Yesterday my son Eli came up to me and asked me a question, a simple one really that brought forth a lot of emotion for me.

“ Mom are you excited to go to Thailand?”

I thought it over for a moment. How do you tell your eight year old that you are not excited. That you would be but so many other emotions rise to the top first. You are scared, nervous, unsure, angry, anxious, and already sad to look into the eyes of these beautiful children and tell them how much God loves them even though they were trapped in Hell. Then it hit me a little. Were. Trapped in hell. As in they have been rescued thru Destiny Rescue and given hope and a purpose. Although the recovery process is long and hard, they ARE rescued. But still I wasn’t excited.

 

“ No Eli I am not excited. I am…nervous. Samm and I shared a glance..hoping that would suffice.

A few thoughts that spoke to me after. I honestly LOVE that Eli has 100% faith that God will provide for us so we can go to Thailand. We don’t have the money yet, and he knows that. Yet his question never reflected an ounce of doubt. I will take double portions of that please! There are days when I believe it 100% and then there are days when I don’t. Faith of a child wasn’t a nice sentiment. It was the basis of our walk with Christ.

Like Friday I thought YES GOD! You got this! A friend asked if he could stop over a few minutes. Samm and I prayed the night before “ God if we are still on the right path, please let someone sow into this tomorrow.” So he stopped by and gave us a check for 250.00! We were so humbled and thankful, not just because He provided but because he answered prayer!!

Lately God has been highlighting all these powerful verses in scripture about helping and defending the poor and needy. The fatherless. The down and out. His heart is so beautiful that they always make the TOP of His list every time. I just love that the people society tends to cast aside or forget about are the very ones Jesus is hanging onto.

“ Deliver the poor and needy; rescue them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:4

Its never a question IF this is His will, only If we will help in some way.We really wanted to ask you all for prayer this week. Someone said to me last week you guys need to be fully covered in prayer. Now and then.

 

If you would like pray to here are some specifics:

~Pray He would remain our primary focus. Nothing would turn our head to the left or the right.

~Pray peace in our home, our kids are getting anxious.

~Pray God will heal my tailbone. Most of you know that I (Angie) have had pain for almost three years, Its gotten so bad that I can’t sit for a minute without a lot of pain. I am getting prayed over this week and fully believing He will work a miracle!

~Please pray and JOIN us for our Documentary Nefarious screening at The Crossing Zimmerman campus on April 17 at 7! We are so exited to share with others what first broke our hearts. You will not be the same after you see this movie. Please come!

~Lastly, please pray that people would allow God to stir in their hearts to help support us! We currently have raised $500.00 and still have $2500.00 to raise!

Again you guys, our thanks will not be enough. For prayers, the texts, encouragement. For re-posting and re-tweeting our blog to create an awareness. We love you all!

In His grip,

Samm & Angie

Statistics are a love/hate relationship for me. On one hand, they portray what is happening in the world. On a larger scale and measure, success and failure. On the other hand, it certainly de-personalizes who is affected by sex trafficking. For instance, I could tell you that in America, there have been 300,000 children ages 6-17 sold into slavery since 2001. You might say, “Wow! That’s so sad.” For the most part, it wouldn’t interrupt your day. However, if I were to tell you the story of a little girl with dark hair and dark eyes from the Twin Cities who, for the past two years, has been raped 20-30 times a day every day by grown men. She’s been beaten daily, fed drugs to make her lethargic, and slept in the back of a semi while being driven across state lines to be sold to a new “market”. Listening to that story, you would feel the heartache, you would feel sick to your stomach. Now let’s say I showed you a picture of this beautiful girl…and you looked closely in utter shock…this is your neighbor’s daughter?! You know her…personally. Then what? Would you know in that moment you had to do something…anything?

 

For whatever reason, humans only really feel the need to help people that are close to them. In our sphere. It’s something about the ability to relate to others, especially in another country, as if “they” are different. Over time, our hearts become hardened to the injustice of the world. Whether it’s poverty-stricken countries, genocide, slavery, etc. Is that really the gospel? I’m speaking to myself in this also. Not long ago, I asked God to help me live fully alive and awake to His people, whether it’s in the gas station or Cub Foods. I just wanted my heart to break for the things that break His. I was tired of living asleep. Tired of looking the other way. How can we, as Christians, be the “light” in this dark world from our recliner? How do we move from “Oh, that’s so sad” to “I need to help.”? All throughout scripture it was Jesus that was constantly loving on the “least” of these. He was teaching us in that moment: Do the same.

 

The other day I was looking at our 10-month old beauty, Tessa. She is so precious and, being our baby and our only girl, she has us all wrapped around her finger. In that moment, God spoke to my heart, “What if it was her? What wouldn’t you do to get her back home?”

 

Nothing GOD! There is nothing I wouldn’t do. All of my time, resources, energy, prayer would be spent in getting her back. Even if it meant prison.

 

Just being real. In that moment I was so convicted, I wept.

 

Then He said, “Angie, they are all my children, and I love them more than you love Tessa. I want my people to do whatever it takes to get them…home.”

 

Guys, I know it’s overwhelming and so uncomfortable to even talk about. It’s hard to imagine all these lives that have been sold like a piece of merchandise into the hands of ugly. There are many nights when I lay awake crying out to God to awaken us, to help me be strong when I feel so weak. I struggle with it, too. God always uses our brokenness to bring Him the most glory. He often allows us to go through hard stuff to become the platform we are passionate about to help others. Samm and I both are allowing Him to use our brokenness and even publicly hoping that it will ultimately bring Him glory. The good news is, light always overcomes the darkness. Darkness has to flee…but we must go to the darkness first.

 

We leave in exactly 29 days. We recently found out that Destiny Rescue would like us to be paid by two weeks before we go. Which is in two weeks. We have raised $200 so far. My math isn’t great, but that means that we need to raise $205 per day! God is so so good and He stirs the hearts of man. We are just believing in faith He will. We cannot do this without your help. I know we think sometimes “someone else” will donate, or pray or re-post. It’s simply not the truth. It’s exciting to see the body of Christ come alongside you. We are anxious to see the hand of God working!

” He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord

Jeremiah 22:16

 

Isn’t Jesus magnificent!?

Much Love, Platts

Hello again! It will have been THREE years this July since we left on one of the wildest journeys that we could have never dreamed of. It was amazing in every way and we are so thankful we could be a part of something like that. God has spoken a lot of things to us in these last couple years, and we would like to share a small piece of what He has said our next step is.

Sex trafficking. Maybe you have heard those words, maybe you haven’t. In any case, you might not be fully aware of the horrific evil that this encompasses in literally every corner of the earth…yes, including in our own backyard. Two and a half years ago, God began breaking our hearts for those who are victims of this billion dollar, unspeakable “business”. We were doing mission work in New Zealand and God spoke to us, telling us we had to do something. He confirmed that we would somehow be involved in combating this. We felt He kept saying, “Thailand,” and then the next day, He confirmed it! So this entire time we have been seeking God about how He wants us to be involved. With many prayers, and trials, and tears, God has begun to shed light on how He wants to use us. We are not prepared for what He is doing and we can offer up all our excuses to Him about how we are not the right fit and so on, but He is never asking anyone if they have what it takes to do His will. He is only EVER asking one question, “Are you willing?” On our knees, we are saying, “Yes God, we are.” All that to say, we are taking the first step of this journey that we believe He is calling us to, and we are going to Thailand for 10 days!

Why Thailand? Thailand is the “sex capital” of the world, where men from everywhere go and pay for sex. Women and children starting as young as just four years old are trapped in this horrific nightmare. This is something that is not easy to talk about (or even to think about), however that’s exactly what the enemy wants. To keep us silent. To make us look the other way. To stop reading this blog. This post is not going to go into all the details of it, as we will be shedding light on some things in the future. So, that’s why we believe He is saying, “Thailand”. We are going to come face-to-face with the evil that is destroying young girls’ lives! There are dozens of organizations that help rescue and restore these girls, doing the hard work of erasing the lies and terror, and instead speaking life and destiny into them. We have chosen to go with a great organization called Destiny Rescue. Last week we were in prayer on whether we would take the trip coming up in April and felt in faith we should use our savings to buy the airline tickets. God gave us GREAT favor, and we are so thankful! It was a big step of faith we knew we had to take…so we did. Now what?

What will we be doing? Destiny Rescue has several homes all over Thailand and also one in Burma, so we will be visiting each home and loving on the girls and doing whatever the project manager says is needed at each home. We will also be visiting two different red light districts where all this terror happens right before your eyes. We will cover the streets in prayer. We may witness to the prostitutes and again, loving on each one of them however God asks us to. We will literally be following it full circle by going into the hill tribe villages (where many girls are taken from) all the way into the streets of Bangkok (where the girls are forced to “work”).

What does this mean for you? Each person has a part to play in making our world a better place. We firmly believe that is Jesus’ heart – to be the light. We need to raise $3,000 to be able to cover hotels, food, and the traveling between cities, both by air and bus. We are praying that God opens the eyes and hearts of many, just as He has with us. Please consider donating to this!!  As we read Matthew 25, we can no longer look the other way. Either what the Bible says is completely ludicrous, or it’s all true. We can no longer pass it off hoping “someone else” will help them. We cannot simply chuck up a prayer any longer and think that’s our part in all of this. We used to live like that and still see that even now, it would be easier to do so. Yet God is constantly reminding us not to live like that. It’s hard sometimes when you see all the brokenness and don’t know where to start to help. I know that helpless feeling. I do. However, maybe this is your chance to make a difference!?

We asked God to break our hearts for what breaks His. That is a dangerous prayer because He will, and then you must make a choice. Secondly, PRAYER. This moves the heart of the Father and it’s powerful. We covet your prayers in this time. Pray that He guides us with wisdom. We need SO much wisdom. His plan is much bigger than our own. Pray for our children. They have never been away from us for this long. It’s not easy for anyone. Pray for those who unselfishly have stepped up to watch them and open their homes and hearts for children that aren’t theirs. I pray everyday that God would bless them tenfold! Please pray for protection and peace, even in the midst of such horror. You can’t unsee the things we will see. We want you to know that we cannot do this without others standing in faith with us, giving and praying for us. It’s an honor to serve with those who are willing to risk being uncomfortable for the sake of the call.

When does it happen? We leave on April 24 and fly home on May 4 – less than 5 weeks. We are CONFIDENT that He has already done all of this. We are excited to see it happen! We have seen God work Many miracles and every time we are so honored to watch Him show off how incredible He is!

Lastly, for the past two years we have been seeking God on whether or not He was calling us to start a life in Thailand doing missions…we feel God will make it clear once we are there and would LOVE all your prayers for wisdom and clarity.

So, that’s pretty much the gist of it all. Please email us with any questions at platt14@msn.com. You can donate right here on our website. We will be updating this often and would love if you followed us. Thank you to all who have been praying and encouraging us through this process. We are excited to see how God will impact you all.

A verse that has really spoken to us, and what we hope comes from this trip is:

Isaiah 1:17 “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encouraging the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

Much Love! The Platts