A New Generation of Abolitionists

The team will be documenting their journey to help fight slavery in Thailand with the help of a Portland film maker and a team blog.

Betty Westerburg is one of the students documenting and assisting with severe problems faced by kids in an economically depressed region of Thailand.

(LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.) - War. Poverty. HIV/AIDS. Many Americans consider these the big problems of our time and our world. A less familiar crisis on our collective radar, however, is that of modern-day slavery, also know as human trafficking.

An estimated 27 million people are bought, sold, and exploited around the world today, and 21 million of them are women and children. They may be working 16-hour days rolling cigarettes in India or servicing over thirty "customers" a night at a brothel in Thailand.

Slavery can easily be added to the above mentioned list of tragedies too enormous to solve. It's the kind of immense problem that well-educated adults have a hard time wrapping their minds around and have an even harder time doing anything about.

This is not the case for a group of students from a small high school in Lake Oswego. Not only do these teens believe they can do something about modern day slavery, they are actually doing it.

On 12 June 2007, this band of 21 students from Westside Christian High School is heading to a remote village to spend 20 days with their counterparts in Krasang, Thailand.

The Westside students have formed a partnership with Grace Ministries, a home for children who are at high risk of being exploited in Thailand's notorious sex industry.

The teens come from extreme poverty, have been abandoned or are orphans, making them targets for traffickers who deceive, detain and sell children to brothel owners.

Kelby Smith holding a small child

Grace Ministries provides the children with a safe and loving home, as well as an education all the way through college. The staff at Grace Ministries believes that the young people in their care will become leaders and change agents in their country, making Thailand a safer place for children.

The Westside students have been invited to teach English in two of Krasang's public schools. They anticipate learning more from their Thai peers, however, than they expect the Thai teens to learn from them. Courage, perseverance and simplicity are just a few of the characteristics that last year's team gleaned from the Thai teens.

The first team left for Thailand almost a year ago. When they returned they told the story of Grace Ministries and generated enough financial support to help build a new building for 30 more children and the ongoing operating costs to support them.

This year's team will meet these 30 new children. They will also share all their meals together, do chores together and play, sing, laugh and cry together.

David Jeffrey and a new friend

"This experience changes lives," says Andy Sears, Principal at Westside Christian High School "in tangible ways like more square footage for more Thai children to live in a safe and loving environment, and in priceless ways for our American teens."

"They see how hollow our money-obsessed culture is when they experience the joy and richness of life among the poor, in rural Thailand," says Sears, who will lead the team for the second time. "Our students share a common faith with most of the Thai teens, but they see how much costlier it is to be a follower of Jesus in Thailand and how much deeper and purer it is because of that."

"We are hoping that through this experience our students' hearts are captured by the God of justice," Sears adds. "We believe these student will change the world, and we want to inspire and be inspired by them."

The team will be documenting their journey with the help of a Portland film maker and a team blog. Their vision for this year's trip is to capture the stories of these extraordinary Thai teens and tell them to anyone who will listen. They believe that when people hear a great story they want to be a part of it.

Westside Christian High School was founded in 1981 with a mission to equip servant leaders in God's Kingdom for the next generation by educating and developing the whole person for the glory of God. For more information about this project visit westsideoutside.org or call 503.697.4711