I need to tell you all about the next big project I am working on. In a couple of my older e-mail updates I have mentioned the “Walk of Hope”. This will be a walk from Hani I Hotit on the northern border of Albania to Konispol, on the southern border of Albania. I will be taking part in this with several others who are missionaries or pastors here in Albania. The purpose of this walk is actually three-fold: 1) we will be praying as we walk for the victims of human trafficking, especially those from Albania; 2) we hope to make the churches here aware of the seriousness of the issues surrounding trafficking; and 3) we hope to raise money to help fund an initiative to provide returned victims of trafficking with work and a chance to rebuild their lives – in short, to offer hope!
We will begin walking the morning of April 7, 2008 and will walk for about 3 weeks. Our planned route will take us through many of the major cities of Albania as well as lots of small villages along the way. The plan is to cover about 30 km each day. As we go from town to town we want to have members of the local evangelical churches come out to the edge of town and walk in with us. When we arrive in the center of town we will stop for a time of prayer before heading on to the next one. We will sleep in local churches and cover our own food costs so that all of the money raised can go to actually help victims of trafficking.
You can be involved in this by praying for us or donating to the project. For more information on how to give, contact me directly via e-mail and I can let you know. Or you can scroll down on this blog page and use the gadget there. If you are really feeling adventurous, you can come to Albania and walk with us for all or a portion of the way. We do not want this to be a big “come watch the foreigners walk through our country” kind of thing though, so we are not pushing that very much. We would much rather have our Albanian brothers and sisters walking with us from within the country.
Please pray that we would stay healthy and safe as we walk along roads that lots of folks do not even want to drive on! We are looking for a nurse or other medical person to join with us in case of an emergency. We are also asking the police to give us an escort along the way for security reasons. I will try to post more as the dates get closer, and maybe even some along the way, but I doubt that I will have much internet access during the walk. Stay tuned!
1 comment:
Matt, this is such a fantastic idea! I love it!! :) It would be so great to hear of local churches becoming more involved in caring for current or former victims of human trafficking. I have two questions for you: a) May I publish a link to this post on my Facebook profile for only my friends and family to see, as well as on my own blog? and b) Are you guys in contact with any organizations that work specifically on the same issue? If you do, I'd be interested to learn about them, as I've always been interested in knowing what kind of work is being done on this problem. If not, you might be interested in an initiative undertaken by Ravi Zacharias' organization in partnership with other organizations. Check it out here: http://www.wellspringinternational.org/projects.php?id=15
I wish you all the best on this walk, and will pray for both safety and success (however God may define it!!) :)
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