NEED TO EDIT

We spent the last month together in Arizona, going over all of the footage that was in Spanish. Diego and Luisa (Diego's wife) translated for us, and so now a majority of our interviews are on Word Documents in English. Phil can speak some Spanish, so he'll make a rough edit of the documentary with the knowledge he has, and Diego will review and revise it.

We also did quite a few interviews in Arizona as well. It looks like we're basically all done with principle photography. We may have a few pickups later on, but for the most part we're ready to start editing.

Praise God for this - Brit received an email from our contact in Mexico City and informed us that TeleMex wants to play VOLVIENDO on March 12th nationally in Mexico! Also, Britt had a meeting with Pure Flix Entertainment, the company that we had been working for for the last few years, and they are very excited to distribute our documentary to the Christian audience here in the US. Pure Flix goes to Christian Book Stores, large churches, Wal-Marts, and things like that all across the nation. It's a very big opportunity for us, and we wish to expand their distribution down through Latin America as well. In fact, that's part of the deal.

So God, it seems, has many destinations for the documentary, and it's exciting to share! Here's the bummer. We have all this amazing footage, and we're running short on time, and we don't have an editing system capable of editing a feature-length film. We either need something like $5000 for ownership of the right hardware, or constant access to a rental of some kind for the next few months. Let us know if you guys know anyone with 5K or a great editing system, and we'll be able to get back on the road.

PLEASE pray for us, as we are getting a lot of attacks from the devil. God is doing such amazing work through the contacts we have met, the ministries involved, and the church like you, and yet these setbacks, and the feeling that we've had for a while - the feeling that we are standing on the edge of a cliff, expected to jump into the unknown - are weighing heavy on our hearts. We have also broken apart geographically again - Phil in Portland, Britt in Phoenix, and Diego and Luisa somewhere in Europe - and we all need a community of believers to encourage and exhort us in Christ. Pray for all these things, and let us know what you hear back.

In Christ,

VOLVIENDO (Spanish for "returning")

The Strategy of "The Pursuit" (and Trailer Link)

OUR EXPERIENCE

Upon our examination and assessment of the sex trafficking industry during our trip through Latin America, we discovered certain themes, stories, and problems throughout. We had heard of a number of ministries focused on combating these issues prior to our assessment, but it wasn’t until after experiencing the face of the issue that we really understood exactly what these ministries were doing.

Also in our experience, we saw that there were many solutions already being executed in small doses by what we now know to be hundreds of local and regional ministries across the globe, wherever sex trafficking is evident. Sparked by personal experiences with the face of sex trafficking, and driven by passion to take their visible bite out of the massive beast, these ministries basically re-invent the wheel with every new commission, fund-raiser, and awareness rally while their unacquainted sister ministry does the same thing in the next city over.

OUR PURPOSE

So it became evident to us that another ministry is exactly what the fight doesn’t need. Rather unity, responsibility, and strategy are lacking to make these ministries as successful as their dreams would demand. It’s with these requirements that we feel led to step in. As filmmakers, we offer a unique contribution – the ability to share information. In our quest to ask questions and gain understanding of the many facets of the sex industry, ministries attempting to battle those facets, and problems that have yet to be treated even in the smallest degree, we can take every single viewer along with us, so that, by the end of the film, everybody is on the same page with an exhaustive view of what’s wrong, and how to make it right.

There are mission organizations like YWAM (Youth With A Mission) equipped to touch and speak to every human being in the world. With the right information (given by a documentary of ministries, churches, and sex industry workers) these mission organizations can then reach ministries, churches, and sex industry workers with a conceptually simple goal – unify everybody necessary to end sex trafficking.

This is as far as we, Volviendo, have come. A few of us have spoken with church leaders and even large congregations, expressing the urgency to act, and yet no action can take place until a full assessment and concept, portrayed on film, is completed.

And so we came back to our homes, our churches, and our friends, with inspirational face-to-face footage and a powerful statement that proceeds from the mouth of every person we’ve shared it with – “SOMETHING MUST BE DONE”. And so, in any given circle of people, any youth group, any Sunday brunch, we hear the names of influential leaders speaking against sexual exploitation, ministries opening their doors to exploited victims, and seminaries offering education to anyone with an ear – people stepping out in faith and praying that light will come to guide their path. Our fear is that it will not, and our prayer is that we are that light.

THE PLAN

We hope for this documentary to include interviews with ministry leaders focusing on every aspect of sex trafficking that needs to be combated. So after we’ve exposed the face of sex trafficking – the function of it – we will conclude a solution given by these ministry leaders, however extravagant and impossible the solution may be. It’s our conviction that such a solution isn’t as impossible as it seems. For example, perhaps a ministry to house rescued victims simply needs a curriculum to help these victims heal. And in another city, a book is written for the healing of those same victims. The only thing missing is knowledge of each other and mobilization to unite the two. These examples exist, and in some way, every wicked tactic and strategy of the sex industry is facing opposition from small, faithful servants of hope. It is our goal to unite, strengthen, strategize, and mobilize these servants into an army – a kingdom – of soldiers living and fighting to contradict the lust, brutality, and isolation of the sex industry with the Gospel message and life of Jesus Christ.

As filmmakers, we can only do so much, but the same applies to mission organizations, mercy ministries, churches, safe houses, and law enforcements around the world. But together, with a strategy, we are the army.

THE STRATEGY

When the documentary is completed, we plan to produce it in mass and send it, not directly to churches and ministries, but to YWAM. In YWAM, we will begin a 3-month school for young missionaries passionate about sex trafficking. This school will equip these missionaries in regards to every facet of sex trafficking known, every solution needed, and the commission to act instantly. In the next three months, these missionaries will scatter in groups of no more than 10 into cities across the world. In these cities, they will research churches and ministries, seeking to connect them all together and present the documentary as an introduction to the resolution of sex trafficking. For the following three months, these missionaries will establish the unity of existing ministries and churches, and note specific unfulfilled needs in each city. This process of school and mission, school and mission, will continue in YWAM for as long as necessary, returning even to the cities already visited, to strengthen the movement.

In reaction to that, international, national, regional, and local ministries will begin to be acquainted with each other; the churches will begin to be educated – acting out against sex trafficking in their own communities, serving the ministries, and preparing for a world-wide movement to strategically take sex slavery out at the knees.

THE FEATURE FILM

You say that it’s not that simple. Knowledge is power, yes, but what about money? In just the first few weeks, AVATAR grossed $1.6 billion in the box office. There is no doubt that film is the most popular media and one of the most financially stable industries in the world. It’s never been our intrinsic passion to make informative documentaries for distribution to churches and ministries. Our passion is for the masses. In fact, this entire project was driven by the desire to stop sex trafficking and the equal desire to express truth in art. With our extensive research and immersion into the Latin American sex trade, In Dependence Productions plan to make a feature film to be released in theaters across the western world, boldly portraying truth and creatively competing with the best films of our time. Usually, such blockbusters are blanketed with greedy intentions and monetary investments, but in Christ, all things are possible – even compassionate investors, willing filmmakers, talented actors, and passionate advertisers of a world-wide film devoted to grossing every possible dime, not for their own pockets, but for a movement to end sex slavery. With the most prominent media and popular entertainment in the world, our army of compassion, mercy, and love will destroy the wicked face of sex slavery forever.

-The Pursuers

P.S. Our trailer link is posted below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joyxeQO-r6g

The Journey Has Just Begun

It's been a long journey - so fast-paced that technology and social networking have taken a back burner to the necessary things like... arriving and departing. We've been to 13 different countries in the last two months, traveling over 6 hours each day on average. This most recent and final journey from Lima, Peru to Santiago, Chile took 60 hours on bus. Pablo, Phil, and Rob took that route in order to avoid extra expenses at the borders of Bolivia and Argentina (turns out they're quite expensive for Americans).

We've come to realize that this JOURNEY has just began. We only have maybe 1/3 of a documentary, and none of us feel like God has finished His work in us as far as research in the area of human trafficking, Latin America, and the feature film go. We're all being stretched in many ways by these things. Brittany is working on her toughest film yet in Michigan. She's overly-stressed and missing good community with other believers. Phil is currently revising a story that In Dependence Productions plans to make in the winter, as well as another potential story for the future, along with VOLVIENDO. Diego set off to Argentina and Bolivia alone to pursue an amazing story of a woman who spent 20 years searching for her kidnapped daughter in the sex trade, only to discover that she was killed... but not after saving hundreds of girls from brothels, street corners, slums, and slavery all around Latin America.

We've been discovering stories like that ever since we departed from Juarez. We've found so many compelling stories that we could make a lifetime of movies out of them. But we still feel called to something different for this movement. We're still not sure what it is yet, but we'll continue until we have fulfilled our purpose.

In just a few days, the team will be reunited in Santiago (save Brittany) and we'll discuss the next few weeks. We hope to have a trailer for you all very soon. But these next few weeks are going to look much different than we thought they would; instead of this time being editing time, we've discovered that it may actually be time for more conceptualization - looking at what we have and considering what more we need.

Pray for us that we are guided by the Spirit in these next few weeks. It's been an amazing blessing to rest here in Santiago for the last few days. Phillip is staying in a house with a family that only speaks Spanish, so he's quickly learning the language. Rob and Pablo are staying with the leaders of the YWAM base here (Pablo's Parent's), Luisa and Ricardo Rodriguez - a great YWAM family. And Diego will be here on the 10th via a flight paid for by a friend and follower of Volviendo.

Your prayers and support are felt. There's no way we would be alive, healthy, and safe if it weren't for such unity in prayers of the body of Christ. Please find ways to sacrifice your lives for the advancement of the Gospel, as it is our lot in life - our only true pleasure and eternal contribution. You don't have to travel by RV through Latin America (in fact, I'd advise against such a ridiculous thing), but be careful to avoid complacency and uselessness. We all have so much potential with the salvation that we have been given in Christ. Sure, people will call us crazy, and we will be mistreated, hungry, cold, and exhausted by the end of it all. However, it's not the seed that blooms, but the flower (check out 1 Peter 1:22-25).

In Christ,

The Volviendo Crew

Brittany's Departure and Entering South America

This isn’t an easy trip, by any means. Brittany left us in Costa Rica to produce a film of larger scale in Michigan because we need the money, and another film for us younguns is always beneficial to our worldly credentials and production knowledge. But the rest of us are green with envy for the 5 day work weeks she’ll have and the three-course meals of food she’ll be having. In serousness, we miss her dearly already, and pray for her presence to remain with us while she is in Michigan.

Meanwhile, Cartagena is a city of Colombia’s best shopping, oldest architecture, and rampant prostitution. We visited the “old city” today, wandering from street show to street show, dancing to live jazz music and dodging horse carriages on the cobblestone streets. Near the end of the night, Rob and Phil ran into a man who wanted to speak to us gringos. Phil said they were looking for prostitutes and the man quickly ran through his list of source cities, and ethnicities of women. He offered to send them to our hotels, but we said we’d just come back tomorrow and go to his club. Hopefully we can get some really great footage tomorrow and start to crack down on the core of this issue from the inside out.

The team has been attacked with sickness, as Diego was bed-ridden instead of a trip over to Venezuela to find another vehicle (since our RV finally died on the side of the road.) He’s still recovering. Phil is nearing the end of a 3-week long sickness, after losing about 10 pounds. We believe that this is an attack intended to alter our judgment and narrow our focus on the wrong things. But by the Lord’s strength, we will not falter.

Diego received a word in Panama as we prayed – the beginning of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the sower. “The seed is the Word of God”. We prayed into that, concluding that we must spend more time in the Word and in prayer so that we can accurately spread the Word whenever the Spirit provokes us.

Pray that we will follow through with that. Pray to the Lord that we will persist in this journey by the leadership of the Lord, and not on our own strength, for sickness and confusion that we have experienced makes our flesh even weaker. It’s clear that only the Spirit can bring success to this documentary, since we know not what success will even look like.

We covet your prayers, and ask that you pray for us continually. Read the Word on our behalf, and spend time fasting for our health. Please recognize the power of the Spirit, and that the strength of the Body of Christ transcends geography, time, health, and language. We are out to bring the powerful healing of Christ’s gospel to the abused and abusive masses, and this can only happen by our mutual love for these people, for each other, and for Christ, who saved us.

-Volviendo

Honduras and Nicaragua

We’ve made it down through the Mexican/American border, through major cities in Mexico, Guatemala (and the village where the woman and her husband were healed), El Salvador, and Honduras. The border to get into Honduras was rough. We stayed there over night after doing the run-around for about 4 hours, hopping from one “office” to the next, trying to get the big RV registered.

A select few of us stayed in a hotel right there at the border overnight so that we could finish the paperwork in the morning. After another cold-water bucket bath, Phil sat inside of his hotel reading the Bible while a few truckers chatted outside in line for the bathroom. It seemed like they were having fun, and Phil enjoyed hearing them laughing and joking in Spanish. But one of the other teammates informed Phil that the truckers were talking about how many prostitutes they had slept with on their trucking journey.

The recent memories of scantily clad women with umbrellas at a truck stop at three in the morning in Mexico, and a girl climbing into the passenger’s side of a semi-truck in Guatemala came rushing back to Phil’s mind. Sex trafficking has been traveling with us the whole time.

After our papers were settled by a hefty sum of money under the table, we were stopped three more times by random police blockades before we could reach the Nicaraguan border, probably because we were an American RV caravan. They nitpicked about things like not wearing shoes while we’re driving, and asked us for more money under the table. In some instances, even though we explained that our travels were to bring hope to Latin America, we had no choice but to pay the bribe.

We’ve made it into Nicaragua now as well, and it seems so much more civilized, even just a border away. The heat is penetrating, and the entire team is traveling with sweaty arms, necks, faces, and feet. The schedule for us is intense, and we have very little time in each city. Pray for us that we will soon have a great rest, and that God will regenerate us in this time of exhaustion.

The Healing of a Guatemalan

Guatemala - Mostly green mountainous jungles - is no place for a 1985 Cobra RV to be driving. We broke down next to a village of locals at the top of the steepest hills and decided to stay the night. Since the performers on the trip were going to miss their show in the next town, they did a show for the locals.

Afterward, the leader mentioned that we are followers of Jesus Christ, and people asked for prayer. We captured some amazing footage and ate another meal of beans and tortillas, then went on our way in the morning. By God's providence, we broke down again only two miles later.

Just a few minutes had gone by when a woman arrived from the village. She said that she was pursuing us because she wanted prayer. One of the men we prayed for the night before was her husband, and he was completely healed of some kind of liver problem. So she asked us to pray for her as well, because she was having intense pain in her stomach and her ovaries. She had no money and no access to a doctor, and after just a few minutes of intense prayer, she was healed. She was a member of the small church there in the village, and there's no doubt her faith, as well as ours, was increased.

We had all been discouraged that the RV was holding us back from doing our purpose on this trip - especially those of us who are researching sex trafficking. But God clearly showed us that He will do what He wants to do with us, and that we must simply always walk in the Spirit, desiring to please Him.

(Pictures above are from Mendosa, Mexico. Pictures of the above event to come SOON!)

Check out our facebook for status updates and more photos.

www.facebook.com/volviendo

El Paso, TX to Victoria, Mexico

Los Federales – the newly established federal enforcements assigned in Mexican cities to bring further justice to the overwhelming crime. Unfortunately these guys are another bad word from the classified opinions we’ve heard on our trip through Juarez and down to Chihuahua. Ironically crime has increased since the jet-black pickup trucks began to comb the streets. Sunglasses sit over their eyes and automatic rifles hang around their shoulders like satchels.

Fortunately we’re here with an organization that is spreading hope through the country – a movement to inspire people in their effort to stand strong in tough times. This alias slides us relatively easily through the borders and checkpoints scattered along the major highways throughout Mexico.

I say “relatively” because already our travels have not been without a dark night lit by spotlights and scattered with uniformed and armed military asking us to enter into their office before claiming a price of passage by threat of deportation. It wasn’t until after Diego explained that we didn’t have the money that his heart sank… The man in the uniform asked in Spanish, “How much do you have?” He was asking for a bribe. “I want to help you here.”

Diego whispered it to Rob and Brittany, who were also under an infraction for not having the right papers. They quickly agreed to give the man $100 and leave. As Diego opened the door to exit the dark office, he saw the man slide open an empty drawer by his desk, throw the money inside, and slam it shut.

Our travels continued through Chihuahua to Santillo to Victoria where we interviewed a number of NGOs, prostitutes, and church leaders so that we can find out exactly what sex trafficking looks like here in Latin America, and what it will take to fight back.

After interviewing a couple of locals in Victoria, asking simple questions like “when you hear the word, ‘abuse’ what comes to mind”, a woman came to us. She had been one of the first people we approached that night, She said that her brother was kidnapped for a ransom. She and her family couldn’t pay, so the felons killed him. And only a week ago her father was also kidnapped. Near tears, she told us that she felt the Lord tell her to call home on Sunday morning during church. She did, and her father answered. He had been released.

God brings these sorts of things to us. Indeed, God guides our travels and takes us wherever He wills. And it hasn't been easy. Our RV, a 1985 Cobra named Frida, hasn't been entirely faithful to us. Hours of our days have been in wait of Frida, sitting in the 90 degree heat on the side of the road in between cities. And yet God has shown us more than we could imagine. We are, as our production company name declares, walking IN DEPENDENCE. As Diego sat in the dark, protecting the RV and its contents as the rest of the team ate dinner nearby, he said, “I see now how it feels to actually rely on God.” As simple as it sounds, it’s hard to understand for most of us – being reliant on God means that we are reliant on nothing else, especially ourselves.

Pray for us that we will continue to walk in the Spirit, be it prophesy and spontaneous prayer, self-control and purity, wisdom and discernment. We lift you up to the Lord and ask that you, as we are learning on this difficult journey, would rely on the Lord in everything. Seek Christ in your prayers so that everything you do and say can be in Jesus’ name (as we have learned to say at the end of our prayers.)

And when you pray, intercede for us and seek answers. If you have a word from the Lord, shoot us an email.

info@volviendo.org

Verses that have surfaced during prayer time are these:

PSALM 9 – God’s good deeds, justice, and uprightness.
ROMANS 8:8 “Those who are in the flesh cannot pleae God.”
2 CORINTHIANS 2:14 “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

1 CORINTHIANS 15:50-58 – Mystery of imperishable bodies, and victory in Christ.

Welcome All

WELCOME TO VOLVIENDO'S BLOG!

Phillip Here.

Please subscribe and keep updated on this crazy journey to see if, how, and when VOLVEMOS (we return). That's right, "Volviendo" is Spanish, and it means "Returning". Why returning? Why Spanish? Great Question. I suppose I'll start at the beginning.

Diego wanted to make a movie to unite Latin America with the United States - a sort of bilingual film to expand the minds of the viewers and get a different perspective. As that bounced around in our heads for a couple of months, and we ran around from film set to film set, dreaming our big dreams and thinking up crazy ideas, Britt, Diego, and I found a great "story germ" as they call it.

"Imagine a girl escaping from the sex trafficking industry and traveling back home to South America" Brittany Skyped one day (Skype is a life-saver and a plan-maker). So there it was. We threw it in our hat and kept on dreaming about other things; things like an organization made to link ministries, missionaries, and churches to a movie BEFORE it comes out so that the proceeds can go to a specific issue right out the gate.

Well when God told us to get a move on (a blessing in itself, being as a lot of people complain that they are waiting on God and NOT the other way around, which I think is just a big misunderstanding,) it seemed as if the first thing to come out of our hat was this topical adventure film about a girl on the run back home.

To top things off, Diego found an organization (which we will not yet disclose), that was planning on traveling from the US down through Latin America to our heroine's written hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina of all places. Coincidence? We think not. So we quickly jumped on board with this group, though it was nearly completely irrelevant in the topic of filmmaking and sex trafficking. As Brittany often chimes (moreso lately) "it is what it is", and that's exactly what it is.

We came to the name "Volviendo" after very little discussion. In fact, I personally wasn't involved in the discussion, if I do recall correctly. "Volviendo, cause she's returning to home, to womanhood, to God." we all said. Yes, the name fits the story... and (if you're Spanish) probably 50% of any story you've ever heard, seen, or read. The name might be generic to the Latinos, but we plan on keeping it, unless God chimes in.

How do we know God speaks? Usually because the things we attribute to His voice are just far smarter than anything our brains could produce.

So this trip to pre-trace the footsteps of our heroine rapidly turned into a quest to learn more about the culture, then to educate ourselves on the industry of sex trafficking, then to video document all such research. Finally, after scratching our scalps one day and tossing around a few ideas, we came to realize that this documented whimsical journey through Latin America by the seat of our pants might actually be a good story within itself. SO HERE WE GO!

If I might dare to attempt to add, the FEATURE FILM about the girl is actually about when she gets rescued. She sits down and tells her rescuers her story. So it's a story within a story. And this documentary is a story about that story within a story. And this blog is a story about the documentary about the story within a story. So... go and tell someone about this blog, and you'll be telling a story within a story within a story within a story... within a story. WOW, too much, I know.

Anyway, this blog is our official blog that will keep YOU, the prayer warrior, updated on all of our crazy experiences as we travel from El Paso to Buenos Aires, and 60 cities in between. PLEASE continue in prayer, and let us know what kinds of things God brings to light during your prayer time. To contact us in general, just send an email to elvolviendo@gmail.com and we'll be able to read that on our journey!! If you wish to donate, please keep in the loop, as we will very soon have a website for tax-deductible payment and everything.

God bless you guys, and I hope you thoroughly enjoyed this story within a story within a... oh you know.

In Christ,

Phil and the rest of the crew (Britt, Diego, and Rob)