Filed under: 1
So I was reading the news and came across this very interesting story of a millionaire who had slaves. It happens today. (http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/26/sabhnani.sentence.ap/index.html) So many people don’t know that it’s true. I was on the airplane coming back to England and this lady asked me what I do and I told her that I’m in missions and am passionate about raising awareness about Human trafficking and the sex-slave trade and that I’m in the process of trying to pioneer some ministry that tackles that problem even if it only reaches a few. You see she didn’t know that human slavery was real, that it happens in America, England, the West. She was shocked when I began telling her about cases I’ve heard of in the news and of how they’re lured in and captured. One time someone told me that I would never make a difference. That I’m just one person. It’s useless and I shouldn’t even try. But look…I am one person and I told one person. Now 2 people know. Now what if we both tell 2 people? It’s a chain. It’s a movement. That what we need. A movement. We need to raise up and take responsibility and take action. We can’t be ignorant and silent anymore. Once you hear what goes on in the dark we have a responsibility to “shout it from the rooftops for all to hear” (Matthew 10:27). That’s what my life is about. Shouting for the ones trapped in the darkness. It’s not about making money or having a well padded, comfortable life. It’s about them. The ones who are alone in the dark with no one who cares. What about them? They’re everywhere. On sugar and coffee plantations in South America, on farms in Africa, in retail factories in India, in homes in America, in brothels in Amsterdam, in massage parlors in England, in escort services in France, in Cuba, in China, in Russia. Everywhere. In your state or county. So what are we going to do? What are you going to do?
So yeah…on a totally different note I have some long awaited photos to share with you. I am having some problems uploading so make sure to check back soon. I may add them to my flikr so they will be on the left hand panel.
Filed under: My Life
So I think that sometimes when you leave a place for short term you are able to leave behind things that you’ve been thinking about and wrestling with temporarily. But when you return everything somehow rushes back in at an alarming pace. That’s a bit bitter-sweet from my perspective. I am experiencing this right now. Going to America somehow allowed me to drop a couple of the things that have been occupying my mind but upon returning I was bombarded with them once again. While I was in America I was aware of the lack of all these thoughts and would occasionally think to myself that I should sit down and thrash some of them through with God. I know that when you go on Holiday you don’t take a holiday from God but I think it was a bit of grace from him. Allowing me to free my mind to enjoy my friends and family and take a break form the very difficult past 6 months.
So now as I sit here I think. All the thoughts are swirling like an angry tornado and I can see it coming. I can sense the tension, apprehension and fear but I know once it passes and everything settles I’ll be able to clean it up and put all the pieces where they belong. So this entry isn’t a depressing one it’s a light at the end of the tunnel. This time I can actually see the blue sky in the distance behind the tornado. So come on tornado, I’m ready.
(Plus…my house mates are AMAZING!! I love them so much and missed them so much! Ahhh…friends.)
Filed under: My Life
My visit home has been great. It’s been nice catching up with people and hanging out at the beach. Speaking of the beach it’s infested with Jellyfish. We’ve been told that they’ve been here for a couple of weeks and that they’re slowly leaving. Even though my sister and Megan tell me that they don’t swim but float with the tide (thus they don’t aim for you) I am still convinced that they try to sting you. That it’s a game in the Jelly fish kingdom to see who can sting the most humans. The running tally so far is: (1) Mark on the arm, (2) Me on the arm, (3) Betsy on the arm, (4) Chris on the side and (5) Jen on the face. So what do you think? You can decide for yourself if you think they’re innocent or if they’re malicious.
So I’m going up to Georgia this week then back to England. If you live in Georgia or England I’ll see you soon!!
Filed under: My Life
So as most of you should know I am in America visiting my family and going to Doug and Beth’s wedding. It’s been good so far but also hot. I’m loving it. Tank tops and skirts all the way! I think though when I get back to England I’ll be happy for the moderate temperature where you don’t sweat within 5 minutes of walking out the door.
Some of us went to the beach the other day but sadly we had to swim in the sound because there were jelly fish everywhere in the gulf side. It was still fun though. We found tons of live sand dollars all in the ocean floor. We collected them in a frisbee filled with water so they wouldn’t die. I collected them with my toes. :)
On our front door we have a wreath with fake berries all over it. I think it looks quite nice and so do birds apparently because there is a family of birds living in it and they have 4 baby blue eggs waiting to be hatched. So when we open the door the birds fly like crazy. Normally they fly towards you when you open the door and you have to dodge the crazy psycho birds. Well this time when Betsy opened the door one of them flew into the house and we couldn’t get it out. The funniest part of this for me was watching my dad walking around with a broom in the air wearing shorts and no shirt chasing a bird trying to guide it to a door. 
Ahhh… good memories.
Every now and then…actually quite often my mind flicks to England and wonders what all my housemates are doing. I miss them and am excited about seeing them again. It’s strange when you live with people so intensely and then you get removed and you know that life is carrying on but you’re not there. At the moment I’m remembering to live in the present because it will never be this time again.
Now for those of you who are visually stimulated no worries. Pictures will be coming.
Filed under: My Life
So on Friday we threw an amazing children’s birthday party for our friend Nicole who turned 19!! We had been painting a Lady’s house all day and had random paint splotches all over us but nevertheless we dressed up in “costumes” as she had requested. (At first she wanted a bouncy castle but seeing as we’re missionaries we just laughed because we wouldn’t be able to pay even for half of one.) We all had an alias which we had to be called during the duration of the party. Jen was “Calamity Jen” the cowgirl. Nicole was “Tinker” the fairy. Jennifer was “Princess”. Dave was “Trash” (apparently Oscar the grouch from Big Bird is his best friend). Beth was “Dave”. Dan was “superwoman”. Anna was “Flower Pot” the hippie. And I was “Preggers” the pregnant lady. We had Jello and funfetti cake from America and played tons of kiddie games. We had 2 pinatas. One filled with sweets and candy and the other filled with egg and flour. It was really fun. I have some pcitures here from the evening.
Filed under: Ywam Newsletters
Hello Everyone!!
I can’t believe that it’s almost May. This past month has flown by for me. I have quite a lot to tell you.
Well nearly a month ago we went to Delden, Holland in our big 8 seater van to go to a YWAM Leadership consultation for Western Europe. We drove at midnight down south to a port city called Dover. We got there around 5 and watched the sunrise as we waited to board the ferry. The ferry ride was…well…let’s say uneventful. At first I was like “Whoa! We’re on a ferry!!” but then the exhaustion of not sleeping all night caught up with us and we all slept the whole way. When we arrived in France we drove our car off the ferry, took off our coats and put on our sunglasses. Sun! I had forgotten there was such a thing! We then proceeded to drive north to Holland. At this point we realized that the map we had didn’t actually have France on it. Just Belgium and Holland. We were in France. So we set off and I was giving directions by a mixture of random directions from google that didn’t make sense or have any roads that we recognized, a map that didn’t have France on it and my gut instinct. We had been driving for about 45 minutes and then we pulled over so we could make sure we were going in the right direction as everyone else thought that we were going in the wrong direction. I said “I still think we’re going in the right direction” and I proudly let you know that I was right. To be honest, I was surprised myself.
After the consultation we drove back down to France to get the ferry back to England and then off to Spring Harvest which is a week long Christian Family Festival. We worked with the 8-11’s. We were gone from York for about 3 weeks and those 3 weeks were a time of solidifying things about the future and working against human trafficking. One of the cool things that God has opened the door for is a stand that I am going to set up in the city center in York for a day that is raising awareness for Human Trafficking/the sex slave trade. There will be some flyers and stuff like that along with creative videos. My friend Dave is an artist and does installation art which is more interactive, 3d-ish sort of art. He’s going to make a piece about human trafficking and we’ll have it there too. We’ll be there to talk to people and stir it up in their hearts. Oh, another really cool thing is I am starting an awareness group with an organization called ‘Stop the Traffik’. I have lots of other ideas but there’s not enough space for me to write it all. God is still moving, revealing and birthing. The process of discovering this passion for justice and freedom that God’s given me to being in a place where God is using me in it has been and is still a beautiful one. God is so faithful.
So this is Amazing. I have been praying for more monthly support because I am barely making it with rent and such. Then one night I got really down because financial things seem so big and hard to get around. I guess I had forgotten that God is in control and is taking care of me. Anyways, it hit me one night that I would need money to pay for our 2 week mission trip to Amsterdam, money to go to China, and I had been wanting to go home in August but it was too expensive. Also my best friend’s wedding is in June in Atlanta (she did the DTS with me last year). She and her fiance had been saying that I should come but I was telling them I had no money to save to go. Well one night I was with my friends and they were saying that I should pray for it and I was a bit discouraged because it seemed that God hadn’t really been moving much lately in the financial area. I kinda half-heartedly prayed and carried on with what I was doing. The next day around 5 in the evening I got a text from a friend and I thought is said “I want to pray for you to go home to America in June.” I was like ok you can pray for me if you want. That’s strange that you asked if you could pray for me. You could have done it with out asking. Then I read it again just because I thought it was strange and realized that it said ‘pay for you to go’ not ‘pray for you to go’. I said “WHAT?! She surely missed out a letter!”. But sure enough she’s paying for me to come home in June for 2 weeks and I get to go to the wedding! She said she prayed about it and felt God wanted her to bless me. Thank you God. I felt He was saying to me that a daughter doesn’t only ask her Father for a few things because she thinks He won’t have much to give her. She askes for what her heart is longing for and believes He can give it to her. I need to do the same. That He has much. So so much and if I ask for little that’s what I’ll get. Ask big of God. So once again I can testify to the statement that God is Faithful. He takes care of your needs and wants.
Well I think that’s all I’ll do for now because this is getting quite long.
If you’d like to pray for me here are a couple of points:
That God will provide for my financial needs.
That the oppurtunites and open doors ahead of me will follow through to be good and helpful.
That God will surround me with friends and strengthen my relationships
That I will continue to grow deeper with God.
I love you all loads!
P.s. I think you Southerners will apperciate this. I cooked 2 very southern meals for my friends here. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy and then another time breakfast for dinner. Scrambled egg, sausage, biscuits and gravy. They are hooked on my southern biscuits now. Oh yes and they are oh so curious to know and experience grits. So I will be bringing some back for them.
So for those of you in America and particularly Florida I’ll see you in June!!! Can’t wait for those hugs!
These are some cool Human trafficking web sites. Check them out!
www.stopthetrafik.org
www.notforsalecampaign.org
www.thetruthisntsexy.com
Filed under: Ywam Newsletters
So I was thinking back over what happened this month when I began writing this newsletter and the event that first came to mind was Valentine’s Day. In the morning and afternoon we had lectures and things like that but we all rushed home so we could get ready for dinner. You see two of the guys in our house were making a special Valentine’s Dinner and we were all supposed to dress up. Also there is a Mormon church up the street and American Mormon guys fresh out of high school come over to be missionaries. (One day they came to our door and we’re trying to make friends with them. They said that when they’re at our house they can sense this warmth and joy. That I believe is God’s love they can sense.) Anyways we had invited them for this special Valentine’s Day dinner. So we all dressed up and sat at this beautifully decorated room and ate this amazing authentic Italian meal. (One of the guys who cooked is Italian). This picture is from that evening. We took a serious one and a silly one. In the serious one I am dying laughing. Not surprising, eh? J
