Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I hope you have a blessed holiday season overflowing with love and kindness in the company of friends and family.

The Koshe Project

The Koshe Project from Stephanie Eatherly on Vimeo.


This is what we do.

Plans...

Hi friends!

Hope everyone else out there in the world is awesome this festive season! I just wanted to share my plans for the next couple of months briefly with you. In a week or two I am heading home to Mauritius to spend Christmas with my family. This promises to be bittersweet as my parents are leaving Mauritius for Australia in January so this might be my last time in a country I have called home for the last 10 years. From Mauritius I am planning on going to Kenya with my sister Joanna to work in the orphanage I volunteered with 2 years ago. It has been on my heart for a long time to go back and see how all the beautiful kids are. Towards the end of January some other Pick a Pocket members are joining me in Kenya and from there we will head to Ethiopia. We hope to be there for a month supporting the work of the long-term Pick a Pocket members and assisting with our projects in Addis Ababa. I am looking forward to meeting the children from garbage city and getting a heart for the work we are doing there. Please pray that I have enough money for my time in east-Africa and that God will work in mighty ways!

Thanks so much!

Things you can do if you love Jesus other than honk...

-Make him a playlist
-Go sledding on an old couch strapped to skis
-Have a snuggle party
-Make him pancakes
-Say nice things about him to other people
-Play hide and seek

Every morning...

Walk With Me To Water Castle from Laken Chapman on Vimeo.


This is a lovely little video my roommate made of the walk into the Herrnhut YWAM base from our room in the Jesus Haus. It takes about 35 minutes in winter and my record for slipping over is 12 times.

I'm a superhero!

My finance prayer partner and neighbour, Taylor, always has just the most awesome newsletters and I am so honored to be featured in his latest one! He is a super talented photographer and an amazing person completely dedicated to serving the students of the Marriage of the Arts DTS and seeing God work in his life. Please join with me in praying for his finances so he is able to do what God has so specifically called him to do. He is co-leading a very large team to Ethiopia so please pray that he has an inexhaustible spirit and uncontrollable energy! Have a look at his website- he takes all his photos on film. Thanks!

Taylors newsletter and website.

So the forecast is for -17°C tomorrow. 

Another update from Addis Ababa.

This afternoon in our weekly Pick a Pocket meeting we got to hear from Anna, who is serving long-term with the girls from garbage city. Anna is an amazing young German who has spent 10 months teaching, mentoring and providing love and care to a group of girls who are really crying out for more in their lives. She's been teaching them English, practical skills and discipeling them. It was so encouraging for those of us who are working for these projects and these people, which at times seem so far away,  to be able to hear first hand how well they are going.

We got a little update from Corey who is running the Pick a Pocket project, working with the boys of garbage city, in Addis Ababa. Corey was on my DTS in January this year. He is 19 and from California and has stepped up in a huge way to serve in Ethiopia.
From Corey- So just to let you guys know, today at the teaching with the boys all but Brhanu were there, and Dejene led the 3 of them in "the prayer".  So it looks like we got 3 more in the family!! Keep praying for them to make this a true step in their life and faith. Pray God would really speak to them and reveal himself to them. Pray that they take this seriously and start to make a change.

Go God!!!

Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike. 1 Samuel 30:24


Thanks for the verse Anne!

A Quick Update

Hi friends!


Today was the first real snow of the season. It looks beautiful falling from the sky like icing sugar, but generally makes life slightly miserable as I have a long walk into work everyday. Coupled with strict German regulations, requiring all footpaths bordering homes to be cleared by hand before 7:30, this has not been a welcome weather development!

Now that the They Are Not For Sale conference is completed, I have a bit more time to do some other things which have been on the back burner for a few weeks. At the moment I am doing a fair bit of writing work. Pick a Pocket is working on a new website so I have been building content for it.  I am also working on international distribution and publicity of our book 'Reject this Reality'.  We use this book to fund a lot of our projects; and as things really progress with the girls and boys from garbage city, we need all the funds we can get. YWAM daily life also keeps me busy! I have been helping in the kitchen (cooking for over 100) every Monday and I have 2 delightful one-on-ones from the current Marriage of the Arts DTS.

Financially things have been pretty tough. I am so thankful to the people who believe in what I am doing and have given, and continue to give. I need about $400 a month to be able to live here and pay for rent, food, staff fees, insurance, internet etc. At the moment I receive about $125 in regular monthly donations.   I would really appreciate your prayer in regards to this matter!

Please feel free to write to me; I love hearing from people!

Love,

Amy

Me and my good friend from my DTS, Jolisa, now back on staff with Pick a Pocket.

Linkity Link...

 An amazing woman giving her all to help prevent trafficking on the Nepal/India border. CNN Heroes

Someone Else Once Said...

"Sympathy is no substitute for action." — David Livingstone, missionary to Africa

My inspiration.

I have black ink on my fingers.

The crinkly pages have a picture of a fading life.

The small girl and the waiting vulture.

Took my breath and gave me questions.

Gave me no other option but to find an answer.

All my passion towards pulling people from under the wings of death.

Facing Reality and Rising to Action

I had the opportunity to write about the conference for ywam.org and you can check out my article by following this link Facing Reality and Rising to Action Thanks!

Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery

Photos from the recent NFS conference in Hamburg

Conference auditorium-we had about 1000 people attend.

Pick a Pocket merchandise booth; selling
hand-made t-shirts and hand-developed photographic
prints to raise money for  current and future projects.

Some artwork on the theme of human trafficking, from the
 Marriage of the Arts DTS currently running in Herrnhut.

More Pick a Pocket merchandise.

Our book 'Reject this Reality' for sale.

Pick a Pocket's band 'Liz and the Lions'.

Artwork by MOTA student referencing the
damage caused by sexual exploitation.

Worshipping with Josh Langer from Texas

Hello friends! I just wanted to say thanks for all of the love, prayers and support that has been sent my way. I am truly grateful...

Human-trafficking stop motion.

Have a look at the truly excellent and super labour intensive stop-motion video a friend (and fellow Pick a Pocketer) made for the conference on Vimeo.

Not For Sale Conference

Wow what a weekend! The much anticipated, and worked for, conference in Hamburg is over. It was an awesome weekend full of art, information and inspiration.

The venue was a large auditorium on the doorstop of Hamburg's red-light district; the location was a good reminder that what we are fighting does not just exist in distant countries, but in the neighbour-hoods we live and work in. Over the course of a few days, we heard from many international speakers fighting the issue of human trafficking. David Batstone, President of the Not For Sale Campaign, spoke about his personal journey to fight this evil.  Luba, from YWAM Hamburg, spoke on her work with the victims of sex trafficking. The large Marriage of the Arts DTS from Herrnhut was in attendence and bought provocative and important art pieces to display. The students really affected everyone with their communication of this important issue through their individual creative gifts. Josh Langer flew over from Tyler Texas to lead worship with a few local staff and brought the roof down.

Pick a Pocket members made up the bulk of the organizational and operational staff for this conference and people remarked more than once how well we all functioned together! I had the priviledge of working in speaker care and stage management. This was a huge amount of work, but it was a such a blessing to be able to talk to, and serve,  all the amazing speakers.

More soon!

New ways to combat human trafficking.

Major U.S airlines are joining the fight to stop the trafficking of human beings. Link

You are a human being. 

You have rights inherent in that reality. 

You have dignity and worth that exists prior to law.

Lyn Beth Neylon

A Quick Update

I'm in Germany and the leaves, that I celebrated growing on the trees after a long winter, have turned into a riot of colour and are floating to the ground. After a fairly nightmarish 32 hours of travel I got to Herrnhut and got settled into my room. It really is amazing to be back here and surrounded by passionate creative people. Most of last week was spent catching up on what is happening in the projects and with Pick a Pocket in general.

The Hamburg Not For Sale Conference is really coming together. As yet, the 150 person Marriage of the Arts DTS has nowhere to stay, so we are waiting on a miracle!

We expect 4 members of Pick a Pocket to get back from Ethiopia today. They have spent most of their trip in the tribes of southern Ethiopia, but have also checked in on the projects and our long term members serving in Addis Abbaba.

This coming week I will be working on the much neglected Pick a Pocket blog and working on creating and distributing information to promote our book which raises money for projects around the world. Pick a Pocket really wants to be a part of a larger network of humanitarian organisations, so I will also be working to facilitate those connections as well.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!

Another Time, Another Place.

As we were leaving a tiny village in the mountains of Tajikistan, I saw this baby donkey by the side of the road and had to pick it up for a photo. It is so ridiculously cute!

A Pick a Pocket Project- Garbage City Ethiopia.

Generally in the West we live in such a sterile environment. 

We clean it with anti-bacterial, germ killing, disease fighting chemicals. 

Dirt is the enemy and cleanliness is next to godliness. 

The above video is about children whose lives revolve around what is thrown away. 

People who exist on food scraped off plates at the Hilton. 

Whose special treat are salvaged packets of sugar from airlines. 

Whose highlight of the day is when the dump truck arrives. 

Because what we see as rubbish, they see as dinner. 

They live in unimaginable filth. 

Dead and rotting animals.

Medical waste.

Should we continue to treat these children as we treat our rubbish?

Smelly.

Dirty.

Worthless.

Or should we treat them as who they are?

Precious.

Wanted.

Beloved.

 There are currently Pick a Pocket members working in Addis. The whole project could use your prayer!

Click to see portraits by Jan Schlegel.

The book is beautiful and is available to buy online.

Another Time, Another Place.

Earlier this year, in Afghanistan,  we were invited to take photos at a school run by an NGO. It was Children's Day and all of the children were beautiful in their national dress. These two couldn't stop giggling and I hear them every time I look at the photos I took of them.

Someone Else Once Said...

One day, someone showed me a glass of water that was half full.  And he said, "Is it half full or half empty?"  So I drank the water.  No more problem.  ~Alejandro Jodorowsky

Goodbye/Hello.

Saying goodbye. 


To say I hate saying it is like saying I hate mold or waiting in line. Losing things. Holes in socks. Natural disasters.


It's just one of those things that no one likes.


I’m so sick of saying it. After a lifetime of practice you would think I would be used to it. Not so. I still very much cry my eyes out.  



Some good news is, the countdown until I go back to Germany (7 sleeps) starts. At least this time 'hellos' will outnumber 'goodbyes' as I head to a community of friends in Herrnhut.

Does God Believe in Human Rights?

Someone Else Once Said...

"Never concede to doing something so small that it could be accomplished entirely in your lifetime. Be a part of something that began before you were born, and will continue onward toward the fulfillment of all that God has purposed to accomplish." 


-Ralph Winter (Founder/Director of the United States Centre for World Mission)

Earlier this year I became a part of the crazy group of people you see above. 

 Together we are artists, musicians, photographers, writers - a talented bunch. 

We call ourselves Pick a Pocket.

The world says use what you have for your own good. 

Jesus says use what you have for the good of others. 

We have decided to use what we have to impact our world. 

We have joined a social justice movement picking up momentum. 

Our focus - the battle against extreme poverty, the fight against human trafficking and the war against child prostitution.

We do this by using our art to communicate the unseen realities of people living without necessities.

By starting personalized projects in developing nations like Ethiopia.

By encouraging people to take part in 30 Days - giving up a luxury that those living in extreme poverty cannot afford. Like food. And relying on others. Experiencing empathy not feeling sympathy.

By helping to build a bridge between the divide.

 Developing world and developed world.

 First world and third world. 

Recognizing that we are indeed one world.

 And each and every person has the ability to make a positive change.

In Pick a Pocket my desire to put God first and my passion for people has come together. Here is a group of friends committed fully to seeing God's will acted out on earth. To seeing the weak and marginalized through the eyes of God. 

As made in His image. 

As inherently valuable and worthy of dignity. 

As precious children. 

I am excited for the future and I hope you are too. Your support and encouragement is the backbone of my work. 

Thank you!