Home is both a sermon series and a Radical Impact Project that Good Shepherd is embracing in January of 2013. From the sermon side, Home will focus on renovating and restoring our homes – the network of relationships that we all live in – from the inside out. At the same time, our Radical Impact Project will take the entire offering on January 27 and use it to buy a home in Gaston Country for girls who have been rescued from the sex trafficking industry. That homewill then be gifted to our partners at On Eagles’ Wings Ministry (www.oewm.net), an Asheville-based outreach that houses, counsels, and restores rescued girls.
OEWM is an award-winning, residentially-based ministry with the sole focus of restoring the lives of girls who have been rescued out of the sex trafficking industry. The ministry currently operates two homes in the Asheville area, works closely with law enforcement to identify and then help girls, and is seeking to expand into the Charlotte area.
They could be your neighbor. They could be in your family. Girls of all ethnic groups and socio-economic categories get victimized by the sex trafficking industry. Sadly, they go to work in massage parlors, strip clubs, escort services, and “health spas.” Experts estimate that 293,000 children in the U.S. are in danger of being sexually trafficked. Sadly, traffickers sell minor girls for $400 an hour on American streets, and those same minors are sold an average of 10-15 times a day, 6 days a week, totaling between 9,360 and 14,040 sex acts a year.
In a secure, undisclosed located in Gaston County. Our Trustees and Finance Team have vetted the house and On Eagles’ Wings, have assessed the market value for the structure, and have estimated the upfit costs to bring the home into code and useful for OEWM’s ministry.
The purchase price for the home is $75,000 and estimated remodeling expense is another $100,000.
Four to six. OEWM has discovered that by keeping numbers low it is able to maximize effective ministry with the girls.
Men from Good Shepherd will be able to help with the remodeling process. Once the home is complete and the girls arrive, the majority of volunteer opportunities available will be for women. Women from the church can help the girls re-build their lives with transportation, tutoring, and devotions.
The commitment for human freedom is built into our understanding of what it means to have a living relationship with Jesus Christ. In November of 2007, GSUMC gave away an entire Sunday’s offering of $84,000 to the International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org) and its ministry of rescue and redemption for girls in India, Cambodia, and Thailand. Christmas of 2010 saw a reprise of that effort as our What Child Is Thisseries raised $207,000 for the same cause. Home is an opportunity to bring that same passion for freedom to girls closer to . . . home.
The challenge goal for January 27, 2013 is $125,000. The miracle goal is $150,000.