Meet Lindsey Green!

Lindsey Green

Lindsey Green

Lindsey Green has recently become part of the CGI team! We were able to chat with her about her passions and how God is using her to battle against poverty and human trafficking. Read about Lindsey’s journey to making a difference and be inspired!

How did you first become passionate about CGI’s ministry?

Six years ago I was invited to attend a human trafficking awareness event where my friend was speaking. Her passion for human trafficking and heart for the people of Cambodia opened my eyes to the injustice happening to millions of women around the world. I could not get the stories she shared out of my head, the darkness was overwhelming and God began working in my heart to do something. I have been involved with CGI from the beginning by volunteering at events, traveling to Cambodia, interning and now working a part-time position.

What are some of the ways you get to use your gifts to help CGI?

Before starting at CGI I worked in the bridal and boutique industry where I developed a passion for fashion. I was able to learn about current trends, sizing and styling outfits. Working at CGI allows me to combine my passion for fashion and ending injustice. I hope to use these gifts to help CGI connect with retail centers and expand the byTavi and Imprint line. Upon graduating in December my degree will be in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and Pre-Theology. The communications and promotional skills I have learned are useful in representing CGI at events and through daily conversation.

What’s your favorite part about your new role?

Connecting with our event hosts and volunteers. I love our product! So it has been fun to share it and the stories behind it with others and see them get equally as excited about it.Through forming these relationships I discover each person’s passion for ending injustice. It is so encouraging to work with people who are equally as passionate about this ministry.

What advice do you have for people who want to get involved, but don’t know where to start?

If you want to get involved but don’t know where to start, examine the gifts God has given you. I guarantee CGI has a way for you to use them! If you like to share stories, host your own trunk show or present to your bible study. If you have a knack for organization, become an in-office volunteer. There are many more ways to get involved. Jump in and be prepared for the journey God will take you on. I never imagined I would have the opportunity to work for CGI but God made a clear path. You just have to be willing to follow.

Heartbreaking Injustice

Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

An article that appeared in The Guardian tells the heartbreaking story of a young girl in Cambodia who had her virginity sold by her mother. As a staff, we read these things and can’t help but weep for the injustice and evil that permeates this dark aspect of Cambodian culture.

To us, it seems so black-and-white. But there are complexities stacked on top of complexities, and its hard for us to grasp the desperation that exists in the sex trade.

Despite stories like this, we know that redemption is possible anywhere. God can reach into these circumstances, no matter how hopeless they may seem. Please continue to pray for the vulnerable in Cambodia and for CGI as we continue to fight for their protection.

 

 

Day of Prayer is HERE!

praygraphic Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty AND CGI’s Day of Prayer! Please join us in praying for:

-The CGI staff in Cambodia

-The CGI staff in the U.S.

-The country of Cambodia as a whole, that it would allow the love of Jesus to infiltrate the culture and that He would be known there

-The girls in all of our programs: byTavi, CTC, Imprint and cgi Kids

-That God would use CGI to help break the cycle of poverty and give each of these girls a new life in the physical sense, but that He would also speak to their hearts and they would know and run to His love.

-The future of our ministry and our listening hearts as God continues to lead

 

Thank you for your prayers and being a key part of CGI!

 

Prayers for the Beringers

The Beringers

The Beringers

Alan and Katy Berginer and their son Jonah will be returning this week to the US. Their furlough will extend through February as they visit with supporters, friends and family and also welcome their second son! They’ve shared with us a few prayer requests:

-Prayers for the CGI staff in Cambodia

-Prayers for safe travels back to the US

-Prayers that Jonah would sleep well on the flights

-Health and rest for their family

-Connecting well with family and friends

Thanks for lifting them up during this transition!

2nd Annual CGI Day of Prayer

PrayOctober 17 is a day set aside by the UN to recognize the plight of the poor worldwide. It’s called the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and last year we created a CGI day of prayer in conjunction with this important day. As a ministry that seeks to eradicate poverty in Cambodia, we want to join in this effort and we do that in one of the most effective ways we know how–through prayer.

So again this year on October 17, we want to pray. Diligently. We want to cover the entire 24 hours in focused and unified prayer for CGI and all of its facets. From the staff to the programs to the participants to the country of Cambodia as a whole, we want to ask God to glorify Himself in and through all of it. It’s a day of prayer around the clock and around the world.

Will you pray with us?

Our hope is that people will take 15 minute blocks of time to pray for CGI on October 17. You can sign up for as many 15 minute blocks as you’d like! The staff and participants in Cambodia will pray the first half of the day (while the US is still asleep!) and Stateside we will pray the second half of the day. It’s a join effort for one purpose, and we hope you’ll join in! Simply click here to sign up for a time slot.

Next week we will post a list of specific prayer requests to serve as a guide. Thank you for being a part of CGI’s Day of Prayer!

Impoverished

IMG_1323Cambodia’s poverty can be overwhelming.

It’s overwhelming in a very different way than America’s poverty. There are poor families in both places, and no poverty is “less legitimate” than another. But poverty in Cambodia and other third-world countries often goes beyond what most poor in developed nations have experienced. In America, for example, the bottom 10% spend about 17% of their income on the food needed to survive. In Cambodia, however, most of the population spends nearly two-thirds of their income on food to survive. This level of poverty, where the majority of income is spent on daily needs, leads to a huge lack of nearly everything else. Homes have one room, food is bought at the market daily because refrigerators are a luxury, everything requiring electricity is unplugged completely when not in use. Clothes are washed by hand, and hung in the sun to dry. Showers are taken from buckets outside the house after a long day working for just enough money to buy food the next day.

The poor in America struggle for daily needs as well, but aid and assistance programs are in place that simply don’t exist in Cambodia. The poor in Cambodia live without what even the poor in America consider basic parts of life – electricity, food, running water, and clothes. The poor in Cambodia are on their own, and the chances that they’ll be able to break that out of that cycle are incredibly slim. Children can’t go to school because they need to work so the family can eat, and without an education, they’re stuck working for that same small daily wage, selling food on the street or fruit at the market. The Cambodian poor need somewhere to turn for help and stability, so that kids can go to school and families can eat.

To me, the most striking part of Cambodian poverty isn’t the degree to which they are impoverished. It’s the seeming permanence of their circumstances. Thankfully, we have an opportunity to help lift them out of their desperate situations through the programs that CGI has created, and there can be hope and change for even the poorest of the poor.

By Alison Gayer