10 Things You Can Do To Combat Human Trafficking

1.  Tell someone:  Share what you've learned in Invisible Chains.
2.  Help the heroes:  Support organizations that help survivors.
3.  Raise awareness:  Host an awareness event.
4.  Call for change:  Contact your municipal, provincial, and federal politicians asking what they're doing to address the problem of human trafficking, and ask them to implement the recommendations for government.
5.  Take a stand:  Become an advocate for at least one recommendation in Invisible Chains that you personally want to see adopted.
6.  Let your dollar talk:  Buy fair trade products where possible and, if you can't be sure, avoid products whose makers are notorious for using forced labour.
7.  Speak up:  Raise the issue of human trafficking in letters to the editor, at political debates, in the classroom, and at town hall meetings.
8.  Be a woman against human trafficking:  Talk to males you know about the realities of women and girls exploited in the sex industry.
9.  Be a man against human trafficking:  Don't pay for sex or got to places where commercial sex acts take place, either in Canada or when travelling abroad.  Discourage your friends from doing so and explain your concerns.
10.  Report it:  Be aware of the warning signs of human trafficking in your community, at work, and when travelling.  Report suspicious activity to your local police, or Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

for more information, visit www.endmoderndayslavery.ca

Spend Yourself

The Scripture from Isaiah 58 kept coming up over and over for me while traveling last year.  It talks about injustice but I think it also spoke to my heart, going through my own time of healing, with the words from verse 8 which say, "Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily."  And again down in verse 10 it says, "then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday." (ESV)

Whenever this portion of Scripture comes up, I revel in it. . .it is profound to me.  I blogged previously about the song "Justice and Mercy", with its lyrics coming straight from this passage.  This past weekend, I was reading a magazine that highlighted verse 10.  The difference was that it was from a different translation and they spoke about the first part of the verse, not the second part that I highlighted above.

For some reason, I was missing the "if" part of the statement before the "then".  Verse 10 in the ESV starts, "IF you pour yourself out for the hungry. . .THEN shall your light rise in the darkness."  But the translation from the magazine was from the NIV and said, "Spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry."

Spend yourself?  That can't be?  I spend money and I spend time with others, but can I really spend myself?  Do I want to spend myself?  Was does it look like to spend myself?  And on whom?  Who are the hungry - those without food, those without love, hungry for what?

These thoughts have been on my brain and I've been chewing on them.  To spend myself means that this is going to cost me something.  Part of me is going to be left behind in the process.  Can I afford to spend myself?  I afford not to spend myself?

Photography Focusing on Injustice

Tonight was my second class of the same photography/injustice class that I taught in the spring.  I only have 2 students, but I think we'll be ok.  I just have to think of something else than a final exhibit because that would not be very many pictures to display.

God Grew Tired of Us

I watched the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us" in the spring and now I just finished reading the book - both are definitely worth checking out!  They follow some of the Lost Boys of Sudan who move to America, specifically John Bul Dau:

"And I still wonder, what does war do to people to make them shoot children?"

Ten

Happy 10/10/10!

Human Trafficking Awareness Events This Week

I want to let you know about 2 human trafficking awareness events that are taking place this week.  I am going to both and invite you to join me!

"Invisible Chains" by Dr. Benjamin Perrin (University of BC)

Book Launch at McNally Robinson Booksellers
Wednesday, October 14, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Get Informed.  Be Inspired.  End Modern-Day Slavery in Canada.
Meet local organizations working to fight human trafficking & learn about what you can do.  Check out www.invisiblechains.ca/Winnipeg for more information.

Honouring Heroes - Stop Human Trafficking National Awards Ceremony
Hosted by MP Joy Smith
With Guest MC Lorna Dueck of Listen Up TV
Eastview Community Church
Saturday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.
Hear the heart wrenching stories of human trafficking victims & heroes
$20 at the door to cover costs
RSVP:  984-6322 or joy@joysmithmp.ca

The Smallest Things

I am a numbers person and yet my head does not comprehend the amount of money - hundreds of thousands of dollars - that has gone back to South Africa from the sale of Little Travellers over the past 5 years.  It is special multiplication indeed!

Flower Girl is waiting for you with her bonnet and bouquet of flowers.  She sells for $8 and, as with most LT's, comes in a variety of colors.

Little Travellers motto:
"Sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference."

Morph & Change

Located in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in KwaZulu-Natal province, the Hillcrest AIDS Centre serves as a beacon of hope to this AIDS-ravaged region.  It provides home-based care & nursing; emergency feeding programs; funding to pay for school fees & funeral costs; HIV education, counselling & testing; and economic empowerment through income generation projects.

I know you have a girl or lady in your life who just LOVES her purses.  Well, Handbag is a great alternative to the real thing and a whole lot cheaper at just $7.

"Little Travellers continue to morph and change from angels with wings, dreadlocked ravers, ballerinas, traditional Makoti's, girls with skirts to ABBA impersonators, they reflect current fashion and diversity of life."

God Helps Me

I know that most of the Specialty Travellers featured are pretty girly, but there are some boy options.  We still have some soccer players (who have the CRAZIEST hair!) and the bumblebees are also really cute!  Whether you attach them to your jacket or kids attach them to their backpacks, these pins love to travel and see the world.

Skirt is exactly as her name implies - a beautiful girl wearing a skirt.  A number of my friends with girls around age 5 or so will know exactly the feeling, as their girls want nothing to do with pants and choose skirts every day!  She sells for $7.

"'Before, I hadn't got even shoes.  I had nothing.'  Gogo Francisca says that Little Travellers have helped her and they mean 'That God helps me.  God helps me do these dollies.  He looks after me.'"

A Reason to Live

I SO admire Ilan for starting Little Travellers and I am proud to take up the cause and sell as many as I possibly can.  Please consider how you can make a difference - 100% of the money you pay for a Little Traveller goes back to the Hillcrest AIDS Centre and the people who make them there.

One of our newest Specialty Travellers was affectionately named "Dress Up" and I'm sure you can see why.  She probably resembles some of the little girls in your life - dress, purse and even a tiara!  She sells for $8 and comes in a number of different colors.

"'They may be small, but they have made a big difference to me and my family.  I was dying when I started making them, and I had nothing to live for. . .I now have a house, my children are going to school and I have a reason to live.'  Tandi Chamane - crafter"

She Sees a Person

Perhaps you are already thinking of Christmas gifts already - I know I am.  I want my gifts to reach farther this year.  Across the ocean if possible!  Join me in giving a different kind of gift.  Not only one that your friends and family will appreciate, but one that truly makes a difference in the life of someone in great need.

Hearts sells for $6 and I know that it would be a special gift for the special someone in your life!

"Ntombi says that after making Little Travellers 'I often lay them on my sofa and admire them for a while.  I look at them and wish they could talk, breathe and walk.  That is how much I love them.  Beading makes such a big difference in my life, I love it, I make life out of it!'  Ntombi says that when she sees a Little Traveller, she sees a person.  She explains that she makes all of hers perfect as if she is creating a human being."

Restoring Hope

I mentioned that I met the founder of Little Travellers this past weekend and I want to highlight some of our newest Specialty Travellers this week.  They are SO new, they are not on the website yet!  You can order via www.littletravellers.net or contact me directly because I have a whole bunch of them, waiting for you!

I want start with Gramma & Baby (we ordered Mama & Baby, as pictured on the website, but sometimes things change and so Gramma & Baby it is!).  This Specialty Traveller is $8 and I want to start with it because for me, this is such a strong symbol of the struggle of HIV/AIDS.  So many grandparents are left to take care of their grandchildren, after their own children die of AIDS.

"The little travellers are making a positive difference in the lives of men and women affected/infected by HIV and AIDS.  By making little travellers, families have been fed, lights have been turned on, children have gone to school, water has poured out of taps, but most importantly hope has been restored.

Altar

One of my favorite songs that Steve Bell sings is "Here by the Water" (music and lyrics by Jim Croegaert).  This is the second verse and chorus:

"I think how a yearning
Has kept on returning to move me
Down roads I’d never have chosen
Half the time frozen
Too numb to feel
I know it was stormy
I hope it was for me learning
Blood on the road wasn’t mine though
Someone that I know
Has walked here before

And here by the water
I’ll build an altar to praise Him
Out of the stones that I’ve found here
I’ll set them down here
Rough as they are
Knowing You can make them holy
Knowing You can make them holy
Knowing You can make them holy"

Those words have always spoken right into my life, whether I felt that God was far away or close by. . .'down roads I'd never have chosen. . .blood on the road wasn't mine though. . .I'll build an altar to praise Him'.  Throughout the Bible, people build physical altars of stones as a visual reminder so as they passed by these places, they might remember God's faithfulness and continue to press on.

This Sunday, one year ago, is an altar in my life - a reminder that changes had been stirring within me for a while and this day marked a specific change.  So many people, including myself, expect God to work instantly, and if we don't feel a change right away, well, we wonder if God is really working.  Starting in April 2009, I made the decision to let go of bitterness and anger, and start to listen to God's voice again.  Things did not change overnight.  I felt like I was still reading my Bible out of habit and that my prayers were still bouncing back to me off of the ceiling, but I persevered.  I certainly experienced God in profound ways - small glimpses - as the year progressed, but nothing radical.

Then came this Sunday in South Africa!  I got a call from a friend back home and I remember telling her that I actually FELT like a Christian.  No angels singing or flashes of lightning, but rather a realization that God had been working all along.  His purposes were specific and He never gave up on me.  I am thankful to God for many things, but I think one of the items that tops the list is His patience.  It took so long to turn things around for me, but I'm SO thankful that He never let go and thought me a lost cause.  And so I build an altar, as a reminder of my faithful God, who's mercy is never-ending and love is all-encompassing!

Floodgates

For months, my life was quiet. . .at a sort of standstill.  I have waiting on God - what's next?  It's hard to take a step of faith when you can't really see past tomorrow, but that's faith, I guess!  So as October begins, I have looked back a bit.  Last month, I made the decision to take as many sub days at schools, and shifts at the shelter in order that I would be able to get a car.  That was big decision and I knew that things would change radically at that point, which they have.  I say that September is a bit of a blur, but really, I only got the car on September 14th so it's been 2 weeks of intense activity in my life (certainly compared to the first 1/2 of the year!).

 The floodgates have definitely opened and I am trying to keep my head above water.  But really, I want to do more than that.  I want to be Christ's ambassador no matter what I'm doing.  Working with kids, dealing with crisis calls and abused women, selling fair trade products - I believe that they are all important to God.  Those are the things I get paid to do, but I am also at a point where there are a million volunteer opportunities and, again, I want to exemplify Jesus in all of it.  Next week, I'll be starting my photo/injustice class again at the high school.  I made presentations to the students yesterday and now I just have to wait and see if anyone will show up Tuesday night.  I am also putting my photography skills to use, again starting next week Tuesday, working with some of the kids from immigrant families in our community.  And today, I was finally able to meet the founder of Little Travellers, Ilan Swartz, who I consider a modern-day hero - someone who is truly making a difference in our world!  I feel so privileged to be a part of the work that they are doing in bringing hope to South Africans, living with HIV/AIDS.

Truly, the floodgates have opened, and I believe that God has been priming them for a number of months now, preparing me for this time.  I may be eating on the run more and sleeping a little less, but there's work to be done right here.  I said exactly that as I left South Africa last December and I know I am here for a specific purpose - that through living my life, I am encountering God in my work, in my volunteering, and in my play.