The Abegg Electronic Love Letter

Update on the Abeggs & their work with Human Trafficking Survivors View this email in your browser Help Us Help Survivors of Human Sex Trafficking.    Contact us about partnering in prayer, and visit our missionary page to help support our work:  http://www.uwm.org/missionaries/kevin-abegg .  California Friends: Visit in May!   Kevin will be attending the Freedom Summit in Santa Clara, CA on May 9th and then making his way to venues in Walnut Creek, Sacramento, Truckee & the Santa Cruz area before returning home. If you're able, consider attending the summit, otherwise we're still looking for a few people interested in hosting an educational, introductory event on Human Trafficking incorporating aspects of our "Sharing One Love" Program (see below).  Please let us know if you could help by scheduling a gathering.    So Much More to Share! I don't have space to address the much anticipated 13 bedroom rescue shelter, or the Miami Dade County Human Trafficking Coalition meetings or the work with local and national law enforcement, but that will have to wait for future updates. Please help us as a family & missionaries to Keep Moving Forward:   Join the Team! As you know, last year was a hard one for the Abegg family (see earlier blog entries), and our financial support needs to improve swiftly in order to keep providing training, direction and care. Please consider becoming a prayer and financial supporter at:   http://www.uwm.org/missionaries/kevin-abegg .  Thank You to those who have continued to walk with us and make this ministry possible! Abegg Family: Jeremy was baptized on Palm Sunday! Sharing One Love Participants after a Miami Beach outreach. LOF Center "Alternative Spring Breakers" Conduct Surveys at Florida International University.  Don't forget to find us on Facebook orBLOG.  We call women being sold for sex online: "…we're calling to see if there is anything we can do for you and to let you know that someone cares. I know the "Game" is tough out there and you can get into an unsafe situation. Save this number and if you need anything, even help leaving, please call us…" The Life of Freedom Center's Internet and Phone Outreach is just one of the ways we extend light and hope to those who see no other way to survive other than being trafficked or selling themselves. We train female mentors to reach into the darkness and offer light and hope. Read more of what we do below, as well as an urgent request for partners and prayer.  Recovery & Care:   Life of Freedom Center Since January, I've applied my years of structure and building at LAM toward furthering the programs of the Life of Freedom Center as its Director of Operations. The "LoFCenter" provides wrap around care to survivors of human sex trafficking. We train and coordinate mentors who have the compassion and ability to manage resources and walk alongside trafficking survivors seeking healing and a new life. Frankly the program is fantastic! Claudia and I are amazed at what the Lord has brought us into, and all that we can see for the future. Sometimes I am overwhelmed at all that needs and can be done, but believe and trust the Lord will provide everything necessary (time, energy, discernment, endurance, etc.) It all requires an immense amount of coordination, so I'm familiarizing myself with all the various systems even as we're implementing new web based reporting, communication and resource management for clients, mentors, supervisors, volunteers and staff. Please pray for wisdom, discernment and plain old technical knowhow as we push ahead in this arena.  Sharing One Love Street Outreach Team Education and Prevention: Sharing One Love Director of Operations of the LoFCenter includes the "Sharing One Love" program. We rejoice at seeing women and children healed from the pain and abuse they've suffered, but we also work to see fewer in need of care. "Sharing One Love" is an equipping program for churches, businesses & community groups provided free of charge. For me, it's where I'm energized. After planning, structuring and delegating, I get to interact with & train those who can make a difference!  That training includes: -    a documentary film with follow-up Q&A or panel discussion.  -    a street outreach to equip locals to identify and respond safely to a trafficking situation. -    a business training to help hotels, hair/nail salons, convenience stores, clothes stores etc. protect themselves while they identify and rescue victims of trafficking. -    an internet outreach where mentors train women where to find and how to reach out to those being sold or selling themselves online.  Though we only recently began offering all four components of the program, the reception has been fantastic, and I'm in the process of training new volunteers (and seeking more) to take it even further.

SEX SELLS & FOR SALE SEX

Please see my most recent blog at the Life of Freedom Center.

SEX SELLS & FOR SALE SEX

http://www.sharingonelove.org/sex-sells-for-sale-sex/

Abegg Electronic Love Letter - AMAZING!

WAY too much to share, so I'll start in bite sizes over a period of days. Lets start with:     God's Infinite Work Past, Present and Future (hows that for "bite size"?):   The Abegg family was not disappointed to say "farewell" to 2014, however, as I look over journals and previous blog posts, I realize that we've been walking through significant trials since 2012 (See: 2012 Love Letters and following posts). Yet hindsight makes gloriously evident God's goodness and His James 1 faithfulness to bless us through, not despite our trials. Reflecting on the past two decades I realize how the Lord has used trials to position us where He wants, for His glory. The story of Joseph gives us fantastic Biblical insight as God positions him through terrible difficulties but in the process saves Israel and brings the promised eternal salvation through the nearly extinct line of Abraham. The story exemplifies how apparently unredeemable trials from a human perspective are, in reality, God's providential hand accomplishing His redemptive purposes. Our update:   I first visited Rahab Foundation in San Jose, Costa Rica over five years ago. Rahab is a fantastic organization doing amazing work to save and equip women caught in cycles of prostitution and sex slavery. Since that time, Claudia has been praying about opening a rehabilitation center in North Miami where women can be healed (spiritually, mentally and physically) and gain marketable skills such as culinary arts (obvious with Claudia!), gardening, sewing, computer/office, micro-enterprise etc.  Since our return to Miami in December we've begun our assignment with SOL Network in the battle against Human trafficking, the development of a faith coalition, growing contacts and waiting for God's timing in the coming years for such a center, but God has his own schedule! In the midst of meetings and introductions we visited a property owned by the dpt. of Juvenile Justice.  This property (Pictured at top), closed since 2012 is at the point of being given as a no cost, long-term lease to the SOL Network for the expressed purpose of providing care and rehabilitation to women and their children as a first stage in their exit from sex-trafficking! It has an amazing building with 17 residence rooms, two communal areas (one with space for 200 people), an industrial kitchen, classrooms, offices for counseling appointments and administration, a basketball court and lots of space for a small farm! Unbelievably it's 10 minutes from our home and not 20 minutes from the specific area Claudia was praying about. I can't tell you how excited we are about the possibilities, nor amazed at God's lead even to pray for such a thing years earlier.  PLEASE PRAY that everything moves ahead and the paperwork is in hand within the week. Tying it All Together: With my dad's cancer and passing, as well as mom's transition to a facility that can meet her current needs, we chose to step away from our work for over a year... just as LAM merged into United World Mission. From the world's perspective, the timing and choices we had to make could have been both career ending and financially devastating. However, in God's providence, our return to full time ministry was neither a week early nor late, and accomplished our conviction of "honoring your mother and father" during their, and the family's time of greatest need.  SOL network was not previously ready for us to join. The property was not on the radar yet. As a family we needed God's preparation. God worked in our lives and everyone else's before bringing us all together for His work in His timing. We simply stand amazed! Action Point: Now we call on you, our faithful prayer partners, friends and supporters to join us in prayer as we move ahead: -Pray that all final details for the property come through and the paperwork is in hand in the next few weeks. The goal is to have this facility functioning by MAY! Philanthropic investors have already committed to raising the finds needed to remodel the center (having been vacant since 2012). Pray for the support we need as UWM missionaries to help move this project forward (see prayer point below). -Pray for wisdom as Kevin begins to connect with other ministries, NGO's etc in developing a South Florida Faith Based Coalition against Trafficking. It is hoped that this will eventually become the governing body for the rescue center. -Pray (and consider becoming an answer to prayer) for the Abegg's support to make this ministry feasible. We are realistically about half way to our monthly goal and will send out another update shortly, but please pray and consider becoming a regular supporter in order to directly impact the horror of Human Trafficking. If you're already on our amazing support team, PLEASE consider sharing this vision with others who want to impact and in faith END HUMAN TRAFFICKING. Online Donations may be made via: http://www.uwm.org/give . Go to designation "Missionary," then look for "Abegg" in the drop-down menu.  Or Mailed to: 205 Regency Executive Park Drive, Suite 430, Charlotte, NC 28217. Please include a note: "For the Abegg's".  Crash Course in Human Trafficking: Focus on the Family has a great educational piece on trafficking that we highly recommend: http://www.focusonthefamily.com/media/daily-broadcast/human-trafficking-what-you-need-to-know-pt1  In His Hands / En Sus manos; Kevin S. Abegg United World Mission

December 2014

Purpose… 

Over the past year I spent considerable time meditating on the idea of “purpose” with dad’s passing, mom’s necessitated move, pending sale of the family home and our own transition into the world of human trafficking.  I found myself regularly drawn to the haunting concept of “why”.  Why death? Why sickness? Why change? Why here, now, this way… From what I see in scripture and throughout history, God does nothing without purpose and meaning…Eternal meaning (Rom. 8 &9; Eph. 1). In His plan, there is not a single unanswered “why?”.  

Our God embodies the concept of purpose. Being made in His image, we are all purpose driven creatures. How many of this generation are looking for a “cause” to dedicate themselves towards yet are blind as to the weight of being brought from dust to existence for an eternal purpose? People want a “why” for life but often settle for pat answers rather than truth with deep meaning:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Ps. 139)   -Intentionally designed.  

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 10)  -Divinely purposed.

What Joy and Comfort! Even our hardest times are married to Biblical promises of redemptive results for “those called according to His purpose”(James 1; Romans 8). It’s this certainty that enables us to walk through our darkest hours, and to then walk others through their own, such as those caught in the web of human trafficking. 

Having the understanding that very people consumed by the commerce of modern slavery carry the image and purpose of their Creator compels us to act. The young girls in hidden rooms across this country who can’t break their captor’s bonds are made in the Image of the Eternal King. The young and old unable to escape never-ending, back breaking servitude in homes, factories and fields right here in America are made in the likeness of our Lord!

With this in mind, and as the year draws to a close, we ask that you prayerfully consider partnering with us through a tax deductible donation as we seek to bring the Hope, Love and Eternal Significance ascribed by our Lord to each of these. Your support will enable us to begin the work of unifying many of fantastic ministries and non-profits in South Florida in a coalition to better meet the needs of those being crushed, bring information to those who can help rescue and be a stronger voice for those who have none.

We would love to share more about the various ministries we will work with and alongside, so please do not hesitate to contact us.

Online donations may be made via: http://www.uwm.org/give Designation "Missionary," then look for "Abegg" in the drop-down menu. 

Or Mailed to: 205 Regency Executive Park Drive, Suite 430, Charlotte, NC 28217. Please include a note: "For the Abegg's". 

Thank you from all of us!!!

 

United World Mission Missionaries

PLEASE STAY CONNECTED WITH US!

Blog: http://abeggloveletters.blogspot.com

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Heading HOME & New Ministry!

"And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left".  -Isaiah 30:20-21     What a year!  After being in CA for almost exactly one year, the Abegg family is FINALLY headed HOME and on to the new ministry we've been praying about and considering with my fellow LAM leadership for almost a year prior to merging with United World Mission...Oh yeah…for those who haven't heard, WE ARE OFFICIALLY UNITED WORLD MISSION MISSIONARIES!  We still carry LAM the LAM DNA of working with and under local leadership, and rejoice in all God is doing through this new organization. So as a quick recap of our past year: Latin America Mission begins merger process into United World Mission mid 2013.  Kevin given freedom to assist from CA in order to simultaneously care for ailing parents during a very difficult time. The Abegg's arrive in CA the beginning of Oct. 2013  "Grandpa" Robert Abegg graduates to glory in March 2014. "Grandma" Birgitta Abegg in need of care so Kevin assumes responsibility for estate with help of sister Lana. Kevin transitions from LAM executive Leadership to become United World Mission Missionary & the Abegg's begin to focus on anti-human trafficking efforts in primarily South Florida. Connections, conferences and education with the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition are an immense assistance. Abegg's visit "home" for three weeks in June to recover from stress/exhaustion. Connect with George Veitia of SOL Network (Sharing One Love) and begin to plan for Abegg's return & new ministry. Grandma moves into her new home Oct. 2nd. & the Abegg's hit the road a few weeks later.  Still to come (PLEASE PRAY): Estate sale of the family Home in Martinez next weekend (11/14) & the house goes on the market a few days later. Traditionally the WORST time to sell a home, but we are trusting again in God's provision. So then…here we are, writing from Rapid City, South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore) as we travel Eastward, dodging winter storms, healing as a family, reflecting on all that this year has and will continue to mean for us, visiting friends, family and supporters and preparing to hit the ground running once back in Miami. We're excited about recent conversations with SOL director George Veitia  and the many, many opportunities in South Florida to make a difference and bring the Gospel with victims of trafficking. Said in a different way: MIAMI RANKS 3RD IN THE NATION FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING and is in DESPERATE NEED of education, coordination and Christ's love. Amongst other responsibilities, Claudia and Kevin will be assisting in the development and growth of a South Florida/Miami Dade coalition of organizations against human trafficking. Our time in the San Francisco Bay Area served us immensely with contacts and practices gleaned from organizations united with the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition and ready to be implemented in the South Florida, Latin context. Likewise, my time overseeing LAM's partnerships throughout Latin America and partnerships with sending churches will also assist in our anticipated work. Please Pray for us as we continue to plan the coming year with United World Mission and Sharing One Love. Please Pray as we continue to grieve, heal and see God's hand in all we were lead through this past year. Please Pray as we seek to re-establish our support after an overwhelming year and relatively little communication with supporters.  Please Rejoice with us in God's faithfulness in caring for our family through a major ministry transition, major family transition and the sense we have that all He has done has Devine Purpose and is being used to make us "…mature and complete, lacking nothing". (James 1).  Also, PLEASE PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER  ontinuing, renewing or even increasing your partnership with us as we move into this next assignment, drawing from what the Lord has already done and anticipating His purposes in the coming years.  Checks may be mailed to: United World Mission PO Box 602002 Charlotte, NC 28260-2002 (with a note that it's for the Abeggs). Or online ( http://www.uwm.org/give/ ): Designation "Missionary," then look for "Abegg" in the drop-down menu. STAY CONNECTED WITH US!: Read more on our blog! Connect on LinkedIn!  Find us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/claudia.abeggguzman  https://www.facebook.com/kabegg Thank you from all of us!!! In His Hands / En Sus manos; Kevin S. Abegg United World Mission