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...