The River Model
7 minute read
By Josh Blanchard
The Waterfall
Imagine you are standing next to a fast-flowing river several hundred feet upstream from an enormous waterfall dropping to depths unknown. All of a sudden you hear a voice calling desperately from the river and you notice someone struggling to stay afloat being swept towards the waterfall. What would your reaction be? Without so much as a split second to think about it, you kick off your shoes, dive in, fight against the current and help this person to safety. Heart thumping and out of breath, you pull this person to shore and celebrate the rescue. But moments later your heart drops as you hear a distant scream again. Another victim is heading towards the drop-off. Naturally, your response will likely be the same as before. This time you are moving slower but still succeed in pulling the second survivor to safety. But what happens if this continues again and again? It’s not going to be long before all your energy is depleted and you simply cannot continue the fight.
This image is all-too familiar for those fighting child-sex trafficking on the front lines all over the world. The streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia are lined with Karaoke Bars, Massage Parlors, and Beer Gardens, all of which are establishments where sex is sold and women (and girls) are trafficked. In the capital city of Phnom Penh, the riverside district is replete with older western men leveraging their economic power and privilege to prey on the freedom and dignity of Cambodian girls and women, and in a very real sense, leading them from the ‘riverside’ to the raging waters of the waterfall where destruction awaits.
The Situation
Agape International Missions, the organization we work with in Cambodia, has been rescuing and restoring these vulnerable girls and women for over twelve years and has freed over 1200 survivors, as well as restored 800 survivors in the AIM Restoration Home. We celebrate these numbers, because each number is a story of freedom, transformation and healing. The challenge, however, is that the restoration home is almost always over capacity with a long waiting list of young girls and teenagers. Our rescue team is currently investigating dozens of establishments that could be raided and survivors rescued today but we simply do not have enough resources to care for those who could be rescued. As such, AIM is working to train other organizations as well as praying about opening a second home to expand this work. But we recognize that even this is not enough. And so we have felt compelled to begin to take a slightly different approach.
In the above River Model, a key question we should have asked the moment we saw someone in the river is “where did they come from?” and “how did they get in the river?” If we move upstream and identify why these individuals are entering the river and if we can prevent them from getting in the river in the first place, then we will have solved the problem. Thankfully, AIM has also spent ten years working to that end in a small town called Svay Pak. Svay Pak is seven miles north of Phnom Penh on the Tonle Sap River and just fifteen years ago it was known as the international destination for western pedophiles to come to purchase prepubescent children for sex. This was quite literally the “wild, wild east”; a lawless, evil corner of the world the likes of which is difficult to compare. But as AIM was restoring survivors in the Restoration Home, the leadership noticed that all of the girls were either from, or trafficked to the town of Svay Pak.
When considering how to successfully and safely reintegrate a girl back to her community, the underlying question is, how can this terrible tragedy be prevented from happening again? How can the systemic nature of trafficking be fixed or solved? The root problem of trafficking is the fallen nature of man surfacing as greed and lust among other sins. While sin is at the heart of this evil, the roots of trafficking spread far and wide. For example, impoverished communities are at a much higher risk of seeing exploitation in their midst. The low percentage of children (and more specifically girls) receiving education is also an accurate indicator of the risk of those children being trafficked. Debt, medical emergencies, house fires and many more physical results of sin all increase the risk of trafficking as well. As such, the Holy Spirit, through the Body of Christ, is the most effective weapon for winning the fight against human trafficking and when hope enters and the light of Christ shines, the darkness has no choice but to run and flee. This is the unfolding story of the community of Svay Pak, Cambodia. In 2008, AIM planted Rahab’s House Church in a former brothel in Svay Pak, and since then revival has broken out in this town. And so through the body of Christ at Rahab’s House church, all of these root causes of trafficking are being addressed. In a country where roughly one percent of the population follows Jesus, it is a victory in the Kingdom of God that roughly ten percent of Svay Pak residents now attend Rahab’s House church regularly. In ten short years, God has used the church in Svay Pak to transform this community and prevent trafficking.
AIM Church, Svay Pak, Cambodia.
The Goal
But it can’t stop there. My wife, Jaclyn, and I have a desire to take the principles we have learned through working with AIM in Svay Pak and apply them across the entire country of Cambodia. But how is that possible with such limited resources? Even though Cambodia is not yet a developed country, it is one of the most well-connected developing countries in the world in the area of affordable internet connection. Even in some of the most remote, poor villages, most families have a smartphone and use Facebook and YouTube. In fact, Facebook alone has overtaken all other media such as TV, radio, and print combined in how Cambodians communicate and receive their news.
In the years of the early church, the Roman empire had created an unprecedented network of highways connecting much of the developed world. It was this development that contributed greatly to the rapid and effective spread of the gospel. I believe we have a new “Roman Road” before us in the form of technology and the internet. And since my background is in music, film, and photography, and Jaclyn’s in teaching and education, we believe that God has placed us here in Cambodia for such a time and purpose as this.
And so over the next year and a half we will be building a media production company with the specific goal of training up a generation of young Cambodian Christian creatives to use media and the creative arts to transform Cambodia through the power of the gospel and through the abolition of trafficking. We will position “Ruang Studios” (“Story Studios” in English) as a for-profit business to maintain financial sustainability, viability in the eyes of the Cambodian government and society, as well as a platform for training Cambodians in media and creative skills. We will continue our partnership with AIM, but will also be building partnerships with other churches, organizations as well as the government to bring transformation to this country.
The Challenge to You
We know that we cannot do this alone. As C&MA Marketplace Ministries missionaries, we are blessed with a global team of talented professionals with international experience in “business as mission.” But we also know that we need the support of all the members of the body of Christ. And so here are some practical ways we believe we can all participate in this important work:
When fighting evils such as trafficking, we need constant prayer coverage, and so if you are a prayer warrior we want to encourage you to join us in preventing trafficking and seeing Christ transform Cambodia through your regular, committed intercession.
If you are a creative or professional in media, business, marketing or other similar areas we would love to collaborate.
If you have been financially blessed to be a blessing, we are beginning a large fundraising campaign to launch this initiative and we would love to share more with you about how you can get involved financially.
And finally, if you call yourself a believer and follower of the Way, I want to encourage you to join this fight. According to James 1:27 “true religion is caring for the widows and orphans in their distress and keeping yourself from being polluted by the world.” Spread the truth and raise awareness about this evil, become an advocate along with us to build a movement of Christ-followers who choose to go upstream and protect vulnerable girls from entering the river of trafficking and exploitation. Host a prayer night at your church, watch a documentary as a community, hold a bake sale to fundraise for this ministry. Get creative as we also use creativity to battle the darkness in Cambodia.
Before beginning His ministry, Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). This work is central to the heart of the man we moved to Cambodia to follow. Would you join together with us to set the oppressed free and proclaim freedom in Cambodia and all across the world?
Together for freedom,
Josh & Jaclyn Blanchard