The overall mission of Extreme Love Ministries is well articulated in Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Zak currently oversees:
Transit: Identifying victims of human trafficking who have been trafficked (taken from their communities or families) but not yet at their exploitative destination (brothels, massage parlours, exploitative domestic service). The team are well trained and work cooperatively with Police and government in order to rescue and place children of human trafficking as well as women and men who have been deceived and trafficked.
ELIJAH – Extreme Love Investigations for Justice and Hope: This team is a quick response team to information relating to children at risk. They are experts in investigations and risk assessments of situations in order to quickly and effectively mitigate exploitation and/ or human trafficking of children. The team works closely with community leaders, government, and Police when necessary in order to keep kids safe, even removing many of them and placing them in safe homes, organizations and safe families (foster care where applicable).
VIEW – Victim Interactions & Engagement for Wholeness: This is the social work team that works preventatively with communities and families in order to prevent human trafficking of men, women, and children, including babies (our youngest was 3 weeks old). They also work in response to our ELIJAH team’s risk assessments. The social workers create safety plans and continue to conduct follow up’s and ongoing risk assessments to ensure children, and men and women, stay safe.
Hope House: This is a family style children’s home with 15 children. These children have all been abused, exploited, abandoned, and/ or trafficked, many by their own family members. Ages range from 3 weeks to 18 years old.
The goal of this home is to create a family home environment where the kids have a voice, share in the responsibilities of a home and learn to love and care for one another as Jesus loves us.
Zak oversees the operations of the home, alongside a staff of Khmer caregivers and other international missionaries. The team is intentional about discipling the children in the home through bible study, worship, prayer, and going out to have fun as a family.
Men’s Discipleship: Zak also has a passion for really intentional discipleship. He lives with a young Cambodian man and they host times of prayer, bible study, worship and times of FUN! Seeing young men come to know the Lord and grow in Jesus is hard work, sometimes harder than his duties at the NGO. However, the fruit of this has been seen through many testimonies of some young Khmer men’s faith growing over the past 4 years in Cambodia.
