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