wfn.org | ABCUSA: Bethell Is BWA Human Rights Award Recipient

["CHANDLER, David" <David.Chandler@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Birmingham, United Kingdom
7/30/05)--Lauran Bethell, a global consultant for ministries with
at-risk women who serves with American Baptist International Ministries,
and whose work with women trapped in prostitution has received worldwide
attention, was presented the Human Rights Award of the Baptist World
Alliance here at the Baptist World Centenary Congress.

Given every five years at the BWA's congresses, the award was presented
to Bethell today by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, himself a former
recipient.

Citing the encouragement and support of both staff and the exploited
women she has worked with, Bethell acknowledged the "resilience of the
human spirit [and] the importance of hope in Jesus Christ" in accepting
the award.

She praised "my wonderful mission board-the Board of International
Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA and especially [former
executive director] John Sundquist, who gave me the freedom to pursue
the call from God I felt in my heart, despite the fact that 'we've never
done it that way before.'

"Praise be to God, Who is with us now and Who will continue to guide and
lead and give us wild, wonderful, surprising visions for the redemption
of 'the least of these,'" she said.

During her first term as an International Ministries missionary, Bethell
helped to found the New Life Center in Thailand, a ministry to Hill
Tribe girls tricked or sold into prostitution, or at risk of suffering
that fate.

In 2001 Bethell was given the opportunity to expand her work beyond
Thailand, serving as a consultant to similar ministries around the
world.	She relocated to Prague and advises a wide variety of
Christ-based ministries to prostitutes and other exploited women and
children.

As she launched this new phase of her work, Bethell began a prayer walk
through the streets of Prague, literally looking for a way to connect to
others walking the streets for a different reason. She talked with some
of the young women on Prague's streets and found that many of them were
from Bulgaria, working to support children or elderly parents back home.

Bethell shared experiences and observations about her work with 1,600
persons at a women's celebration here today.

Many women sacrifice themselves in prostitution because they have no
other way to support themselves or their families, she said.  And many
of women she works with in Prague have been trafficked to the West from
an Eastern European country; most are married, have children, and come
from Christian backgrounds.

"We don't ask the question, 'Do you want to leave prostitution?' That's
God's work to do," she said. "Seeing with new eyes means trusting that,
in fact, God is at work in this world. We don't have to do it all for
him."

"What everyone can do," Bethell said, "is to see those in
prostitution--see anyone we'd rather not see--with new eyes, whether
they be the homeless, the outcast, the terrorist, those who irritate us,
our enemies. And each time we see them, repeat to ourselves that we are
seeing a precious child of God, beloved by God, for whom Jesus died out
of great compassion and love."

Martha Skelton, a BWA Communication Committee member, and Marlon Millner
and Stan Slade of International Ministries' communications team,
contributed to this article.

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American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA
x2077 / (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

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