2nd Annual Justice Crab Feed Raises $130,000 To Fight Sex Trafficking: 750 Attend Sept. 28 Event At Redding Civic Auditorium
Written by Michael Hernandez
REDDING—More than $130,000 was raised (after expenses) to fight sex trafficking locally and globally and 750 people attended the 2nd Annual Justice Crab Feed held Sept. 28 at the Redding Civic Auditorium.
“We had a very successful event and made a similar amount of money from last year with less people,” said Event Organizer and former football Coach Greg Grandell.
The two sponsoring organizations were:
Justice 180, a local nonprofit, founded by Robert & Jenny Barber, has a mission “to see those who are affected by sexual exploitation, reached, equipped and empowered” and to “bridge the gap from recovery to re-entry and to inspire communities to do the same.” Justice 180 offers safe housing services, advocacy, a survival support group, therapy services and life skills, mentorship, vocational, re-entry and survivor training.
Hard Places Community “is an international group of like-minded believers in Jesus Christ whose mission is to see justice prevail, pain redeemed, hope reborn, and life restored in the hearts of those the world deems to be the most broken.” Our vision “is to bring hope to the hopeless in the darkest corners of this world.” Hard Places Community “is devoted to stopping the sale of children, ages 3-14, for sex.
Event organizers were Coach Greg Grandell, retired West Valley High School football coach (Cottonwood) and Mandi Kelly, owner of Hair City salon (Redding).
Cambodia Hard Places Community Director: “God Has A Big Plan”
Cambodia Hard Places Director Punha Yin, 32, addressing Redding Stirring Church congregants at the Sept. 29 Sunday service said, “God has a big plan” for all of us.
When Yin was 12 years-old, he was sexually violated by an adult and became “lost and confused in my journey” but “I found a local church” and “hope” when I found Jesus.” With discipleship programs, “I began to encounter God,” said Yin.
“My mom was poor and was raising four kids and I just wanted to find a better job for my future. My English teacher gave me a job translating when I was 15.” The job was translating for Hard Places Community Executive Director Alli Mellon in February 2008.
Today, Punha Yin is married, has a son and is Director of Cambodia Hard Places Community with 50 employees in two different cities and works with 1,000 children (52 kids clubs) and looks forward to beginning law school. Just this past week, his Christian ministry was responsible from stopping 33 sex traffickers and 5 pedophiles. Yin has a vision to stop sex trafficking in Cambodia and beyond—which now includes Greece, Madagascar (began in 2017), India (Asha House Home for Children), and California.
Hard Places Community in Cambodia works with Kids and Men in two cities:
• Punlok Thmey Kids (Phnom Penh’s sex district): This Center focuses on sports programs (soccer/wrestling), English/Computer programs, a School of Worship, counseling, play therapy, social work, job training program, and outreach in the sex district of the city.
• Punlok Thmey Kids (Siem Reap): This Center is outside the city slums and currently has 297 kids in the program with soccer program, English/Computer programs, outreach and social work.
• Punlock Thmey Men: An outreach to young men in the male brothels of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. There are English programs, Friday Fun Days, and Discipleship/Life Skills programs.
Kids’ Christmas is the most important time of the year for the Hard Places Community children. It is the one time in the year that hundreds of street kids can cast their cares aside and join in festivities that last for over a week. In India, children receive school clothes and supplies for the entire year, winter outfits, small gifts, and supplies and food to host a huge party at the local leper colony.
Those wishing to join a short-term mission team can contact Steph Iwanaga, at hardplacestepht@gmail.com.To join the Hardplaces core team send an email to Executive Director Alli Mellon at: hardplacesalli@gmail.com.
Hard Places Community has sponsored Walk Against Trafficking (WAT) events to raise money for the cause of stopping sex trafficking—these events are more than walk-a-thons but part of a journey or movement “to bring freedom to those oppressed.” A WAT is the temple grounds at a Buddhist worship site and Hard Places Community has a kids club at the Phnom Penh WAT.
What are the stats for sex trafficking around the world (taken from The International Labor Organization, 2012 and from the Global Slavery Index, 2017):
• 21 million entrapped in modern-day slavery
• An estimated 10,886,400 women and girls
• An estimated 453,600 men and boys.
What are the stats for sex trafficking in America? (taken from the Polaris Project, 2010):
• 64 percent of North America victims were trafficked short-distance
• 97 percent of convicted offenders trafficked within our nation
• 902,200 victims of trafficking in North America
• 61 percent of traffickers are men
• 39 percent of traffickers are women
Stirring Pastor Jim Bailey: Principles OfPioneering In Your Life
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off [a]were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” (The Message: Hebrews 11:13)
Stirring Soul Care Pastor Jim Bailey told church congregants at the Sept. 29 Sunday service that “We can learn from Abraham and Sarah (Hebrews 11) to all become incredible pioneers by obey God’s call to leave the familiar and discover territory to inherit from God.”
According to Pastor Bailey: “Christians are called to:
• Leave the Familiar: “Do you cozy up to an addiction? It can be a sinful pattern. But sometimes it is not sin but you still want some semblance of control. Pioneers leave the familiar.”
• See Beyond the Horizon: “Pioneers look for fulfillment of their promises. Is your vision looking only at day-to-day? Or is your vision looking at your children, your city, the world?
• Live Beyond/Live A Bigger Life: “When you meet Jesus, He takes residence in your life. The Holy Spirit lives in you. God can be transferred from generation to generation. Pioneers wake up! What are you doing with what you have been given?
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Michael Hernandez, resides in Redding and is co-founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted at Hernandez.Mike@aol.com and is editor of the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes,” “Nov. 5 Election Day Countdown” and “Revive America: Make America Great Again.
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