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!