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(Today’s title is from my 6 year old daughter, and today’s post comes from good friend Ginger Coakley, in the midst of working for justice right here in Central, IL!!)

I am a modern-day abolitionist. I know, cool title, right?! While I love my job, I still find myself shocked at the reality that there is a need in the world for people like me. There is a need for thousands, maybe millions of modern-day abolitionists. Modern day slavery is rampant in our world…our 21st-century slavery-illegal-in-every-country world…the best known number of slaves counts there are more slaves today than at any other point in human history: 30 million. That is 30 million individuals who are living and breathing, who have the image of God stamped on their souls, and who have (or had) hopes and dreams for their lives. Instead of experiencing freedom in all of those things, they are in bondage and forced to work for someone else’s gain.

Why am I shocked? Don’t we become numb to terrible realities that are put before us everyday? Yes, we do usually, but I am regularly made aware of new terrible realities. Here are a few: Law enforcement in St. Louis reports they could rescue at least 4 girls everyday from being pimped out but they don’t have anywhere safe and equipped to send them. In a neighboring town a mother is pimping out her son and her daughter so she can buy drugs. Young people are wrapped up in pornography and deceived into thinking they are loved by a guy, when in actuality they are being set up to be pimped out. A restaurant in a neighboring town is moving young Hispanics from work site to work site giving them no freedom and extremely little pay. All the major clothing brands I could buy for my young son (Oshkosh, Carters, Garanimals, Just One You, etc) have known slave labor in their supply chains. My shock, and perhaps better described as my heartache, continues and grows with each new reality I encounter.

The US Department defines human trafficking as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age–OR–
The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Human traffickers are garnering $32 billion each year off the individuals who meet this definition in their everyday life. When I began working and ministering in this field, human trafficking was ranked 3rd among top grossing international organized crime; recently it has been moved up to the 2nd place position. Why? Because drug traffickers are using their incredibly networked system to move people instead, after all, people are a renewable resource whereas drugs, once used, are gone.
The Set Free Movement is committed to collaborating with first responders and key stakeholders to ensure communities are ready to help victims when their terrible reality is made aware to us. We are moving toward being a Zero Tolerance (for slavery, for injustice) Community. YOU are a key stakeholder in this community, in your community, and in our world.

This Friday, May 10, 2013, The Set Free Movement is hosting a training session where we will learn about slavery’s realities. From Assistant US Attorney, Monica Stump, we will be equipped to recognize the signs and indicators as well as be provided explanations of the laws that surround human trafficking in America today. Jeff Othic is a special investigator for Homeland Security’s Immigration and Custom Enforcement Division, and he will review the process of investigations within human trafficking cases. We will also hear from CleoTerry, Coordinator of the Rescue and Restore Coalition of Southwestern Illinois, who will be giving in-depth explanations on how to work with victims of human trafficking.

I recently found myself amidst a group of college students committed to pray around this issue. The prayer that came from my own lips was about Moses. Moses, the first abolitionist of our faith, was terrified to do what God called him to – he was called to free his community. And with that first call, I believe God put abolition in our spiritual DNA. The rest of my prayer was for the traffickers, that they would find plagues heaped upon them and be destroyed. There is a way to end modern day slavery, but it will only be accomplished by thousands, maybe millions, of abolitionists. We must be willing to heed the call, one that will break our hearts and shock our “safe and quaint” communities. We must be willing to change the way me make purchases (start with www.free2work.org) and buy ethically sourced goods. We must educate ourselves (find out more about the Set Free training event here) as much as possible. We must move in three directions: Prevention, Rescue, and Restoration (check out the Set Free Primer).

I will end with the prayer of five year old Mariah: “Dear Jesus, Thank you that we are free to walk and run and ride our bikes.  We are sad because you are sad that there are kids that are not free.  Please help those kids to know that you are near to them and you can be in their hearts.  Help them to not be too sad and help them to be free too.”

If you have further questions or want to join Ginger & the ranks of abolitionists around the world, feel free to email her by clicking here. 

Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post!  To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked image here.  Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about.  You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc.  At the end of 5 minutes, you stop.  Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours.  It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the word: “friend”.

It’s a word tossed out there casually, devalued thanks to being co-opted by Facebook and the like.  (A quick glimpse of my own Facebook will tell you that I have a few over 2,000 “friends”.)  But the word can really mean a wide range of things.  I have some great friends that Facebook helps me to stay in touch with…and it’s a great way to connect with each other.

But when I think of “friend”, several great memories come to mind.  I remember playing with Ninja Turtles through elementary school.  I remember attending YMCA camps growing up, and making a friend in only a week that I felt like I’d known a long time…and then letting them go when the week was over.   I remember a “sleep-over” birthday party in 5th grade at a friends house who lived on a farm.  We watched “Drop Dead Fred”, and jumped off bales of hay.

But one of my favorite memories of “friend” comes from a more difficult moment.   I remember hanging with “the guys” back in high school.  We’d just left Chuck E. Cheese’s, and there was a disagreement of some sort brewing within our group.  We were loading into a mini-van to head to the next “thing” that night, and finally we all realized we couldn’t keep pretending everything was okay.

The doors became locked.   Someone announced we weren’t leaving that van or parking spot until things were completely talked about.  The “air was cleared” (although actually, the air became very stuffy and the windows fogged up as we waited for the actual issue to surface.

It’s a reminder to me as a parent, for sure.  My daughters will have a lot of friends as they grow older.  Some will come and go in seasons.  Some will be there long term.   But no matter what, it’s important that I remind them friendships are not always about who plays nice with you, who likes you, and who you like being around 100% of the time.  It’s the person who will have difficult conversations with you.   The person who knows something better can be acheived, and challenges us that “something” should be reached for.

It’s definitely something we see modeled in Jesus Christ….

STOP.

So help me finish that thought….where did Jesus model the difficult but necessary roles of a good friend in scripture?

 

 

Here’s hoping that not long from now, people may stumble upon the words of this post’s title and ask themselves, “What is he even talking about?”  A world with less of the youtube madness that started back in February this year, would be a healthier one.  But I couldn’t let the moment come and go, without asking how such a thing could help us in our awareness of God.

The current  “harlem shake” movement seems accidentally based on a very simplistic idea: 1. make it easy to do, 2. about getting positive attention, and 3. make it look fun, and you’ll get a lot of other people wanting to do the same thing.  The guys responsible for “starting” the movement, “Filthy Frank” and his friends never intended for millions of people to get caught up in it becoming a “thing”…and by February 12th was even saying he was ready for it to move on.  They’d simply made a silly video, and 10 days later it was being copied by people all around the world.

I remember being in East Harlem back around 2001, and having kids try to teach me how to “Harlem Shake“.  I’m definitely not qualified for such a thing…but it was fun nevertheless.  I can’t imagine they’re excited about this phony movement making people think they know how to “Harlem Shake” simply by thrashing around in costumes/loud music.

But I’m not really worried about the people of Harlem getting all upset that the youtube fixation (that’s hopefully dead by the time you read this) has usurped their role as shakers.  What I’m more concerned about, is the same elements that sky-rocketed this little video/performance by Filthy Frank, are what we often depend on to sell the gospel message:

1. Make it easy to do/simple.  We hear phrases all the time:  “Invite Jesus into your heart, and you’re done!”,  “It’s as simple as that!”, “now you’re ready for Heaven!” or boil down an entire Word of God into a distilled phrase of truth that you can fit into your pocket, a prayer that you memorize, and a box you check at the altar.  But any Christian parent would agree: we don’t want our children to remember the moment they “checked a box”, we want them to remember how Jesus has transformed their lives.  That’s not easy, and takes much longer than a single moment with a #2 pencil.  So we make our homes places where we are daily opening the Word of God.  We wrap our lives around the Truths of His Word, and living as families of Kingdom citizens here and now.  We confess to each other when we’re struggling, and depend on God’s Spirit to be our helper – because we NEED one.

2. Make it about getting positive attention/feedback.  In a world of Hallmark endings and prosperity gospels, it doesn’t take long to find followers of Jesus who will tell you – if you’re following Jesus right, everything will work out for you.  You’ll be blessed, your family will all be healthy and in love with Jesus, and whenever you have a need – it’ll be awesome to see how God will always come through to fill it.  We love these promises, but the hard truth is – if we’re following Jesus for these reasons, the object of our worship is actually “Self”.  As parents, we need to share not only the highs of following Jesus together as a family, but the struggles as well.   To be appropriately honest with them, and have faith that even though it may NOT look like it in our world/lifetime, we know that Jesus IS still Lord.  We look up from our tears with them, and together gaze into the future promises of God to complete what He began in Christ, and make all things New.

3. Make it look fun.  In the “actual” Harlem Shake, there’s a set way of doing things.  5 people standing side by side, all doing the dance will look very similar.  In the current “movement”, the only requirement seems to be chaos.  But everyone’s got a giant smile slapped on their goofy looking faces, even if it’s covered by a mask.  The goal is not to accomplish anything, or even look a certain way…the goal is simply to have fun, and get hits on youtube.  Unfortunately, it’s also a theme picked up by genuine-hearted followers of Jesus as they try to get the next generations connected to what God is doing.  I’m not against VBS craziness, or playing silly youth group games at times.  But what I am against, is when the “fun” becomes central, and “knowing/following Jesus” becomes a side-issue.  To pull a giant “bait & switch” with our kids/teens will end up with young adults who wonder why youth group stopped after 12th grade, and decide to leave a church that doesn’t “offer anything for me”.  We want to raise our children with an appreciation for an abundant life, deeply rich and satisfying in relationship with Jesus, others, and creation; and contributing to His “making all things New”.  Not simply to be an “a-mused” (not-think), and consuming force.

It may not win any awards for trending…but it will transform lives and the cosmos…:)