Doing What You Can, Where You Are

The following is a guest post from our faithful ZOE supporter, Tammy Bauer. We asked her to write this because, like most of us, she is an ordinary individual who wants to end child trafficking. Using her sphere of influence, gifts, and talents, she has found very creative ways to raise money and spread human trafficking awareness. As we launch our new program, My Gen My Fight, Tammy’s story fits right in and may provide you with ideas and inspiration.

I started my journey with ZOE on my first mission trip in January 2013. I had no idea what kind of journey God was preparing me for or where it would take me.

I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams these past three years since becoming involved with ZOE. My life was changed forever on that first trip and upon my return I was able to share what God had been doing in my life at a Women’s Conference in April 2013 in Rockford, Illinois.

Another blessing has been the opportunity my husband and I have had to use a hobby of ours to support ZOE. We make several different stained glass items throughout the year and sell them with all the proceeds going to ZOE. You might see some of our work in the ZOE office in Santa Clarita or maybe even in the home in Thailand! It is a joy to give to the important work of ZOE by doing something we love to do.

In November 2014, with much encouragement from ZOE’s LA office, I participated in the annual ZOE Rescue Walk by creating a team to walk in Fort Wayne, Indiana! I was able to come up with creative ways to raise funds for our team. We did things like having Jeans Day every Friday at work where everyone paid $3.00 to wear jeans. Our team raised $320 that first year of doing the walk.

This past year, 2015, I had the opportunity to return to THAILAND in February with a short term missions team. The team was made up of people from all over the United States. It was an amazing, life-changing trip! I came back rejuvenated and ready to continue to share the gospel and spread the word about stomping out Human Trafficking! I was able to get my work involved again and we started having jeans day every Friday, leading up to our second annual Indiana ZOE Rescue Walk. My work also decided to have a Fall Chili Party at my house where we had piñatas for the kids, canvas painting, hayrides, corn hole tournaments, chili cook-offs, and last but not least s’mores cooked over the fire! It was so much fun to see so many people getting involved in this fight. We took donations at the party and raised $600! We later raised another $400 for the walk, meeting my goal of $1,000.00!!!

The blessings continued as I had another opportunity to speak at a women’s tea on December 5th and raised another $210 for ZOE. We also collected a ton of donations for the children of ZOE! See the pictures below! It is a joy and privilege to be used by God in this way to do my part to help end child trafficking. So as you can see, I have been BEYOND BLESSED BY GOD!!