A Recipe For Hope

Some problems are so big that it seems like there is no way to fix them.  Ever.  So why try?  Sex trafficking is one of those issues for me.  For one thing, I’d rather not ruin my day with the sordid details.  The facts literally turn my stomach, and send me somewhere dark that I really don’t want to go.  But the truth is that Jesus has called us to be the light in dark places, and the number of dark places in this case are drastically on the increase. And not only in far off and forgotten places, but right here in the United States.

Recently I wrote about a girl who had been abducted and taken to a neighborhood near mine where she was handcuffed to a bed for three years.  The problem is no longer one that can be easily ignored.  But how does one person make a difference?

Today I am writing about one such person.  Chantelle Thompson is a young woman with a world wide view.  An Australian living in the Chicago area, she found a way to not only change her world, but to allow others to change it with her.  As a member of Family Harvest Church, she was asked to come up with a project for Bella, the ministry for women at the church.  She immediately thought of the Kwagala Project, which she had heard of at an earlier women’s event.

The Kwagala Project founded by Kristen Hendricks, is a small Chicago based ministry working both here and abroad to inform the public about human trafficking and to rescue its victims.  Kristen started by donating the proceeds from a small custom purse business she had founded. The charity has grown beyond her business and now provides Northern Uganda’s first rehabilitative residence for sexually exploited girls, as well as vocational training and school scholarships.

What was Chantelle’s idea?  A church cookbook.  I know what you’re thinking.  You’re imagining one of those comb bound cookbooks with endless pages of jello molds and 27 slight variations on chicken with rice.  Instead, Bella’s Favorites is a beautiful hard cover book with over 225 family recipes and full color photos.  The genius of this idea is that everyone was able to contribute in part toward helping girls break free, from recipe donations to photo shoots and food artists, to the proud new owners of Bella’s Favorites. Chantelle planned tasting parties not only for the benefit of the contributors, but also so that pictures could be taken of the dishes to be featured in the book.

The cookbook premiered and sold out at the Bella Making Life Beautiful Conference, and Chantelle and the ministry are already planning a second edition. have printed a second edition!

Please visit the Kwagala website to see how you can contribute to their very worthy cause.  THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX…There ARE ways YOU can make a difference.  Chantelle did, and she was kind enough to bring me along with her.

 

Linking with Amazing Ann