BOYS CANNOT BE BAHT

A cute little play on words.  A baht is Thai money.  But there is nothing cute or playful about the meaning behind these words.  Unfortunately the sad reality is that they are.  Boys are bought.

20 baht {just under $1 USD)

Trafficking and prostitution of Thai boys is a thriving business.  According to Wikipedia, prostitution is illegal.  However it is tolerated, practiced openly, and partly regulated.   Thailand has even gained international notoriety as a sex tourism destination. [1]

Thailand is a source, transit, and destination for sex trafficking.[2]  Women and children from Thailand are trafficked within Thailand and sent to other countries.   Many are also trafficked from other countries into Thailand.  Recently women and children were brought in from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos to work in Thai brothels. 

I had the opportunity to meet with the director/founder of a rescue home in Thailand.  Due to the nature of her work, the nature of the abuses perpetuated against the children in her care, and safety concerns, I took no pictures of the rescue home and will not share the name or place.  I have 8 pages of notes and the images in my mind that play over and over when I think of trafficking in Thailand. 

I asked her about the children she has in her care.  She and her husband care for boys between the ages of 8 and 18 who have been rescued from trafficking.  They also have girls who were at-risk of being trafficked, but had not been yet. 

According to the founder, there are 8 major tribes that live up in the mountains.  Families often have 10-12 children and there typically isn’t enough income to feed them all.  The parents sometimes choose a child, often a boy, to “sacrifice” in order to be able to feed others.  The child is left or “dumped” at the vegetable market in town.  There may be as many as 100 homeless boys between the ages of 8 and 15 at the market at a time.  There are even some who are younger than 8.  Many times the boys are young enough and traumatized enough that they do not remember from which village they came or what their parents’ names are.   

Traffickers know that these boys are there, so they will go to the town markets and pick them up.  Many of these boys are put to work in homosexual bars and are fed very little.  The children are abused for a promise of a bowl of rice.  Many are abused physically as well as sexually.  Because of the nature of the sexual abuse, typically 8 or 9 out of 10 boys will end up with HIV, which is a higher rate than the girls.[3]

My heart breaks for these little boys.  Boys who did not choose to be born into a family who could not feed them.  Boys who are given up for the sake of others.  Boys who are trafficked and abused by adults and whose lives are essentially ruined.  It takes brave people to stand up to trafficking and care for these little ones.  We need to make a stand as well.  Sure, from here in the States we can't really make a difference personally, but there are things you can do.

1. Please pray for these little fellas.  They need rescuing, redemption, and restoration.  There is only One who can fully and completely do these things.  We can be intercessors for them with the One who can save.
2. Please pray for those who daily work on this in Thailand (and every other country in the world).  Please lift up those who are making a difference every day.
3. Please pray that the demand for little boys (and little girls and women!!) will stop.  Until there is no demand this crime will continue to be inflicted on innocent children.
4. If you are not the praying kind (and even if you are!!) you can still help out by donating to agencies and organizations who are on the ground.  One such place is Zoe Children's Homes.  You can also follow them on the Zoe Children's Homes Facebook page.   Zoe is in Thailand.  There are others in Thailand as well.  If you want to help by donating and want other options in Thailand or other countries, please contact me and I will get the information to you.   Of course there is always my favorite - A21. 

**Zoe Children's Homes staff is not who provided information to me for this blog post.

We are blessed abundantly in this country and honestly do we really need ALL those gifts?   Please consider donating to an agency or organization who is helping rescue trafficked victims or helping them after they are rescued.  Giving up one gift for ourselves or our loved ones can mean the world to a hurting child. 

---

[1] “Prostitution in Thailand.” Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. Last modified 9 Dec. 2013. Web. 23 Dec 2013.

[2] “Sex Trafficking of Women and Children.” Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. Last modified 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 23 Dec 2013.  

[3] Anonymous. In person interview.  2 Dec 2013.

Girls Gone Wild - RLD

I really liked this video.  It makes you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-a8dAHDQoo

Things aren't always as they seem.

Open Up My Eyes

God is still doing quite a work on my heart.  I keep pushing my way through the research and the stories, the facts and the figures, the tragedy and the hope.  I am anxious to really get started on what God would have me do.  I have been researching and gathering information for presentations, working with Jeannie on reviewing our church's purchases, and making plans.  Plans for what to do here in mid-MO and plans for a trip, God-willing. 

During this process though, I have started to get discouraged.  I feel like God is moving me to take a trip to Thailand and see the effects of trafficking with my own eyes.  To truly open up my eyes to what is breaking His heart.  Twice, I thought I had the money to fund at least part of the trip and then things keep coming up that seem like they are blocking it ~ loss of both part time incomes, car problems with 3 of the 4 vehicles, a wrecked truck, a clutch going out in a car, the list goes on (and on and on).

It is so easy to give in to the discouragement, to just give up, because it seems like every time I turn around something else has gone south. 

But God knows my heart and He wants me to have the same passion He does for these people, so He did two things.

1) The movie "Not Today" came out on DVD on August 6th.  I was so looking forward to seeing it that I pre-ordered and had it in my hand on August 6th.  Then it took me 23 days to finally sit down and finally watch it.

Wow.  That is all I can say.  It is an amazing movie about God using a vacation to break one young man's heart for the hurting and the poor in the trafficking industry of India.

This young man has a courage I cannot even imagine.  I know it is a fiction movie, but there are people in this big world who have done what this man did or something like it.  It pushes the drive in me even more to see this for myself.  To be changed by it. 

2) I am currently doing the David Platt study "Follow Me".  Before it started the other day, someone at church asked me about my trip.  I gave the basics - hoping to still raise funds to go, being discouraged, want to go in late fall.  When I went to Bible Study, I texted her then to ask what made her think of it.  She said, "God has laid it on my heart.  I want to do what I can either donate personally or help with a fundraiser."  We talked more later about what my discouragement was about and she encouraged me.

Wait...did God use people from church THREE times to motivate me?  Yes.  (First time was when a friend told me of her vision of what my role was to look like and another asked me to speak in the future ~ see The Rest of the Story).  He is using others to push me forward.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much that made my heart happy.  Every time I get discouraged or think I can't, He sends  me someone to tell me I can.

So, in the Bible Study, we studied that Matthew tells us that Jesus told His disciples at least six times to "follow me".  They were to leave their families, jobs, possessions, even a dead relative to follow Him.  His ministry was short and demanded their full attention and commitment that although his demands seem radical, it was because of the urgency of the message.  I have been looking at my own life over the last two weeks - since starting this study - and I wonder if my life looks different.  If I am "following Him". God has chosen each of us to do something for His kingdom work.  I believe He has put trafficking in front of me for a reason.  I believe He has looked me in the face and said, "Follow me.  Follow me down this scary, dark path.  Be the light to someone.  Be a fisher of men, of women, of children."

Maybe I won't be able to save a life from a trafficker's grip.  Maybe I won't be the one who prevents another life from suffering these horrors.  But maybe, just maybe, I can be a small light, plant a small seed, bring hope.  I truly believe it is what I am supposed to do. 

SO...I will be doing some small fundraisers.  These are to raise money for a trip that will allow me to go into the Red Light District, prayer walk, see and truly understand the brokenness and darkness, and I will even be able to go to a rescue home that cares for children after they have been rescued from the traffickers/sex industry.  I need to see the depravity and allow it to truly break my heart so that in my broken heart I can be more motivated to help end slavery/trafficking. 

If you wish to donate new or craft items to an online auction, donate used items for a yard sale, have any brilliant ideas on fundraisers, or just wish to donate, please let me know.  The online auction will be coming up soon and has some great items already. 

I covet your prayers ~ for me, for this trip, for my journey, and more importantly for those impacted by trafficking - the victims, the traffickers, the slave owners, and the johns. 

Truly this is my prayer (from Hillsong's Hosanna) -

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

 

What Can You Do?

Do you ever have something that you know you want to help out with but the whole problem just seems overwhelming and you just don't know where to start?

Or that you want to help out but don't have a lot of time?

Does the number 27 million seem so huge that you can't wrap your mind around the number of slaves estimated in the world?

Do you ever wonder how you could make a difference?

Me too.

We are not alone.  Each person who started an organization or an agency or a group had the same thought, but they didn't let that stop them.  They knew if they could help one life, save one person, that it was worth it.

What's more is that they remember what it was like when they were overwhelmed and didn't know what to do.  So they gave us some tools to just get started. 

If you want to be a part of the movement to eradicate slavery in our lifetime, there are a few websites that can help you do a little something to get started.  You never know...one of these steps you take might lead you to find a path where you can help a little more.  Then a little more.  If that isn't the path God has for your life, you can still feel the satisfaction of knowing you did help by taking the steps listed on these sites.

• http://freedomcommons.ijm.org/ - They will help you send a letter to ask Congress to pass the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act, a letter to USDA to help end slavery in America's (!!!!) tomato fields, you can display the official national trafficking hotline flyer, and ask supermarket CEOs to sell only guaranteed slave-free tomatoes, as well as a few things you can do locally.  You can even find information pertinent to your state.  You can get your legislator's congressional score card and bills that are supported by him/her.  For example, Missouri does not have any "champions" but Claire McCaskill is listed as a "leader" as she sponsored one bill, co-sponsored 2 bills, and voted on one.  Roy Blunt is listed as "other elected officials" as he has only voted on one amendment to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2014-2017 for the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.  What a great way to track our legislators so we know how we can educate them and write to them about the cause that is close to our hearts!!

Not too sure about getting political yet?  Or you just completed the above?

• http://www.chainstorereaction.com/home/ - You can go to this site, select a brand/company, enter your name, email address (which will not be shared!), your country, and your postal code and click "send letter" and a letter will be sent to the company.  The letter sent is listed above so you can read it first.  It literally takes 15 seconds or less to send a letter and help make an impact.  There are 3,483 companies listed, so you can do as few or as many as you want.  Stop by every day to send a letter or spend some time once a week - whatever you can fit in.  It does make a difference!!  So far 263,644 letters have been sent.  You can also view the response from companies that responded to the letters.  There have been some companies that responded but their response does not address the issue, refused to fill out any part of the survey, or issued a cookie-cutter statement.  You can send a different letter that requests further information.  This is a great site if you have little time but do want to help eradicate slavery and human trafficking.

These are just two that can help you get started.  There are many more.  Please pray about this and take the steps that God is leading you to take.  TOGETHER we can make a difference.

James 4:17

I heard this verse again this weekend during the Pastor's sermon.  This verse has haunted ~ wait, that isn't the right word ~ convicted me repeatedly over the last year and a half.  It started with the study of James. 

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.  ~James 4:17

Once you know the good you are to do and don't do it, it is sin.

James is talking about many things here.  Following His will, tithing, making disciples, praying.  There is so much more.

Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. ~Isaiah 1:17

And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. ~Micah 6:8

Conviction isn't really conviction if all I do is FEEL convicted.  True conviction means you feel, you KNOW, that you aren't doing something you should or that you are doing something that you shouldn't, then making that change.  You change, you transform, your actions. 

I have been riding out the feelings of conviction for far too long, and now I need to really focus on transformation.  The kind that gets me off my backside and puts me out in the world.  The kind that no longer reads about or researches or gathers tools for fighting trafficking but puts those words and pieces of information and tools to work.  The kind that pushes me outside my comfort zone to spread awareness of this growing epidemic.  The kind that puts me in places where God is ready for people to hear and be uncomfortable in their "doing nothing"-ness.  The kind that sees first hand what true, deep darkness and despair looks like when I look into the eyes of someone who has been trafficked.  The kind that has me fully depending on God.  The kind that puts me where God leads me in order to do what I was put on this planet to do - spread the gospel. 

If we were put here to do anything other than spread the gospel and make more disciples, God would take each and every one of us as soon as we were saved by grace and mercy.  He doesn't.  He prepares us for taking the gospel into the world.  He prepares us to fight injustice and help the poor and needy.  He prepares us to defend the widow and the orphan.  He prepares us where He convicts us. 

So here I go.  Take a step out on faith.  Taking steps to take my conviction to transformation.

Once you know...

The Rest of the Story

So I left off, back in April, with a presentation for a friend of mine.  While I was talking, the information just came to me, it just rolled off my tongue.  Sure, I had done research.  Sure I had notes.  But these weren't my words.  God gave me the words and the confidence.  Unfortunately, I ran over time.  A LOT.  I didn't get to talk about fair trade adequately, because I had spent so much time discussing sex trafficking.

My heart is really in the sex trafficking side of it. 

Don't get me wrong.  I, by no means, belittle the horrific violence and brutality that accompanies trafficking for labor or for organ harvesting.  They are equally as horrifying.  Something just strikes a chord with me when it comes to sex trafficking.  I cannot even imagine the shame, the guilt, the sickness, the violence, the depravity that accompanies the crime of sex trafficking.  It completely blows my mind.

But back to the presentation.  I felt at home when I was giving this presentation.  Like everything I had been doing since quitting my job for the state was in preparation for this new phase.  I felt God was revealing to me that I was to be talking about trafficking here in Moniteau County.  That He planned for me to make trafficking known.  That I was to introduce fair trade products to friends, family, and neighbors.  No longer would I just post trafficking information on Facebook or participate in trafficking events at church.  He planned for me to speak up.  The more people know the better chance we have of eradicating trafficking and slavery in our world.  I felt this before and during the presentation, all the way to my toes, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it would look like.  Or if I was imagining this.

Another friend of mine was there during the presentation and she had a vision.  In it I was giving presentations on trafficking and there were visuals and examples, etc.  She told me what it looked like in her vision.  I caught a glimpse in her vision and that is when I knew for sure what He was revealing.

I was so excited to finally have a part in His plan.  I studied and researched and read books.  I watched movies and documentaries and videos.  I wrote and prepared slides and presentations.

Finally.  I knew what I was supposed to do.

Then I got my hands on a book called "Refuse to Do Nothing: Finding Your Power to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery" by Shayne Moore and Kimberly McOwen Yim.  Everything I felt was written in this book.  It was as if I was walking in the authors' footsteps, down to the question of what my role was.  This book inspired me to start taking the steps down the path where God was leading me.  This book helped me figure out what to do.  I am still reading it and I am still learning what my role is and what it will look like.  I am excited to finally have a direction.

Then I received a call from someone asking me to do a presentation in early 2014 about trafficking.  Another reassurance that I had understood correctly. 

Then I stepped back a little in May and June.  I was so busy.  I was so tired.  I was focusing on other things.  I didn't desert this plan.  Life just stepped in.  I am ready to move on and not let life keep me from this any longer.  It is still so very important to me to follow God's will and inform anyone who will listen about this horror.  

My hope is that in the future I will be able to see this tragedy for myself.  I am hoping to go on a trip in late 2013 that will truly open my eyes to trafficking. 

Please pray for me that satan will stop throwing me curveballs and if I am supposed to go on this trip, that the funds will be there to go.  Please pray that if I do go, that in all things He will be glorified.  Lastly, also please pray that I will have the courage and strength to share with whomever wants/needs to hear that slavery is alive and thriving;  that men, women, and children are being sold as sex slaves, labor slaves, and for organ harvesting.

The more we share, the better chance we have of ending slavery and trafficking.  It is a daunting task.  But there is HOPE.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  ~Philippians 4:13

Disappear

I didn't disappear.

 

I haven't forgotten.

 

I didn't turn my back.

 

My heart still beats and still pounds and still breaks for those who are victims of trafficking.

 

I was so super busy with life. 

 

I let the trafficking thing slip from the top of my stack to somewhere in the middle.

 

I was tired.

 

I was worn.

 

But God reminds me that it is important.

 

That there is still suffering.

 

And despite how I feel or what I am doing or how much I may or may not want to do something, that I cannot forget, or turn my back, or disappear.

 

Despite whether it feels like this crime is so overwhelming and its victims so many, that there are 27 million people enslaved today, that children as young as infants are bought and sold, that there is so much evil out there.

 

What difference could I possible make?

 

I feel like this is my calling.

 

This is what I meant to do in this part of my life.

 

I am supposed to make trafficking known in my corner of the world.

 

I am supposed to tell people that there are children suffering.

 

That girls are being taken off the streets and prostituted.

 

That whole families are slave laborers.

 

That while there is so much heartbreak, so much victimization, so much pain,

 

He is still on His throne.

 

There is HOPE.

Tiny Hands International

This post is a little premature, as I haven't written yet about the decision I have made, but I only have these items a short while, so posting on THI now.  More information about my decision and other human trafficking/fair trade agencies will be coming soon.

One of the choices I made was to raise money for human trafficking and to buy fair trade when/where possible.  I perused the Internet for quite some time - several months - and found Tiny Hands International (THI).  THI allows those of us with the desire, to become part of their mission.  You can donate, pray, become informed, become an advocate, volunteer, or host a product party.

According to the THI website at http://tinyhandsinternational.org/:

Tiny Hands is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to empowering the church in the developing world to help the poor overcome poverty and become lights of the world. We are committed to finding the greatest injustices in the world, and working towards relieving them however possible. We are particularly called to orphans, street children, and the victims of the sex-trafficking industry. We want to find those who are already doing the work, who are called and faithful, and help them do it in greater ways and with more efficiency. We do it all in obedience to, and for the glory of Jesus Christ.

This post I am going to talk about the product party.  We are having a Human Trafficking Awareness day at church this Sunday.  Jean Roberson from WMU will be speaking during the services.  After church is over, we are having a fair trade/slave free meal and there will be fair trade items for sale.  Tony from Three Story Coffee (more about him in another post...what a great guy) will be there with coffee and I will have THI products.  According to THI website at http://tinyhandsinternational.org/get-involved:

Many of the women who have been trafficked or have been vulnerable to trafficking have learned to make jewelry for a living as part of their aftercare. Each of these handcraft necklaces, earrings, bracelets and pendants are uniquely crafted. We also sell Tiny Hands bags, purses, fleece jackets, pashmina scarves, and more! Putting on a Tiny Hands product party in your home is a fun way to support the ministry as 100% of the profits from the sale of these items at product parties goes to fund the ministry.
They make participating easy, which allows you to participate in an important ministry.  Here are a few of the items they sent my way.  If you are interested in Tiny Hands International, I encourage you to check them out.  Read about who they are and what they do.  If nothing else, you can become informed about them and know how you can pray for their ministry.

In the Beginning (previously posted on March 30, 2013)

This post was previously posted on my other blog on March 30, 2013.  I wrote it, these are my words.  I have removed the names of the innocent.

Two years ago, I sat in my office in the Howerton Building, where I worked for the State, reading a bill on human trafficking for a fiscal note. I am embarrassed to say that I couldn't imagine why our legislators were wasting precious time on a bill that didn't impact us when so many other more important bills were not being read.

How naive. How uninformed. How sad.

I had no idea then what it was about, nor did I have any idea that one day that very topic would mean so very much to me.

A little over a year ago, one of [my daugther's] friends had a vision. She wanted to bring human trafficking awareness to California. Rather than do 30 hour famine, she asked our youth pastor if we could do a human trafficking weekend. I thought it was a good idea, but I didn't really want to give up 30 hour famine. After all, it was about feeding those who didn't have food. Or clean water. What is more important than that? Why are we wasting time on an issue that isn't ours when we could feed the hungry. Still naive. Uninformed. Sad.

I participated a little during the weekend, but couldn't participate in the whole thing. I saw a glimpse of the horror. Just a glimpse. And that glimpse changed my perspective. Human trafficking was real. It was really a problem. Here. In Missouri.

I read up on it a little and signed up to get a newsletter from A21 Campaign, but was still naive just really what it all meant, why it mattered. Then in July I went to Chalfont St Peter, UK, to participate in a Run the Race event during the Olympics {loved it!!} and one of the night events was a Stop the Traffik (misspelled on purpose) night. I heard more about human trafficking. The speaker talked about a book called Trafficked by Sophie Hayes, a British girl who was trafficked by her best friend and sold as a sex slave to many men each night. I was stunned. I was ashamed. I was addicted. I started reading everything I could about this issue. I signed up for website after website and newsletter after newsletter. I didn't still do anything other than read about it and pray about it sometimes.

In November 2013, I went to a women's retreat and again, human trafficking was mentioned. That is when I said, "Okay, God. I hear you. You have placed this issue in front of me three times in 8 months. I ask that you show me what you would have me do about it." For the last 4 months I have continually asked God to show me what my role in the abolishment of slavery would be. I asked a few people to also pray for me. I was not sure whether I was supposed to just spread awareness, get a job in the fight, a mix of both, or be a prayer warrior. I told God that I would do as He asked if He would just let me know what it is I was to do.

I began posting human trafficking information on my Facebook page. The more I learned the more I wanted to share. I wanted others to see the suffering so that we can end this. I made it my goal - no, my commitment - to post or share at least one thing about trafficking every single day. Some days I flood Facebook and/or Twitter with images, stories, and facts. Other days I only have a brief note. Some days I am ready to tackle this and the next I am completely overwhelmed by the magnitude.

It is on those days I have to remind myself that God is still sovereign. He is still on His throne. And I have to remember that I don't have to tell God how big the problem is. He knows. He put this in front of me continually until I got it. I am a little slow at times.

That leads me to the month of March. A beautiful friend of mine asked me to do a {short} presentation on human trafficking at her women's conference at her church. Apparently regardless of my height, I don't know what short means. I researched and read; studied and wrote. Satan tried to thwart this presentation, but he is a punk. My God is bigger. Once I began talking, it felt like home. It felt right. Not only was I spreading awareness about this issue, God was revealing to me His plan.

How is that for a cliffhanger? Okay, it isn't a nail-biter like a season finale of NCIS, but I hope you stay tuned for "the rest of the story".

Revealing (previously posted on March 25, 2013)

This post was previously posted on March 25, 2013, on another blog. I wrote it. It deals with my role in abolishing human trafficking, so I am re-posting on this blog.

After much praying over many months, God has begun to reveal what my role will be in the abolishment of human trafficking/modern day slavery. A friend of mine had a vision very similar to one I was having of my future. Her vision gave credence to my thoughts, that they weren't just my thoughts, but were from the Holy Spirit.

So, in the coming days, I ask that you pray for me, that His divine will be made known to me. I know the direction I have discerned that He has chosen for me, but how I get from here to there is still a mystery to me. I do know that God will make it possible for me to find the way so I have faith that He will lead me to it. Prayer will be your contribution to the task of ending modern day slavery.

More information regarding human trafficking/modern day slavery/fair trade will be coming in the next few weeks. I have done considerable amount of research and reading books to increase my knowledge. I want to share it with you.

As for what my role is? That is still between God, my prayer warrior friend, and me. I expect that you will see it revealed in the coming months.

Until then, please pray. Pray for those trapped in slavery ~ whether it be the little girls, teens, or women trapped in sexual slavery; children, adults, and seniors trapped in labor servitude - that they will find and know God ~ and also pray for their captors. That God will show up big in their lives and all will know that He is the I AM.

Thank you so much to those who were praying for me for discernment. He has big plans, I'm excited to be a small part.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
~Micah 6:8

Undaunted (previously posted on February 11, 2013)

This post was previously posted on my other blog on February 11, 2013.  I wrote it ~ well I wrote some of it.  It is my blog post with the brilliant words from Christine Caine, co-founder of A21. 

 

I am not going to lie. This post is mostly the brilliant brain child and heart-wrenching thoughts of another. But it touched ME so deeply I must share. I am reading Undaunted: Daring to do what God calls you to do by Christine Caine. She is the co-founder of A21 Campaign (http://www.thea21campaign.org/index.php#.URlSY1_naHs), an organization whose mission is to abolish injustice in the 21st century. They exist for prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships. I found A21 about 9 months ago and have learned so much from them regarding human trafficking. I decided to read Christine's book and am convicted in the first chapter.

The first chapter starts out with her visiting fourteen young women that were recently rescued from sex trafficking. She listened to their stories, told them about the One who can rescue them, and one girl yelled, "If what you are telling me is true, if what you say about your God is true - then where were you? Where have you been? Why didn't you come sooner?"

"Why didn't you come sooner?"

Christine runs this question through her mind and she said "The question seemed to echo." She thought of the pain in her own life, thought of their pain, and admitted to herself but not out loud that she hadn't known about them. However she didn't offer that excuse. The next is the part that haunts me:

"A scene from the movie Schindler's List began to roll through my mind. The movie, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg in 1993, is the story of Oskar Schindler, a Gentile businessman in Nazi Germany who saved the lives of more than a thousand Jews by breaking the law to keep them working in his factories. In a powerful scene at the end of that movie, Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, is being thanked for what he has done by a crowd of those he has rescued - just before he flees for his own life. The grateful Jews present him with a ring on the inside of which is inscribed a saying from the Talmud: 'Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.' But, distressed, Schindler says, 'I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don't know...if I had just...I threw away so much money. You have no idea...I didn't do enough.' He looks at his car. 'Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there.' He pulls a pin from his lapel. 'This pin. This is gold. Two more people...and I didn't. I didn't.' And then he collapses into tears, overcome by the realization not of all that he did do, but that the pin in his lapel was apparently worth more to him than the lives of two people.

This moment, sitting at that table in Thessaloniki with those women so recently saved from slavery and yet still so devastated, was my Schindler's List moment. It was my moment of wondering what, in my life, had been my golden pin like Schindler's, the thing so precious to me that it never occurred to me to use it to ransom the life of someone else."

Powerful? Convicting?

What in my life means more to me than helping to save someone's life? A car? A 40" tv? A retirement fund? It reminds me of Jesus talking to the rich young man who wanted eternal life and said he had followed all of the commands.

"Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth." Matthew 19: 21-22.

I have said before I don't know what my role is in the fight against human trafficking, but I need to seek His will, ask for discernment, and be prepared to give it all up to do as He says. If I don't, I am no better than the rich young man who wouldn't give up his wealth.

I can't sit here and think that there is any material possession that I wouldn't give up if it meant saving the life of one person.

Would you consider praying for me? Pray for discernment. Pray I will bow to His will. Pray that I will know my role and be comfortable in it. And pray for the victims. Pray for the traffickers, the sellers, the pimps, the slave bosses, the men who hire these women ~ pray their hearts will be turned from their wicked ways, they will free these people (men, women, and children) and that they too will turn their eyes upon Jesus.

And want a good read? Here are two I have read or am reading.

Trafficked by Sophie Hayes
Undaunted by Christine Caine

Excerpts in bold italics from the book:
Caine, Christine. Undaunted: Daring to do what God calls you to do. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan, 2012. ePub.   

Human Trafficking (previously posted on November 12, 2012)

This was previously posted on November 12, 2012, on another blog.  I wrote it.  It is the first time I sat down and tried to wrap my mind around the issue of human trafficking in writing.  It is the first time I really began to understand that God may have a plan for me.   I am re-posting on this blog.  I have removed the names of the innocent.

Last spring, the youth at our church had a human trafficking weekend. I had heard about human trafficking only briefly while I worked for the State, as a bill was moving through the legislature. At the time, I really didn't get it or why there would be a bill in Missouri. Then [my daughter's friend] had a vision for a trafficking weekend at our church and the youth pastor agreed it was a great topic.

I began learning about human trafficking during that weekend. I heard some of the stories, some even as close as Missouri. It was shocking the things that people here in the US had done and some of them with their own children. We heard about kids and women who had been trafficked for the sex industry, the coffee industry, and chocolate industry, as well as many others. These things were shocking to me. I just really had no idea before then.

I thought about human trafficking but I really wasn't sure what to do about it. What can I do to prevent it? There are 1.3 million women in sexual servitude in the world. This is not including the children who are kidnapped and made to work in coffee bean or cocoa bean fields with no pay, or any other sweat shop type industry. How can one person ~ in the middle of the Bible belt ~ have any impact on worldwide human trafficking? So while I thought about it, I didn't do much about it.

God may have had other plans though. While in Gerrard's Cross, UK in July at the Run the Race event, we had a Stop the Traffik night. Someone from the Stop the Traffik organization from that local area came to speak to us about it. She mentioned a book called Trafficked by Sophie Hayes. I immediately bought it on my Kindle and started reading it. 3.5 months later, I still haven't finished it as it is a haunting story of how this girl, around Hayley's age, was trafficked by someone she considered a close personal friend. I can't quite read it now that I am at the part where the betrayal actually occurs. But I am slowly making it through. I just really started thinking that some things needed to change. Again, though, what could I possibly do?

That is why I keep bringing it up on Women's Ministry newsletters. That is why I need to pray about it. That is why I am trying to figure out how to afford fair trade chocolate and coffee in our house, instead of the US companies that insist on making profits off the backs and through the blood of enslaved children. That is why I need to know what my role is.

James 4:17 ~ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

I keep hearing about human trafficking. I keep learning more about it, although still I have only touched the tip of the iceberg. 

James 2:14-17 ~ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 1:27 ~ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James. The brother of Jesus. He is constantly convicting me of things ~ not taming my tongue, not submitting to God, boasting about tomorrow, etc. But this time I am going to try to heed his word. I want to know what it is I should do, then DO IT. I want to look after orphans and widows in their distress. I want to help those who have been trafficked, who think there is no hope, who don't know that there is a God who loves them more than He even loves the sparrows for whom He provides.

What does that look like? I still don't know.

But I know that it will be in the Women's Ministry newsletters each time. I know that [my husband's] coffee bill just went up. I know that our chocolate bill went up. I know that I will be praying for them. I will be figuring out how to be a part of this. I will be writing letters to these precious souls who have been rescued, to let them know they are treasured and loved. After that, I don't know. But I do know that I am praying for discernment ~ only God knows where this will take me. Maybe only as a prayer warrior. Maybe more.

I will be talking about this in the future. Trafficking. Please pray for those currently in bondage. Please pray for those who are doing the trafficking or are the slave masters/brothel owners/pimps/slave owners/etc. They need Jesus just as much as those who are enslaved.

Father God ~ I lift these lives up to You. I pray that You will put a hedge of protection around these little children who are beaten and starved, yet work more during the day than I do during the week. Protect them God, because they cannot protect themselves. Help us as Americans to realize that our coffee and chocolate addictions are not worth the blood of these children. God I lift up those women and children who find themselves slaves to the sex industry. I pray for their release and freedom Lord. I pray that they will be rescued and will learn that You love them. I pray they will find You. Father, I lift up those who are inflicting this evil on these people. I pray that You convict them, You grab hold of their hearts, and You turn them. I pray that they release these people. I pray that they find You. Lord, I don't know my role in this yet, so I am asking for discernment. I need to know what it is You would have me do. I don't believe this is something that I am just supposed to hear but do nothing about. It has been brought to my attention at FBC during trafficking weekend, at GX during Stop the Traffik night, and again this weekend at the Heart Retreat when Chelsea told us about Project Rescue. Help me see my role then help me fulfill it to the best of my ability. I know that only through You can I do what You would have me do. Thank You for my freedom. Thank You for my salvation. Thank You for bringing this to my attention. Three different times. I know that you will work all this for the good, as I love You God, and I am called according to Your purpose. Work through me. In Your name I lift my praise and prayer. Amen.

Once U Know

Once you know, you can't go back.

You can't go back to completely normal.  It isn't possible if you have a pulse.

For some, it will be just a blip on their radar, something they now know about but want to pretend it doesn't exist.  They may think that it didn't impact them at all, but the effort to forget about it will be there.  They can't really pretend they don't know.

Others will be outraged.  They will want change and want it now.  Their enthusiasm is commendable.  But when they leave the event or wake up the next day, they move on and pretend to forget.

Still others will be in it for a little longer haul.  They want things to change, and they put in some effort to do so.  But slowly, it will fade and things will go back to semi-normal.

There are others who will hear it and take note.  They will pray and they will plan.  They will plant seeds and allow the roots to take hold.  They will blossom and grow.

It doesn't matter to which group you or I belong, once we know, we can't ever un-know.  We can't ever go back to a life where we thought slavery didn't exist. 

I don't know where you are in the groups above.  I know where I am and where I want to be.  My goal is to make myself more aware.  To pray about this and to plan.  To plant seeds, to watch them grow.  To ensure those around me know 1) I love Jesus, 2) slavery still exists today, more so now than ever before, and 3) there IS something that every person can do about it.  Not everyone will speak, will rescue a girl or boy, will raise funds to help organizations, or blog about it to be in that last group.  But everyone CAN become informed.  And everyone can pray. 

The more we are aware, the harder it will be for traffickers to take our children, to sell our women and girls, to beat and starve our neighbors. 

This blog is my effort to ensure that I don't fade away from this topic.  That I don't become outraged one day and passive the next.  That I plant a seed, no matter how small, and maybe, just maybe, God will bless that seed and help it blossom.  I can't do everything, but I can do something. 

And now that I know, I will never be the same again.

* This video is not mine, but is a video done by daphez2009 on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yptnKmsVmgo)