girls while he “waited”. He explained that it was too late. And he explained that next time, he would take action immediately, no matter what.

I had written in one of my last updates that things were on the upswing in Svay Pak. That things were getting better, kids were getting free. Then two American men came. And more will come. And more will come. They will keep coming until they know, really know, His story. They will keep coming until they understand the act of love that began in a manger. The children will continue to be raped, tortured, beaten, and subjected to unspeakable adult violence, but now many of them know His story. Many of them have reason to believe in a love that big.

So, Christmas came early in Svay Pak!

Thank God my bff (best friend forever:) from High School, Paula Mann, was here to help us get ready for the big day! Paula helped me run around and do all the shopping for our birthday party for Jesus. If I let Paula describe our trip to the market here in her own words, you all would laugh so hard you couldn’t finish reading this. Let me just say it is extremely crowded, there are 80-year-old vender women squatting on the filthy floor selling their goods, and the bathrooms are fit for no human to ever enter:) There are many, many modern things about Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. The market place is not one of them!

Our biggest purchase was 140 backpacks. We were expecting 114 kids, but I bought extras just in case more showed up.

Paula and I stayed up until 2am making packages to put inside the backpacks, and we only got half done. So on party day, me and our translators piled everything towering high into two tuk tuks, and rode balancing on all the stuff all the way out to Svay Pak! Making up the gifts went a lot faster with a lot of space and the young adults to help, so by 2:00, every backpack was packed and waiting for it’s little owner to come and take it home. Ruthie came and joined us after her teaching job, just in time for the program to start. All day, the kids kept coming to the door of Rahab’s House and trying to sneak a peak. For most of them, it was their very first Christmas party! They were beside themselves with curiosity, and I can’t count how many times I hollered, “No looking!” in Khmer at them! (My Khmer is still at a very elementary level, or maybe pre-school, but I do know how to shout a few choice things at kids:)

I don’t even know how to describe the actual event itself. Let’s just say that I really believe angels were doing backflips all around Rahab’s house as 139 kids sang “Happy Birthday to Jesus”! Yes, we had 139 kids, and 140 backpacks! Go, God!

The young adults did a looonnnnggg re-enactment of the birth of Christ. The girls did a worship dance, using the moves of the Macarena without even knowing it!!! So funny to those of us who know the real dance! The boys put together the most amazing hip hop dance performance I have ever seen, perfectly in-synch with fips and all! The most amazing moment was when we talked about the wise men and how they had given gifts to Jesus, and told how we wanted to honor His birth by giving gifts to them, the children. We passed out all the backpacks, and told the kids not to open them yet. Already, some of them were jumping up and down. They’ve been asking for backpacks since the summer when we begin to get them enrolled in school! All of us at the front-me, Ruthie, translators, a wonderful visiting team from Nevada, and our pastor’s family, counted out loud, 1, 2, 3! and the kids opened their gifts all at once. The first on to start screaming/squealing was a 14 year old boy in the back. He was so blown away by whatever little plastic object he was holding, he just threw his head back and hollered! Then, all of the kids joined in, holding up each item for us to see from the front, beaming from ear to ear and just shouting for joy. I had huge tears in my eyes and it took everything I had to keep them from falling (Khmer people don’t cry). The Khmer adults that were helping us had as much fun as the kids; they have never received Christmas gifts, either.

One of the things the kids got was what I thought, upon buying it,  just candy, but it turned out it lit up a bright red when you pushed a button. All of the kids help this candy thing up in the air and pushed the buttons at once, and I felt like the lead singer of the best concert ever, lighters in the air! It was magic. It was hope. It was the Holy Spirit. It was what Christmas REALLY is. A joyous celebration of the birth of our Saviour.

And many of you helped us give it to the children. You helped us tell His story, and you helped us remind them, for just one day, that they are children. We stuffed them with potato chips and cake and sugar, and on the way out they got to choose a beautiful cupcake from our cupcake tree….I know in my heart that it was probably the best day many of these kids have ever had. Thank you, thank you, for bringing a shout of joy to the lips of a child who before, only shouted in pain. You did this through your prayers, though your finances for the party, and through your support of me so that I can go to Svay Pak and minister.

This Christmas, I pray that God brings a shout of joy to your lips. I pray that His story comes to life for you, and pounds in your heart like a glorious mysterious secret that’s too good to keep to yourself…I pray that stars and angels and mangers are not just empty words you’ve heard repeated for so long….I pray that the same hope you’ve helped us bring to these children is alive in you and your family.

God bless you, dear friends—

Alli, Bella and Anna Claire