Jan 14

Are you doing anything significant today? Read about the women doing The Freedom Climb and be inspired.

The Freedom Climb is a group of women sponsored by Operation Mobilization who are climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. They are doing it for freedom. Climbers will be raising awareness, prayers, and finances for women and children being oppressed, enslaved, exploited and trafficked.  The Freedom Climb goal for 2012 is to affect the lives of 10,000 women through projects that break the cycles of poverty, shame, slavery, and despair.  These projects include micro-loans, education, skills training, and protection from exploitation.

The women have been climbing for several days – with the summit in sight. As of Saturday afternoon, Jan 14, the Freedom Climbers have finished a very grueling day of climbing and are facing an even harder one to the summit. One climber, who is 73 years old, is physically well, but unsteady on her feet. A guide has said that he will walk with her personally so that she will be able to keep going. Starting at 6 pm E.S.T., the climbers will begin climbing for 12 hours where they will reach the summit, and then begin the descent down the mountain. Please continue to pray for the health of all the climbers as they begin a very difficult part of the climb.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” Proverbs 31: 8-9 NLT

Jan 13

5 Minute Challenge – Pakistan

Christians are a beleaguered minority caught between Islamic militant organizations that routinely target them for violence and an Islamic culture that discriminates against them. Death threats are routine for church leaders, beatings are common, and damage to church property occurs on a monthly basis. Christians cannot rely on government or the military to protect them. The killing in March 2011 of Christian Cabinet Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was ‘one of the most demoralizing acts for us of recent years’, according to a church leader in Karachi.

Learn more about Pakistan

Can you spare 3 minutes to encourage Asia Bibi?

A mother of five sentenced to death on “blasphemy” charges lives in constant fear. After leaving the Sheikhupura District Jail last week, her husband, Salman Taseer, said that Asia Noreen (alternatively spelled Aaysa, and also called Asia Bibi), is “very afraid.”

Her conviction for insulting Islam’s prophet Muhammad, which she denies, triggered a violent chain of events in Pakistan, including the murder of Gov. Salman Taseer by his bodyguard after the governor voiced support for her. “She knows the Muslims have announced a prize on her head and would go to any lengths to kill her,” a visibly nervous Masih said. “The governor’s murder in broad daylight has put her in a state of paranoia.” He added that threats by Islamist extremists have dampened Noreen’s hope of getting justice from the Lahore High  Court, where her appeal against the conviction has been filed but yet to be taken up.

Wearing a dark cloak to hide his identity, Masih was visibly nervous after meeting with her. Masih said prison authorities had improved Noreen’s security considerably after Gov. Salman Taseer’s killing, but prison officials have reportedly said she will be transferred to another prison soon because of security concerns. The female warden tasked with Noreen’s security the day Gov. Salman Taseer was killed shared the Christian woman’s reaction to the news. “We were passing by a barrack when the news broke out on TV that the governor was dead,” said the warden, who requested anonymity.  “She stood there in shock for some time, and then she started screami ng and crying.”

Jan 13

5 Minute Challenge (2012)

Take the 5 minute challenge and commit 5 minutes a week to pray for each country on the World Watch List.

Here’s how it works:
Each week we will send you an email highlighting a featured country.
Explore that country on the Open Doors website, learn about the people, and discover ways to pray
Learn about the current events of that country.
Join with your church or small group to pray for that country.

By the end of 2012, we will have prayed for all 50 countries on the World Watch List.

Jan 13

It’s all about Jesus…

Take the time to read this… It’s the blog post of Saskia’s thoughts from Passion 2012 – based on her experiences in the battle against human trafficking around the world. I’ve been following her journey for a year or so, and it’s worth your time to hear from her.

Jan 12

Alabama and human trafficking law enforcement

Alabama federal prosecutors promise to spotlight human trafficking

Jan 07

what is freedom? (Piper at Passion 2012)

John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

There are at least four kinds of freedom. And each one adds a crucial dimension of freedom to the last until we get to the full Christian freedom — “free indeed.” Let me try to sum up these four kinds of freedom in one definition of full and complete freedom:

You are fully free — completely free, free indeed — when you have the (1) desire, (2) the ability, (3) and the opportunity to do (4) what will make you happy in a thousand years.

Or we could say, You are fully free when you have the (1) desire, (2) the ability, and (3) the opportunity to do (4) what will leave you no regrets forever.

If you don’t have the desire to do a thing, you are not fully free to do it. Oh, you may muster the willpower to do what you don’t want to do, but nobody calls that full freedom. It’s not the way we want to live. There is a constraint and pressure on us that we don’t want.
And if you have the desire to do something, but no ability to do it, you are not free to do it.
And if you have the desire and the ability to do something, but no opportunity to do it, you are not free to do it.
And if you have the desire to do something, and the ability to do it, and the opportunity to do it, but it destroys you in the end, you are not fully free — not free indeed.
To be fully free, we must have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make us happy forever.

No regrets.

And only Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose for us, can make that possible.

To be happy forever, our sins must be forgiven and God’s wrath removed and Christ must become our supreme Treasure. Only Jesus can do that. In fact, he has already done it. He died for our sins. He absorbed God’s wrath. And he rose from the dead and is today therefore supremely precious. And he offers us that now as a free gift.

If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.

Jan 06

The WellHouse – Alabama’s only 24 hour emergency shelter for women

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today – and some of them are right here in Birmingham! Shocking, isn’t it? Do you want to get involved in the battle to stop human trafficking, but you’re not really sure how to get started? Can you help stock a kitchen pantry? This is a local, hands-on way to help in the fight against trafficking! The WellHouse has new place for women to live. I was there this morning – washing windows. The new house is great – but it needs a good cleaning and it’s completely empty. The vision is coming true for a house that is going to be great refuge, but we need help getting it ready to move in over the next few days.

What is human trafficking? The U.N. Trafficking Protocol defines human trafficking as:

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery or servitude.

What’s the Wellhouse? The WellHouse is a faith-based, nonprofit agency located in Alabama. We are an agency that provides emergency shelter to women who have been trafficked, are prostituting, or otherwise sexually exploited.  The WellHouse, Inc. offers immediate shelter, food, clothing, spiritual guidance, and other necessary items to support exploited women. There are no other emergency shelters offering 24-hour, immediate housing assistance to exploited women in Alabama. Not only are we Alabama’s only 24- hour emergency shelter for women who have been exploited, but we are also the only one with no pre-set limitations on the length of time a woman may maintain her residency in safe, secure emergency housing. The WellHouse Staff has numerous contacts and associations with many agencies to provide supportive services to the residents.  It is our main goal to ensure the women receive all of the services they need, either through referring them to other agencies and/or offering in-house services (i.e. mental health and/or substance abuse treatment referrals).

 

What can you do to help? Glad you asked! I’m tackling the issue of stocking the kitchen pantry. If you’re willing to help gather staples and basic kitchen essentials, leave me a comment and a way to contact you.

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed, cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

Isaiah 58:6-9 The Message

 

Jan 02

January 1, 2012

Jan 01

It’s about time!

time – the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another (from Dictionary.com)

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.(from wikipedia)

Nov 01

Book Review: “Right from the Heart”

 

The 365 day devotional book by Bryant Wright is simple and easy to read. The stated goal in the subtitle is “turning your day toward God”. This book could be a good tool to get each day moving in the right direction. Each page represents a new day – and gives Scripture and an insight.

While this book is not destined to become a classic, it is well-written and theologically sound. The topics addressed cover a wide range of issues. This book is not a replacement for Bible study or even fodder for more than a few minutes of ‘quiet time’ each day. But it does have the content to be an attitude setter at the beginning of each day or an attitude changer when read in an office waiting room or the car pool line.