Let me break it down///

I, suck at math. I despise math, so the fact that I'm doing this means-- I mean BUSINESS. 

I need: $3000 (2000 by June 1st and the last 1000 pledged--meaning all gathered by the latest: July 22nd). 

Therefore $3000 means...

30 people give $100

or

60 people give $50

or

120 people give $25

or

300 people give $10


Now, I honestly do not care whether you give $100 or $10--- because I hope you have asked God and let Him move you to give what He wants you to give. Remember, prayer is PRICELESS - but I humbly ask that you realize this is not just a charity act.

Your donation is you taking an active step in taking New York City. You have pledged to end exploitation of humankind and the Earth. You have decided that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, and that you are not vulnerable to finances or complacency. We are all vulnerable people, but it is in that vulnerability we become stronger as a community, as a family, and as a people of God. 

Galatians 6:2    Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

The (ny)CUP Coffeehouse

Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls,

I would like to proudly invite you to a special night at a new hot spot opening up on Long Island. 

It is...

THE (NY)CUP COFFEEHOUSE. 

Admission: $5 (First cup of coffee is on the house!)
Where: Shelter Rock Church
When: May 31st
Why: Organic & Fair-Trade Treats and Coffee
          Live Performances!
          Art Sale
         ---and to obviously help raise funds for NYCUP for myself and my two friends, Candace & Sherin:)

Check out the Facebook event for more deets or leave a comment below:)

SEE YOU THERE~

KEEP IN TOUCH:)

Please! I ask that you enter your e-mail in the box under the MAIN title to keep in touch and contact with me. As I go to NYCUP, I'll try to post everyday, and I want to keep my partners informed in all that I am doing. 

Much Blessings & Thanks,

Princy

The REAL Housewives of The Bible

So, hey, you've seen the what, when, why, and how...let me tell you the "DONE" - as in, "Last time in the life of Princy, she finally accomplished something worthwhile!" :)

As some of you may know, I like art. I like writing. I sometimes wear highlighter colors in the middle of winter. And I don't care what other people think of me. My only concern is what God thinks of what I say and do, and what He WANTS me to say and do. 

That being said, for my final project in my photography class, I decided to do a photographic narrative titled: "The Real Housewives of The Bible". 

NOTE: These photographs were shot in black and white film, printed on fiber paper, and then photographed with a smartphone. The quality is not as great as it should be for some. 

Genesis 4:1 
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man."

Genesis 16:4
He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

Genesis 30:14
During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

Genesis 30:15
But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”

Joshua 2:17-18
Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house.

Judges 5:7
Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.

Judges 5:27
At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.

Judges 16:15
Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.”

Ruth 4:10
I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

Esther 4:16
“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

Now when I decided to do this project, I knew I did not want some generically pretty women standing around. I wanted to portray these women in their power, their beauty past their bodies. After watching Miss Representation, not only was I angry at men but angry at women who put themselves down. We do not live in a "man's" world, we live a human world- but we turn women into sexual objects. We turn men into 18-year-old BOYS who need boobies and butts to keep their attention. We degrade both the men by saying they are not worthy of strong women who can think for themselves and do not need to show their bodies off, and we clearly degrade the women by making them less than what they are: divine daughters of God. 
Therefore I tried to shoot these women in a way they are not usually seen, and of course, my amateur skills need work and I will definitely re-shoot them, but I want to let you know that that's what I hope to learn in NYCUP. It is not just me volunteering in the city and opening my own eyes, but I want to translate that knowledge in my art and my passion, so that it is not just me who benefits from this mission and this internship  but you- my peers, my friends, my relatives, my teachers, my students, and anyone else who comes in contact with me:) 

P.S. Watch Miss Representation  if you have not already! (Every time I want to throw a chair into the patriarchal society I confine MYSELF in). :O --meaning it's good! 

DONATE

Well, you have all of this rummaging around in your mind, now I need to let you know the HOW - and that is through YOU. 

By June 1st, I need to have $2000 raised and the last $1000 pledged. Wowza.

Now, I know everyone has their own bills, needs, and concerns, so I feel bad for asking so much of my peers, relatives, and friends. That is why I hope to pay $1500 on my own, through my own work and jobs. 

But God is good, and He has never let me down once- so God willing, with your prayers and help, I will succeed far beyond my imagination. 

Therefore, to donate, please go to the Intervarsity's website: https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate and type my name in: Princy Prasad, NYCUP 13. 

All checks must be made payable to INTERVARSITY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP with "NYCUP 13 & PRINCY PRASAD" in the MEMO. 

You can send them to: INTERVARSITY 17 WEST 27TH STREET THIRD FLOOR NY NY 10001 or give them to me before June 15th. 

Any cash donation is NOT eligible for a tax-deductible donation and can be given to me before June 15th.

If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to me!

Whatever you can give will be amazing and a blessing, but remember that prayers, emotional support, and even just being there for me is a blessing enough. Yes, money moves this financial mountain, but with God, we can move nations- and that's what I want you to join me in doing!

Letter

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,


         I am humbly writing to you in pursuit of support for my summer internship with Intervarsity's New York City Urban Project. This program begins June 15th and ends July 22nd and will be based in Washington Heights. NYCUP involves teaching and mentoring college students to rise up against human trafficking, sexual exploitation, abusing the Earth, and complacency. Far too often, we see the horrors in the world and have trained ourselves to take it daily as if this should be "normal". Well, I say, No More; and I want you to say that with me.
        Over winter break 2012, I had the opportunity to go to Urbana 12. There I took a pledge to go into a missions field or a trip within the year of 2013. I was so ecstatic and excited to travel to another country, deal with another nation's problems, but things were not lining up. Then, I had the opportunity to participate in NYCUP Spring Break. I volunteered with the Mont Lawn City Camp to go to a low-income charter school that specified for foster kids and kids in danger of being in foster care. These children felt love from different places, not all good, and we as the volunteers had to be there to give them double the love they needed. Though I hold them close to my heart and are angered by what they face everyday  I know God has had them way before I got there and will continue to love them even after I left.
       For the summer, I am placed on the LOGOFF - Vulnerable People Team where we train ourselves to ask the question: "How do we best love the vulnerable people in our lives?". What I came to understand is that we, every single one of us, are vulnerable and some turn that fear to prey on others and others fall prey because of it. 
      "But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." - C.S. Lewis
      I want to use my art, my passions, and my love for Christ and others to raise awareness about the hate and pain around us and use that same love to heal it. This is not just something I can do physically, but what you can partner with me to accomplish. Whether it be through financial support or prayers, please stand with me and say "No More". Do not comply to the "normal" reactions that the world has trained us to express. Feel anger for the children who are preyed on. Feel frustration at the way governments ignore the pleas of those trafficked. Feel compassion for those who turn the pain they felt onto others. Join me in raising $3000 to learn, grow, and teach. 
     It may seem hard, but our God is sovereign and our prayers are strong. Please pray, and let the Lord lead you to whatever His Will asks. 


                                                                                                          Thank You & Blessings,
                                                                                                                         Princy Prasad

WHY & Spring Break

You know the when, where, and what...but now let me tell you the WHY. 

For my winter break 2012, I traveled with my fellow Hofstra Intervarsity friends to St. Louis, MO for a week long spiritual expedition to realize that this world is so very big and frankly, my God is bigger. I went to seminars and experienced God in a way I did not think was possible. It was amazing to worship with so many believers of different cultures and languages, but at Urbana 12, they asked me a question: "What now?" 
You see, worshiping with God is literally like having the biggest, most amazing party in the universe. God has given us that invitation, and sometimes, we think our lives are too busy or more important and therefore God invites people who we deem "less" than us. But I want I got from that message was that we are the messengers God uses to send out these invitations, and quite frankly I did not send out nearly enough invitations to the people I care most about. 
So I pledged I would do a missions trip in 2013, and somehow it did not work out the way I "planned".

Then, God gave me a chance to go to NYCUP Spring Break, where I plunged myself into the work of fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation  as well as seeing first hand the victims and possible abusers. While some of my friends went to brothels and learned about how to identify traffickers and those trafficked, I went to a low-income school to see where most of these abusers found their prey. In one week, I cried and laughed, and really experienced things that I take for granted everyday. At the school, the kids are either in foster homes or at risk of being in foster homes, so their lives were broken in ways I could not even image how to fix. What I had to keep telling myself was that God had them in His heart way before I did and will continue to love them even after I sorrowfully left them.

       We were not allowed to speak of Jesus in the school but had to show them the love of Christ nonetheless. At a fair at the end of the week, we gave so many of these kids opportunities to find Jesus when the community and the adults in their lives could not. I even had a hands-on experience facing pedophiles and abusers in the community and area that prey on these children, and it shook me because these children, these babies, saw this man everyday and called him "Uncle". Sure, I could stop him that day, but what kept him away every other day? It angered me, because in my broken life, I kept blaming myself for all the evil the world did, and I never want to see these kids even come close to that. However, my little world was not done being shaken. While communing with my fellow peers and brothers and sisters in Christ, we watched great and eye-opening documentaries such as, Miss Representation and Notorious: Merchant of Souls. Once again, my little world was nothing compared the the sorrows or others...

    I first took part in the fight against human trafficking in the spring of my freshman year in college, where I had the opportunity to stand in cages and really open the eyes of my campus to the enormous amount of humans slaves we have today. I knew of it, but it always seemed distant or in some other country just like famine and war. But New York City is a hub for both the beautiful culture and diverse people of the world as it is a market place of humans. Watching these documentaries and seeing the smiling faces of kids who simply found someone to play with for an afternoon, my heart couldn't take it. 
   I took the step to NYCUP Summer, because unlike the Spring Break Plunge, I want to IMMERSE myself with the facts, the thoughts, and the drive to use my talents and make  difference with God as my driving force. So many people have become inspirational to me, and I want to do that for my fellow leaders as well as the multitude of people that walk my campus everyday and who I see on a daily basis. I want to stop feeling angry at people, and start loving on them. It is hard to love those who abuse, but we have to realize they were abused too...
   We are so sympathetic to the plight of others, because we are conditioned to take it and then swallow it and never think about it again. We have bursts of "freedom" and "liberty for all" and then our own troubles and concerns take us away from the task at hand and what God had envisioned this world to be. I truly believe that Earth was made for us and our fellow humankind was made to live in peace and harmony, however, we are so quick to ignore the vulnerability of ourselves and others, and therefore ignore that everyone, no matter who, needs love and support. 
   I want to stop being complacent  and I do not beg, plead, or ask, but demand you look within yourself and pray for God to guide you. God can move mountains, and if we have a force that unfathomable...why do we not show Him? Why do we not let Him use us?

If you are willing to be a vessel and tool for him, please, help me and donate. Pray. Support. Just love on everyone and learn what you can do too.


For more information on Mont Lawn City Camp, please go to: http://montlawncamps.org/Mont_Lawn_Camp/Welcome.html

What is NYCUP Summer?

New York City Urban Project
All Right Reserved to Intervarsity's NYCUP. For more videos, click on WeLOGOFF.

About the Program:
The New York City Urban Project’s Summer Immersion Program 2013 will bring students together from all over the world in an effort to be faithful with the time, talent and treasure God’s given us to learn to do right, seek justice, and plead the case of the orphan, the widow and the fatherless (Is. 1:17). During the day, students will serve in missions internships loving “the least of these”. At night and on weekends students will seek the Lord in prayer, worship, bible study, discipleship and field trips.

Where: Washington Heights
When: June 15th to July 22nd
What: ....keep reading :)

Vulnerable People
I'm going to be working on our LOGOFF-Vulnerable people team and working to answer the question, "how do we best love the vulnerable people in our lives?" The homeless, the abused, addicted - PEOPLE that are made in God's image but need to encounter Him and His sons and daughters. We will be converting the Feed-a-Few Curriculum into a manual that will be the backbone of the Price of Life onramps to serve.

For a video on what Feed 500 looks like and more on NYCUP, click here.