THE BOOK of LOVE!

    The long awaited Book of Love Project has finally come to fruition! For over a year our team has had the desire to equip ministries with a tool to effectively communicate the gospel to those involved in trafficking and sexual exploitation. With issues of worthlessness, and feeling unlovable by God being commonplace in Red-light districts across Europe, we set out with a goal to get the truth of the good news of Jesus into these places in all of the needed languages. 

After months of designing, planning, internships, and obtaining copy-write permissions, translating of supplemental content, and multi-lingual page layouts, we are finally able to hold the first three languages in our hands.

In a van packed with English, Czech,  and German Bibles,
we set out on our a tour to distribute the book and encourage ministries across Europe. Over two weeks, we hosted several events. Our team connected with seventeen different ministries and hundreds of people. We spoke about trafficking issues, Biblical justice and Biblical sexuality and true intimacy. We encouraged people to support their local red-light ministries, and equipped these ministries with over one-thousand books.

Over the course of the tour, we received great feedback about the book from the ministries who received it as well and the event attendees. We were able to connect with men who are inspired to take a stand against lust, and even women who have come out of the industry. It was great to see various ministries working in the same region coming together in unity. Several ministries are already reporting more involvement from local believers. We are excited that the Book of Love is off to a great start. 

In the coming weeks we will be printing and shipping the remaining three of our six languages (Bulgarian, Romanian, and Hungarian) and continuing to distribute the book to other ministries across Europe. We are continuing to receive requests from ministries across Europe who want to use the book as they reach out to those involved in trafficking and we are excited to finally be able to meet this need.

In the coming weeks our team will be
traveling back to Germany for a week
to teach in a Discipleship training school.

We will teach on Biblical justice, sexuality
and how to address issues of injustice by engaging in cultural transformation.

We are praying that we are able to
communicate God's heart for these issues
clearly, and in a way that inspires action.

New kids on the block

Greetings Family, and Friends, New and Old,

It has been a fun, stretching, renewing and growing first part of the year. For those of you that don’t know me, I am Theresa, and I get the privilege of being Sean’s wife. Some of you may be wondering who is this girl? Sean and I both come from "orange states" just 2,475 miles away, no big deal. Our paths didn't cross state side but in Herrnhut, Germany in 2010.  I love old Volkswagens, fairy tales, and the forest, with all of the magical creatures that live inside. I enjoy getting lost in books, especially ones with adventure. I can’t help but want to learn all sorts of handmade arts. We bonded over photography, country music (yup, I said it), our passion for justice and using our talents for His Kingdom.

After becoming a 'Rogers' joining the Hope Dies Last team has been a big adventure for me. Sean and I have had new experiences together: food, languages, culture and community. In this last six months we have had the privilege of traveling through a bit of the Balkans and meeting some of the field workers. Our trip through the Balkans was a glimpse into how beautiful and wonderful this region is, and what a warm culture it brings to society. In each place we arrived God gave new perspective to us as a team and as individuals. We saw missionaries laying down their lives for Jesus and committing to serve in places where years could pass before they see the fruit of their work.

Having just recently moved into the Region of central Europe, the past few months have been a phase of overcoming the feeling that we are the new kids on the block. Being as relational as this region is, people don't like getting to know you over the internet. Facebook and email, are horrible ways of networking in this part of the world. Meet someone face to face however, and you're friends for life. So, the past couple months included a lot of travel, and a lot of meetings.

The one family who impacted me the most was a young couple. Even though they recently went through a traumatic event, their love and commitment to God never faltered. They seek to see people come to know Jesus in a meaningful and lasting way. Their country has less than 1% Evangelical Christians and yet they seek to bring hope to the existing Christ followers, while taking time to invest in those that still don’t believe, and are waiting patiently for them to come to know Him.

After a trip through the Balkan region (pictured below), we attended a counter-trafficking conference in Romania. We were able to reconnect with teams we've worked with, as well as meet new teams working in the region. We had a great time connecting with the team from Moscow that we've worked with in the past. They are eager for us to visit and work with them again. At the end of it all we have made a lot of new friends and valuable relationships that span the central European region.

Our team's main focus right now is the "Book of Love" project. It's a tool we've been developing to equip fieldworkers engaging the issue of sexual exploitation. The book will contain the Gospel of John; as well as additional content geared specifically towards the issues faced by those involved in the sex industry. We have been working to gather content, art work, obtaining copyright permissions for multiple languages, and gathering submissions from others with experience in this field.

Our team also has the privilege of working with two design interns from John Brown University. With them here we are now full speed ahead with piecing the book together. We are excited to be able to distribute this book to ministry teams across the region! You will soon be hearing much more about this project,  and if you want a better look, check it out at:

www.hopedieslast.org/thebookoflove

THE BALKANS

Serbia

Montenegro

Albania

Kosovo

Croatia

Bosnia

A Wedding, a Poorly Timed Stomach Virus, and a Move to Budapest

      I would like to introduce Theresa. Theresa and I have been working with the same missions organization for about the same length of time. Middle of last year we started dating and quickly realized that God was calling us in the same direction, and was calling us there together. So we decided to get married. 

     So, on October 11th, We tied the knot, as they say.  The wedding was lovely, we got married in North Carolina in the woods behind my parents home, and then had a lovely little picnic reception. While the ceremony was great, the day was... well funny. Theresa and I always talk about how a wedding isn't about the wedding day its about the marriage. So I find it funny that what followed the ceremony quickly launched us from wedding ceremony into marriage, and quickly initiated Theresa into the Rogers' family. 

     I have always had a weak stomach. On family vacations growing up my dad would always carry around ziplock bags in case I, or one of my siblings, had to throw up out of the blue. Us Rogers kids seemed to have proclivity for throwing up at inconvenient times and places. So, I probably shouldn't have been surprised after the reception when I started feeling nauseous as we were getting ready to set out on the two and a half hour drive for our honeymoon spot.  

    About ten minutes out of the driveway I had to pull over. I barely got out of the car before projectile vomiting...I now remembered that there was a stomach bug going around. Ten minutes later again I had to pull over. After this cycle repeating 4 or 5 times, I no longer had the strength to drive the rental car and had my new wife take over. From there it was now her job to pull over every few minutes for me to spill my guts. We are sure there are probably some photos online somewhere from puke #350 where I was laying in the back seat, head hanging out of the car, heaving, while Theresa was pumping gas in her wedding dress. The last bit of our now FIVE and a half hour trip was on a main highway with no pull-offs. "No place to pull off? just get there." I said, reenacting my childhood as I grabbed a nearby plastic bag that just happened to be in the back seat. "BARFFF."

Later Theresa would have to drive around holding this 'puke bag' as we didn't want to smell up our honeymoon cabin with the smell of vomit. At the end of the night when my puke-o-rama had finally ended, I was able to utter to my wife "welcome to the Rogers family, you have been initiated.  While an unpleasant few hours, I look back on this as a funny story. A small reminder that marriage isn't about smiles and dressing up and eating cake. Its about being there for one another when you're having a gastro - intestinal apocalypse. 

In sickness and in health. 

In other news, our ministry has dreamt about moving to a more strategic location for the past couple of years. Our dreams are finally realized as our whole team has now moved to and settled into the city of Budapest. Over the past couple months Theresa and I have made our apartment into a home and were able to get settled in over the holidays. 

Now that everyone is settled, we are getting back into the swing of ministry. We are looking at an office space to work from and are hopefully moving in over the course of the next week or two. Our team leader Amy has been connecting with people local outreaches to women in prostitution. And we already have a busy schedule for this year connecting with ministries and anti-trafficking organizations throughout the region in countries such as Kosovo, Romania, and Greece. 

Please pray for us as we get back into the swing of things in our new location! 

Theresa and Sean 

We're Moving to Budapest!

As some of you know our ministry Hope Dies Last has wanted to move to a more strategic location for some time now. Over the last few months we've been exploring what that looks like and praying about a few different possibilities.  As we went to visit the regional leadership of Ywam Central Europe seeking their wisdom, our eyes began to open to the potential that the city of Budapest held.

Moving to Budapest, our ministry will be working directly under the YWAM Central European office. We are excited to be able to work with a team that is focused on an entire region. As a ministry focusing on the issue of Human Trafficking in the field of Europe, this represents a move upstream towards the problem. In Red-light districts in Western Europe and Germany, anywhere from 60-80% of the women working there are from Central and Eastern Europe. Moving to Budapest puts us in a geographically strategic location, with easy, and affordable, accessibility to everywhere else in Central and Eastern Europe. Working with a regionally focused office also puts us a step up on our ability to network within the region. As we continue this work, relationships with the people working throughout these fifteen countries is critical. (Central Europe consists of fifteen countries including, Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Slovakia) 

While Budapest represents a strategic step in our regional work, it is also a "livable city" that we see ourselves planting roots in as we pursue our long term goals for the region. In addition, when we are "home" Budapest also possesses ample opportunity for constant local outreach: it has its own red-light areas, homeless and gypsy population. 

Over the next few years we are planning to continue to work with front line trafficking ministries within the region. But another passion that we have at Hope Dies Last, is to facilitate and equip those on the ground to engage in ministry in the areas of sexual exploitation. We hope in the coming season: to develop media packets, to equip teams on the ground to set up prevention programs, and to facilitate training to help people engage with ministry in areas of prostitution. A project we are currently developing is a booklet similar to the Jesus Loves PornStars Bible put out by XXXchurch. Our hope is to come out with a booklet including: large portions of the Bible, testimonies from former pimps and women working in prostitution, and other additional content in all of the main European languages. This will serve as a tool custom tailored to bring the gospel to the men and women involved in the sex trade throughout the field of Europe.  

Please stand with me in prayer or even financial support as our team prepares for this move. 

Transitioning to a larger city, I am expecting my basic expenses will increase, but also we will likely be traveling within the region quite frequently. 

Also please pray for the move itself that the timing of moving out and finding new housing would work out smoothly. Our whole team is hoping to live fairly close to one another within the city. 

Also be in prayer as we continue with the development of our Bible project, and that God would continue to inspire us as we pull this ministry tool together! 

Saarbrücken

This weekend our team made the trek out to the French boarder of Germany, to the German city of Saarbrücken.

In Saarbrücken we connected with a pastor who had attended the Object Conference. His church is beginning to awaken to the amount of prostitution happening in their city and are beginning to take steps towards engaging the issue. 

When we arrived on Friday night the pastor drove us around the city. The city hall has several brothels only a short distance away. The amount of street prostitution occurring on the roads of this boarder town reminded me of our visit to the Czech Republic, where similarly, many woman walk the streets, waiting for men to drive from across the boarder to pay for cheap thrills.

Interestingly, because this town is so close to France, it is known for its culinary excellence. The city is saturated with Michelin starred restaurants. The pastor told us: "You could go to any one of these restaurants, and even the cheapest thing on the menu, a dessert for instance, would cost you more than 15 €. But you can drive out to these roads outside the city and 15 € is how much these girls are selling themselves for. You can buy a girl for less than a dessert.... something is seriously wrong here." 

On Saturday we participated in the Walk 4 Freedom. A demonstration organized by the pastor and his church in the middle of the city. Almost 200 women walked down the street single file, while men passed out flyers about sexual exploitation in the area. The event had media and newspaper coverage as well. We where glad to be able to support this church as they are beginning to engage the issue of sexual exploitation in their area. 

Gaby Wentland, who runs a major anti-trafficking ministry out of Hamburg, and was one of the main speakers at our Object Conference, was also there participating in the walk, and she spoke later in the evening.  We soon realized something as a team. The pastor had tried to connect with Gaby previously via email and hadn't been able to connect. But he was able to meet her at Object Conference during our networking session. It was there that their relationship started and how they were able to get her and Mission Freedom to participate in their event. In some small way, that day in Saarbrücken was the fruit of our conference. 

On our return trip we were able to stop by another city for a dinner meeting with the leaders of the Justice Project in the city of Karlsruhe. It was great to catch up with them, and again learned that they have been able to develop relationships with several other startup counter-trafficking ministries throughout Germany as a result of meeting one another at the Object conference. It was super encouraging for our team to see that already, all the long months of work for that conference is starting to yield fruit in the fight against sexual exploitation in Germany.

2014

Our team had the privilege of spending this last week in Budapest in Hungary.

While we were there we were able to stay with Rachel and Yohannen, who are part of the YWAM leadership team for the region of Central Europe.

It was a great time of soaking in the city, as well as their wisdom. We were able to bounce ideas off one another as we brainstormed potential ideas for our ministry over the coming years in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. 

It was an exciting, life giving and refreshing time. We are excited for whats on the horizon. 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Its been great to take some time off for a few weeks back home in Florida. The past few weeks have been refreshing and as I recount the things I've been involved in this past year...

~Supporting the ministry in Russia with service, media, and financial support

~Local red-light district outreaches in Germany and the Netherlands

~Challenging people to engage the issue of sexual exploitation via tours around Germany

~Equipping over 500 people to engage the issue via our Object Conference 

~Teaching on Biblical sexuality, justice and human trafficking in France 

~And even since being home speaking about Biblical sexuality and identity to a group of high schoolers here in Orlando at Orlando Children's Church

...I am able to get excited about the past year in a new way. Sitting back and looking at the big picture is encouraging in a way that I wasn't able to experience in the midst of the chaos of the year. 

This reflection is also getting me excited about the new opportunities we have this upcoming year. Whether working in new cities in Germany (France's new anti-prostitution laws are increasing demand for paid sex in boarder regions with Germany), revisiting Russia, or aiding a frontline organization in Latvia. 

God is doing great things, and I'm stoked that I can be a part of it. 

If you are interested in participating in my ministry, prayer and financial support are always needed. A dear friend of mine just brought to my attention that PayPal has recently added a 'recurring donation' option. So becoming a monthly supporter is now incredibly easy to do. Just click the 'donate' button on this page. 

If you would like a 501C3 tax deductible receipt there are also other ways to set up support with that as an option.

For iPhone users: I've also just set up a Venmo account! 

Thanks for all your prayers and support! 

~Sean 

Crunch Time

We are here in the midst of a crazy couple of weeks... The Object conference (which we have been prepping for for the past year) is this weekend. We have been busy spending late nights getting last minute preparations together for this event. We are excited for the impact this conference will have on this city of Hamburg, the nation of Germany, and the rest of Europe. Please pray for our team this week and this weekend as we are now in Hamburg setting up for the conference.

Gretchen and I have been designing and fabricating the booth for HopeDiesLast and Object.

Immediately following the conference, I will be flying from Hamburg to France for a few days, there I will be teaching in a YWAM school of Biblical Christian Worldview. During these few days I will be teaching on Biblical sexuality, God's heart for justice, and the issue of human trafficking. So in the midst of setting up for the conference, and practicing with the conference worship team, I am also studying for, and preparing a 3 day teaching.  

Please pray for me that I would be able to clearly organize my thoughts and that God would use me to effectively communicate God's heart for these issues to the students. 

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Please prayerfully consider joining my support team. We need your prayers and financial support to  continue to fully devote our time to engaging the issue of human trafficking.

I would like to see my monthly support increase by at least $500 dollars each month. This amount will allow me to move beyond meeting my basic needs of living in Germany to being able to continue doing more frequent outreach within Germany and to the Eastern European nations. 

You can donate via the PayPal link on this page, or...

Americans: If your are interested in supporting me on a monthly basis, you can email me at MrSeanRogers@aol.com and i can send you the appropriate forms to fill out and mail in to set up a tax deductible monthly donation. 

Sean

Cultural Transformation Starts with Heart Transformation

We got into Amsterdam late Sunday. We were there that week to work with an anti-trafficking ministry for a few days. The ministry leader was excited, because her friend had just been baptized. The story of this friend was rather remarkable.

'Sofia' had been working in the Red-light district of Amsterdam for some time. The ministry we partnered with that week sells soup in the Red-light district, and through that, built a relationship with this Sofia. Over time, the ministry shared about Jesus with her, about her heavenly father who loved her, and about her value as a unique creation of God's and Sofia gave her life to Jesus. That in itself is a huge praise report...

BUT HERE is the part of the story I find particularly interesting. Sofia didn't, right then and there, throw on something more decent and walk out of the window. The anti-trafficking ministry didn't try to "convince" or urge Sofia to leave her current employment as a prostitute either.  The ministry simply continued to love her as a sister. A couple of weeks later,  Sofia exclaimed to the ministry workers,

"You know something!? Now that I have Jesus, I cant work here anymore!"

Sofia left working in the Red-light district, and the day we arrived in Amsterdam we heard her story in conjunction with news that she had been baptized that day.

Me preparing soups for the girls. 

Amy going out to deliver soup and talk with the girls.

Working in the field of anti-trafficking, I feel like there is generally a predisposition towards remedying the physical situation: End prostitution! Get the girls out! Save them! Those things are important, but this story reminds me of why I am working in a missions based anti-trafficking organization, not just in a social minded anti-trafficking organization. This story is a reminder that there is power in the name of Jesus, and that there is more to saving girls than changing their location and occupation. This is why, while we are passionate about seing the physical situation change, we go to local Red-light districts offering prayer and sharing the gospel with the men and women we find there. While we do engage this issue on a level of social action, we also believe that cultural transformation starts with people's hearts. 

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The next few months are going to be ones of exciting transition. Coming from Russia at the beginning of the year, working on the front lines there, and now finishing up a support video for that ministry, we are turning our sights towards Germany.

Adding an original soundtrack to the Russia video. 

Working the video and conference prep

Germany legalized prostitution just over a decade ago.  A law passed in the name of regulation for the safety of the women, has lead to drastic increases in the amount of prostitution, but also in the amount of trafficking and abuse. Aside from the direct ramifications to the areas of prostitution and trafficking, this has larger cultural and spiritual ramifications. Even women in prostitution recognize this cultural difference, "I wouldn't date a guy from here because he's grown up thinking its ok just to buy sex," we heard from one girl. This is why our ministry does local outreaches to redlight districts, and why we are putting on a conference later this year in Hamburg.

We are gearing up for the OBJECT Conference (On Bringing Justice and Engaging Cultural Transformation) with the vision of seeing the church of Germany take a stand on the issue.
I was able to be involved in the organization of a similar conference our base hosted in 2010 in Hamburg. We are still hearing news of different ministries throughout Germany that have popped up as a direct result of that conference.  One of these ministries, in Cologne, was able to hold a Christmas church service for the women inside Pascha, the largest brothel in Europe last year. We were thrilled that they had this unique opportunity to share the gospel. We are hoping for multiplication of these new ministries out of this coming conference. Countries in Eastern Europe, such as Romania and Moldova, who are looking to become more western European, and even join the European union, see Germany as a role model. Cultural transformation here will not only impact Germany but influence those countries as well.

Check out the Website!

objectconference.com

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Please prayerfully consider joining my support team. We need your prayers and financial support to  continue to fully devote our time to serving those trapped in slavery.

I would like to see my monthly support increase by at least $500 dollars each month. This amount will allow me to move beyond meeting my basic needs of living in Germany to being able to continue doing more frequent outreach within Germany and to the Eastern European nations. If 20 people would commit to $25 a month that goal would be reached.

You can donate via the PayPal link on this page, or...

Americans: If your are interested in supporting me on a monthly basis, you can email julie.sinke@ywamtyler.org to go about setting up a monthly auto debit.

For one time donations you can make checks out to YWAM and mail to
Accounting Department, PO Box 3000, Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000

Donations made through Ywam Tyler are tax deductable, so for tax purposes my name cannot appear anywhere on the check. With the check please enclose a SEPARATE piece of paper with the following on it: “Donation for: Sean C Rogers, Herrnhut Germany” You will get a receipt in the mail confirming your donation. If you would like to set up an automatic withdrawal.. you can email Julie in their accounting department and she can send you a letter of explanation julie.sinke@ywamtyler.org Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers and support and  especially for those who have already been commited faithful supporters, every little bit helps!


Sean

The Dark Places

A little girl in a grocery store picks up a flashlight and flicks the switch...

"Mom! Its not working," she yelled.

Her mother replied, "It is working dear, its just too bright in here to see it"

"Well then, let's take it somewhere dark where we can see it shine."

(Nürnberg Redlight District)

Jesus told us to "Let our lights shine before men", and I think most Christ followers attempt to do this. The past few years and especially the past few months I've been challenged more and more to take this to a new level and to shine light into the truly 'dark' places.

This is a challenge the ministry I am a part of, Hope Dies Last, and I take seriously. We have taken our light to the dark places outside of Moscow, where women are bought and sold. From our time there we are now putting together a video to raise support for the men and women still operating a ministry and laying down their lives to rescue women from slavery there.

This challenge has brought us continually up against the issue of prostitution in Germany. It is legal and regulated here, but that does not mean it is devoid of exploitation.  We are frequently making trips as of late to the city of Nürnberg. For us, in this city, one of the darkest places is the red-light district at around 3am. We go hand out Red-bull energy drinks to the women who are there working late. When they ask us why we would be handing out Red-bulls for free, we tell them:

 "Cause its late, you might be tired, and because Jesus loves you."

Then we offer to pray for them. This last weekend we were there, and several women (in previous visits only one women let us pray for her) allowed us to pray for them. Maybe its a small thing, but its progress, and I'm thrilled that we got to pray prayers of Hope over these women.

In the coming week we will be traveling across Germany, from Berlin to Cologne, to connect with various ministries working in anti trafficking.

Please pray for us as we travel across Germany connecting with these other ministries.

Please pray for the women of the Nürnberg red-light district, that they would recognize that they were meant for more, and that their futures are NOT hopeless.

Also please prayerfully consider joining my support team. We need your prayers and financial support to  continue to fully devote our time to serving those trapped in slavery.

The Girls in the Headlights

The driver of the car had named a price, and the span of his headlights was quickly filled shoulder to shoulder with girls who have been told that this is what they are worth. Many of these women, no.... girls is still the most apt description, were Moldovan.

This brought a new dimension to this visit to Moldova this past week. I spent a large part of the week there teaching English with, and spending time with, Moldovan youth. Many were girls the same age as the ones I'd seen in those headlights in the forest outside Moscow. The girls were part of an after school program run by Beginning of Life (BOL), an organization we made an educational fundraising video for last year.

It is exciting and enlightening to be reminded of, and to participate in, the things BOL is doing on the prevention and rehabilitation side of the modern-day-slavery coin. Culture is being transformed in schools and through after-school programs. In their rehabilitation rescued women are being shown their true value, maybe for the first time. They are worth more than a laying down a few hundred rubles for; as Jesus demonstrated at the cross, they are worth laying down our time, our lives, for.

In addition to spending time with Moldovan youth, it was great to catch up with the another YWAM team on outreach in Chisinau, as well as staff from BOL. The founder of BOL told us that he was able to use the video we made, 40+ times, with great success on a fundraising tour in Canada. He will soon take the video on a tour in the UK. We consider ourselves privileged to be able to support them.

We are now back in Moscow and will continue to work with and support the ministry here until the end of January. As we undertake a video to support the ministry here, please pray for our team's creativity, and plenty of opportunities for shooting footage so we can provide them with an awesome support video to continue their work here.

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If you are interested in supporting the work I am doing as part of HopeDiesLast, you can donate via PayPal using the "Donate" button on this page. If you are interested in supporting me on a monthly basis, you can email julie.sinke@ywamtyler.org to go about setting up a monthly auto debit.

Russia Update!!!

 Our Visa's are in process and should be done Tuesday!

 If you've been following the last few blog posts we are on our way to Russia to work with and support various ministries there.

We are grateful for everyone who has supported us thus far. We have our visa's and will be booking our flights for next Tuesday very soon! As it stands now, we've raised about a quarter of our total budget!

For our time in Moscow we still need roughly 1,000 euro per person (4,000 euro total) We are going in faith but still have very little of our housing budget, so if you feel lead to support us please do!

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While one time gifts are certainly appreciated, I also need monthly supporters. I will be in missions long term, and the consistant partnership of monthly supporters is extremely valuable.

I would like to see my monthly support increase by at least $500 dollars each month. If 20 people would commit to $25 a month that goal would be reached.

Americans: If your are interested in supporting me on a monthly basis, you can email julie.sinke@ywamtyler.org to go about setting up a monthly auto debit.

For one time donations you can make checks out to YWAM and mail to
Accounting Department, PO Box 3000, Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000

Donations made through Ywam Tyler are tax deductable, so for tax purposes my name cannot appear anywhere on the check. With the check please enclose a SEPARATE piece of paper with the following on it: “Donation for: Sean C Rogers, Herrnhut Germany” You will get a receipt in the mail confirming your donation. If you would like to set up an automatic withdrawal.. you can email Julie in their accounting department and she can send you a letter of explanation julie.sinke@ywamtyler.org Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers and support, every little bit helps!


Sean

To Russia

As our ministry is being drawn towards the Slavic Nations, we are now planning an outreach to one of the most influential countries to many of these nations.

Our ministry, Hope Dies Last, wants to spend about two months in Russia. Aside from absorbing the culture and learning from it, we want to connect with a couple of YWAM bases.  We will serve the bases in the areas they are already working, as well as supporting existing anti-trafficking ministries. This will give us valuable hands on experience for working in this part of the world.  Another base further east in Russia has expressed a desire for us to help establish a prevention program in their city.

For this outreach, we feel like God wants us to be in Moscow for a large part of the time. In Moscow there are around 100,000 women working in prostitution and very few people doing ministry in this area. We learned recently that Moscow is in fact one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Our outreach budget for 4 people for two months is:

1,500 euro ($1920)per person  and about 6,000 euro ($7,683) for the team.

Please pray for our us as we are planning for this outreach.

Visa's - The Russian visa application process is extremely complex.

Finances - Please pray that God will bring together the finances for this trip, and if you should play a role in sending us out.

Direction - We've never been to Russia before, and nobody from our base has either. Pray for God's direction as we step into new territory and that connecting with, and working with, our contacts there would be a smooth and productive time.


If you want to give towards this outreach you are welcome to donate via the PayPal link on the top of my page. Please not that the donation is for 'HDL' or 'Hope Dies Last'.

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While one time gifts are certainly appreciated, I also need monthly supporters. I will be in missions long term, and the consistant partnership of monthly supporters is extremely valuable.

I would like to see my monthly support increase by at least $500 dollars each month. If 20 people would commit to $25 a month that goal would be reached.

Americans: If your are interested in supporting me on a monthly basis, you can email julie.sinke@ywamtyler.org to go about setting up a monthly auto debit.

For one time donations you can make checks out to YWAM and mail to

Accounting Department,
PO Box 3000,
Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000

Donations made through Ywam Tyler are tax deductable, so for tax purposes my name cannot appear anywhere on the check. With the check please enclose a SEPARATE piece of paper with the following on it: “Donation for: Sean C Rogers, Herrnhut Germany”
 You will get a receipt in the mail confirming your donation. If you would like to set up an automatic withdrawal.. you can email Julie in their accounting department and she can send you a letter of explanation julie.sinke@ywamtyler.org Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers and support, every little bit helps!

 Sean

Hope Dies Last Newsletter!

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Hope Dies Last

      I'm back in Germany after spending about a month in Moldova with our team.

The time in Moldova was a time of learning from, and serving, a ministry called Beginning of Life. Beginning of Life expressed a need for media to help them with fundraising and communication. We spent our time interviewing them, working at their rehabilitation center and camps, and exploring the capital city of Chișinău to put together this promotional video for them.

     As we neared the completion of this video we realized that Beginning of Life lacks the web infrastructure to receive international donations. We recommended that they work on this and let us know when they have something set up so that when we do distribute this video on youtube that people who feel led to donate are able to do so.

Please stay tuned, as soon as Beginning of Life has this set up we would like everyone to share the video! Please pray for this video, that when we DO distribute it that God will maximize its effectiveness.

In a few days the team is traveling for two weeks.

First to Cheb, in the Czech Republic, and then to Nuremberg, in Germany. Both cities have widespread prostitution and resulting sexual exploitation.

Cheb has a long-term YWAM team that is pulling together a base to host its first Discipleship Training School (DTS). This new base still has many needs: from renovation of the new building- to staff for their DTS.  We plan to help them with some some publicity within the global YWAM community to help them get their base and school underway.



Outlook for the coming months.

In the coming months, our ministry is focusing more on Eastern Europe and the Slavic nations. We have been invited to visit YWAM bases in Russia, and are planning to be there at the end of this year. The city of Moscow has 100,000 prostitutes and Russia is a destination country for a significant portion of the men and women trafficked from Moldova and other nations. Russia has for the past several years received low ratings in the TIP report for its attempts to counteract trafficking in persons in and out of its country. Please pray for a smooth visa process and the finances for this outreach. For Americans to get into Russia it is a complex and time consuming process.