Randy and Anita Trythall have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Churches and individuals across the country have heard the Leola couple's plea to help them end child sex slavery in Zambia.

In response, despite economic woes, more than $500,000 in cash and equipment has been donated to the Trythalls' mission, Operation Helping Hand Zambia (www.OHHZ.org).

The Trythalls need $10,000 more before they depart with their children, Henry, 11, and Catherine, 5, on Jan. 5 for a year in Mpongwe, Zambia.

They will host a fundraising dinner at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, 308 Petersburg Road, Lititz, at 5 p.m. Dec. 12.

Cost is $12 for adults or $10 for children. For tickets, call 201-7499 by Dec. 8.

Zambia, formerly Northern Rhodesia, in Southern Africa, is known for its rich copper mines and the legendary Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River, which it shares with Zimbabwe.

"It's probably one of the most beautiful places on earth," said Randy Trythall, 33.

A landscaper by trade with a keen interest in horticulture, Trythall plans to fight the child sex trade with sustainable farming.

"Fathers take out a loan — to rent land and buy seeds, fertilizer, pesticides — but have no way to repay it," he explained.

"When the crop fails, someone comes to the town and says 'You have a loan. I have a tea shop or a book store. I need help in the shop. I see you have two daughters. I'll give them a place to stay, clothing and education and pay off your loan. But I need to know now.'

"The parents, who have nothing and live in stick huts, can't give their children those opportunities. So they consent.

"Then the kids find out they've been sold into slavery. The parents don't have a clue. Usually, the children (mostly girls) are used until they pop positive for AIDS, then they are thrown in the street to die."

For a Johns Hopkins University report on trafficking in African women and children for forced prostitution, go to www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/index.htm and click on Zambia.

Anita Trythalls' parents, the Rev. Stephen and Ruth Fisher, formerly of Lancaster and Chester counties, have been missionaries in Mpongwe since 1963.

Trythall, 32, was born and raised there and moved to the United States in 1996.

The Fishers oversee a church, school, clinic and an outreach to orphans and widows in Mpongwe and live on 1,000 acres of farmland where Randy Trythall can put OHHZ into action.

He plans to supply land for farmers and teach them how to harvest heritage seeds for the following years' crops, make fertilizer from compost and manure and farm organically.

"With organic farming, everything they need is there. God's provided it," he said. "It may just take a little longer &tstr; and more patience."

In November, the Trythalls shipped a 40-foot container to Zambia with 29 tons of equipment, including a portable saw mill and a skid loader.

"I have to build our house, a clinic, a school, a church and finish another church," he said. "Agriculture is just part of it.

"We'll be working in two different places, building a community in the bush, in the middle of nowhere, and in the village closest to Mpongwe."

Until their house is ready, they will live with the Fishers.

The seeds for OHHZ were sown when Anita Trythall was recovering from a two-year bout with fibromyalgia that was "traumatic for me and the children," Randy Trytall said.

"Through that, we came together as a family."

About then, they heard a representative of LOVE 146, which is dedicated to end child sex slavery and exploitation worldwide, speak at Community Fellowship Church, where they were then members.

"It jumped at my wife and me," he said. "I wondered how I could connect it to agriculture. We saw it was going on in Zambia. My in-laws offered us land."

In March, they established OHHZ, with help from Anchor Bay Evangelistic Association, Maryville, Ill., a fellowship of independent, Full Gospel, Charismatic and Pentecostal people. Trythall has been a member of Anchor Bay for about 10 years.

They are now members of Lancaster Church of the Word International, meeting in Greenfield Industrial Park.

After a year abroad, the Trythalls will return to the States for about four months, when they will decide if they want to return for another two years.

"I'm committed to it," he said. "But everyone gets a vote.

"The Zambian people are wonderful. They're so open, friendly and loving. They have ambition. They want to get out of poverty."