Saturday, June 29, 2013

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Sunday, June 23, 2013

ALWAYS REMEMBER

ALWAYS REMEMBER,
when God made you He did so with a purpose and a plan.
He saw all your days before you lived one of them
and placed over you the covering of His protective love.
He has allowed nothing to come into your life
that has not first been screened through that love.

He calls you by name.
You are His beloved child. . .the apple of His eye. . .the delight of His heart.

His hand has remained upon you to this very day.
He will be with you as He has always been -
in goodness, in kindness, in faithfulness, and in love.

~Roy Lessin

Saturday, June 22, 2013

No Child Should Ever Be For Sale

Check out more about World Vision's No Child For Sale campaign at nochildforsale.ca and consider signing the petition to the Canadian government.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Be the Difference: Jonathan Huang



be aware
be disturbed
be educated
be active
be committed
be a fighter
be a leader
be a visionary
be a defender
be an advocate
be a missionary
be a believer
be a protector
be a hero
be an abolitionish
be the difference

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Survivor Stories

Last week I blogged about a CNN article entitled Victim's Plea:  Change New York Law, Charge the Traffickers.  There was a link to a website called Equality Now - Survivor Stories.  I dare you to clink on the link and hear the stories first hand:

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Permitting Prostitution

With the spotlight back on Canada's prostitution laws, please check out this clip from ListenUp TV (now Context with Lorna Dueck) or click on the link to view the entire show.


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

IJM: 273 People Rescued from Brick Kilns

IJM (International Justice Mission) published an article last week:  273 people rescued from brick kilns.  Read the remarkable story (which happened June 10 and was published June 11) of their second-largest rescue operation.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Taught to Be Worthless

Gina Reiss-Wilchins is the executive director of Somaly Mam Foundation.  Check out her article Taught to Be Worthless:

www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-reisswilchins/taught-to-be-worthless_b_3398612.html

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Youth Day ~ South Africa

Today's post is for all my South African friends celebrating Youth Day and remembering the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976.  It is also a time to remember and pray for Nelson Mandela - an exemplary visionary and an extraordinary human being.  He wrote: "As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."  Profound words to lead a broken country out of apartheid and words that can still inspire us today.

www.cnn.com/2013/06/14/opinion/bilchik-nelson-mandela/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

Friday, June 14, 2013

Real Equality for Women Does Not Promote Prostituti​on and Sexual Exploitati​on

I just received this email in my inbox:

STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 14, 2013

Real Equality for Women Does Not Promote Prostitution and Sexual Exploitation

Ottawa, ON - Today the Supreme Court of Canada will hear from fourteen interveners as it considers a landmark case on the laws surrounding prostitution. It is notable then, that in Attorney General of Canada, et al. v. Terri Jean Bedford, et al., many of the interveners are women's advocacy organizations that are directly opposed to the legalization of prostitution.

The Women's Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution represents seven organizations that have found that women's equality has decreased when prostitution is legalized. For example, the Native Women's Association of Canada has emphasized that "It is an issue for all women who support equality. As long as Aboriginal women and girls are bought and sold in prostitution, Aboriginal women will never have equality."

Similarly, the Government of Canada decided to appeal this case to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2012, as we view prostitution as inherently harmful to vulnerable persons, especially women and girls from First Nations communities. Prostitution victimizes and exploits women and girls and forces those who have few choices into a world of fewer choices.

There is also a critical link between prostitution and human trafficking that is too often ignored by those calling for legalization. In 2003, the Scottish Parliament commissioned the University of London to conduct a 'comprehensive analysis of outcomes of prostitution policies in other countries.' The study found that the legalization and regulation of prostitution led to a dramatic increase in the involvement of organized crime in the sex industry, in child prostitution, in the number of foreign women trafficked into the region, and a general increase in violence against women.

In Canada, studies by the RCMP, House of Commons Status of Women Committee, UBC Professor Benjamin Perrin, and the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) have shown that Canadian born women and youth are vulnerable to sex slavery. In particular, the 2008 CISC study found that organized crime syndicates in Canada recruit Canadian born women between the ages of 12-25 years to traffic inter- and intra-provincially for the purposes of forced prostitution. The 2010 RCMP study, Hidden Abuse-Hidden Crime, revealed a number of groups of youth in Canada to be vulnerable to sex trafficking, especially youth from First Nations communities.

As such, I am unapologetically for the abolition of prostitution, a system that dehumanizes and degrades humans and reduces them to a commodity to be bought and sold. This is the reality we face in Canada and the motivation for the Canadian government's efforts to combat sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.

The case being made by Bedford et al. is not about making the streets safer for prostitutes or securing equality for women. It is about one thing: making pimps and human traffickers richer.

True equality for women will never come from a legal system that encourages the prostitution and sale of women and vulnerable populations. Rather, Canada should continue to criminalize the pimps, traffickers and real root of prostitution: the clients.

Joy Smith, MP
Kildonan - St. Paul

Media Contact: Joel Oosterman
Office of Joy Smith, MP
Phone: 613-992-7148
Cell: 613-220-6795
Email: joy.smith.a2@parl.gc.ca

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

CNN: Victim's Plea

Click on the link to the CNN article Victim's Plea:  Change New York Law, Charge the Traffickers:

thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/11/victims-plea-change-new-york-law-charge-the-traffickers

Friday, June 7, 2013

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Mark ~ Invisible People


Powerful interview. . .important words:

ESSE QUAM VIDERI - to be, rather than to appear
"Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God."
~Robert W. Pierce