When we start to SEE these women as victims we can give mothers and their children their lives back and start to live as a family. As one child says, “I have three years my mother is in my life, three years of birthdays and three Christmases where we were together. Three years of her encouraging I in my school work and helping my brothers and I understand the importance of making better decisions.
We have had three years of a mother present, involved and striving to do what was best for all of us. I have three years of not worrying about where we might end up and who would take care of us. Three years of a good place to live, a church to attend, reliable transportation, a mother with a plan and support we never dreamed of.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Dark Side...
300,000 children are trafficked in the U.S. by Americans-from "Playground"
This is a blog that may be hard to digest at the table...
"Promise a girl heaven and she will follow you to hell?" This was a quote that was spoken by a pimp in one of the Dallas papers. It is this phrase that truly gives the essence of a Pimp's mindset. Many people feel that Prostitution is a when two adults have consented to sex, so what's the big deal??
The big deal is that most of the time these are children and have no ability to consent. Average age of a child in the sex industry is 12-14 years of age. These children are lured or kidnapped and then threatened to stay with the pimp. He is controlling in much the same way a person does in an abusive relationship. There is the break down to emotional abuse, then dehumanize them and then isolate them from the society. They are given drugs to numb the pain and hurt and also to make them do more sexual acts. It's a silent war that rages every day that American has yet to fully acknowledge is happening in our backyard. When will American start spending more of their money domestic human trafficking instead of defense??
I'm not making this stuff up friends, I have heard stories of women being raped by family members and sold to make money for the family, or thrown out on the street with no money and no shelter.
"It's going to take a village" is what I hard someone say at a conference this week talking about this issue. I would have to agree its going to take people from the lobbying to the out in the streets helping them recover their lives. I'm not sure if this will ever be completely gone, but one thing I do know as Mother Teresa said, "If you can't feed 100 people than just feed one."
"He reached down from on high and took hold of me;he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy,from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place;he rescued me because he delighted in me." (2 Samuel 22:18-20)
Think back in the ways God has rescued you from the darkness you found yourself, the times you went your own way. God brought you out of those and so we need to remember He rescued us, we are to remember who we were, and now it's our duty to rescue those we see daily getting thrown to the waste side.
This is a blog that may be hard to digest at the table...
"Promise a girl heaven and she will follow you to hell?" This was a quote that was spoken by a pimp in one of the Dallas papers. It is this phrase that truly gives the essence of a Pimp's mindset. Many people feel that Prostitution is a when two adults have consented to sex, so what's the big deal??
The big deal is that most of the time these are children and have no ability to consent. Average age of a child in the sex industry is 12-14 years of age. These children are lured or kidnapped and then threatened to stay with the pimp. He is controlling in much the same way a person does in an abusive relationship. There is the break down to emotional abuse, then dehumanize them and then isolate them from the society. They are given drugs to numb the pain and hurt and also to make them do more sexual acts. It's a silent war that rages every day that American has yet to fully acknowledge is happening in our backyard. When will American start spending more of their money domestic human trafficking instead of defense??
I'm not making this stuff up friends, I have heard stories of women being raped by family members and sold to make money for the family, or thrown out on the street with no money and no shelter.
"It's going to take a village" is what I hard someone say at a conference this week talking about this issue. I would have to agree its going to take people from the lobbying to the out in the streets helping them recover their lives. I'm not sure if this will ever be completely gone, but one thing I do know as Mother Teresa said, "If you can't feed 100 people than just feed one."
"He reached down from on high and took hold of me;he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy,from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place;he rescued me because he delighted in me." (2 Samuel 22:18-20)
Think back in the ways God has rescued you from the darkness you found yourself, the times you went your own way. God brought you out of those and so we need to remember He rescued us, we are to remember who we were, and now it's our duty to rescue those we see daily getting thrown to the waste side.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Look into their eyes...
“You can see Jesus anywhere”…was what I overheard last weekend at a workshop I went to about child abuse. I have been rolling that around in my head since that day and what that means and the implications that would mean for all followers of Christ. I love the stories in the bible where Jesus heals the blind, he helps them to see things from a new perspective, he helps to bring life and color back into their darkened lives, maybe even opens up their minds and they way they saw the world. There were no barriers for Jesus; he took light to all people. This week I sat with one girl and after I immediately introduced myself she automatically put me and her in an “us” vs. “them” camp. She said, “So you’re not like us?” To which I said, “Well I am I’m a woman just like you.” My heart sank because I knew right there that she and I would never be able to come to the same camp site. In her eyes her identity was her dark past and I was just another Caucasian woman who “has it all together” who would never understand her story. But I looked again in her eyes and as we conversed we found common ground in that she lived in the Middle East and I told her I did also. When we see the image of God in people we should have the heart to keep finding ways to open their eyes and our own. Through that experience I gained a trust from her and as I looked at her eyes I could see her creep towards the middle camp site where I was waiting. As the evening progressed she turned and looked me straight in the eyes and asked “do you ever get lonely?” “ABSOLUTIELY!” I said. “Really even though you look like that?” she asked. Compassion filled me and I smile and said, “I feel that way many times and just because you look one way or another does not mean we have it all together.” That night she and I helped one another through our individual blindness, her in her assumptions and me in lack of faith that God can find ways to connect people no matter how dark the situation. She gave me life and color back that night when I looked in her eyes. Being a Christ follower is not easy, peaceful and especially not comfortable, and we have to learn to open our hearts to take away any blindness we have towards people we find it hard to have compassion for. It’s my prayer the more I spend with these courageous women the more my own blindness is cured with each time I spend looking in their eyes. It seems that when we have the scales or the mud taken from our eyes we are able to look into the eyes of others and see they bear the image of God just as we do, we are the same—when you look in their eyes. You can find Him and His image anywhere-all you do is look. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “there are no ordinary beings.”
Monday, October 5, 2009
Heart Burn...
My theme throughout this blog is going to be the idea that we are all welcomed to the table. Meaning we are all called to God's table, no questions asked just love and grace given to those who want to join in on the party. I first realized this table idea when I went to Camp Barnabas in Missouri where a group of campers with special needs looked past my disabilities and imperfections and welcomed me with open arms, no questions asked. I realized then this is the table God wants ALL of us at.
So I prayed "God I wanna know who needs to come to the table and I want to learn to sit next to them." That led me on a challenging journey that has expanded my heart on so many levels. People asked why I would come and do this with these women and I said, "I want to know what it's like to sit at the table with them, they deserve to come, just as I do, what makes them any different?" So here we go, I also pray that through my experience you can learn to pull up a seat with someone and learn to sit and talk with them, have a meal with them-who knows what you will have in common.
Sometimes after we eat we get heart burn, it hurts and we don't like it but it happens, so here are some hard facts. Not all my blogs will be like this but in order to know someone we have to know the hurt we cause:
The porn industry is a $60 Billion industry a year
12 million Americans partake in this, that's 20% of the world's population
Americans spend more on porn than with pro baseball, football, and basketball combined
The gross revenue on porn is more then NBS, ABC, and CBS combined
90% of w0men in porn ads. are between the ages of 8-16
Age 11 is the leading consumer for porn-targets 12-17 years old
200 films are made each week
past 10 years we have spent more on porn than on foreign aid
1 film per working hour
20% of men admit to watching porn at work; 13% women admit
28% new users of porn are women
97% of the women in this films, ads., etc. have been sexual or physically abused as children.
(for more facts and ways to know about human trafficking visit www.thedefendersusa.org)
This is not something to say, "ahh what a shame" and move on with life and be sad for awhile...BUT something to get mad about-I don't mean picketing or being aggressive or whatever but these faces of women HAVE a Name, Have a Father, IS a Princess, get mad these are injustices to them and that we as humanity should be finding ways to saves these lives. Stand up and defend a female or male in your life who is seen or talked about as if they are an object-that's how we can all start to fight this. Start to change the idea of sexism, kill it there is no place for it. Period.
More to come from the table...
So I prayed "God I wanna know who needs to come to the table and I want to learn to sit next to them." That led me on a challenging journey that has expanded my heart on so many levels. People asked why I would come and do this with these women and I said, "I want to know what it's like to sit at the table with them, they deserve to come, just as I do, what makes them any different?" So here we go, I also pray that through my experience you can learn to pull up a seat with someone and learn to sit and talk with them, have a meal with them-who knows what you will have in common.
Sometimes after we eat we get heart burn, it hurts and we don't like it but it happens, so here are some hard facts. Not all my blogs will be like this but in order to know someone we have to know the hurt we cause:
The porn industry is a $60 Billion industry a year
12 million Americans partake in this, that's 20% of the world's population
Americans spend more on porn than with pro baseball, football, and basketball combined
The gross revenue on porn is more then NBS, ABC, and CBS combined
90% of w0men in porn ads. are between the ages of 8-16
Age 11 is the leading consumer for porn-targets 12-17 years old
200 films are made each week
past 10 years we have spent more on porn than on foreign aid
1 film per working hour
20% of men admit to watching porn at work; 13% women admit
28% new users of porn are women
97% of the women in this films, ads., etc. have been sexual or physically abused as children.
(for more facts and ways to know about human trafficking visit www.thedefendersusa.org)
This is not something to say, "ahh what a shame" and move on with life and be sad for awhile...BUT something to get mad about-I don't mean picketing or being aggressive or whatever but these faces of women HAVE a Name, Have a Father, IS a Princess, get mad these are injustices to them and that we as humanity should be finding ways to saves these lives. Stand up and defend a female or male in your life who is seen or talked about as if they are an object-that's how we can all start to fight this. Start to change the idea of sexism, kill it there is no place for it. Period.
More to come from the table...
Monday, September 28, 2009
Butterflies...
"Like Christ we also can live a new life."-Romans 6:4
I have decided to blog about my life in Dallas though I sometimes find these mundane, but many of you have been asking to know what I have been up to. Here goes...
On the surface I'm spending the next year with walking and talking and listening to women who are seeking to get out of the sex industry. As I told people what I would be doing this year there were many different reactions, some excited and some doubtful. It was the doubtful the spurred me on to know this is where I'm suppose to be. I live by the motto: "When people around you think you are crazy for doing what you do or going where you wanna go then you know it's ALL God." I don't waiver and here's why...
I'm barefoot God chaser...fully surrendering where and when He calls.
Below the surface I will be learning how to come to God's table and acknowledge all sorts of people who have been sitting there with me long before I could see them-needless to say the mud is washing my sight.
The butterfly is a HUGE symbol for me and my journey with God. It represents hope and transformation, "every color on a butterflies wing's is painted by God." -The Ultimate Gift
I remember when I saw the wings He's given me to fly but as I travel down the road I am beginning to see the brilliant colors He is painting in my life and with every one I a drawing nearer to God.
So my first day at New Friends New Life I walk in and the office is covered in butterflies!! I knew I was home. This is their symbol for the women we serve who are seeking to exit the sex industry and gain a second chance.
The brokenness is evident in the women eyes and the wear and tear of life is their weight on their shoulders, but as I have sat at the dinner table weekly I see a courage and strength that inspires me.
More to come from the streets of Dallas...
I have decided to blog about my life in Dallas though I sometimes find these mundane, but many of you have been asking to know what I have been up to. Here goes...
On the surface I'm spending the next year with walking and talking and listening to women who are seeking to get out of the sex industry. As I told people what I would be doing this year there were many different reactions, some excited and some doubtful. It was the doubtful the spurred me on to know this is where I'm suppose to be. I live by the motto: "When people around you think you are crazy for doing what you do or going where you wanna go then you know it's ALL God." I don't waiver and here's why...
I'm barefoot God chaser...fully surrendering where and when He calls.
Below the surface I will be learning how to come to God's table and acknowledge all sorts of people who have been sitting there with me long before I could see them-needless to say the mud is washing my sight.
The butterfly is a HUGE symbol for me and my journey with God. It represents hope and transformation, "every color on a butterflies wing's is painted by God." -The Ultimate Gift
I remember when I saw the wings He's given me to fly but as I travel down the road I am beginning to see the brilliant colors He is painting in my life and with every one I a drawing nearer to God.
So my first day at New Friends New Life I walk in and the office is covered in butterflies!! I knew I was home. This is their symbol for the women we serve who are seeking to exit the sex industry and gain a second chance.
The brokenness is evident in the women eyes and the wear and tear of life is their weight on their shoulders, but as I have sat at the dinner table weekly I see a courage and strength that inspires me.
More to come from the streets of Dallas...
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