ENGAGE Speaker Series begins this month February 12, 2008

ENGAGE Speaker Series begins!Pastoral and Laity Ministries is launching another season of monthly ENGAGE Speaker Series for the Laity serving Asian American churches. The past seasons we had topics on developing Asian American youth ministry, as well as, Asian American Church leadership. This Spring we are presenting a series to equip the Asian American church to think about social justice and community engagement. Our first ENGAGE Speaker Series announcement is below:FebruaryTuesday, Feb 19, 2008.7-9pm @Oversea Chinese Mission (OCM) church in Chinatown154 Hester St. on the corner of Elizabeth St. (map here)To RSVP, contact Peter Ong at peter[at]palmny[dot]orgDescription:Pastoral and Laity Ministries (PaLM) is excited to announce our Spring 2008 Season of ENGAGE Speaker Series to provide training and networking opportunities to lay leaders. This Spring, we will focus on a series of talks/conversations concerning how church leaders can think about social justice and community engagement. The series is held on the third Tuesday of every month at various venues throughout the city. We hope that it will serve your congregation leadership as a resource for some training and teaching. This Spring Speaker Series program is in partnership with OneHouse, an Asian American ministry that seeks to unify and mobilize the body of Jesus Christ through worship and intercessory prayer to bring social justice to global and local communities and to honor Christ’s love for the oppressed.This month we will have the Executive Director of Restore NYC share about the issues facing our community in the area of sex trafficked workers. Ms. Huckel will share some insight on this often neglected issue in the Asian American community and some thoughts on how to engage this community.The trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is the fastest growing crime in the world, generating $28 billion dollars a year. NYC’s JFK airport is deemed by the Department of State to be a major port of entry and transit point for trafficking. The sex trade in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs ranges from brothels, strip clubs, peep booth shows, massage parlors, street prostitution, escort services, bars, and private apartments. This presentation will provide an overview on the issue of sex trafficking from an international, as well as a local NYC-based level, providing specific and concrete ways for the Christian community to serve and fight this injustice in our communities. (more…)