I was just advised today by our Legal Committee that we should have no zoning problems with the land that is being offered to us!  What a great blessing!  We have been working for over two years in trying to prepare a recovery home for girls who desperately need one and now we can finally begin the building process.  I will contact our builder today to make a plan for proceeding. 

     Our goal is to build the home in a Habitat for Humanity style so if you are a builder, supplier, have building/decorating experience or simply want to help, now is the time to contact us!  We are hoping to receive donations of materials, furnishings, clothes, food and money during the next month or two so we can finish this home before winter.  Simultaneously we will be preparing for our group home license review which cannot take place until we have absolutely everything in place; furniture, dressers, clothes for the girls, food, etc.  Please keep checking our website for information about volunteering and donations.

    The Daughter Project Donation Policy

• We will only accept new items.
• No used, slightly used or like new items will be accepted.

     We realize that some potential donors will be offended by this policy.  However, our focus is on the girls under our care more so than the perspective of the donor.  Most of our girls have never owned anything new!    In addition to this, they view themselves as worthless and have great difficulty trusting others.  We believe giving them only new items, as we care for them, will show them that we believe & know they are valuable people who deserve to be respected and loved. 

     God is the inspiration for The Daughter Project so we believe offering a donation to us is the same as offering a donation to Him and as King David said, “…I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”  We hope donors will respect our donation policy.  If not, we encourage them to support another ministry or work.

Jeremiah 9 – “This is what the Lord says, ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.”

Isaiah 41 – “The poor and needy search for water but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.  But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.  I will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys.  I will turn the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs.  I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.  I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

     The girls we are preparing to help are living in an unbearable desert but we know God has not forsaken them.  He will use us to turn their parched ground into springs of living water.  Moreover, as the title of this post suggests, we are extremely close to finalizing our land deal.  We have had about a half dozen prospects for land since April but our latest donor is very generous and committed.  The only thing remaining is for our Legal Committee to wrap-up the zoning details.  Once this happens, hopefully some time in September, then we will make the official announcement and begin to ask for volunteers & donors to build & furnish the home. 

     At this time, we want to ask all of you who have been praying so faithfully in this matter to please pray us through these final details!  Thank you all for your patience and for those of you who are not yet involved with us in any way other than reading these posts, then please ask God what role He wants you to play.  We are all gifted by Him and He may have given you a specific gift to use at TDP.  God bless us all as we trust Him with our lives and with this important work of helping girls recover from the incredible abuses of trafficking.  The effects of trafficking are powerful but not more powerful than the blood of Jesus Christ!

Latest Volunteers To Answer God’s Call To Help

• A master gardener to help with flower & vegetable gardens at the recovery home
• A children’s victim advocate has joined our Healing & Legal Committee meetings
• Another RN has joined our Healing Committee
• Two graphic artists have joined our Fundraising Committee
• A licensed counselor/pastor has joined our Healing Committee
• A technical writer has joined our Policy/Procedure team

     Here are some of the latest happenings at TDP.

1. One new House Mom & three new Mentor applicants are going through their interview process.
2.  A great evening of Equine Therapy training for some of our Mentors & committee members.
3. Meeting with the elders of a local church to finalize plans about land.  Hoping to have an answer about zoning before the end of this week.
4. Another church is interested in helping us with land.  Possible plans include building a second recovery home on their property that will specialize in girls with children of their own.
5. A wonderfully generous and recently married couple are leaving for China soon and they have donated all their wedding gifts that they cannot take with them to TDP for our girls.
6. Eleven beautiful, hand-made quilts have been donated by an extremely generous, godly woman for our girls to have once we build a recovery home for them.
7. Our Healing Committee members are searching the city for godly service providers; ob/gyn, pediatricians, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, drug addiction specialists, dentists, optometrists and others who will care for our girls.
8. The Legal Committee has determined the best employee policy for our House Moms so we are now prepared to officially hire them as soon as the land deal is finalized.
9. Meeting this week for our House Mom training team to prepare for additional training.
10. Arrangements are being made through a local security firm to screen everyone who will have contact with our girls.
11. The Greater Toledo House of Prayer has dedicated Monday evenings from 6 to 10 p.m. to pray for victims of trafficking, human rights, justice issues and TDP.  Please consider joining them.

Please pray for all the items above; especially that we will not grow weary in pursuing land and that God will give us favor in zoning & other final details.

God will not be mocked; consider the following passages:

Proverbs 21 – “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”

Matthew 25 – “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?’  He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  Then they will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life.” 

Psalm 11 – “In the Lord I take refuge.  How then can you say to me, ‘Flee like a bird to your mountain…’”

     Many of the Psalms remind us to continue to take refuge in God even when other people tell us to flee; to not trust Him.  This is part of the foundation of The Daughter Project; we strive to trust God.  He loves us and the girls we want to help more than we can imagine so He will surely provide all we need to successfully build & operate a recovery home for them.

     This is our 52nd weekly post on our website so this is our “web-posting” first year anniversary.  Thank you to each of you who continue to return to read these updates about our progress at TDP.  Moreover, thank you to the many people who have done so much more than simply read about TDP and have chosen to join our work as well.

     In terms of our House Moms, one of the three has resigned to pursue graduate studies at Moody Bible but we will be interviewing another excellent candidate this Tuesday to replace her.  Also, we have already selected three Mentors and we have three more candidates to interview.  Please pray for all of this as well as…

• Meetings with 2 pastors this week
• Thanks for an attorney to investigate employee relations policies & procedures
• Successful Equine Therapy training session with Moms & Mentors this week
• Thanks for an insurance agent who has arranged Board & Employee Liability for TDP
• Successful meeting with land representative
• Thanks for another godly doctor who has volunteered to be a service provider
• Possible church missions event on September 10
• Thanks for another Adopt-A-Daughter participant