But, what exactly is The Experience?

The purpose of the experience is to expose issues occurring around the world TODAY. Many of these issues are heart breaking and shocking. As Christians, it is our duty to expose and take action concerning these issues. The prophet Amos says “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream”(Amos 5:24). Believe it or not, Amos is talking about worshiping God. When we worship God properly, justice rolls on like a river. We are righteous in true worship, not just when we sing worship songs, but when we worship God through praying, giving and going. The Refuge Experience seeks to encourage and exhort this kind of worship.

Just as its name suggests, you will literally experience some of the issues and hardships that people around the world deal with every day. These include things like hunger, thirst, lack of medicine, human trafficking and, most significantly, a lack of connection to God.

The Experience, through different stations, will give you the opportunity to see, and even feel, these issues in great detail, so that you might come to better understand the plight of the lost in the world. At the same time, you will get a chance to experience the hope that is Jesus by seeing what it is we can do to help meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the lost around the world.

Visit us for any one hour during the morning from 9am – 1:30pm (half-hour worship service, half-hour Refuge Experience) or for any half-hour 5pm-7pm before the concert.

You won’t want to miss it.

The Shanes (Shane Barnard and Shane Everett) are Texas born and raised. They met while attending Texas A&M University and there began to lead worship together for a college ministry called Breakaway Ministries. They released a couple of albums and soon began recording and performing full time.

Now, a decade later, they have produced six studio albums, sold around half a million records and are one of Christian music’s most exciting and compelling worship groups. And a busy one at that; they perform between 250-300 shows per year!

Shane and Shane have been described as being among the most devotionally focused singer/songwriters of this generation. They’re lyrics certainly back that supposition. One quote of Barnard’s (which can be found on the band’s website) sums it up well, “We always have a tendency to bring the scriptures into our songs; it happens naturally for us.”

We’re very excited to worship with them and you!

For more on Shane and Shane, their music and their tour, check out their website – http://shaneandshane.com/

There are an estimated 1 million children trafficked into sexual slavery every year. That’s about 2,700 innocent children trafficked every day. Remember Nhu’s ultimate goal is to eliminate the exploitation of children in the sex trade industry throughout the world by meeting the physical, emotional, educational and spiritual needs of at-risk children.

Help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 to help these children in Thailand. For our last concert in September, God showed up in an amazing way and we raised twice as much as our original goal! Let’s unite together to eliminate the exploitation of children in Thailand.

Arrive early to participate in The Experience – an amazing opportunity to experience the lives of those less fortunate than us in various countries, including Mexico, Brazil and Thailand. In the coming days, we’ll be posting a more in-depth description of what exactly The Experience will be, so check back soon.

Doors to the Experience open at 5pm. Concert begins at 7pm. Refreshments and merchandise will be available for purchase. All proceeds go toward meeting our goal.

Photo courtesy of Google Inc.

Well, here at Refuge it’s not the only thing we’re counting down. It’s time for another Refuge concert! Our next concert will be held on Sunday, January 30, 2011. More information will be posted within the coming weeks, but in the meantime we’d like to update you on our most recent concert, Refuge | Brazil.

September’s concert for Hope Unlimited was such a huge success. We want to thank each of you that participated for all your hard work and generous giving. We set a goal of raising $25,000 for Hope Unlimited in Campinas, Brazil and your response was phenomenal. We raised a total of about $49,000!! Over $42,000 of which was raised the night of the concert alone. Our God definitely provides!

If you would like to check out some more information about Refuge | Brazil and view some of the photos our photographers took that night, we’ve updated our Previous Concerts section to include Refuge | Brazil.

We hope to see you all at Refuge | Thailand! We have some really exciting things planned!

As the car pulled up to Hope Ranch (Chacara Esperanza) in Campinas, Brazil, I wondered if the girls would remember me. Last August, I had the privilege of spending a week with them as part of a mission trip from Princeton Alliance Church. My trip to Hope Ranch and the City of Youth changed my life and I had been counting down the days until I could see the children again. Here I was, moments away, and the anticipation was making my hands sweaty. Suddenly, the large wooden gates swung open and immediately I realized that the girls had not forgotten me. As I stepped out of the car, girls wrapped their arms around me, squeezed me from all sides, and welcomed me back. My heart skipped a beat and tears formed in the corner of my eyes. I felt as though I had never left, that I belonged, and that I was loved.
The afternoon was spent giggling, painting nails, braiding hair, and experimenting with make-up. The girls took turns giving me beauty treatments and pampering me. After make-up, hair, and nails were complete, it was time to choose my outfit for that evening’s church service. I found myself at the center of a fashion show and I was the star. We laughed, danced, and laughed some more, but I couldn’t help wondering… How could anyone ever hurt these girls? How could anyone not love them? How could these girls ever overcome pasts full of abuse, poverty, neglect, and abandonment?
As the girls and I walked hand-in-hand to board the bus headed to church, I remembered that it’s because of our God broken hearts are mended.

After a long day of work at the graduate chapel, we drove over the City of Youth to have dinner with the boys. I was exhausted and worried I wouldn’t have any energy to socialize with the kids, especially in my broken Portuguese. But once we sat down for dinner, I connected immediately with one boy – Roner. Luckily for me, he knew a little English and spoke Portuguese very slowly so I could understand. I found an easy to way to start a conversation was to ask, “What is your favorite [insert anything a kid would like here]?”

So I asked him, “What is your favorite movie?” and he replied, “Cheechaneek.”

“Chee… cha… neek..?”

“Si. Cheechaneek!” (as if I should know this movie).

“Is it from Brazil?”

“No! It’s American!”

I was racking my brain. I’ve watched a lot of movies. I consider myself a bit of a movie buff. But Cheechaneek? What on earth could that be?

Again, I repeated the word to him, slowly, “Chee…cha…NEEK…?”

Then Roner said something quickly and I caught the Portuguese word for “house” as he motioned for me to stay where I was. In a few minutes, he was back from his dorm with a DVD in his hand. He passed it to me so I could see for myself what this mysterious Cheechaneek movie was…

“TITANIC?! Oh, of course I know Titanic!”

“Si! Cheechaneek!”

It was then that I remembered that in this area of Brazil, people pronounce the letter T with a CH sound. And like the Spanish language, the I is pronounced like EE. So Ti-tan-ic became Chee-chan-eek.

For both of us, it was a really funny moment and we got a good laugh out of it. But the experience also reminded me that despite the awful situations from which these kids were rescued, they are still individuals with likes and dislikes, passions, dreams, and hobbies. Some liked movies and others liked music (although it’s safe to say all the boys love soccer). And as I got to know them individually, I realized that they didn’t need or want my pity as I’d originally thought. They wanted someone to take interest in them. They needed to be listened to as they talked about their passions, and encouraged as they talked about their dreams.

Hope Unlimited does the hard part; they teach, clothe, feed, counsel, and parent these kids all year round. I didn’t know how I could add to that, especially in only a week’s time. But my time with Roner taught me that even a ten minute conversation can be valuable. Roner may not remember my name or what I look like, but I hope he remembers that a stranger got on a plane from America to Brazil to be his friend, listen to him talk about his favorite movie, and share a laugh together.

Our group from PAC decided we wanted to do an activity with the girls when we visited their ranch.  We made cookies with them!  Cookies were a new treat to them.  The girls’ house where I was making cookies was busily mixing cookie dough, guessing at the temperature of the oven because it was missing the dial, and finally putting cookies in oven.  The oven door kept falling open.  Finally one girl decided to place a chair against the oven door.  She sat down on the chair and “guarded” our cookies.  They turned out great but my heart sank that that was the stove/oven that the girls had to put up with each and every day.  I knew at Hope Unlimited that resources were extremely tight at that time and there are so many places that their funds needed to go but I prayed and prayed each day that some time there would be money enough to buy a new stove for that house.  Fast forward several months:  An answered prayer… We were visiting Hope Unlimited several months later and one of the first things I learned was that ALL the girls’ houses had received new stoves!  Yea, God.

– Chloe Colgan, Hope Unlimited visitor 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005

Help us reach our goal of $25,000 so that the boy’s homes can be renovated as well!

You can donate online.

There are 3 ways you can get your Refuge Coffee:

• Get a bag (or 2 or 3!) after one of the services this weekend at Princeton Alliance Church. We have a limited supply on hand, so if we run out you, place an order and we’ll get it to you.
• Place an order by emailing refuge@princetonalliance.org with your name and how many pounds you would like and we’ll contact you when your order comes in.
• Purchase at concert!

I was truly amazed at the joy the kids show even though they have been through the direst of circumstances. We have so much in worldly possessions here in the States. I know in my own house both my kids have an iPod touch, a DS, as well as a Wii & PS3. I’m sure we are not much different from most households in this area.

When we were in Brazil, we saw only 1 Playstation. It was shared by all 6 of the houses on campus, each house with about 12 children. Imagine just how little playtime each child gets under those circumstances.  We crave for more and more here in the US and even those considered “poor” often have many of the amenities mentioned above.  It is truly God’s love and grace that allows these children to feel and give so much love.  They have nothing, yet they are always ready to give.  In fact, they knew our family loves soccer and actually gave us a soccer figurine from their house.  It is so special to us.

I often have to remind myself that I don’t need all the things that are out there.  I try to think of these kids in those times and remember that He can supply our needs above and beyond what we think we want.

However it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. – 1 Corinthians 2:9.

She paused and quietly added, “We know that God has prepared amazing things for your life and we thank him for bringing you into our lives.” Inside my heart was beating with joy, and I quietly wondered to God what I had done to deserve such love.

As they sang “Happy Birthday,” I thought about how blessed I was to be in the presence of these amazing girls who have, through faith, overcome poverty, abuse, neglect, and tragedy in their lives. When the song ended, I closed my eyes, made a wish, and blew out the candle.

Suddenly, all the girls ran up to me and wrapped their arms around me. “There’s more!” Fran exclaimed. “We made you something.” The girls made me close my eyes again, and Fran handed me a large, folded up poster with a blue ribbon tied in the middle. I unrolled it, but I wasn’t prepared for the contents.

The poster was covered with birthday wishes, pictures, Bible verses, quotes, and favorite memories of our time together. My heart melted, and saying “thank you” didn’t feel like enough. This was the greatest birthday gift ever!