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Across the World & Across the Street.

Oct 02

Hello, friends, fans, and family.
Last night Mike and I had the opportunity to hear the heart of some of our fellow christian music artists about the current rising global crisis. To my surprise it’s not famine, it’s not AIDS, it’s not financial deficit either.

I know I’ve blogged about this before and sorry for repeating myself. I realized during this conversation we had recently that I am in a band that has a platform (although modest in size) to speak and “fight the darkness.”

This growing crisis is human slavery. It is said that there are now more slaves in the world today than in any point in history. This slavery isn’t working in fields or factories. Children are being sexually abused. And this isn’t an intangible reality. This is a virus of the most evil nature that manifests itself in India, China, Africa, and just a few months ago even in my own back yard of Nashville, TN. A local motel was raided and 8 girls were rescued from a prison of a room filled with mattresses.

I could fill this page with statistics and heart breaking, disgusting stories, but I’d rather fill this page with hope. There are facilities and institutions in place that are making a change. They will not be quiet and they are shining their light where there is no light. Please, educate yourself on this subject that not many know about. The church is oblivious to this situation and we must not wait for the government to deal with it like the last time. Slavery is real and it pays less in our generation.

I’m excited because we’re working with other artists to help fight this poison that has silently crept into the streets of our world. Pray that those who are oppressed will be saved.

God will break the chains. He will deliver. Allow him to work in you to fight the darkness.

www.ijm.org

www.thehomefoundation.net

Tags: crisis God hope slavery social justice

18 comments

Taken

May 15

So we watched this movie called “Taken” last night. It stars Liam Neeson and Shannon from LOST, I don’t know her name. Anyway, it’s a pretty Jason Bourne kind of movie with international baddies, butt kicking, but more than that, it has a very serious issue in the plot line. Liam’s character in the story has a daughter that gets taken in Paris and being sold into sexual slavery. Liam is on the hunt to find her and kill anyone involved that stands in his way. I recommend the movie for anyone who isn’t afraid to be offended, and has the slightest interest of seeing a hollywood movie that leaves you feeling heavy for humanity.

Granted, there’s violence, a birdy is flipped, and the subject matter is offensive, but for what it is, it is a rude awakening to a reality that is so very present. Each year, an estimated 600,000-800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders (some international and non-governmental organizations place the number far higher), and the trade is growing. This figure is in addition to a far larger yet indeterminate number of people trafficked within countries. Victims are forced into prostitution, or to work in quarries and sweatshops, on farms, as domestics, as child soldiers, and in many forms of involuntary servitude.

There’s organized child prostitution in the states too. There are currently an estimated 300,000 children under the age of 16 working as prostitutes in america.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Wow. James couldn’t have said it any clearer. I hope this journal can spark a desire for you to educate yourself of this current situation. Then after that, doing something about it. Please, friends… these people aren’t captives of themselves, but rather from others who keep them under their decisions and lusts.

www.thehomefoundation.net

www.ijm.org

www.childrenofthenight.org (a non-christian organization that deals with child prostitution in the states, primarily southern California)

Tags: life social justice

17 comments