Reclaimed's 2018 Year in Review

It’s December, which means we’re bringing another fantastic year of ministry to a close! With these past twelve months came tons of amazing milestones. And some of our favorite ones are listed below!

IJM’s Liberate Prayer Gathering

When International Justice Mission (IJM) flew in its employees from all over the world to Dallas for their annual prayer gathering, Liberate, Reclaimed and Watermark (in addition to other churches and ministries) stepped up by sending volunteers to love and serve IJM’s faithful employees.

Sermons at Watermark

While he was in town for Liberate, IJM’s founder Gary Haugen spoke at Watermark’s Sunday services and The Porch! Click the links below to watch both sermons and be encouraged by the truth he shared.

We Are God's Plan A

Dignity of Responsibility 

New Roots Study Books AND One-Day Study

This year, we updated our curriculum with a new design and revised content. The new book debuted shortly before we held our first one-day study, which featured two panels, a prayer tour, and more! Our next one-day study is on Jan. 26, 2019, so register now if you haven't gone through the Roots study yet!

Watermark Apartment at Restored Hope Ministries

One of the ministries we partner with purchased an apartment complex where women with children could live while participating in their recovery program, and graduates of the safe house also can live there. Watermark specifically sponsored one of the apartments, and a Restored Hope graduate is currently living there! We also did another work day at the apartments—painting, planting, and cleaning to serve the current and future residents!

Motel Outreach Successes and Expansions

This year, hotel/motel outreach volunteers received tips about several missing girls. They also expanded their routes to include other places where missing and prostituted women might be found such as bus stops.

Reclaimed T-Shirts!

At long last, our volunteers have official Reclaimed shirts! If you’re a volunteer and missed the chance to pick your shirt up at our December volunteer meeting, email us at Reclaimed@watermark.org to get yours.

If you want to stay up to date on our next milestones or be part of them, like us on Facebook and sign up for our newsletter to hear about latest Reclaimed happenings and to learn more about how you can get involved in 2019!

2017 Year in Review!

2017 was a big year for Reclaimed with events, partnerships, and serving opportunities that many of you participated in. A few of our favorite moments from the year are listed below!

Hotel/Motel Outreach

Last year, we began a new partnership with the ministries Poiema and Rescue Her, which has given both Reclaimed volunteers and Unashamed teams the opportunity to help create awareness at Dallas hotels and motels about missing minors who are vulnerable to sex traffickers.

Restored Hope Ministries Work Day

Reclaimed teamed up with Watermark's Single Adults Ministry on June 25 to paint, clean, and plant a garden at the apartment building owned by Restored Hope Ministries! Thanks to their hard work, graduates from the safe house and women seeking healing from the ministry who have children can have safe, beautiful housing!

Glow Breakout Session

At Watermark's annual day of beauty, Glow, on July 17, we hosted a room that focused on skin care, natural beauty, and the beauty that comes from knowing Christ. You can watch the video on our Facebook page!

Impact Awareness Event

At an event after The Porch on July 18, over a hundred young adults learned about the basics of sex trafficking as well as our over-sexualized culture and helped put together materials for that month's serving opportunities. This led to...

Reclaimed's Largest Study To Date

In August, over fifty people took our five-week study! This means that many more people are now more educated about sex trafficking, its causes, and how they are uniquely wired to fight it no matter where they work and serve!

Noteworthy

We teamed up with Noteworthy to write cards for a cause on October 29! Attendees wrote notes to encourage the hotel and motel staff members we would come in contact with at our hotel/motel outreach in November.

Give & Go Boxes

During this holiday giving campaign, the church body donated over a hundred boxes of supplies, which went to the Restored Hope Ministries safe house! This helped raise awareness in the church body which providing much need resources to a life-changing ministry here in Dallas!

If you want to keep up with us and jump in all of the great things we have planned for 2018, like our Facebook page and sign up for our mailing list!

12 Days of Reclaimed 2017!

From Nov. 24 to Dec. 6, we featured a variety of companies who fight trafficking with fabulous, trendy, and useful products on our Facebook page. This Christmas, you can give the gift of freedom by buying products from companies who help impoverished people make a living wage so they won't be vulnerable to traffickers, donate funds to partner nonprofits who fight trafficking, and more! Below is a recap of the 12 (+1) companies we chose to feature!

DAY 1: High Point Supply Co.

We’re kicking off the 12 Days of Reclaimed with a hometown favorite: High Point Supply Co.! This Dallas boutique sells goods that help you fight poverty and justice. The items below along with others specifically raise money for anti-trafficking efforts.
https://www.highpointsupplyco.com/anti-trafficking 

DAY 2: Free the Birds

Today, we’re featuring Steve Moakler’s Free the Birds t-shirt! 100% of the proceeds are given to non-profit organizations that fight to end human sex trafficking and serve the women and children who have been trapped in it.
https://stevemoakler-cannonballmerch.com/products/free-the-birds-tee 

DAY 3: Jesus Said Love

Did you know that Jesus Said Love has its own online store called Lovely? Even if you don’t serve with their ministry through Reclaimed, you can still support their efforts by purchasing apparel, home goods, and more featuring awareness messages in trendy designs.
https://squareup.com/store/lovelyenterprises

Day 4: Purpose Jewelry

Purpose Jewelry provides professional opportunities to young women rescued from sex trafficking while creating beautiful jewelry, gifts, and more! Their nonprofit, International Sanctuary, and includes education, health care, and counseling.
http://www.purposejewelry.org/

DAY 5: Thistle Farms

Thistle Farms has gifts for her and for him! They’re a powerful global community of women healing from prostitution, trafficking and addiction that employs 50 survivors through their social enterprises.
http://thistlefarms.org/

DAY 6: Good Paper

Good Paper's greeting cards give you the opportunity to send Christmas cheer to your loved ones as you support sex trafficking survivors abroad! Their cardmakers are women who have escaped sex trafficking in the Philippines and young adults orphaned by disease in Rwanda.
http://www.goodpaper.com/

1

DAY 7: Fight The New Drug
Fight The New Drug’s mission is to raise awareness about the harmful effects of pornography, which greatly fuels the demand for trafficking. They also have an online store that sell apparel and other items, which make great conversation starters!
https://store.fightthenewdrug.org/

DAY 8: Made for Freedom

Fight human trafficking in style with these gorgeous products from @MadeforFreedom!  By employing impoverished women at a living wage, they help prevent them from turning to sweat shop labor, explotation, or sex trafficking.Visit their website for clothes, accessories, bags, and more!
http://madeforfreedom.com/ 

DAY 9: Mulxiply
Mulxiply’s mission is to stabilize economies in the developing world through creating dignified jobs by investing in indigenous, artisanal businesses who collaborate to produce our contemporary designs via age-old techniques. Their well-crafted products make the perfect gifts for the men and women in your list! 
http://www.mulxiply.com/

DAY 10: Sari Bari

Sari Bari doesn’t just create amazing bags, home décor, and apparel. They give women who have been exploited in the sex trade or who are vulnerable to trafficking a change to experience a new life in the making. They provide employment in a safe, loving environment, where women are trained as artisans. 
http://saribari.com/

DAY 11: Citizen&Darling
Citizen&Darling is a is a clothing line with products for men, women, and babies designed to build awareness and support to the ever growing epidemic of modern day slavery and human trafficking. https://citizenanddarling.com/

DAY 12: Elegantees

The organic cotton Elegantees uses for its products is ethically grown and traded, so it doesn’t promote exploitation! Plus, their nonprofit partner rescues over 20,000 women and children each year at the border of Nepal-India from sex trafficking.
https://elegantees.com/ 

BONUS! DAY 13: Altar'd State

While Reclaimed is all about fighting trafficking, we also wanted to highlight Altar'd State! 100 percent of the proceeds from their hurricane relief merchandise will go to Convoy of Hope to help those impacted by hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.
http://www.altardstate.com/hurricane-relief

2016 Brands

Here are a few of the brands we featured last year!

Eden Ministry: http://edenministry.org/
FASHIONABLE: https://www.livefashionable.com/
Freeset: http://freesetglobal.com/
JOYN India: http://www.joynindia.com/
Love Calcutta Arts: http://lovecalcuttaarts.com/ 
Malia Designs: http://www.maliadesigns.com/
Rahab’s Rope: http://www.rahabsrope.org/
Sudara: https://www.sudara.org/

12 Days of Reclaimed

Starting on Dec. 1, we began sharing businesses and nonprofits that sell amazing gifts that you can give this Christmas. These organizations fight sex trafficking in various ways, so you can rest assured that as you give to your loved ones, you're also giving to trafficking survivors around the world! Below is a list of all twelve companies that you can shop from this Christmas and all year long!

 DAY 1: Eden Ministry

http://edenministry.org/

Eden Ministry sells gorgeous jewelry (such as the Change the World Collection, pictured here) that serves a higher purpose: To restore freedom for the captives of Asia’s red light districts through holistic programs that transform the body, mind and spirit. They even provide career and skill training, which empowers women for a new life and future.

DAY 2: Sari Bari 

http://saribari.com/

Sari Bari doesn’t just create amazing bags, home décor, and apparel. They give women who have been exploited in the sex trade or who are vulnerable to trafficking a change to experience a new life in the making. They provide employment in a safe, loving environment, where women are trained as artisans.

DAY 3: PURPOSE Jewelry

 http://www.purposejewelry.org/

PURPOSE Jewelry provides professional opportunities to young women rescued from sex trafficking while creating beautiful jewelry. Their nonprofit, International Sanctuary,

and includes education, health care, and counseling.

DAY 4: Rahab’s Rope 

http://www.rahabsrope.org/

Rahab's Rope sells boho chic scarves, bags, accessories, and jewelry to give hope, but their real mission is to give hope and opportunity to women and girls who are at risk or have been forced into the commercial sex trade of India. With their help, the women and girls grow and develop physically, mentally, and spiritually.

DAY 5: Thistle Farms

http://thistlefarms.org/ 

Thistle Farms has gifts for her and for him! They’re a powerful global community of women healing from prostitution, trafficking and addiction that employs 50 survivors through their social enterprises.

DAY 6: JOYN India

http://www.joynindia.com/

JOYN is a socially-conscious fashion brand that sells handbags, wallets/clutches, accessories and more that are 100% handmade my local artisans, who are provided with steady jobs, education, vocational training, medical, and a daily meal plan.

DAY 7: Love Calcutta Arts

http://lovecalcuttaarts.com/  

Love Calcutta Artsis known not just for their cards/stationary, notebooks, and sari blankets but also for providing girls with the economic freedom of a job as they promote their holistic freedom in an effort to restore their sense of dignity and self-worth. 

DAY 8: FASHIONABLE

https://www.livefashionable.com/

FASHIONABLE's beautifully designed leather products, jewelry, scarves and more create jobs for women around the world! The company originally started when Barrett (one of the founders) was living in Ethiopia and met women coming out of the commercial sex industry who were in need of jobs. 

DAY 9: Freeset

http://freesetglobal.com/

Freeset sells trendy bags, scarves, and tshirts. This fair trade business offers employment to women trapped in Kolkata's sex trade. Their goal to see the 10,000 sex workers in their neighborhood empowered with the choice of leaving a profession they never chose in the first place.

DAY 10: Sudara 

https://www.sudara.org/

Sudara's PUNJAMMIES® can help the men and women on your gift list stay cozy, comfy while they support a cool cause! These items are made proudly in India by women working to remain free from sex slavery. 

DAY 11: Good Paper

http://www.goodpaper.com/

Good Paper's greeting cards give you the opportunity to send Christmas cheer to your loved ones as you support sex trafficking survivors abroad! Their cardmakers are women who have escaped sex trafficking in the Philippines and young adults orphaned by disease in Rwanda. 

DAY 12: Malia Designs

http://www.maliadesigns.com/

 creates messenger, tote, and cosmetic bags as well as many other recycled and fair trade products. Their goal is to increase economic opportunity for women in Cambodia and to support organizations that fight human trafficking in Southeast Asia.

North Texas Giving Day 2016

This Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016, is North Texas Giving Day! For seven years, the Communities Foundation of Texas hosts an online day of fundraising for various North Texas nonprofits. Last year alone, $33 million was raised through more than 118,000 gifts benefitting 2,020 nonprofits. Gifts of at least $25 are also eligible to receive bonus funds. This year, several of the ministries Reclaimed partners with are participating in North Texas Giving Day. If you're interested in impacting the fight against trafficking this North Texas Giving Day, read on to learn more about these life-changing organizations that are participating and how you can support them.

New Friends New Life

Website: http://www.newfriendsnewlife.org

Mission: New Friends New Life restores and empowers formerly trafficked girls and sexually exploited women and their children.

Our Partnership: For the last few years Reclaimed has been excited to partner with New Friends New Life in their mission to empower women leaving the sex industry. They weekly host recovery classes and Reclaimed has invested in this time of recovery through assisting with childcare activities as well as providing dinner and hosting the women during the dinners beforehand. Reclaimed members serve with New Friends New Life regularly, but even if you don't volunteer with us, you can join us twice a year when we invite the entire church to serve dinner with us and host the women well.

Donate Now

Redeemed Ministries

Website: http://redeemedministries.com

Mission: The mission of Redeemed Ministries is to provide survivor care for women victims of sex trafficking that enables them to lead restored, healthy and productive lives; to increase awareness in our communities of the issues and atrocities of human trafficking; and to advocate for victims of trafficking. We accomplish this in partnerships with churches, law enforcement, and social service organizations.

Our Partnership: We met Dallas' leadership for Redeemed about two years ago and have been excited to work together on unique projects since then. Redeemed has helped us in educating our volunteers through their available podcasts, coming to speak at events, and keeping us in the know with what they're learning as they grow their Dallas operations. We've also had the chance to work with Redeemed in caring for women leaving trafficking that are in crisis, needing the church to step in and host them until they can safely leave their situation and be set up for long term success. As Redeemed continues to bring some of they lessons they learned in their Houston hub up to Dallas, we're excited to grow and learn with them!

Donate Now

Traffick911

Website: http://www.traffick911.com

Mission: Traffick911's mission is to free youth from sex trafficking through a three-prong strategy of prevention, identification and empowerment. We serve youth ages 12 to 17 that have been victimized by sex traffickers and work to equip youth and adults to not become sex buyers.

Our Partnership: Years before Reclaimed even existed Watermark worked with Traffick911 to bring awareness and prevention education to Dallas prior to Superbowl XLV which was the first to be hosted in the DFW area. Now, Reclaimed is excited to have volunteers serving with Traffick911 regularly and consistently as they go into juvenile detention centers and present on the dangers of trafficking and help identify children that have been involved. We look forward to continuing to partner with them in the fight against Trafficking.

Donate Now

Of course, there are many other worthy ministries and nonprofits raising funds on North Texas Giving Day. Watermark also has a very thoughtfully written blog about how to give wisely on North Texas Giving Day and every other day for that matter. For a full list of nonprofits and to see real-time results on Sept. 22, visit the Leaderboards. To learn more about North Texas giving Day, visit their website.

Meet an Abolitionist: Taylor Almquist

BRINGING THE HOPE OF CHRIST TO THE DARKNESS

Reclaimed leadership team member Taylor Almquist with her husband, John

I was first exposed to true poverty during my junior year of college at a church in Waco called Church Under the Bridge. Out of that experience, God awakened a deep desire in my heart to respond with some form of mission or non-profit work. Shortly after, I discovered Word Made Flesh (WMF), an international organization committed to serve Jesus among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor.

When researching WMF, there was one trip that stuck out: Kolkata, India, where I would have the chance to work with women who had been trapped in the sex trade. The previous year, I had gone through a deep depression and only walked out by trusting the hope and light found in Christ. While I didn’t personally understand the evil of trafficking, I wanted to bring these women the same hope and light that I had found in Christ — the solution to it all. Despite everything else going on in my life (job applications, college graduation, etc…), I knew that I was being pulled to go to Kolkata. Just a week after accepting a job offer, I heard back from WMF, and I was invited to join in on the four month trip that fall. By God’s grace and hand in it all, the company deferred my start date. Within a few short months, I was in India.

I remember stepping off the plane like it was yesterday … I had just met the two women in the Dallas and Frankfurt airports with whom I would spend the next four months learning, mourning, and fighting trafficking. We had each attempted to prepare for the realities of trafficking leading up to the trip through reading, but the books only say so much. Our time in Kolkata was mainly spent working alongside and building relationships (no matter how broken our Bangla) with the women of Sari Bari, an organization created by WMF that employs women leaving the trade. This enabled them to find alternate employment and also to seek healing and restoration found only in Christ.

Each day as we walked up the stairs to the Sari Bari units, people would greet us by saying “Joy Jisu,” which means “Praise the Lord!” We began each morning with a devotional and some of the sweetest praise and worship in Bangla. Soon after, the ladies would go to work sewing hand-made blankets and other goods made of recycled saris. This was a perfect metaphor for the beautiful work He was doing with their lives — old saris that had been left and broken were redeemed and made new. Sari Bari provides a space for the women to create these beautiful items, but also desires to raise up strong leaders and managers within the organization, further empowering them and the redeeming road ahead.

I went to India wanting to share the hope and love of Christ, but I took away so much more …

It was easy for me to be full of hatred toward the men and abusers of these women, but while I was there, the Lord tremendously softened my heart toward the ones I would have called enemies. I had not stopped to realize that the johns, pimps, madams, etc. are just as enslaved as the victims of trafficking are. The root of their pursuit for money, power, and pleasure is simply a desire to fill a void within, and it becomes a cycle for them. It was challenging to get a very close glimpse into each end of the spectrum of the trafficking world, and to find my heart flooded with compassion for the johns, pimps, and madams, etc … because they are people just like me — broken and in need of our savior, Jesus Christ.

Now I have the opportunity to educate people about the worth and dignity of women and men because of who they are in Christ. Through the leadership team at RECLAIMED, I’m able to connect with people, get them plugged in and help spur change here in Dallas. There is a quote we use in the curriculum by William Wilberforce that says,

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

I hope you’ll join with us in our next curriculum study and be part of the change!

One Year Anniversary!

Friends of RECLAIMED,

This time last year we had just finished officially launching RECLAIMED at Watermark’s Act to Impact Sunday. And now, a full year later we’re blown away by all that God has done in and through this ministry. Confident in the strategic direction the Lord had asked us to go, we moved forward. Now as we take a look back over the last year, we want to invite you to join us in praising Him for all that we saw happen.


SMALL GROUP KICKOFFS
This past year saw the launch of our first small group studies with 5 different groups going through the curriculum we had developed. The study gave them the chance to learn facts about trafficking, the root causes behind it, and ways individuals were uniquely created to fight it. We enjoyed watching each participant grow in their understanding of the issue and in their heart for those impacted by trafficking. Participants went on to serve with our ministry partners as well as continue with their existing areas of service armed with a new perspective on how to combat trafficking in their context. We’ve also been excited to see other churches and non-profits take interest in utilizing our study materials in their locations. We look forward to seeing it multiply across the city later this year.

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MAKING A SPLASH
In August of last year some of our content made big waves in social media, online, and in person. As the Exxxotica Porn Convention came to town, RECLAIMED worked to inform and empower the church in Dallas to make an educated argument for why a porn convention had no place in our city. We were overwhelmed as tens of thousands saw our content and had the chance to share within their networks why porn is harmful. We also partnered with Unashamed and the Porch to host a night of prayer outside the convention center during one of the nights of the conference. As the fate of the convention is currently being debated, we look forward to continuing to reach our city in relevant and winsome ways.

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AFFECTING CHANGE
Perhaps our favorite parts of this year where the opportunities we had to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty…both with the hard work of relationships as well as physically serving some of our ministry partners. From serving 250 meals with New Friends New Life, to partnering with IJM at their annual fundraising dinner, to low-key movie nights with the women of Restored Hope, even to fostering ongoing one on one relationships with women entrusted to our care, we saw God show up time and time again. Trafficked women walk through a number of difficult situations in the recovery and restoration process and we have counted it a privilege to be a part of that journey with them.


YEAR TWO
So what’s in store for year two? If we have a vote, it’d be for even more of the above. Will you join us?

The RECLAIMED Team