Friday a few of us that are interested in human trafficking met with a young guy named Jeremy Vallerand. I met him a few months ago as he was training to make a climb to Mt. Reineer.
His love for climbing is something that God took and made into an extraodinary miracle.
Here it is: Jeremy got the idea two weeks before the climb to use it for a cause. Jeremy had been to India just a few months before and was his eyes were opened to the reality of human traffiicking. So, it was easy to identify that the procedes from the climb should go to an organization that is actively doing something about human trafficking.
He contacted his climbing buddies. They were in. Jeremy put together an excellent website: www.climbforcaptives.com and sent it out to a few friends. A few days later, Jeremy got the idea to make the goal, 14,441--one dollar for every foot they climb. A week before the climb, they had pledges of just 1,300, one thousand of it from one person.
So, this is where God used me. I urged Jeremy to fast and pray. I told him about the Aids Experience and how we were trickling funds for months, but once we called a day of prayer and fasting, the money couldn't flow in quick enough--we totally reached our goal of $201.000!
So, Jeremy contacted his climbing buddies and they fasted and prayed. When they left for the climb, less than one week later, they were very close to their goal of 14,441!
It turns out that they got to a point on their climb, they found out that no one had made it past for several days. They even spoke to one climber who had summitted 18 times and he warned them not to go.
But, faith was on this teams side. They decided to give it a try and see if they could make it to the top. The goal of summitting was bigger than their pride, it involved seeing real people being set free from slavery.
So, they took off. They just kept going. When they made it past every obstacle without incident, they realized that God had provided a path for them to get to the top!
God took an ordinary guy and did an extraordinary miracle. He took passions of several people and multiplied their passion into something that accomplishes his purpose.
This is the Missio Lux vision. God plants a passion, or unique dream, within us and then he gives us a purpose for how we can live out that passion to expand his kingdom. Like Jeremy, it doesn't have to be a "churchy" passion, it can be something everyone loves--it's just that when we are motivated to serve the King, life becomes all the more adventurous and the things that we do take on a much deeper meaning.
Jeremy is currently part of a grassroots effort to raise awareness for the movie Call and Response coming to play in Seattle the weekend of October 10-12. Following the movie, there were will a town meeting for those who want to get their hands dirty or their climbing boots out to see God take their ordinary lives and do extraodinary miracles.
See www.callandresponse.org for more info on the movie!
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