Heat. Hot water. Lights. Electricity—don’t we take it for granted when we lose it, even for an hour?

March 30—just last Friday—a dirty, rail-thin girl gobbled down a grilled cheese sandwich as if she hadn't eaten in days. She asked for more. Her intense, penetrating eyes, full of fear and pain, darted uneasily around the room as she devoured her food. Once her ravenous appetite eased, she began to tell her incredibly sad story.

You know who you are—those who joined us in the fight against human trafficking and slavery in 2017. We’re talking about those of you who sacrificed hard-earned dollars (or pounds or euros or yen…) to rescue women and children from this web of evil, and to encourage and equip those fighting it on the front lines. We’re also talking about those who prayed for us and this life-affirming ministry, whether you were in a position to give financially as you wanted to or not.

When kids venture off to their first year of college, many parents make the journey to help get them settled into the dorm room they'll call home for the next several months. Dorms are not always the nicest places to live, but just about every need of the student is catered to these days.

It's hot every day of the year in the Philippine city of Cebu, but few of the kids who live in its slum communities ever get to enjoy a day at the beach—even though beautiful tropical waters surround their island. So last fall when we visited Hope House, our partner in the Philippines who is helping us protect children from human trafficking, we decided to rent a bus and take as many as we could for a real treat!

Here we are at the end of another year. Time to once again ask ourselves the tough questions. Why do we do this? Lord, are we to continue this work into another year?