A few photos...

Stay tuned to the LIFTED facebook page for a couple of videos from that night.

Pushing Back the Darkness

In a few weeks, we are going to be gathering again in Boone. This time the purpose of the night is to spend an evening worshipping and praying together over the area of Global Sex Trafficking. There will once again be opportunities to give.

The title of the evening is LIFTED: Pushing Back the Darkness.

We hope those of you who were in Boone in March will join us once again!

Alliance Bible Fellowship's College Connection asked us to come back once again, so we will be at ABF off of the Highway 105 bypass. Here is their website for directions.

One Million Shirts

Photo Credit: Nancy Ray

We're planning on opening the LIFTED online store VERY soon! Stay tuned for a great variety of online offers, and for new LIFTED information!

We love you guys!

The Lifted Team

How is everybody?

Just a few weeks out of our LIFTED Boone event and things are beginning to brew around here again. Talks of some large city-wide events and other campuses have begun. Please pray for us and our obedience to the LORD as we seek his face for our ministry to change lives of those bound both physically and spiritually. Informing and Igniting our Generation to Combat the Emergency of Global Sex Trafficking is a huge call, and we definitely feel the weight of it.

If you are interested in having a LIFTED event on your college campus or at your church, please contact us at liftedevents@gmail.com.

Also if you have a testimony from LIFTED BOONE that you would like to share and you don't mind being posted on the LIFTED event page, please send it to liftedevents@gmail.com.

Lifted Boone

Expectant

Lifted: Boone is this Saturday at Alliance Bible Fellowship in Boone, NC. The event will begin at 7pm (doors open at 6:30).

Hearts will be moved.

Lives will be changed-- both here and across the globe.

One of my favorite posts on the Lifted Blog was Sam's post giving accolade to all of the different people who are involved with Lifted. This really is a team effort. Though I've technically been the one who has spear-headed these events, because of a vision the LORD gave me last year, it's always just been His. It's always been through a team of people I dearly love, that these events have been made possible.

So I want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone in Raleigh on the Lifted team.

And one more time I'd like to send a shout-out to the Lifted Promotional Team. We have been so amazed at both the amount and creativity of promotion in Boone. You will be blessed in return for your tireless work.

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

Psalm 5:3

-Cat

It's Crunch Time!

T-minus 12 days until the LIFTED: BOONE event!

So what does that mean for us?

What does that mean for you?

What that means for us is:

• Plans are materializing.
• Everyone knows what they have to do, it's just time to do it!
• Lots of praying, that the Lord will continue to go before us and prepare the atmosphere, hearts, and our hands for His work.
• Last minute details that can only be addressed as the event gets closer.
• Excitement, Anticipation, and telling people we know about what's going on.

What that means for you is:

• Feel invited. Whether you can come to the event or not, we want you to be involved in this night specifically.
• If you're coming, tell people you know about the event. Tell your professors, your friends, your roommates, and your classmates. Child sex trafficking is a global pandemic which appears in every country and every culture. It affects you and me whether or not we see it. Here's a chance to come together for an evening to face the issue head-on, to look it in the eye and dare to respond.
• If you're coming, come as you are. You are welcome to come not knowing any information or statistics whatsoever about child sex trafficking, and you are welcome to come informed on whatever level.
• If you're coming, pray. Pray for opportunities to connect with others about the event and the issue. Pray for hearts to be soft to respond.
• If you are not able to come, PRAY! You are our front-line. Prayer is our most effective tool! Pray for hearts to be soft and responsive. Pray for the atmosphere to be thick with the Spirit of the Lord, and for our ears to be open to how He wants to present Himself.
• If you are not able to come, let us know how we can connect you. Is there somewhere near you where a LIFTED event can be hosted? Would you like a live stream of the BOONE event?

We are so excited about this night. We will continue to keep you updated as our plans come to fruition with this event!

-Sam

Meet the Team

The thing I love about LIFTED is that it is not necessarily a set group of people that make up the team. The LIFTED team is a cooperative of people, of volunteers, that are so moved by the issue of trafficking that they are using their time, efforts, and talents to make these events happen. By giving our efforts to the Lord, He is giving grace and sharing how much He cares about this issue, more than we can or ever could.

Just for the sake of familiarity and showing some faces behind the names and websites, I thought it'd be a good idea to do a brief run through of who we are. To those who have helped in big ways and in small details, thank you for being a part of our team.

Catherine

Moved by the information about trafficking presented through Remember Nhu, Catherine decided to create an EP of original piano compositions inspired by her response to the issue. She decided to sell the EPs and donate the proceeds to Remember Nhu. Unbeknownst to anyone, this was to be the birth of LIFTED events. Catherine's EP release became a night of music from herself and others, information about Remember Nhu and trafficking as a whole, powerful testimonies, and most importantly, an invitation for people to respond.

Right now, Catherine works as a teacher at a year-round school. She spends her afternoons and track-out times corresponding, planning, and praying for LIFTED. At the LIFTED events, you could see Catherine speaking briefly on stage, playing piano, worshipping, and running to and fro answering questions.

Jessica

Jessica is a talented musician, and serves at church alongside Catherine. Moved by the issue like Catherine, Jess has used her talents in event-planning, stage production, and music to help the LIFTED events come to life. She has also been an integral partner with Catherine in the overall vision of what LIFTED events is, their focus and drive. Jess has used her talents with web design to help with LIFTED's website.

At the event you could see Jess on stage singing her original music with her band, the Rag Tag Army, leading worship, or accompanying other musicians with their original music. You might also find her at the sound board or at info tables, or her merch table, answering any questions/selling CDs. Like Catherine, she can and will be anywhere and everywhere, helping where needed.

Dan

Dan and his sweet family have been involved in Catherine and Jess' lives since middle school through church, and have been involved with LIFTED from the beginning. Dan is a talented speaker and truly has a heart to seek the Lord's heart on specific issues.

He has served as one of the main speakers at the LIFTED events. Dan brings the point home as to what this issue has to do with us, and how we can respond. Dan also uses his talents in event-planning and stage production to drive the overall production of the event. He helps plan where the stage goes, what it looks like, and the overall aesthetics and mood.

At the event, you could find Dan on a lift setting up lights, around the stage setting up, and on stage during the event speaking.

Josiah - audiovisual

Jude - audiovisual

Steph - stage and audio

Whitney - prayer, planning, art

John - music and speaking

Dustin - music and speaking

Daniel - music and speaking

Erin - prayer

Sam - music, cultural info, intern

The Families

Walkers, MacDonalds, and Drummonds (to name a few)

Nathan - promo and music

& The Boone Promo Team

There's no way to list every person who has given of their time and efforts, but this is a good introduction to at least a part of the team. We don't do this for us, so our names can be affiliated with an effort that's larger than ourselves. We do this because we are moved, Jesus has moved something inside of us. We SO hope that we will see you at the Boone event, or later this year at our other events.

-Sam

... and Praying

This week, LIFTED has welcomed a new member to our team! Erin Harr has jumped on board as an intercessor and advocate in prayer for LIFTED's ministry. Erin's website is www.prayertreeproject.com. Please visit to find out more about her prayer ministry. It is so encouraging to have her with us and to know that someone is covering this ministry in prayer. From the big issues of the ministry to the smallest details of our personal lives, Erin is listening and joining with us to pray.

On Monday, we discussed the event in Boone at length, covering production plans, stage dimensions, and the schedule of the evening, just to name a few things! So many hands are going into this event, hands of people we don't even know, and we are humbled at the help of so many. The Lord is truly preparing the way, and our prayer is that we yield to what He wants to do and how He wants to do it. We can't drive the point home about the crisis of global sex trafficking outside of the context of who He is, or in our own strength. Please pray with us!

We also discussed the potential of another full-blown LIFTED event in our home town, Raleigh. It's definitely going to happen (hooray!), but we're working out the big issues of when and where. Again, we are praying for guidance as we make these decisions! Many different churches in our area are becoming more aware of the issue of sex trafficking, and the LIFTED team is excited to prepare a chance for many different bodies to come together to respond.

Planning and Preparing

Hey everyone!

Since we returned from our trip to Thailand and Cambodia we've had to jump right back into the swing of things (work, obligations, etc.), but not without sifting through some of the things we saw and experienced overseas.

First things first - a HUGE thank you to those of you who prayed while we were there! We couldn't have done what we did without that support, and we felt it the whole time. Hopefully we will be able to post a more thorough collection of pictures from our trip! There are many stories to tell, and in time we hope to share them all.

What have we been up to since our trip?

The past two weeks, we've met with our families, church families, and friends to share and testify about our trip. We've finally gotten back on the right sleep schedule and have returned to work and life in Raleigh. So this week, we were finally able to tackle a few things on our list of to-do's.

Our upcoming event in Boone (March 27th) is well underway with planning and preparations! We have an incredible team of students from Appalachian State who have been promoting steadily since the beginning of the semester. Our hope is to draw as many students and members of the community as we can by making sure they have at least heard about the event. Here are a few pictures of their promo so far:

Thanks you guys!! We want as many people to know about the event as possible, and as many people to learn more about the sex trafficking crisis as possible.

We'll be upping the promo steadily until the event, with more flyers, promo video showings, and even event t-shirts!

We will be partnering with an organization called sixty1, which has a home and programs in India. There will be informational booths for LIFTED, Remember Nhu, sixty1, and other organizations with similar hearts and purposes. These events are such a great opportunity to come together and connect for one cause.

We'll keep you updated with stories and pictures from our trip, as well as our event in Boone!

A Blog in Pictures...

The past two days we: Went to a Hill Tribe where R Nhu finds girls, enjoyed a cultural dinner, rode an elephant, visited an AIDS orphanage, and heard some more cool songs in Thai...

Hello from Chiang Mai

I think we are probably going to blog about our experience with Night Light eventually, but I don't know if we'll have time to do it in-country. I will say that we were able to speak with a girl who wanted a way out of the industry and we were able to show her how to get out. Please pray for her. Call her "Hope." Thank you to everyone who was praying. We could definitely feel it!


We arrived in Chiang Mai on Saturday afternoon and went to visit the girls at the "Garden of Eden." We had a blast there. They cooked us an awesome dinner, pumpkin curry! We've heard Stef speak a lot of Thai, but having her laugh and talk with the girls is our favorite so far. She's GOOD :-) There is a new girl who just came. Every time I see a girl who has been brought to a R Nhu home I think about what they've been saved from and it's amazing to watch them laugh, sing, dance, and play. Today we went to church with them which was sweet. While we are here we will visit Agape ministries which is a home AIDS orphans. We will also visit a temple and do a few other cultural things that really help understand some of the issues in the country.

Here you can watch Stef with the girls :-)

We are back in Bangkok! Yesterday was spent at a place called Chab Dai which is a Coalition for Christian organizations that exist to prevent the abuse of or do after care for abused children. We got to look around their library and were given a flash drive full of information that we (especially Sam) can use for Lifted.

www.chabdai.org

We also spent more time at the girls' home in Phnom Penh, and took the girls out for ice cream!

This morning we went to the river one more time to give fruit to the kids living in the slums. Today one of the children (a baby) that has been given over to the Enemy by their parents walked up to me so I was able to pray over her some more. These kids have absolutely nothing.

Tomorrow night we go to Night Light ministries at 6:00.

Please check out their website, www.nightlightministries.org

Today in my quiet time, the LORD gave me these verses. I'll leave you with them for now. He had been speaking these things to my heart and the next thing I knew I saw them on the page in front of me,

1 John 3:16-18

¹⁶This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.