2018-2019 ICCM Christmas Giving Guide

It’s our honor at ICCM to participate in God’s liberating work among His beloved poor and those sometimes referred to as His “cherished missing.” Our focus is on impoverished children. Some of these children risk being trafficked and literally imprisoned. Our words and actions can protect them from exploitation. Many children born into poverty have … Read more

2018 Freedom Sunday

Philip, the ICCM Cambodia National Coordinator (pictured below) shared this in a text: “The picture you used in Tuesday’s Child broke my heart. The girl (pictured here on the left) has left school. She is working in Thailand; she has a younger sister in the program, we fear for her future. We are all praying … Read more

Grandma Nana’s Corner

For several years I have been looking for an opportunity to visit Cantinho da Vovó Naná (Grandma Nana’s Corner – named after the woman who donated the original house and land), in Ibirité, Minas Gerais, Brazil. My opportunity came in August. This child development center is also located in an area plagued by drug trafficking.  … Read more

Amazing Ministry to Children

I spent two days at Todo Mundo Feliz (Everyone’s Happy) in late August.  This top-notch child development center was started by the Mirandopolis Free Methodist Church in São Paulo, Brazil.  It was deliberately established right on the edge of a slum area where drug traffickers are the law.  Todo Mundo Feliz (TMF) was begun in … Read more

Restavek Freedom

“Restavek” is a system of domestic servitude in Haiti. Long tolerated in the culture, it is finally being brought into the light and recognized as a form of child slavery. When I first began as Director of ICCM in 2008, I learned about the restavek arrangement, whereby extremely poor parents, usually from the countryside, send … Read more

To a Child, Five Years is a Long Time!

Freedom Sunday 2011 featured our first anti-trafficking project, the Lahu Hostel in Thailand. For five years, 20 vulnerable children have lived together in safety, learned about life and God, attended school and experienced a future and a hope they would not have known without our care. This was my first visit to meet the children … Read more

Sheltering Arms

The acronym “TLC” is often used in place of the words “tender, loving care”. About 14 girls, ranging in age from 5 to 17, are in the sheltering arms of the Free Methodist Church in Bogotá, Colombia, and most directly being nourished and protected by a woman they all call Mama Ruth. Through her, they receive … Read more

Changing Futures in Addis Abada

The streets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, teem with children. They shine shoes, sell gum, and do whatever they can to survive. Unfortunately, these kids are vulnerable to traffickers. Child slavery is big business in Ethiopia, where almost 400,000 people, mostly women, and children, are held against their will and forced to work in ways they … Read more