Ambassadors of Hope Archives - Shared Hope International

October 27, 2021 by Jo Lembo

How to be a Successful Ambassador of Hope: Event Reporting & Staying Connected

Ambassadors are an important influence in their communities to keep children safe, when they use Shared Hope presentations and resources.

We make it easy to report each time you present prevention education, have a meeting with key influencers, or host a resource table. Log your event reports at https://sharedhope.org/event-tracking/. Our donors want to know how much reach we have, and your event reports tell us that. Let’s inspire them to keep giving to the awareness programs by sending in your reports.

HOW TO STAY CONNECTED AS AN AMBASSADOR:

Become part of the Ambassadors Only Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SharedHopeAoH/ and be connected with more than 600 members sharing ideas and networking.
Watch your inbox for the monthly newsletter where Ambassadors hear the news first! Informational articles may be cut, pasted, and shared to educate your social networks. Be sure to include the email address from savelives@sharedhope.org in your accepted emails, or it may go to the junk file.
Occasionally there’s breaking news we want to send to all Ambassadors immediately, and you’ll receive a targeted email from us! Sometimes we send emails to you based on your location (state advocacy), or based on your interests (are you a researcher, a blogger, or a social media influencer?). Keep an eye on your inbox!
Note: If you hit “unsubscribe” on any email, you will be removed from ALL Shared Hope emails. Rather, scroll to the bottom and manage your preferences to select which SHI emails you’d like to receive! We don’t want you to lose receiving the monthly newsletter because you unsubscribed from all emails.

If you forward your email to share with other Ambassadors, be sure to delete the preference link in the bottom section with your name in it, or anyone with a copy can unsubscribe you as well.
Remember to also follow Shared Hope’s main Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/sharedhopeinternational/ for breaking news, legislative action items, and headlines from across the nation.

When we work together, we make a national impact to keep children safe!

June 28, 2021 by Jo Lembo

The Choice

Written by Pastor Nick and Jo Lembo

A question asked by many Christians who care deeply about others, especially for the vulnerable and the oppressed is, “Why doesn’t God stop evil people who hurt children?”

It seems there is a conflict between what we believe about our loving God (who knows us personally and gave His only Son to die so that we could have eternal life) and one who appears to be a passive all-powerful God who doesn’t step in, as if he does not care about what is happening to humans on this earth. Why would Jesus need to be “interceding at the right hand of the Father” if it’s God’s job to stop all evil on the earth? (Romans 8:34)

God’s ultimate goal is to be our Father and Friend, and through this relationship allow us to partner with Him in overseeing our home, planet earth. That is the plan He began in Genesis, and it is what Christ restored at the cross. If God had wanted more creatures just to serve Him, He could’ve made a billion more angels. His first desire is for family, as He created us in His image and likeness, and breathed His very Spirit and nature into us.

“I’ve given you everything to enjoy, but I ask you this one thing: Please don’t eat of this tree.”
Genesis 2:16-17

The answer to the question lies in the Garden where the first man and women were breathed into life by the eternal, loving God who wanted to have a creation to know Him and love Him back. He gave them an entire Garden to love and enjoy, and gave them one choice to show their love and appreciation back to Him. “I’ve given you everything to enjoy, but I ask you this one thing: Please don’t eat of this tree.” You know the rest of the story. Humans chose to disregard God’s heartfelt request, and they chose their own way. Humans chose to eat of tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than eating of every other tree that was given to them out of God’s heart of love. So they had to leave the Garden, or they would have lived forever and continued to sin without ever having a way back to relationship with God.

But God immediately stepped in with hope for them when He said, “Because the serpent has bruised your heel, you will toil to bring fruit from the earth, you will have pain in childbirth, but the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head.” God then clothed them in animal skins to replace their own fig leaves because now they had shame where before they had never known they were naked. (A picture of how He would institute sheep and goat as sacrifices foreshadowing how His only Son would die for all of mankind) Now they knew good and evil whereas before they walked and talked with God every day in the Garden, and shared His heart and love, and fully trusted in Him alone. Remember, before the fall, this was done out of their own free will, choosing to be with Him, and thus fulfilling His heart desire in His creation, and reaping a life of pure peace.

The Passion Translation – Romans 1 explains what happened as a result:

21 “Throughout human history the fingerprints of God were upon them, yet they refused to honor him as God or even be thankful for his kindness. Instead, they entertained corrupt and foolish thoughts about what God was like. This left them with nothing but misguided hearts, steeped in moral darkness.
28 And because they thought it was worthless to embrace the true knowledge of God, God gave them over to a worthless mind-set, to break all rules of proper conduct.” Romans 1:21, 28

The Bible is full of promises that show us how to find our way back to Him: to choose Him again, by giving up our own selfish desires, and becoming like Jesus, who gave up His life so that we might live forever with Him. The beauty of it is, it is always our choice. If God takes away humankind’s choice by intervening when others choose evil, then He is also taking away our choice to choose Him. His promise is to always be with us even through our own bad choices, and to walk with us through the hardships of the choices of a fallen and cursed world, where human beings choose to do unspeakably hurtful things to others.

This gives us the chance to choose Him every day where He restores, heals, cleanses, gives new life and new mercy every day. In that, His miraculous nature is demonstrated through us. This causes others to see His love and goodness and choose Him too.

February 5, 2013 by SHI Staff

4 Ways to Fight Sex Trafficking

Anyone can join the fight against domestic minor sex trafficking. Here are 4 simple ways you can take action today. Share them with your friends, family, and coworkers. Let’s each do our part and together end demand for sex trafficking.

1. Write a letter to your local media editor or congressional representative, to inform them
about domestic minor trafficking. Let your representatives and newspapers know that victims of
child sex trafficking exist in every state, even your own. Ask your legislators to commit to providing
safe shelters for victims, and increased penalties for buyers and traffickers. The more phone
calls, letters, and emails your legislator receives, the more action will occur. Visit our “Join the
Cause” page for more information.

2. Fight for justice online! Use social media and blogs to spread the word to your online community
of friends, family and neighbors. Participate and invite your friends to our Facebook or
Twitter accounts. Spread awareness by sharing videos, blogs, articles, pictures and other information
via social media. Join the conversation on YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter or Facebook (for both
the Defenders and Shared Hope).

3. Host or attend an awareness event in your community! How? Host an awareness event, sports
competition, fundraiser, candlelight vigil, march, movie screening, dinner, walk, run, yoga or
Zumba class with free materials and information provided by Shared Hope International.
Who’s in charge? You are! Gather your friends, neighbors and colleagues. We’ll also connect you
with other Shared Hope supporters in your area. Together, we can make a difference!

4. Join the cause! Become an Ambassador of Hope or a Defender. Ambassadors of Hope go
through an online or in-person training to become equipped to speak on behalf of Shared Hope
International. Defenders are men who take a pledge and take action to fight against domestic minor
sex trafficking and the commercial sex industry. Visit www.theDefendersUSA.org for more
information.

Click here to download the “4 ways to take action” pdf