WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

here are some helpful websites:

www.ijm.org --The International Justice Mission is the group that Christian Student Fellowship is partnering with this semester. Founded by Gary Haugen, this group seeks social justice in the areas of victim relief, perpetrator accountability, victim aftercare, and structural prevention

www.breakingfree.net -- Breaking Free, Inc. is a local group and was established in October 1996, by Vednita Carter, Executive Director, as a non-profit organization, serves women and girls involved in systems of prostitution/sex trafficking and other battered women who have been involved in the criminal justice system.

www.civilsocietyhelps.org -- The Minnesota Human Trafficking Watch is a group of people and agencies who are concerned about the horrific sex and labor trafficking going on in the State of Minnesota. The Watch coordinate trainings, conduct public education and outreach, and provide comprehensive services to victims of trafficking in the State of Minnesota. The Watch collaborate with law enforcement to make sure that trafficking victims receive resources they need to be safe.

www.callandresponse.com -- An upcoming movie on the human trafficking industry (see details below).

www.slaverymap.org ---shows stories of slavery on a map of the United States (as reported by agencies working against human trafficking).

FALL '08 SERVICE FOCUS

CSF wants to be a community of people committed to giving of our time, talents and resources to meet the needs of our world. This semester we have chosen to focus our service and giving in the area of HUMAN TRAFFICKING. We will do this by partnering with International Justice Mission to learn about, raise funds, advocate, and pray for people who are victims of human trafficking, both in the US and around the world.

You will be given the opportunity to be involved in a number of ways:

1) Through the gift of resources. We are joining together with International Justice Mission to sponsor a semester-long fundraising effort called "Loose Change to Loosen Chains." According to "Real Simple" magazine, there is $10.5 billion in loose change lying around in American households. We want you to bring in all the change you can find each week during Together Groups and donate it to help free those living in modern-day slavery. Our goal is to raise at least $1,000, which covers the cost of 20 days of investigation by International Justice Mission to help bring freedom to the oppressed.

2) Through the gift of education. We invite you to learn more about human trafficking, the people who are trafficked into slave labor and/or sexual exploitation, and what you can do to raise awareness and money to help free trafficking victims. We will help you become better educated on this issue by taking a short time every week during our Wednesday and Thursday Together Groups to show videos, share facts, or tell stories about victims of trafficking. In addition, on Wednesday, October 22 and Thursday, October 23 our entire Together Group meetings will be devoted to this topic.

3) Through the gift of time. CSF will be sponsoring a week of activities at CSF and around the University of Minnesota campus from October 27-31. We will call this "Justice Week" and our goal will be to raise awareness about and funds for human trafficking victims. Activities will be planned during normal Together Group meeting times on Wednesday and Thursday nights, as well as throughout the week, so you will have a number of volunteer opportunities to choose from during this time. It will take the efforts of the whole group to pull this off, so please plan to be involved!

KATRINA RELIEF TRIPS

NEXT TRIP - MARCH 13-21, 2009

Since Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, CSF has taken 5 teams of students down to Ocean Springs, Mississippi & New Orleans, Louisiana to be involved in hurricane clean-up and relief work. During our trips we stayed at area churches and made connections through them with local homeowners who needed help with a variety of different home rebuilding projects. For more details about our trips, you can check out our Katrina Trip Blog.

We had some very eye-opening experiences and we now have a number of people within CSF with a passion for reaching out to our neighbors in the Gulf Coast. That's why we plan to continue helping whenever we can and are currently planning a sixth relief trip for Spring Break 2009. More details will be posted as this event gets closer or can be found by emailing Amy at brow1876@umn.edu. It is going to take thousands of people to help our neighbors in the Gulf Coast rebuild, so please consider joining us for this life-changing adventure!

UKRAINE MISSIONS TRIP

JULY - AUGUST 2009

Every year, almost 100 churches from Minnesota travel to Ukraine to teach kids about God's love for them and His plan for their salvation, as well as to teach English to future interpreters, and to encourage and support the local churches throughout the country of Ukraine. Each church in MN has its own "sister" church that they visit every summer in Ukraine and for the past couple of years students from CSF have been reaching out to the people of Buzhanka, Ukraine.

In the summer of 2009, CSF will once again be planning a 2 week trip to Ukraine through the General Baptist Conference's "Love Lift for Ukraine" program. The cost is approximately $2600 and the sign up deadline will be sometime in January 2009 (with a $500 deposit due). If you have any questions about the trip, you can contact Keith at kdmayer@hotmail.com.

SOUTH AFRICA MISSIONS TRIP

LATE SUMMER, 2009

For the previous two summers, we have been sending CSF Mission Teams to South Africa to work in the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal at an orphanage called God's Golden Acre and with a church in Pietermaritzburg called NCF Church. These trips have been amazing experiences for all involved and we would like to continue with them in the future. Tentative plans are being made for a late summer trip in 2009. This team would most likely be involved in planning children's and teen programs for the orphans at GGA and we are also exploring the possibility of helping with some environmental and agricultural training (hopefully training residents in how to set up community gardens).

There is still some discussion about whether or not this trip will be able to take place, but please be sure to email Rebecca at rebeccalehmer@gmail.com for more details and a status update. Previous trips have cost about $3500 per person and you can learn more about last year's adventure at www.csfinafrica.com.

YOUTHWORKS POSITIONS

PAID Summer Internships & Staff Positions Available

Join over 300 Christian college students and post-college individuals in leading life-changing mission trips for teenagers from across North America. YouthWorks, a youth missions organization based in Minneapolis, has PAID summer staff positions & internships available at 78 sites in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Live in a diverse community. Coordinate daily programming. Build relationships with 65 youth and adults who come to your site each week ready to serve. Help them be the hands and feet of Jesus. Nearly 40,000 participants are expected in the summer of 2008! For more information and an application, visit www.youthworksrecruiting.com or call toll-free 877.249.9904.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE/CHINA

ELIC is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to sending Christian North Americans to serve the people of China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar with their language, hearts and lives. They offer lots of different programs, including the following:

Camp China: Are you a current North American college student? Making plans for your summer? Go to China, Mongolia, or Vietnam for six life-changing weeks with Asian middle and high school students.

China Teaching Fellowship: Graduating soon? Looking for that post-college experience or career? Invest the next year of your life with Chinese Kindergarten - University level students and their teachers. Bring your life and education where is is needed most.

Want more info about any of these opportunities? Go to www.elic.org or ask Rebecca (heyrebecca@csf.net) to share with you about her year spent in the China Teaching Fellowship program in the city of Dujiangyan, China and her summer spent in the Camp China program in Chengdu, China.