Green Lake Conference Center 2014 Special Edition Volume 46 | Page 13

The story of ICAP at Green Lake
Green Lake Conference Center

will host its fifth International
Christian Alliance on Prostitution
(ICAP) Global Conference in May
2014. How did an international
conference on ministry to those in
prostitution ever take place in the
middle of rural Wisconsin?
The beginnings of the

conference and ICAP go back
to May 2003. Ken Giacoletto,
past president of the conference
center, and his wife Peggy
were at the Baptist Seminary in
Prague, Czech Republic, for a
combination meeting/mission
trip. Lauran Bethell, American
Baptist missionary, resided at the
seminary. Lauran founded the New
Life Center in Thailand and has
dedicated her life to working with
women, men and children who
have been enslaved by prostitution.
While in Prague, she was helping
others establish new ministries
across the globe.

Lauran Bethell and
Ken Giacoletto

Lauran, Ken and Peg had known
each other for years and in her
home one afternoon Ken asked
her if there was anything that
she wanted to do in terms of her
ministry that she had not been able
to do. If so, what would it be and
could the conference center help
make it happen? It didn’t take any
time at all for Lauran to respond,
“For years I have wanted to get the
leaders of prostitution ministries
from all over the world together in
one place. The ministries are so

scattered around the globe and are
so underfunded that it has been
an impossible dream. If we could
all get together to share ideas and
resources we would be able to
expand the impact and increase the
number of ministries throughout the
world.” Ken returned from Prague
and immediately began to put into
place the beginning plans of what
would become the first international
conference on prostitution.

In August of 2004, the first
conference was held at Green
Lake. Forty-five ministries from
33 countries attended. It was an
incredible experience! The hopedfor sharing of ideas that had been a
part of the original dream became a
reality in a very short time. People
attended the conference who
felt called to ministry to women
in prostitution and were able to
actually sit down with current
ministry leaders at the conference.
They were able to get answers to
their questions and to be given
realistic expectations of what it
meant to be in ministry in some
of the darkest places of the earth.
New ministries were started and
others expanded as a result of that
first conference in 2004. Christian
author, Philip Yancey, was the
keynote speaker with the theme
of “Hope.” As a result of Philip’s
experiences at the conference, two
chapters of his book, What Good
is God? are about the conference.
Philip was so impacted by the
people he met that week that he
returned his honorarium so funds
could be used for scholarships for
the second conference. Later he
sent a significant donation from the
sale of his book, which again was
invested in scholarships.

One of the most surprising and
totally unexpected outcomes of the
conference was really a God thing.
We had made all the plans and
were sure that we were prepared

for whatever could occur during
the week. However, what totally
surprised us was what a huge
influence the serenity and natural
setting of Green Lake would have
on the ministry leaders. For people
who spend their lives working in
unsafe places with people who
are willing to sell another person
for profit, God’s creation at Green
Lake was a safe and healing
place. Many who attended had
flown halfway around the world
and found themselves awake at
2:00 a.m. They were astounded
that they could walk along the lake
and all around the property without
being concerned about their safety
any time of the day. Green Lake
was a safe place where they could
refresh their spirit and rebuild their
relationship with God. And so it
continued in 2006, 2008, 2011 and
again in 2014.

At the 2006 conference, it
was decided that an organization
should be established to expand
the ministry that was begun as
a dream. That was the official
formation of ICAP, which now
holds its international conference
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