Missions.

Long time no see. I'm aware along and I come with my deepest apologies. 

    One of my best friends is amazing. Well that is a given, I mean she is friends with yours truly ;) But with all jokes aside, she is truly an amazing, godly young women that comes by the name of Ashley Thompson. And she has a growing passion for the Spanish language and culture. About two months ago, she went on her third missions trip to Costa Rica. And this time she felt led to go back again for an extended amount of time- 5 weeks! And with waiting on paperwork to be approved, she has had less than two weeks to raise $1500 to cover her trip. And she needs help to get there! It costs money to run organization to reach out to those who are in need and to carry out God's will! I know money can be tight, but every little bit helps. She has also created a blog so check it out and share it (Facebook, twitter, tumbler, etc)! You never know who will view it and could possibly help Ash out financially and get her to Costa Rico!

Click Here for Ashley's Blog

Human Trafficking in the U.S.

What is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is an organized criminal industry that affects every nation where people are sold for labor or sex. For more background information check out this post. When I found out about human trafficking I thought that it primarily took place outside of the US, but come to find out that Jacksonville is one of the largest ports in Florida. 

I've recently found this article on msn.com were it talks about how a teenage girls was approached by a trafficker. She worked at a diner and there was a regular customer that she would chat with and the regular customer was actually finding out more about her every visit, her birthday (find out when she turns 18), her favorite past boy friends (see what kind of guys she liked), etc. Then when she turned 18 years old, a young gentlemen that was a magical match for her, and built a relationship with her and asked her to stay with him, and quickly getting involved in the night club scene, and eventually asked her to move with him to another town to make more money. Thankfully she declined! If she had gone with him, she would more than likely been disconnected from her friends and family and be forced into human trafficking. Please, please, please read the article!


Human trafficking is on the rise in the United States. Over 17,500 victims are trafficked in the U.S.
annually and approximately 33% are American citizens. The full scope of the problem has yet to be
determined, as the crime of human trafficking is often intertwined with drug trafficking and
prostitution.

Trafficking in the U.S. often occurs in street prostitution, massage parlors, and brothels, and for
labor in domestic service, agriculture, manufacturing, janitorial services, hospitality industries,
construction, health and elder care, and strip club dancing. U.S. citizen victims, both adults and
children, are predominantly found in sex trafficking; U.S. citizen child victims are often runaways,
troubled, and homeless youth. Foreign victims are more often found in labor trafficking than sex
trafficking.*

It scares me to death to think of someone I know being tricked into this horrific activity. And these traffickers are smart, smooth talkers, and have a system. They realized that these people can be used over and over again, where as drugs you have to make more and more. If you have children or young kids or adults make them aware of this, not to scare them but to protect them. It is estimated that 600-800,000 people are trafficked every year, which is the entire city of Denver, CO.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me! There are so many ways to help raise awareness and support organizations that are doing amazing things to shut this down! You'll see more posts coming. Check out these posts!

eas5223@gmail.com

* Statistics provided by a21campaign.com 

Night of Freedom!

A21! Easily one of the best organizations out there. Then again, I am bias. I posted briefly about this wonderful organization back in February. I learned about it when attending a conference for young adults called Passion. And a few of the most amazing people you'll ever meet that are in my college group wanted to get involved in helping A21 and other organizations and created Night Of Freedom, as a fundraiser and awareness event.

What is A21?

A21 stands for abolishing slavery in the 21st century. Until earlier this year when I heard of slavery, I thought of those three inch textbooks I carried around in middle school. It was in the past. There's no such thing as slavery any more. I was wrong. 

Statistics 

There are more people in slavery now than there ever has been in the past. It's one of the 2nd largest global organized crime that generates $31.6 billion dollars a year. You can run out of drugs. But you can use humans over and over. The most popular way of modern slavery is sex trafficking. Sex trafficking alone produces 27.8 billion dollars a year. And the average age of a person being trafficked is 12 years old. In America, children runaways are approached within the first 24 hours of being on there own. The traffickers approach them and tell them that they are there to help and give them a feeling of belonging. And once they get them in, they are thrown into sex slavery with other victims. I was talking to a friend about this and they asked, "why don't they escape?" And one of the tactics that the traffickers use, is by putting them into a group of other victims, they cling onto each other for life. And threaten if they escape, the others will suffer. They also get the girls (and boys at times) addicted to drugs. This way, if they meet their quota for the day, they know they will have their escape aka the drugs, which keeps them from fleeing.

What A21 Does

They are working all spectrum's of human trafficking. Preventing people from being trafficked, Protecting and supporting those who have been trafficked, Prosecuting traffickers, and strengthening legal responses to trafficking, and partnering with law enforcement, service providers, and community members to provide comprehensive front against trafficking. To know more in detail visit the website. 

Night of Freedom

For Night of Freedom, we wanted to spread awareness and present ways we could get involved, along with a night of worship!

On the A21 website, they have 21 ways to get involved. And from that list we were able to have different stations that had a way to get involved. We had stations like: 

• Writing encouraging letter to victims that have been rescued and at the A21 house
• Writing letter to congress members about human trafficking 
• Dropping off hygiene products to send the the A21 house
• Prayer room
• Contracts for fasting on the 21st of every month

There are some other terrific organizations in the area such as The Defender, IJM, and Rethreaded that spoke at the event and had booths for people to check out and find ways to get involved!!

Praise & Worship!

Writing Letters to Victims and Congress members.

Praise & Worship!

Praise & Worship!

The Defender Foundation.

Kristin Hart from Rethreaded and IJM. 

It was truly amazing! It was a smaller crowd that anticipated, but seeing and hearing some the younger kids in the youth asking about ways to get involved, was worth all the time that went into it.

*Photographs done by the talented George Bass.

The A21 Campaign

    At the conference I attended in January, I was told about modern day slavery and sex trafficking, and how it is a modern day Holocaust. One of the organizations they introduced us to is the A21 Campaign, and I've been researching more and more everyday, wanting to do something to raise awareness and funds to support this organization. I wanted to share this video that explains more about the organization and what it does. 

     You will most definitely be hearing me talk about this more in the future! Please share!

Slavery Footprint.

        Not many people now in days are aware of modern day slavery (see prior blog). One of the ways that we can stop this is by using some of the resources that are out there for us to make a difference.

      Slavery Footprints is one of the resources we have available to us. When you go the the website, you can take a survey, and through taking the survey, it configures how many slaves work for you. What you would do from there is download the app, called Free World, and when you go out and about, you check in to where ever you are. Then a list of the supply companies that the company uses, pops up. You click on one of the them and then it has a letter that has already been written for you that goes to the company saying you're concerned about modern day slavery and how it may affect their supply chain.

Be sure to spread the word!

Freedom.

          This last week I was at a christian conference called Passion for college students in Atlanta, Georgia . And one of the main focus' of the conference was Freedom.When we think of slavery, we think of something horrible that has happened in the past. But there are actually 27 million people in slavery today. More than ever in history. Passion formed "Do Something Now" movement rooted in the belief that together we are a force for good. We know that the kind of worship God wants most requires more than words, calling us to love the world in Jesus' name. 


        Twenty-seven thousand people are enslaved. From young girls and boys trafficked for sexual exploitation, to children abused in factories, to men and women trapped as bonded labor slaves and countless other horrific abuses.... This isn't just a statistic, but people. Every minute two children are sold into slavery. 2,5000 women and children are sold into sexual slavery every day. Over 80% of human trafficking are women. Right now there are at least 200,000 slaves in the USA and 17,000 more will be trafficked into the USA next year. 


Organizations that can physically stop modern slavery that needs the funds to do so:

• A21- Prevention - Prevents trafficking in Ukraine by reaching at risk youth.
• Atlanta Project - Prevention- Help Atlanta combat trafficking in the city.
• Tiny Hands - Prevention- Building border stations & safe homes in the border of India & Nepal
• Hagar - Restoration- Provide loving care & restoration for those rescued for sexual exploitation in Cambodia
• Wellspring - Restoration- Restore & furnish apartment homes for exploitation survivors in Atlanta
• IJM - Restoration - Proved after-care for freed forced labor slaves.

      Passion had a goal that we'd give at least 1 million dollars, that would be distributed between 6 organizations that would prevent slavery, rescue those in slavery, and fund restoration for those taken out of slavery. By the second day we had raised 1.2 million dollars and not everyone had given yet! By the end of Passion, we had given $3,660.670! Three times over our goal! But we still need to be spreading the word, and continue to be giving to end modern day slavery. Having compassion and praying for them are always needed, but the primary thing that is solely going to end this, is giving money to organizations that have the game plan and  resources to actually carry out what needs to be done to end modern slavery.


    There is also an app for your smart phones, Slavery Foot Print, and we simply check in with the major brands or stores and find out if their supply chains are those that produces the materials through slavery and if we inform those companies that we don't want these products coming from people that are in slavery. And possibly even emailing the companies! 

During the conference, Passion made 103 foot tall hand symbol out side of the Georgia dome, where the conference took place, that is covered of items by those that are in forced or slaved labor. And we wrote notes of freedom on the hand that was placed on the hand as well.

Please spread the word!