Striving to be More Like Abraham

I mentioned in my very first post that my reason for creating this blog was to raise awareness around the issue of human trafficking.  I have had several promptings to sew dresses out of pillowcases.  And while I have followed the promptings, I must admit that I have been slow in responding to them.  Sadly, I have been more like Moses than Abraham.  Look at his response when God appeared to him in the burning bush and calls Moses to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt:

• Moses gives God excuses why he isn't the one for the job. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?"   (Ex 3:11)
• He questions in fear "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?"  (Ex 4:1)
• Moses doubts his abilities and pleads with God  "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent..."   (Ex 4:10)

I too questioned my abilities. I struggled with wondering if another cause might be more beneficial.  Something that would be more direct in helping the girls.  But the reality is that if even one girl avoids being sold then my effort will be worth it.  If it comforts just one girl that has already been victimized then my effort will be worth it. 

So I told my husband that I was just going to set a date for the first event because if I didn't then it might never happen.  I would be letting fear hold me back from serving God. I am trying to follow Abrahams lead and step out in faith.  When God called Abraham in Gen 12:1, he asked Abraham to leave his country, his people and his father's household.  His only instructions for where Abraham was to go were "to the land I will show you."  Abrahams response in Gen 12:4 was to follow God's call wholeheartedly. No questions asked.  Scripture tells us that Abraham packed up ALL his possessions.  He was fully committed to following God and had no intentions of returning.  I am striving to be more like Abraham. 

So the date for the first event is set.  January 12th.  I am trusting God to bring the people, provide enough sewing machines and to make the event a success which will ultimately be for His glory.  I am nervous.  As I mentioned in my first post, I do not sew.  But I am trusting God and am clinging to this verse:

Romans 10:11  "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

When is enough enough?

It's happened.  Once again.  Same as it happens this time every year.  I love Christmas.  It's my favorite holiday.  But working in retail really puts it in a different perspective for me.  I work as a vendor for one of the major card companies and every year about this time it hits me and I get a little depressed.  It's because of all the "stuff."  I remember the first year I worked for them and the weeks leading up to Christmas.  I actually thought I may have to quit my job because it was bothering me so much.  I understand the theory behind what they do, but it bothers me never the less.  I know that the more places you have your Christmas items placed throughout the store the better your sales are going to be, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit excessive.  I remember setting 24' of Christmas cards the day after Thanksgiving and then having to set up more in the seasonal aisle. Then still more in the "Christmas Shoppe."   More, More, More.   When is enough enough?  Christmas has evolved into such a consumer driven materialistic holiday.  Turn on the TV and you are bombarded with ads aimed at gaining your purchases this year.  We shop for things we don't really need.  More "stuff."  Much of which often get returned anyway. 

The amount of money America spends on Christmas is astounding. 
What America Spends on Christmas

America spends an average of $450 billion a year every Christmas. 10 percent of that is spent on lights and electricity.  We decorate our trees with lights and the outside of our houses with lights when nearly 1/4 of the worlds population doesn't even have access to electricity. It's hard for me to wrap my head around that.  How am I so blessed to have born in a country that is blessed beyond measure when so many in the world have so little? 

I see people with shopping carts loaded to the brim and I am left trying to reconcile the worlds view of Christmas driven by consumerism with the true meaning of Christmas where God became man in the form of tiny baby.  To reconcile the racing, shopping and busyness of Christmas today with the Holy, Sacred, Glorious birth some 2000 years ago in a lowly stable. 

Picture the manger scene for a moment.  Every rendition of the manger scene paints us a picture of peace, tranquility and humbleness.  The lyrics to many Christmas songs also reflect this view...

Silent Night:
Silent Night, Holy Night
All is Calm
All is Bright

It came upon a Midnight Clear:
Peace on earth, goodwill to men
From heavens all gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing

O little town of Bethlehem:
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;

Hark the heraId angels sing:
Hark the heraId angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled

Reflect on your shopping list, card list, baking list or your party list for a moment.  Picture yourself at the mall looking for parking or in the midst of a busy store shopping for one of those presents..  How do you feel? What words come to mind?  Perhaps these are some of the words you thought of:  Hectic, Rushed, Chaotic, Noisy, Busy, Stressed.

Now reflect on the words from the songs mentioned above: 
Peace, Gracious, Solemn Stillness, Angels singing, Still, Silent, Glory, Peace, Mercy, Reconciled. 

Two very different feelings.  Are you experiencing more of the first or the second?

Look with me at another Christmas song.
What Child is This
So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh,
Come, peasant, king, to own him.
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone him.

At the heart of Christmas is LOVE.  God sent his only son because he loved us.

1 John 4:9-10  "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."

We exchange gifts with one another as a token of our love.  It is a relection of the wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.  These gifts were given in adoration and worship of the newborn King.

Incense - burnt in worship of God
Gold - symbol a king
Myrrh - a sign of being mortal - used for annointing the dead

On a side note: Did you know that the bible does not say there were 3 wise men? This is something assumed from the fact that 3 gifts were presented to the baby Jesus. (see Matthew 2:11)

 

3 Gifts.  Not carts full of gifts. 

 

In closing, let me bring you back to another Christmas song.  It's one of my favorites.

 

Joy to the World:

Joy to the world

The Lord is come

Let earth receive her King

Let every heart

Prepare Him room.

And heaven and nature sing.

 

This Christmas, in the midst of planning, shopping and baking I pray that you are taking time to prepare your heart.  Preparing room for Jesus.  To consider the wonder of the true meaning of Christmas.   The wonder of that Holy, Sacred, Glorious birth some 2000 years ago in a lowly stable.  I pray you experience more peace and stillness and less noise and stress.


I have linked up with:
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home,  Mercy Inc and Deep Roots at Home

 

 

The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam

The Road of Lost Innocence is the heart breaking memoir of Somaly Mam.  Somaly was born in the Bou Sra Village of North East Cambodia in 1970 or 1971. The Phong people there are part of an old tribe of mountain people living in primitive conditions. Abandoned by her parents and then her grandmother, she raises herself by foraging for food in the forest and a little help from the other villagers.  When Somaly is about 9 or 10 and older man shows up and promises he will help her find her fathers family.  She is instructed to call him "Grandfather" out of respect.  Grandfather takes her to Thlok Chhrov and makes her his domestic servant.  He beats her and rents her labor out to others as well.  She finds some refuge in the local school teacher there and his family becomes sort of her adoptive parents.  She stays with them as much as she can to avoid Grandfathers beatings.  One night grandfather sends her to get some oil from the Chinese merchant in town.  The merchant rapes her and she later learns that grandfather sold her virginity to him.  At age 14, grandfather forces her into marriage to a soldier who violently beats her.  With her husband gone fighting for long periods of time she runs out of money for food and begins working at the clinic.  The doctors there preyed upon the girls and she is raped again by the chief doctor.  Grandfather shows up a few times to request money from her.  The last time he comes he tells her to pack her things they are going to visit an aunty in Phom Penh.  .

The aunty it turns out is a brothel owner and grandfather has sold her to the woman.  There she is beaten, tied up and locked in the cellar and had snakes poured over her to break her will.  She manages to escape once, but is found and brought back to the brothel.  Her punishment is to be beaten, locked up and covered with maggots. 

Somaly writes:  "The clients were horrible.  To them we were meat...Some of them like hurting us and did it for sport.  They were dirty.  They stank.  In my memory, their dirtiness is the most repugnant thing.  That and the smell"

Somaly eventually meets a humanitarian worker who gives her money and helps her leave the brothel. 

The injustice that occurs in robbing a young girl of her childhood is horriffic. In this book Somaly Mam brings up a couple of issues related to human trafficking that just wreck me.

1. Men believe that they will be cured of AIDS by having sex with a virgin.  This is why girls are being trafficked younger and younger.  Brothel owners can get a much higher price for a virgin because that is where the demand is.
2. Because a virgin will fetch a higher price it is common practice that after a young girl has had been victimized, she will be sewn up so she can be sold over and over again as a virgin.
3. In Cambodia, it is not uncommon for a young girl to be sold into sexual slavery by their own family.  

I can't even begin to imagine the horror of these things that happened to Somaly Mam.  Many people would lose their will to live.  But she has fought back and gone on to save over 4,000 women from sexual slavery through AFESIP (her organization in Cambodia) and the Somaly Mam Foundation which she co-founded.  She is an incredible woman and such an inspiration.

What God wants for Christmas

It's definitely Christmas season.  Parking is getting harder to find at the stores.  The weekly ads are thicker and longer.  We've got our shopping lists of who we need to buy for and what we want to get them.  I'd be willing to bet that Jesus is not on our shopping lists.  What gift we can give TO Jesus?   I love doing "What God wants for Christmas" with my kids. We have done this every year since they were young and they still enjoy it now that they are older. Our pop-up nativity has to be propped up because the tabs have long since lost their sturdyness, but the message is still the same.

What God wants for Christmas is a boxed kit that comes with a pop-up manger, an illustrated story book and 7 little Christmas boxes. Inside boxes 1-6 are different figurines for the nativity scene. Box #7 reveals what God want from you. After reading the part of the story that corresponds with each box, the child opens that box and places it in the nativity scene. You can do one present a day for 7 days or all in one sitting as a one time event. The story for each character reminds you along the way that in box #7 is a surprise and it's what God Wants for Christmas.
The boxes:

1) Angel

2) Mary

3) Joseph

4) Baby Jesus

5) Shepherd

6) Wise Man

7) Mirror (You)

What God wants for Christmas is YOU!   He wants your heart. He wants you to love Him just as He loves you and to extend that love to others. 

"My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways." Proverbs 23:26

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"What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part.
Yet what can I give Him?
Give Him my heart."

by Christina Rossetti

 

For more ideas on remembering the reason for the season read my previous post

Keeping Our Focus On Him


I have linked up with:



   

Keeping Our Focus on Him

Thanksgiving is behind us and most of us are now focused on Christmas.  This coming Sunday marks the 1st Sunday of Advent.

Ad·vent (noun)   The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important. 

Advent is a time when we prepare our hearts for the coming of something extremely important.  The coming of our savior.  The coming of our king.

This is one of my favorite Christmas pictures.  We have it as an ornament on our tree.  The Kneeling Santa.  This time of year everyone is focused on Santa.    But who is Santa focused on?  Baby Jesus. 

We spend so much time preparing, shopping and choosing the perfect gift for those we love.  We need to remember that Jesus is the greatest gift of all.  The presents we buy will be useful for a time and bring a moment of joy.  Those gifts will eventually be lost, broken, worn out or forgotten.  But the gift of Jesus is forever and His joy is eternal.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." 

It's easy to get caught up with the busyness of Christmas.  We get busy with buying presents, wrapping presents, sending Christmas cards, baking cookies and attending parties.  This list goes on.  But without Christ there is no CHRISTmas. Let's keep our focus on Him.

Here are some suggestions for keeping our focus on Him:

• Do an advent study or family advent activities.  There are many books you can purchase that outline your activities or you can find one on-line.  Good Morning Girls has a free e-book you can download with some fun family activities to do.

•  Do an Advent Wreath.  If the thought of doing a study or activity every night seems too much to handle during this season of your life simply do the wreath.  We eat by dim lights and candle light each night and say a simple prayer relating to which week of Advent we are in.  The kids look forward to this every year now and have fun racing around to dim all the lights when it's time for dinner.

• Relect Him in your decorating.  Display a nativity scene.  If your kids are smaller check out the Little People Nativity.  It's great for kids to play with and act out the story without the worry of them breaking something.  Find a special ornament for the tree that reflects the reason for the season (like the one I mentioned above).  I also like to collect gold cross ornaments for the tree.

• Say Merry Christmas.  It saddens me now that so many people and stores are saying "Happy Holidays."  Be sure to wish them a "Merry Christmas."

• American Family Association produces a Naughty or Nice list of retailers each year. You might want to check the list and see which stores are "Christmas-friendly" in their advertising and which ones are censoring "Christmas."

• Make a birthday cake for Jesus and sing happy birthday to him on Christmas morning.

• Read The Christmas Story as a family before opening presents.  If not reading from the Bible, I like the Little Golden Book version the best.

• Say a prayer before opening presents.  We use this one as our guide before all the excitement of opening the gifts begins:  

Heavenly Father,

We gather surrounded by a wealth of signs, symbols and reminders.

Our home is decorated with signs of joy at the presence of Jesus among us.

Spread at our feet are gifts; symbols of the love we share.

We pray in gratitude for these gifts, and even more for the person giving the gift.

In each gift we see a sign of love.

Love that begins with you and finds it fullest expression in your own greatest gift to us:  your Son, Jesus.  Through him we pray in joy and thanksgiving on this Christmas Day.

• Read Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright and then bless a random family with a Christmas Jar. The Christmas Jar tradition was started in 2005 by the author and his family. He went on to publish his family's idea in this book which became a New York Times Best Seller and a new Christmas Classic.  This could be a great tradition to start with your family.

• Visit a living nativity scene if you have one in your area or watch The Nativity movie as a family

• Serve as a family.  Ring bells for the salvation army, Select a person from the Angel Tree, participate in a Coat Drive or Mitten Drive

• See a Christmas Play.  Every year our church does a children's production of a Christmas play.  If your church doesn't do this, check other area churches.  I'm sure one in your area will be doing one.

• Consider 3 gifts in relection of the 3 gifts the wise men brought to baby Jesus.  There are many different variations of this.  If you do Santa, you can do 3 from Santa and 3 from family.  Or you can simply do 3 total gifts. 

• Reflect it in your shopping by supporting charity organizations.  There are many different organizations that support different causes.  Choose a cause that stirs something in your heart.  Here's what stirs mine.  Or as a family select a gift to bless someone in need. Here's what we're doing this year. 

However you choose to celebrate this year, keep your focus on Him and have a Merry CHRISTmas!


I have linked up with:

          

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Take Action to Stop Backpage

If you aren't familiar with Backpage.com please read my post The Ugly Truth

FAIR Girls has created an online ad that tells the true story of what happened to a 13-year-old girl who was sold on Backpage.  The ad also dispels the myth that girls are always trafficked by someone they don't know.  The fact is that in 46% of the cases the victim knows her captor.

It is estimated that Backpage.com generates about $29 million in prostitution ads over a 12 month period.

FAIR Girls has also started on online petition to urge the owners to stop the site's adult section where young women and girls are advertised and purchased for sex.  It's already gotten more than 41,000 signatures.  You can take action and  Sign the Petition Here

You can also write your senators and inquire what is being done to stop Backpage ads in your state.  If you aren't sure who your senators are you can search by zip code at Congress.org  Once you search, click on each individual for their contact information. 

Christmas Gifts that Give Back

With Christmas just around the corner most of us will be doing lots of shopping for our friends and family.   Why not shop for something that goes beyond just the gift itself?  There are many organizations and shops whose proceeds go towards helping those in need.  I wanted to highlight some of my favorite that help women and children who have been or are at risk of being trafficked.

WAR Chest Boutique is an arm of Women at Risk International.  Traffic victims are given shelter and care in one of their 5 safe houses and trained with a skill to help them go forward in life.  The items are sold online at their website, but they also have 3 store front locations in Naperville, IL as well as Wyoming and Rockford, MI.  They sell many different types of items, but this is one of my favorites.  A metal engraved bookmark made by a woman in Thailand.   Cost $10

Freeset offers women of the Sonagichi red-light district of Kolkata employment and the opportunity leave a profession they never chose.  Some of the women working there being as young as thirteen.  Freeset sells quality jute bags and organic cotton t-shirts.

Freeset has also teamed up with the MOB Society to offer this cute bag.  With 250 bags purchased, they can rescue FOUR WOMEN out of trafficking and train them for freedom.  These MOB Society bags are especially designed with blue-hued recycled sari’s (the dresses the beautiful women wear.)  Each bag is made by a woman freed from human trafficking. To read more or to purchase one of these bags go Here.


IJM (International Justice Mission) is a human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual expoitation and other forms of violent oppression. This Christmas CD was written and performed by many of the biggest names in Christian music.   Every CD purchase helps to rescue another victim of Slavery.  Family Christian stores are selling for just $5.   Purchase online here

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.  As a family you might want to purchase something from their catalog to help victims of human trafficking.  You can read more about that idea in my World Vision Post

Books - Give yourself or someone else the gift of knowledge.  While this subject is a hard one, it is one that needs to be made known.  Sold is the story of what typically happens to young girls living in Nepal who are smuggled into India and sold into prostition.  You can read my review Here or purchase from Amazon.

Half the Sky is a book that has started a whole movement.  It is a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.  Takes on the problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality. This book has moved many people to action.  Purchase from Amazon.

Do you have a Coffee lover to shop for?  The The Catalyst Foundation works passionately in Vietnam to prevent human trafficking by attacking its root cause - poverty and ignorance. They've teamed up with Vietnamese Coffee  to offer coffee where a portion of the proceeds will be donated directly to this worthy cause.

The Somaly Mam Foundation was Co-founded by sex slavery survivor Somaly Mam who was sold into sex slavery as a young child in Cambodia.  The foundation works to eradicate sex slavery, liberate its victims, and empower survivors to create and sustain lives of dignity. Buy a survivor-made product and help a survivor become financially self-sufficient as she embraces her new life. Wear your heart and hand to reflect your compassion for the enslaved, and your commitment to securing their freedom.



Freedom Firm is dedicated to the liberation of children enslaved in commercial sexual exploitation, to their effective rehabilitation, and to justice against those who have profited from their misery.  They sell beautiful hand-crafted jewelry made by women rescued from prostitution in India. Like this bracelet for $15.  Visit Ruhamah Designs to see more.


Sak Saum is a ministry that offers rescue, rehabilitation and restoration to vulnerable  women who have experienced the devastation of trafficking in Cambodia.  100% of the sales from the online store go back into Sak Saum's ministry budget for salaries, housing, transportation, healthcare, educational opportunities and more.  This super cute Apron Set for Mother and Daughter is $40.  Prices include shipping!

Love 146  works toward the abolition of child trafficking and exploitation through prevention and aftercare. They get their name from the number of a girl being sold in a brothel.  The ID number 146 was pinned to her red dress.  Love146 trains aftercare workers, multiplies safehomes, aids socioeconomic development programs in high risk communities and provides a voice for these victims of modern-day slavery.  For the man in your life, how about this T-shirt with the Martin Luther King quote? $20.

For the person who has everything how about Donating to a Cause in their name?  There are many great organizations out there.  I recently highlighted the work of Ink 180 in this post Here.  They are doing amazing work to help victims of human trafficking.

Or simply shop from a Fair Trade retailer.  I will talk more about Fair Trade in a future post, but here is a quick explanation.  Fair Trade retailers adhere to standards such as those banning child and slave labor and guaranteeing a safe workplace.

Happy Shopping...

I have linked up with Women Livng Well

The Art of Change

A one hundred and eighty degree turn:

a reversal of direction, a complete reversal in thinking or behavior, turning a negative to a positive.  That's the theory behind the name Ink 180.  Last night Chris Baker from Ink 180 shared his story and some pictures of amazing work that he is doing to help victims of human trafficking.  When I went to the meeting I had no idea what tattoos and human trafficking had in common.  What I left with was the reality of the depth of human depravity that exists in our world today. 

First a little bit about Chris...
When he first had the idea to do tattoo cover ups as a ministry using his artistic gifts for God it was to help former gang members who were trying to turn their life around.  His idea was to help individuals who maybe had left a gang, but because they were marked with a visual symbol connecting them to that gang, they were unable to find a good job or be accepted.  Some of them were still being targeted by rival gangs because they were identified by the tattoo.   He approached local law enforcement with his idea to cover up gang tattoos free of charge as a ministry to help these people.  During a meeting with homeland security, he was asked if would also provide the same service to victims of human trafficking.  Like most people, Chris thought "that doesn't happen here."  Unfortunately, he learned the reality that human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry (right behind drug trafficking.)  As Chris explained, "How could I say no to that?"

Chris is currently linked up with virtually every police depart in Northern Illinois and is on the FBI service provider list.  When the ministry first began, he expected to do maybe 5 tattoos a month.  What he ended up doing his first year was far more than that.  508 in just his first year.  508 people given a chance at a 180 degree turn in life. Freedom to go forward without the past branded on them like a neon sign pointing out where they had been. 

Now about the tattoos...
I was shocked to learn that what traffickers are doing is tattooing girls with bar code tattoos.  These tattoos have identifiers that track what pimp they belong to.    Even more shocking is the fact that there is a system these pimps use where if they find a girl, she can be tracked back to who she "belongs" to and brought back to her captor.  These horrible tattoos are not done by professional tattoo artists so the girl is left with a tattoo and raised scar tissue making it even harder to cover up.  Chris showed us some before and after pictures which were absolutely amazing.  You could not detect where the bar code had even been.   I was completely blown away by the ministry of Ink 180.  Chris does all these tattoo coverups for free because he wants to give these people a second chance.  In the first year his supplies cost him $12,000.  He's received threats because of his work, but he continues to make an impact for Christ.    We are called to use what talents God has given us. Whether it be an ability, financially or by use of our time.  We are called to use our talents wisely and to glorify Him.  Chris Baker is doing just that.
"Each of us can make a difference, but together we can make a real change." - Chris from Ink 180

For more information about Ink 180 or to donate in support of this wonderful ministry visit the
Ink 180 website

Beyond the Shoebox

The past few Christmas seasons we have participated in Samaritan Purse shoebox drive.  As a family we would shop for simple items from a suggestion list for either a girl or boy, pack the items in a shoebox and drop them off at a local church.  The shoeboxes are then sent to needy children around the world.  If you would like to do this the National Drop off week is this week, November 12-19, 2012.  You can search their website for a donation drop off point near you. 




This year though we are going to do something a little different thanks to an idea I heard from one of the ladies in my bible study.  Our family sponsors a child through World Vision and each year around this time we receive a gift giving catalog from them.  Normally, I don't pay much attention to it and it eventually ends up being recycyled.  But this year we are going to choose an item from the catalog and bless someone with the gift.  Perhaps a gift from the catalog can bring happiness as well as a way to improve their circumstances.  Bringing blessings for days, months and years to come. 

There are a variety of items to choose from.  From school supplies to farm animals.  They even include help, hope and shelter for trafficked victims.  We won't be picking one of those as a family as my kids are too young to have something like that explained to them, but I love that they have this option available.  My youngest wants to send a bible in the childs own language and my older one is still deciding.  Perhaps this will become a family tradtion.  One that they can carry on once they begin their own families. 

We are so blessed in our country. We have so much compared to other places.

• Did you know that if you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than seventy five percent of the people in the world?
• Do you own a car?   93% of the world population doesn’t. And here in America most families have 2 cars.
• Almost half the world's population, 2.1 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. Of these people, 880 million live on less than $1 a day.

What a wonderful gift to give your children. Teaching them how blessed they are. Teaching them compassion - to think about those who are more needy than they are. Give them the gift of joy that comes from blessing another person.

Give a gift. Change a life.

When we show compassion and choose to bless someone else, we are ultimately blessing Christ and bringing glory to Him.

Matthew 25:40  "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'


World Vision Gift Catalog






I have linked up with Women Living Well, New Life Steward and NOBH

Created in His image

 

I have been in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) for a few years.  I love how they take one book of the bible and study it the whole year long.  They dive deep into God's word.  Sometimes studying only a few passages each week.  I am so thankful that I live in a country where I have the freedom to meet with other believers and study my bible.  This year we are studying the book of Genesis. The lesson this week was Genesis 9 which talks about God's covenant with Noah and his commands to Noah  regarding how to start over after the flood. 

 

In Gen 9:4 God commands that they must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.  The blood symbolizes life, which God sees as sacred.

 

In Gen 9:6 God warns that if anyone takes a human life, that person's life will also be taken by human hands.  For God made humans in his own image. 

 

His commands to Noah remind me of the value God places on human life. I think that's why child sex trafficking just breaks my heart.  God created life. Every life is precious to God. We were created in His image (Gen 1:27).  And because we bare his image any offense against another person is an offense against God. 

 

As much as child sex trafficking breaks my heart I know it breaks God's heart even more.  No one has the right to force another person to perform an act that God meant to take place in the marriage bed.  Especially a young child.   

 

I have linked up with Women Living Well.

Emancipation Proclamation and Modern Day Slavery

This past September marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed American slaves. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation that he would order the emancipation of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America

Most people think that we've come a long way since then and slavery is a thing of the past. But sadly, there are more slaves now than at any other time in human history. In fact, there are more slaves in the world today than were seized from Africa during four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
 

By definition, Human Trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings mainly for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery.
 

During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, it is estimated that about 12 million slaves were shipped across the Atlantic to the Portuguese, British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and the Americans. By 1860 the slave population in the United States had reached 4 million.
 

By comparison it is estimated that 27 million people are currently enslaved throughout the world.
 

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry (Drug trafficking is the the first.) The National Human Trafficking Resource Center estimates it's a $32 billion industry.
 

An average slave in the American South in 1850 cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money. By comparison, a slave today costs an average of just $90.
 

In 1850 it was difficult to capture a slave and transport them to the US. By comparison, today millions of economically and socially vulnerable people around the world are being trafficked in many different ways. The internet plays a large factor in this. Human trafficking is a highly sophisticated, organized crime and it is very lucrative. A drug can be sold only once, but a person can be sold over and over.
 

It's not just happening in "some other country." It's happening right here in the United States. The US Department of Justice reports that human trafficking has occurred in nearly every state of the nation and in 91 different cities.  It affects foreigners as well as Americans, adults and young children and both male and female. 

 

This information can be overwhelming.  It can leave you feeling like "What can I do?"  My suggestion is to start by educating yourself on the subject.  In future posts I hope to help with options for doing this.  My plan is to share a list of recommended books you can read on the subject, documentaries that are available and organizations to support. We must first educate ourselves and make others aware that this is happening.  Unless people become informed and aware, this horrendous practice will continue to grow.

 

 

 

 

 

13 year old girl peddled on Backpage

A brutal pimp was sentenced Tuesday to six to 18 years in prison after apologizing for forcing a
13-year-old runaway into prostitution.

Kendale (Ace) Judge, 21, took a plea deal last month for sex trafficking, admitting he met the girl just over a year ago.

He promised to love her, but instead peddled the teenager on the website backpage.com, prosecutors charged. When she tried to escape, he threw her down a flight of stairs, they added.

"I sincerely apologize," Judge said in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

"My own weakness, my own weak-mindedness and lack of education led to my incarceration," he went on. "I now know I was the cause and this is the effect."

Shanique Davis, 21, who helped the pimp by taking the girl's pictures and watching over her, is set to get five-year probation on Wednesday.

Defense attorney Phillip Katowitz managed to convince the judge to deny the media from taking photos of his client, who'll have to register as a sex offender after his release.

The lawyer declined comment


Read more: NY Daily News


You can read my original post about Backpage.com here

Purchase a Christmas CD for the cause

I was shopping at my local Family Christian store yesterday and they were selling this Christmas CD for only $5.  I LOVE Christmas music.  I get this from my mom.  I picked it up and flipped it over to see what songs were on the CD.  What I discovered is that it is produced by IJM and proceeds are going to help victims of slavery.  This was a no brainer for me.  I went home with a great new Christmas CD for only $5 and I knew my money was going towards a great cause.   

The International Justice Mission (IJM) is a human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual expoitation and other forms of violent oppression.  This CD was written and performed by many of the biggest names in Christian music - including MercyMe, Kari Jobe, Brandon Heath, Mandisa and David Crowder - who share in the vision of the International Justice Mission and donated their time and proceeds to this project.




Purchase the CD online

Every CD You Buy Helps to Rescue Another Victim of SlaverySlavery is thriving. In fact, 27 million men, women and children are held as slaves. That’s why artists Laura Story, Sara Groves, MercyMe and others are uniting for a music initiative to help the victims of slavery and violent oppression. International Justice Mission® is an agency dedicated to defending individual human rights.

In response to Isaiah 1:17, IJM’s professionals work tirelessly to rescue, protect and secure justice for victims across three continents.

Book Review: Sold by Patricia McCormick

 

I put off reading this book because it wasn’t a true story.  I mistakenly thought, “How can they portray the horrors of the sex trade industry in a work of fiction?”  I could not have been more wrong. 

Sold is a painful look at what happened to a young girl from Nepal who was smuggled into India and sold into sexual slavery.  While this is a fictional story it is based on the truth that thousand of young girls are actually living this nightmare every day.  Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal.  The story is told through her eyes and conveys the innocence of a child trapped the horrible world of human trafficking.

Even before Lakshmi is sold into slavery, your heart breaks for her.  The living conditions are so harsh compared to the blessings we have in the United States.  She dreams that one day they will have enough for a tin roof for their little hut. 

“She is looking down the mountain to the village below, at the neighbors’ tin roofs winking cruelly back at her.  A tin roof means that the family has a father who doesn’t gamble away the landlord’s money playing cards in the tea shop.  A tin roof means that when the rains come, the fire stays lit and the baby stays healthy”

Lakshmi grows cucumbers to sell and dreams of her tin roof.  But her stepfather continually gambles away what little they have and when he looks at the cucumbers he sees cigarettes and rice beer, a new vest for himself.  After he has gambled away everything they have he tells Lakshmi that she must go to the city and earn her keep as a maid.    The next morning he takes her to a shop in the city and sells her for 800 rupees.  That is roughly $15 US.

Lakshmi has no idea and thinks she is going to live in a glamorous house where she will work hard for a rich woman and send home money to her family.  Instead she is smuggled into India and sold again to a brothel owner for 10,000 rupees.  After she refuses to do what Mumtaz (the brothel owner) is requesting, she is locked up in a room, beaten with a leather strap until there is no part of her unmarked by the strap and starved for 5 days.  Then Mumtaz sends her some tea.  Lakshmi drinks the tea and begins to feel funny. She is seeing double and can’t get her arms and legs to work. 

 “In the days that follow, many men come to my room.  They crush my bones with their weight.  They split me open.  Then they disappear.  I decide to think it is all a nightmare.  Because if what is happening is real, it is unbearable.”

She is eventually let out of her locked up room and told that she can go home once she has earned enough to pay Mumtaz back.  One day she overhears a customer talking and learns that they pay only 30 rupees for her each time, which is about the same price as a bottle of coke.  And which Lakshmi has never even tasted.  

I won’t tell you how the story ends.  My hope is that you would read this book and give yourself an understanding of what life is like for these girls.  Sold is written in free verse and is a very quick read. 

Authors Note:  Each year nearly 12,000 Nepali girls are sold by their families into a life of sexual slavery in the brothels of India.  Worldwide, the US State Department estimates that nearly half a million children are trafficked into the sex trade annually.

 

 

Upcoming Events in the Chicago area

October 23, 2012

Free Training Seminar - Learn more about sex trafficking from Brenda Myers Powell, CoFounder/COO of The Dreamcatcher Foundation and consultant for PROMISE during an eye-opening evening of human trafficking awareness. Sponsored by Hammond Citywide Crime Watch.

Click Here for Flyer

I've had the opportunity to hear Brenda Myers Powell speak.  She has an amazing story and is doing awesome work helping young women who are involved in or at serious risk of being exploited in the sex trade industry.
  

October 27, 2012

Free Movie Screening - Bright Hope will host a screening of the award-winning film “Nefarious: Merchant of Souls.” This hard-hitting documentary exposes the disturbing trends in modern day slavery.  Click here for details



I've seen this movie and it is hard hitting.  It really captures the horror of what's happening.

November 13 & 14, 2012

Free Training Seminar - Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children & Labor Trafficking of Domestic Minors Training in partnership with The Salvation Army STOP-IT Program

The Salvation Army - Joliet & Will County, Corps Community Center 300 Third Ave., Joliet, Illinois 60433   Click here to register

The Ugly Truth

If your're not familiar with Backpage.com let me introduce you to the sad, ugly truth.  Backpage is a classified advertising website. Similar to Craigslist it offers a wide variety of classified listings including automotive, jobs, and real estate. In fact, it is the second largest classified ad listing service on the Internet in the United States after Craigslist.  Unfortunately, it is also the the largest source for adult services listings on the Internet. This vile website is being used by pimps to peddle girls online.  There are many stories of young girls being seduced online by men who turn out to be pimps or sex-traffickers and this website is providing them an avenue to do that.

If you want to see for yourself how vile it is go to their website (Backpage), choose a random city or one close you.  Then click on the adult section.  Before you do please be warned that this is disturbing and disgusting.  You will see girls in scantily clad, sexy outfits.  Under headings such as Escorts, Body Rubs, Strippers, Dom & Fetish this website is clearly advertising sexual services.  The girls listed claim to be of legal age, but many of them look younger than the age posted.  Many of these ads may be consenting adults, but the ugly truth is that many of them are not.  Minnesota, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi is quoted as saying "When we get a case involving trafficking or prostitution, usually the story is going to start on Backpage.com."  Prosecutors across the country have seen an increase in cases (in 22 states recently) of underage girls being sold for sex on Backpage.com.

Backpage claims that ads submitted to Backpage are subject to an automated scan for terms and code words linked to prostitution. A team of around 100 people then checks each ad individually before it's posted. Each month the team finds around 400 ads offering potentially underage sex. These are sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which in turn alerts law enforcement.  But here is the kicker...The team does not attempt to identify whether the subjects of the ads in question are participating of their own free will.  Nor are these questionable ads removed!

A few years ago Craigslist was doing this very same thing, but caved to the pressure it was getting and removed such ads from it's website.  Some recent strides have been made with Backpage.  Formerly, they were owned by Village Voice Media.  In recent months, Village Voice has separated their newspaper company from Backpage after several high profile companies cancelled ads for publications.  Backpage is now being run by shareholders Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin.

To read about a recent law suit by 3 teens who were trafficked from ads on Backpage click here
Fox News

Awakening

I first heard about Human Trafficking about 4 years ago at my church.  They showed a short clip of young girls being rescued in India.  These girls could not have been more than 7 or 8 years old.  It broke my heart.  The living conditions they were pulling these girls from was horrific.  These girls should have been playing with dolls, but instead they were being held like slaves in dark, dingy, dirty places and being forced to do unthinkable things.  It stirred something in me, but I thought I am in another country what can I do?  I have small kids and I can't pick up and travel to a 3rd world country.  So, I am sad to say I did nothing. 

Then about 2 years ago, our church was highlighting various people who have made an impact in different parts of the world.  One of the organizations was Dress a Girl Around The World.  This organization sews dresses out of pillowcases and sends them to girls in Uganda and many other countries to combat Human Trafficking.  They said that a girl was less likely to be raped if she was wearing a dress.  I was stirred once again.  This was something I could DO! If what I heard was true, then this was a tangible way I could get involved.  I contacted the organization and this is the response I received from them:

Here is what we have been told by village pastors in Uganda:

1)That the fact a girl is wearing a new dress shows she is being cared for and can discourage would-be predators. This made sense to us because we are always taught to act confident in public and not "look like a victim" as this is thought to deter would-be predators here.

2) We put our "hope 4 Women" label on each dress--on the outside--either on the pocket or on the outside hem of the dress. This is, we've been told, to let would be predators know that this girl is not only being cared for because she's wearing a nice dress--AND also sends the signal that she is also being looked after by an organization.

We have no stats to back this up--but it makes sense and we believe if it saves ONE girl from becoming a victim--it is worth the extra expense and time of putting on our label.

Since then I have slowly been collecting pillowcases and materials along with names of people who are willing to help me host an event for Dress a Girl.  The funny thing about this is that I don't sew!  Yes, you got that right.  I don't sew and yet I want to hold an event to sew dresses out of pillowcases.  God is really stretching me out of my comfort zone.  Over the summer, I had a dear friend and neighbor help me and together we made one of the dresses.  It was actually pretty simple.  I am hoping to hold the first event sometime in January.  If you feel moved by this issue and would like to help in any way please let me know. You can learn more about the organization at their website...

Dress a Girl Around the World

 I have been doing a lot of research on the area of Human Trafficking.  It is my hope and prayer that I can raise awareness around this issue.  I am working with my local church to hold quarterly forums where we bring in a speaker to talk about this issue.  I would like to alternate these talks between what is happening globally and what is happening right here in our own back yards.  I would like to do the same thing with this blog.  I'll be sharing current news, local happenings, book reviews, movie suggestions and all things related to ending this horrific practice.  If I can raise awareness and move just one person to action it will be worth it.