This is the power of grace and forgiveness.
Emmanuel was part of the Rwandan Genocide. This is his powerful second chance story told in his own words. He takes us through these real life events filmed on location in Rwanda.
Tag: debt
Help end modern day slavery (2011)
Jan. 11 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
Modern day slavery exists in the world today for 27 million held in some form of captivity. 80% of them are women; 50% are underage children and 70% of the females are trafficked for sexual exploitation purposes.
These are not prostitutes. These are women and girls that are being prostituted.
According to the Trafficking in Persons Report, every year:
- 200,000 American children are at risk for trafficking into the sex industry
- 14,500-17,500 people are trafficked into the United States
- 5,000-7,000 people are trafficked into the United States from East Asia and the Pacific
- 3,500-5,500 people are trafficked into the United States from each of the following regions: Latin America, Europe, and Eurasia
On Jan. 12, 2010 a massive earthquake destroyed much of Haiti. Since the earthquake it’s estimated that more than 2,000 Haitian children have been sold into slavery and trafficked to other countries.
Each year, 800,000 people become human trafficking victims and are transported across international borders. According to the Texas Attorney General, 20 percent of those people (or 160,000 people) pass through Texas.
Closer to home, Irving Police busted a man earlier this month for trafficking children through Dallas.
Modern slavery is alive and all around us.
“You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.” – William Willberforce
Find out more…
- 11 things you can do to raise awareness and end human trafficking
- Support Hope of Texas here in our own state
- Join with other national and international organizations
- Follow @roblove146, @not_for_sale, @just4one, @endingslavery on Twitter
- Read Not For Sale (or listen to the audio version like I did)
- Listen to Amanda Kloer share her story on the something beautiful podcast
And finally, I challenge you to do at least 1 thing today to help raise awareness. Whether it’s a Facebook status update, changing your online avatar, a Twitter update, sharing a link to this post or one of the great resources listed here… do something.
Help end modern day slavery (and five ways you can help)
Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day…
It’s also the just a few days away from the 146th anniversary of the day our 13th Amendment was introduced to Congress — which set out to abolish slavery in the United States.
Yet today — modern day slavery still exists — in so many forms.
Sex trade, immigrant farmers working in Florida, children mining for coltan, chocolate and coffee farmers around the world — and so much more.
I encourage you to do a 5 things today…
1. Change your Twitter/Facebook/MySpace avatar to support One Voice to End Slavery:
2. Join One Voice to End Slavery
3. Visit the Human Trafficking section on Change.org and read at least 5 articles
4. Share the link to at least one story from Change.org on Facebook or Twitter
5. Watch David Bastone talk about human trafficking at Google:
Then let us know what you learn.
What impacted you the most? What did you learn when doing one (or all) of the steps above?
What other steps have you taken to end modern day slavery?
My thoughts on church buildings
I shared this on Twitter/Facebook Monday night:
RT @emergentvillage @jeannemstevens: Churches hold $28B in mortgage debt. That amt could provide clean H20 to 1.4 billion ppl for 20 yrs.
I received a couple questions and comments so I thought I’d share my response and comments here as well. I hope you keep in mind that these are my thoughts and I don’t expect you to relate to God in the same way I do. For some, church buildings hold deep value and worth and are literal sanctuaries where they can come and meet with God – however for me… well you can read my thoughts below :-).
Continue reading My thoughts on church buildings
wOOt wOOt!
Today we made our last payment on a credit card! Woot! Woot!
I’m surprised how quickly its gone. We’ve paid over $11,000 towards debt since June/July of last year and I’m quite certain we wouldn’t have done it without Laurie pushing and making sure we were paying off huge chunks each month.
It’s taken some sacrifices. It’s kept us from doing some things we’d like to do on a more regular basis, but chunk by chunk we’ve knocked it off as well as a good deal of other debt.
Now all we have left is medical and parental debt. Hopefully we’ll have that gone within the next nine to 10 months! WOOT WOOT!
In the meantime – we’ll keep working through this plan.
A day of fasting
This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
Isaiah 55:6-9
For those interested or curious, you can listen to the message I shared with my tribe yesterday.