Trade

27 million individuals are enslaved in the world today. This is more than ever before in history. I strongly encourage you all to see this new movie, Trade, which is currently in limited release in theaters across the U.S.

Trade tells the story of a Mexican girl who is kidnapped by sex traffickers in Mexico City. Included in the group of victims is a Polish woman and a little boy from Thailand. Though this is a feature film and not a documentary, it gives a very realistic and eye-opening picture of how child sex-trafficking can operate.

So why is it important to expose ourselves to this issue? Because somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 individuals are trafficked into the United States every year. This is something that is going on all around us, but we just don't see it.

Go to fandango.com to see where Trade is playing near you.

I think it would make a big impact if this film gets good box office results. Not only would it inform more Americans of this horrifying injustice in our midst (as well as the world over) but it would make a statement that we are willing to become educated about tough issues, and even to do something about them.

If you do see the movie, I encourage you to check out the website Not For Sale and also look into supporting the daring and laudable work of International Justice Mission.

Please check the movie out!!

South Asia Flooding ...

And how could I bring up India without mentioning the flooding that is so horribly affecting certain regions of that country?
- 28 million have been affected by 2 weeks of torrential rain in regions of India, Bangladesh and Nepal
- One of the worst hit districts received 18.5 inches of rain in 24 hours. Villages are now lost under 6 feet of water
- Supply food, drinking water and medicines are desperately needed, but relief efforts are slow to respond because of the scope of the disaster
- Water sources in the flooded regions are contaminated, and so a health crisis is quickly developing.
These people need aid, and quickly!

Read more: BBC.co.uk
Donate: Save the Children - Emergency relief

I MUST Share ...

This beautiful, exciting picture with you!! Good friends of mine just returned from southern India, where they spent one month traveling from the rural setting of Little Flock Orphanage (where our team went last summer) to the bustling city of Chennai and beyond. While in Chennai, they were able to reconnect with Andrew, Kennedy, and a handful of the street children we came to know last July. It brought me so much joy to see the kids one year later in this photo, and to see them in a setting other than their filthy sidewalk homes. It must have been a treat for them to spend time at the beach!

So here they are ... aren't they wonderful?? Oh, and the white people are my friends that took the trip, hehe. :)

Micro-lending: "loans that change lives"!

This journal has seemed to me to be so lacking of late, mainly because I haven't been updating it with the flurry of sweet things that God has put in my path of late. So, here is something that I am newly a part of.


A friend and I recently lent money to an Azerbaijani fruit seller who needs to renovate her fruit stand to better her sales. We were able to make this loan through a website called kiva.org which acts as a catalogue of entrepreneurs in developing nations who need some funds to get their businesses going. As they are able, the recipients of the loan repay the lenders. Your money is handled by credible micro-lending organizations that operate in those entrepreneurs' regions, and they have a great record of getting your money back to you. And once you are repaid, you can go head and lend the money to someone else!

Talk about an amazingly easy and cool way to help those that are struggling. I do think that real service requires sacrifice, but here is something that anyone can do, in addition to other giving, that is no real sacrifice at all because your own funds keep coming back to you after your sponsored entrepreneur has accomplished their goal.

So click on the Kiva link and start browsing! Trust me, it's super exciting :)

"Christian Social Responsibility" - The Lausanne Covenant

The Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland (July 16-25, 1974) drafted the following statement:

"We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, sex or age, has an instrinsic dignity because of which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited. Here too we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions of our doctrines of God and man, our love for our neighbor and our obedience to Jesus Christ. The message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination, and we should not be afraid to denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist. When people receive Christ they are born again into his kingdom, and must seek not only to exhibit but also to spread righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous world. The salvation we claim should be transofrming us in totality of our personal and social responsibility. Faith without works is dead."

Every 3 Seconds...

A child dies. That is 30,000 children a day that simply perish. UCD Graduate Ted Oswald is rallying student groups on campus to host a week of fund raising and awareness raising events (in Spring '07) to challenge people to care about extreme poverty. If every student gives $3 to a humanitarian/relief-based organization, then over $90,000 would be raised. Perhaps even more importantly, the world's poor would be emblazoned on students' consciences like never before, and who knows what change that could instigate! The possibilities are endless!

Check out: Give3.org. Give those 3 minutes to learn more.

The Girl in the Cafe

So this movie was recommended to me by a friend, and I would recommend it to everyone I meet in a heartbeat. So that's why I'm starting here. At first the film appears to be a quirky romantic comedy (the lead characters are SO awkward!) but it gradually pulls you into much graver territory. The plot actually centers around the G8 Summit in Reykjavik and challenges the viewers to wake up and face the stark reality that a child dies every 3 seconds from AIDS, treatable diseases or hunger. 30,000 children a day die. Statistics are easy for us to ignore. But each child that dies has a face, a family, a unique identity, gifts and talents and as much value and you or me (like the little girl below). This is a tragedy and an emergency, so what are the rich nations going to do about it? We have the power and resources to stop it. I highly recommend watching this film with some friends.