Happy New Year from Awaken

Awaken has had an incredible year and a wonderful Christmas season with our staff and the women and children we serve. This year our team of mentors and staff opened up their homes to the girls and together we made gingerbread houses, decorated cookies, opened presents and shared meals. We have some of the most generous people investing in these girls and their families. This year churches and community members donated over $3,500 in presents that went to 20 women and 10 children!

All of the girls we serve were so blessed by your kindness! Jen and I received a text last night saying, “I’m overwhelmed by the generosity tonight. I feel like I was on the Oprah Christmas Special!”

We wish we could show you all of their beautiful faces. The girls really wanted to show you how much fun we had at this year’s Christmas events!

Know what you’re giving to on this Giving Tuesday!

The banquet was a huge success this year. We had an astounding 650 amazing people in attendance and raised over $100,000! This is a great start to the things God has for us.  In 2015, Awaken had the opportunity to work with 25 new women and children as well as 55 returning girls.  Two young women received their GEDs and one is currently in classes to complete hers. We have three young ladies enrolled in university courses, one spent a summer term in China, one got engaged and another celebrated her one year wedding anniversary and birth of her second child. The stories like this continue on and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the efforts these young women have made toward their futures. As a result of this community truly mobilizing together to show the provisions of God’s plans for them, they now have a future they can see with eyes of hope that leads to freedom.

Over the next two years with your continued help, we will be expanding our services, developing a new treatment model and adding to our housing opportunities. Next year, Awaken will be opening a drop-in center, adding on additional housing and (with a lot of prayer) starting a John School to help bring restoration to the buyers of sex.  In order to do this, we will be raising $1,000,000 over the next two years to go towards these opportunities.

Awaken is blessed to be expanding in opportunities to house these young women. This is always an area that has needed development and over the next two years, we are committed to seeing more Awaken housing opportunities happen for these young women. We invite you to help us reach our goals of obtaining a safe house, transitional housing and emergency housing for these women.

Research shows that taking healthy risks can be a good thing: when you take risks with healthy people, it can be a great thing! Awaken took this to heart and has been intentional about going on adventures with the women we serve. So far this year we have gone skydiving, camping in the Redwoods and rappelling! Each time these young women step out of their comfort zone it allows them to connect with us as well as with each other. In each of these adventures, they are faced with deciding whether or not they will take the risks to trust God, their environments, and the people around them.  We are so excited to develop a relational and exiting treatment model for these women and girls, and for them to develop healthy and strong relationships with each other, us and the Lord.