The Day Before

Tomorrow is Saturday October 1^st.  This means tomorrow I start wearing “the dress." As the day progresses, I get a little more terrified.  Unfortunately, none of my friends participating alongside me are feeling the same apprehension. 

I just keep thinking, maybe my friends aren’t apprehensive because they have something that I don’t.  This leads me to think, maybe I'm not good enough, charismatic enough, strong enough, brave enough, faithful enough, humble enough, or outgoing enough to spread the message.  Maybe I’m just not supposed to do this.

(Can you tell I’m starting to FREAK out? … ‘cause I am.)

But then I remember that this idea of not being “enough” is one of the enemy's favorite weapons.  He uses it to keep us enslaved to feelings of inferiority, insecurity, and inadequacy.  And I certainly have been feeling inadequate.  It wasn’t until today, reading Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” that I remembered that I AM enough.   Thanks to Jesus, and the rebirth I experienced through him, when God looks at me, He sees Jesus.  And Jesus is “good enough”. 

So, my message tonight is for those of you who don’t think one person can make a difference, that you aren’t properly qualified to go about assisting the fight to end human trafficking, that you aren’t “enough”.  The bottom line is, the enemy wants you to believe that you are "not enough."  But you are. You are enough and have been equipped and empowered to do everything that God has called you to do.

So my final prayer is this:

 GOD please don’t let this be about me.

 Let it be about YOU.

 I pray that YOU will use me to draw attention to the imprisonment of YOUR children.

 Let the students at this university have open minds and hearts as I speak to them.

             Help the people here realize that they are enough, because YOU are enough

 GOD, help this not to be about me, but about YOU.

 Let this be about lifting up the broken, spreading the good news to the unfortunate,

 Rescuing the innocent from their bondage

 About sacrificing and giving to those who have had so much stolen from them

 Let this be about YOU.

 Amen.

The Candy Shop

Turning little children into pretty pieces of candy is unacceptable, right? 

So why is it that young children are sexually exploited, dressed up and paraded around for potential buyers, everyday?

Children shouldn't be for sale.

Here are some facts:

•  2 children are sold for sex every minute.  Knowing this, while you sit in your chair and read this post, roughly 5 children will have been sold.  That means, while sitting in a one hour class, 120 children are sexually exploited.  2880 children are trafficked everyday.  I think it is most important to note that these are not the same 2880 children being trafficked everyday, but new children. New victims to be ripped away from families, from innocence, and from hope.

• Human trafficking generates around $32 billion annually.  Making it the 2nd most lucrative crime in the world.

• The majority of females and young children being trafficked are sold into the commerical sex industry.

• Around 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation.

• 1/2 of all trafficking victims are under 18 years old.

• Approximately 30 million people are enslaved RIGHT NOW.

• Once freed from captivity, many victims suffer from STD's and other diseases, problems with their reproductive systems, drug addiction, PTSD and other mental health problems.  Therefore, many return to drugs and/or prostitution once they are free.

• There are only a few shelters in the United States that are designed to rehabilitate the victims.  The Daughter Project of Toledo, Ohio is one of these. (Shout out to Hannah for clearing this up)

Look it up.  http://thedaughterproject.org/


And on the exploitation of children....

• Check out the Candy Shop:
• http://www.whitestonemotionpictures.com/films/the-candy-shop/
• It's a 30 minute film initiative to fight against child sex trafficking.

 

• Check out Love 146:
• http://love146.org/love-story

Exodus 6:6

Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.'

So here's the deal....

Did you know that Toledo, Ohio is 4^th most trafficked city in the country?  That more than 1000 women and underage girls are being trafficked through Ohio right now to be sexually exploited?  Did you also know that the Daughter Project is the only faith based house in Toledo that is designed specifically to rehabilitate these women?  They provide educational, legal, and many other services planned to guide these women on their road to recovery. 

                When my best friend texted me the other night with a brief, “Sooo i think you should do one dress one month.  Bring it to ou”  I thought to myself, Why not? it’s something I’ve been prayerfully considering for a long time now anyway.  The idea of wearing one dress for an entire month is a little radical, and sounds a little unhygienic (no need to fear, I’ll wash the dress at least every other day so I don’t stink).  But if in doing so I can wake just a few people up to the realities of what is going on around them, then my month of drabness in a rather plain dress will have been worth it.  

                Unlike the women and young girls who can never take off their “dress,” who cannot shed their life of forced prostitution, I can trade “the dress” in for jeans and a t-shirt at any point I’d like.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared of wearing “the dress.”  One month, the SAME dress?  I like to think that people notice what I wear and how I look.  I know that I care too much what other people think of me.  As superficial as it is, I’m afraid that people will look at me strangely for wearing the same thing EVERYDAY.  I’m also afraid that I will be doing this for the wrong reasons.  I fear that my sick, sinful little mind will twist my good intentions into an attention-seeking stunt, and I certainly don’t want that to happen.

I'm afraid that wearing this dress for a month will draw more attention to me, and less to the issue at hand.  For this reason, I absolutely do NOT want to do this alone, I'd much rather have other friends and fellow students involved. But I'll do it, if only for the daughters.

I'm turning to God for all of this and recognizing that this is a kind of fast.  Only instead of avoiding food, I'm avoiding different clothes; and this is a fast that EVERYONE can see. 

Hopefully, I'll help people here at Ohio University realize that hundreds of women and girls are disappearing everyday into the terrifying world of sexual exploitation.

I have one week to get the information out to as many people as possible. Which is the ONLY reason I created this silly blog. I want to document my progress, and I want the word to get out.

But for now, I'm going to bed.  I'm off to buy "the dress" early tomorrow morning.

As my sister would say....

      "HOLY POOP!"  I am obviously not very technologically advanced.  I have one week to get this blog going and functioning in an intelligent and legible manner, and I have NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON!  This is simply ridiculous.  Here I am trying to make it pretty and easy to navigate (for myself) when I can't even figure out how to login properly.  At least I can post things, so I must be doing something right. *sigh* (I just quoted a Billy Currington song). 


      I've had this silly blog for three hours and I'm already searching for the big red button that will destroy it all. I'm pretty certain that no one can read this, because I have no idea what I'm doing.  However, if you can read this, excuse my ranting.  It's gonna happen a LOT in the coming days.  My greatest desire is that in the near future I will have computer skills that match my age rather than the skills of a 70 year old woman.  Because at this point, I'm ready for a dial-up computer and a game of computerized solitare, because that seems to be the one thing I excell at.  (That was a computer joke, get it? Excel?)

Nevermind.

I guess it's about time...

     So,  now that I'm starting my second year at school, (Go Bobcats! *punches the air*) I think it's about time that I started a blog.  If you ask me, the idea of writing a blog is a bit silly, and definitely nerdy.  I'm probably not going to post very often because frankly, I just don't expect a large number of devoted readers.  But I do think that this could be a wonderful adventure for me.  I like to write, it's (mostly) freeing, as long as I don't get too caught up in the grammar aspect.  (Notice I wrote "don't" instead of "do not,"  that's a big step for me).  But overall, I'm pretty excited.

As a side note, don't be concerned if I post close to 50 times this week, and then never again.