Can YOU help???

Please read the story below and let me know if you can help. This is from a trusted friend - a REAL need in the world this week, please will you help?

One of my all-time favorite people here in Amman is my Filipino friend, Ella.  We met last spring, she works and lives at the gym I go to, and since this summer she’s spent her one day off each week crashing at my place.  I’m honored and so grateful to call her my friend, and she’s given me permission to share her story with you all bc WE NEED YOUR HELP.

Ella (not her real name) is from a province in the north of the Philippines but years ago her family moved to the slums of Manila after a volcano erupted and made it impossible for her dad to make a living as a fisherman, and right after that a massive typhon destroyed their home.  Two years ago, Ella’s husband left her and their 2 young girls for another woman so the burden of providing for them and her aging parents (she’s the eldest daughter) fell to her.  Even though she’s a university educated teacher, she was forced by the lack of jobs in the Philippines to go to Hong Kong to work in the home of some wealthy Chinese folks.  Soon after getting there, she was cooking dinner for them and accidentally burned some chicken and as punishment the lady of the house poured hot oil over Ella’s arm.  Seriously.  She still has the scar.  She ended up leaving the job early after more abuse and decided to come to Jordan instead.

She arrived in Jordan a year ago and started working in the home of some wealthy folks here.  After four months of horrible abuse including sexual abuse from the man and son of the house, she decided one day to flee to Amman where a friend promised her a job in the gym.  But leaving meant leaving all her papers and passport behind…a choice that Asian workers (esp women) have to make daily in this part of the world.  Stay and face abuse, flee and be illegal but safe.  Since then, Ella’s been working 6 days/week, 16+ hr days at the gym, making the equivalent of $400/month.  She sends all but a fraction of it home to her family and lives on instant noodles and boiled eggs.   Without her papers, Ella’s unable to go home, scared every time she leaves the gym of being arrested and thrown in jail, is at the mercy of her employer/working with no rights or security, and is accumulating $2/day of overstay visa costs.

I respect and love Ella more than words can say.  She’s a picture of strength and hope to me.  We spend Saturday mornings making breakfast together and sharing what we’ve been learning about God over the past week, reading the Bible and praying together, and her stories and life have just opened my eyes to the world she shares with so many Asian workers in this part of the world…extreme poverty forcing people to leave their families for work, kids growing up without parents, couples separated and sleeping around on both sides and the resulting children and STDs and abortions and brokenness, people separated from their families going to drugs and sex and alcohol for hope and comfort, horrible horrible treatment of Asian workers by their employers…I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard since I met Ella.  It literally makes me rage inside.  And I think what I feel is only a fraction of the anger God feels towards it.

So, this is where we come to YOUR part.  A few months ago I felt like God whispered in a smiling way as I sat across from Ella at Saturday breakfast “You thought you came to Jordan for Arabic and to love Arabs…THIS is who I want you to love.  I want you to love her well and deeply, with everything you have, bc in loving her you are loving me.”  That sparked a desire to do what I can to get Ella’s papers returned, so over the past few weeks I’ve been talking with her former agency and employer as well as a lady whose full-time job is helping Asian women like Ella get legal and get home.  What I’ve learned is that the only way we can get her papers back is for Ella to reimburse her employer for the money he lost in bringing her here ($800) and that she HAS to leave the country immediately after that (one way plane ticket $4-500).  I know this is only a short-term solution to a huge problem…and neither Ella nor I know what awaits her once she’s back in Manila.  But what we DO know is that it’s imperative that her papers get returned and the only way to do that is for her to go home.

So, we’re dreaming big and stepping out and asking our Daddy to provide the money.  The goal is to buy her ticket this week, to meet with Ella’s employer and agency next week on the 23rd to pay them and make sure all is closed and clear, and to get her on a plane home before I leave Jordan on the 21st of Dec.   So it needs to happen FAST!  On this end, some other expat gals who know and love Ella are putting the word out to their people, and we’re planning some bake sales and such.  But we need your help!!  If you want to give, you can either send money to me via Paypal or mail a check to my parents address with Ella’s name on the subject line (email me and I’ll send you their address).

If you have more questions PLEASE feel free to ask away, but believe me when I say I’ve done the research on this end and this is the only way forward for Ella, and every CENT of what you give will go towards her.  If we raise more than we need, it will just go towards blessing her and her family.  And PLEASE PLEASE pass this onto any and all you think might be able to help too.  Don’t forget to pray for us too…for the process of getting her home and for Ella and her family and their future.

THANKS!!  Love and hugs.