The ripple effect...

Sometimes the needs are so great that it paralyzes me.

How could my small effort make a difference?

And then I remember how the little things made a difference in my own life,

a small handwritten note, a ride to church,

and now even my children and my children's children lives are different 

because someone obeyed God in the small things.

It's rather like tossing a pebble into a pond and the ripples from that one small splash

 keep spreading,

 keep getting bigger.

When Jesus purposely went out of His way to encounter the woman at the well,

His impact on her impacted her whole community.

Through her the gospel spread,

 got bigger.

This summer I watched as a former prostitute from our city publicly made a declaration of her faith and got water baptized.

Her son did the same.

There in the river that divides the east side of our city from the west,

Jesus washed her sins away as far as the east is from the west.

She's only one person in a huge citywide, nationwide, worldwide problem,

but as she was dunked in that river,

 I believe that her splash is going to keep on spreading,

keep getting bigger.

The poverty in Africa is overwhelming, the need so great it can feel crushing when you see it.

But for one small village in Ghana, West Africa, a well, a water tower, an irrigation system,

has made year around farming possible.

Provision of food and income as produce is sold...not for everyone, but for some.

So, we do what we can,

believing that when you obey and help the one, 

 it spreads,

 it keeps getting bigger.

We're going back with a team in February to build an orphanage.

It's nothing huge or extravagant,

but we're implementing a plan to help ten or so children.

We're believing that when we obey and help the one

it will spread,

it will keep getting bigger.

(If you feel led to give to the orphanage project,  there's a paypal link under missions on my sidebar.

If you would like to advertise your blog or online/etsy shop I will post your ad on my sidebar for 3 months for $45.  Click ads for missions under my blog header for more information.

All paypal donations and ads for missions proceeds from this blog will go to the Ghana Orphanage project.)

(If you feel led to help fund rescue operations for victims of sex trafficking I highly recommend that you look into the efforts being made by The Exodus Road.  

They are making a difference, one rescue at a time.)

still following,

     

I'm believing for rescue...

I don't want to think about it.

I don't want to write about it.

I don't want to believe it.

I want to stick my head in the sand and wrap myself up in my own reality

 and pretend that this is all there is.

I'd like to wrap myself up in my cozy little home and only blog about beautiful and happy things.

I want to gather my four grandchildren around my dinner table and fix them their favorite things 

and protect them from all the ugly "out there".

I don't want to think about the strip club on the corner just a few blocks down,

or the sex trafficking on 82nd Ave., walking distance from my house.  

I want to wash my mind from the image I saw when I watched Nefarious,  

a tiny pair of little girl's pajamas found in a brothel in S.E. Asia, the pajama bottoms stained with blood.

I want to stay tucked safely into my own life while God comes down and smites those so perverse that they would use another human being that way and those so greedy they would profit from it.

I read the words in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, and believe them.

There will come a day when Jesus comes and makes wrong things right, 

when He will deal out retribution.

There is a real day of vengeance marked on God's calendar,

 the Babe in the Manger returning as a Mighty Warrior.

I don't cringe at this image of a God who brings justice against the wicked.

I anticipate it.

But in the meanwhile,

in the meantime,

we are,

I am,

you are,

Jesus' eyes and hands and feet and voice.

So, I must get my head out of the sand,

I must quit pretending that all is well,

and I must speak up,

and I must do what I can do to make a difference.

I am one of a group of over 100 bloggers who are blogging for rescue.

We blog for the Exodus Road.

The Exodus Road does investigative missions to uncover illegal sex trafficking and underage sexual exploitation.

The Exodus Road teams with organizations, like Nighlight, 

that help victims of sex trafficking find hope and the means to support themselves.

The Exodus Road helps rescue victims of sex trafficking.

So far, 622 victims have been saved by the team.

They have helped get 348 prosecutions against sex traffickers.

The Exodus Road has 15 undercover operatives working in 5 countries.

How, can you help?

You can PRAY.

Yes, prayer changes things!

Pray for the corruption that allows this atrocity to go on in our world to be exposed and stopped.

Pray for successful rescues.

Pray for laws to be passed that make all sex trafficking a human rights violation and a felony crime.

You can GIVE.

You can give to organizations like the Exodus Road and help fund investigations and rescues.

You can support organizations like Nightlight.  

Buying jewelry from them helps support women who used to be in the sex trade.

(Click the link above to enter a giveaway for a piece of their lovely jewelry 

and to learn more about their ministry.)

You can GET INVOLVED.

We have a dear pastor friend, here in Portland,

 who has formed Tomorrow's Hope Sex Trafficking Intervention Ministry.

Hope City Church has a ministry of reaching out to the women who work in our area strip clubs.

Me, I'm doing what I know to do.

I believe God gave me a voice for a reason, this blog for a reason, so I'm speaking up.

I believe if you read this, you pray, you give, and you get involved in some small way, 

wherever you are,

 however you can, 

I believe that together we can make a difference.

I'm thinking about the 622 victims saved by the efforts of the the Exodus Road

and I'm believing for many, many more.

Still following,

Making a difference one rescue at a time...The Exodus Road

It happened smack dab in the middle of our Job season.

You know, Job in the Bible.

God let him be tested.

The enemy stripped him of everything, and while he did question God,

 he never cursed God or renounced his faith.

During our Job years we were betrayed, 

sued, 

suffered financially, 

our marriage was tested, 

our children suffered agonizing loss.

During that dark time, one Sunday, while meeting with the remnant left of our little church,

 in our little hole in the wall rented space,

a young teen with a baby girl barely two months old and already pregnant again,

came into our lives.

That baby girl and the little boy, yet to be born, eventually became our legally adopted grandchildren.

In our darkest season,  when we felt the most helpless and hopeless,

God used our family and church to make a difference for one little girl, one little boy and their birth mother.

When we read statistics like these:

There are more modern day slaves right now than at any other point in human history.

Currently, an estimated 27 million people worldwide are forced to work in slave labor camps with little or no pay or are trapped in brothels in sexual slavery (This figure is highly debated and estimates range from 10 million to 30 million).

Human trafficking is the 3rd most lucrative illegal crime globally, behind the sale of guns and drugs.

It is estimated that every sixty seconds, two children are sold for sex worldwide.

The average cost of a slave is $90.

Human trafficking involves exploitation which can take many forms including: Misleading victims into debt bondage, subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude, fear and intimidation, physical and sexual abuse, forcing victims to participate in sex acts for the sake of pornography, withholding victim’s passports/papers as a means of control.

A victim of modern day slavery can be in any of the following categories, according to the US State Department:  Forced labor, sex trafficking, bonded labor, debt bondage for migrant workers, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labor, child soldiers, and child sex trafficking.

Modern day slavery occurs in 161 countries (of the 195 total countries), including the United States.

Human trafficking, according to the U.N. Trafficking Protocol is “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of adbuction, or fraud or deception for the purpse of exploitation.”

Around 70% are female and and an estimated half are under the age of 18.

An excellent overview of common questions can be found here at Free the Slaves.

we can begin to feel hopeless and helpless.

Yet, there are people at work behind the scenes, making a difference, one person at a time.

I am proud to be a part of the blogging team for The Exodus Road.

This week the founder, marketing director and two bloggers are making their first ever blogging for rescue trip.

Won't you follow along, pray and consider giving?

Use this link to donate and mark your donation The Exodus Road.

Together, we can make a difference, one rescue at a time.

Still following,