Sunday, December 28, 2008

Yahoo News Article On Child Trafficking


Here is an interesting story from Yahoo! about the increasing child trafficking and slavery in America. There are so many facets of the child trafficking and slavery problem, and here Yahoo addresses children trafficked into the U.S. to be "unpaid maids" (read slaves) for wealthy foreigners who are used to having child slaves in their households.

Thankfully here in the U.S. there are more and more arrests and more crackdown - but in other parts of the world it's accepted as normal life. The picture above is of the girl who is featured in the article.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Love146 Video Blog - Silent Night

I thought it was interesting that Rob brought up O Holy Night and the same verse that hit me this year when I heard the song.

In this video, he talks about O Holy Night, as well as an update on the Pink House/Round House safehome for girls in the Philippines.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

William Wilberforce Law Passes!

I got this information from another blog:

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President-elect Obama is filling up his cabinet, President Bush is now considered a lame duck, and incoming members of Congress already know which offices they’ll soon occupy. But this Congress is still expected to return to work next week, and it ought to give consideration to that which is achievable and matters most.

The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act (H.R. 3887) is one such bill that merits attention. The act’s beneficiaries deserve freedom—the untold millions of men, women, boys, and girls around the world, thousands of them here in the United States, who are trafficked and trapped in an industry of forced labor or sex servitude. Its malefactors deserve punishment under the force of the law—the pimps and traffickers who enslave their victims and beat them to a pulp for any hint of insubordination. This modern-day slavery demands a response.

As we have recently reported, the Wilberforce Act breezed through the House one year ago with only two dissenters, and has since been bottled up in the Senate Judiciary Committee. But we have made progress on it. The Senate is now talking to the House Judiciary Committee on language that they would prefer. The bill is very close to being passed. Language differences Senate negotiators are holding out for will make it more difficult to end the modern day slave trade occurring right here in our own nation. The House-passed bill, H.R. 3887, has the right approach to the problem. Countless lives could be liberated under this bill.

The Wilberforce Act takes particular aim at the savage sex slavery that has reached our shores and crossed our borders. Many victims are lured by the promise of a job as a waitress or maid, only to realize too late that they’ve bought into a lie. Their lives are shattered and their hopes snatched away. Routine beatings and threats of harm to their families to keep them submissive are standard fare in this so-called “business,” as their purveyors seek to satisfy their lust and greed. The Wilberforce Act has the real potential to choke this vice and rescue thousands of women and girls from the slavery in our own backyard.

One means is allowing the Justice Department to prosecute pimps and traffickers in the states. Currently, federal law enforcement can only get involved if a pimp is prostituting an underage girl or he brings a woman across state lines for sexual purposes. It has become increasingly clear that states simply do not have the resources to address the trafficking industry.

The Wilberforce Act would be a gift of justice and of mercy this Christmas season. Those who are entrapped in this horrifying industry can ill afford for Congress to wait another year. Congress should end its squabbling and act.

If you agree, please contact your congressman and senators immediately to insist that Congress agree upon the William Wilberforce Act (H.R. 3887) before adjourning for the year.

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I'm happy to report that the William Wilberforce Act did pass last night, December 10th, at 6:00 p.m. We are now one step closer to abolition in this country. Praise God!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Football vs. Survival

I appreciate what The Luxury Fund is doing: trying to raise money each month for four organizations doing good in the world. Every month, you can find an interesting statistic about our culture - usually a very sobering statistic.

This month's statistic is about the SEC Championship football game taking place this week. Here's what the blog has to say:

This weekend Atlanta will host the 17th annual SEC Championship game in the Georgia Dome. I know it's a big day for a lot of people. #1 ranked Alabama fans and #2 ranked Florida fans can hardly stand the anticipation of the game this weekend. In light of this weekends focus on the big game, I thought I'd throw out some numbers for you (you know I like like throwing numbers out there).

Let's talk money.

Nick Saben coaches Alabama for an annual salary of $4 Million.

Urban Meyer coaches Florida for an annual salary of $3.25 Million.

Ticket prices (as of today) online are between $400 and $800 each and The Georgia Dome seats 71250 people.

A cup of beer at the Georgia Dome is $7.50

A bottle of water at the Georgia Dome is $2.50

I have no idea how to calculate fuel, lodging, food and miscellaneous spending for the 71,250 who will be in attendance, but I'm guessing it's ridiculous!

Now for even more sobering numbers

During the 3 hour duration of the game:

360 Children will be trafficked for sexual exploitation.

465 Children will die from lack of clean water.

2165 Children will die from lack of food.


I don't want to ruin your game weekend, but I would like you to consider the excess money that goes into recreation will so many around the world are suffering and dying every day.

Every little bit helps!! Can you give $1, $5, $10?

I promise there will be some very grateful people!

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Our priorities in our culture today are definitely backwards. My prayer is that we can shift those priorities to what really matters. I've never understood why our country pays those who educate our children so little and pays someone who can throw a baseball 90 mph so much.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

O Holy Night

I love Christmas and Christmas music.

I haven't been able to say that the last seven years, however.

I'm sure it's because I've been doing worship ministry for the last seven years, and for a worship minister who leads worship in a modern rock-style (read: can't read music), it's a stressful time of the year. Trying to take these amazing Christmas hymns and songs and converting them into a format that isn't so traditional - and I know that some people like going back to traditional Christmas services, but the churches I was at, that's not what we were about - is hard work. It's demanding. And it's, let's be honest, humbling. I think one reason I haven't been excited at Christmas is because doing Christmas songs really separates those who know music from those who don't. And every year, I was on the "don't know music" side. Yeah, I'd always get encouraging comments, and I think that some of the arrangements that we did of certain songs were pretty cool and different, but it was the one time of the year where I felt I was back at school where the gifted and the "challenged" were separated from the normal kids - and in this case, I was in the challenged room.

But this year, since I have no worship ministry responsibilities, hearing Christmas music without thinking "Oh crap, how am I going to change that into a song that our worship band can do" is rather refreshing.

What in the world are you talking about Adam?

Well, here in the Dayton, OH area, there is a radio station that I think started playing Christmas music in August. Well, maybe not that far back, but close. I don't know if they're competing with another station to see who could be the first one to audaciously start playing Christmas music - kind of like back in Colorado, you had these two ski areas, Breckenridge and Loveland who were always trying to be the first one to open up their ski area - but it's awfully early. And I've been loving every minute of it.

My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night. I love the melody of it, I love the words, and even though Celine Dion sang it on her Christmas CD, I still love the song. It's even written by a guy whose last name is Adam. Hah! However, in most versions of this song, you only hear the first verse. The other day I was listening to that radio station, and they played a version that had the second verse (actually, according to Wikipedia, it's the third verse. Hmmm.). And it captivated me. This is what that verse says:

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.

Wow. What a thought during this Christmas season. As God has given me this passion to free child slaves and stop child trafficking, this little glimmer of hope in the midst of my favorite Christmas carol is amazing. Isn't that what Christmas is all about? That Immanuel, "God With Us" came near to break our chains of sin - so that we might do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him - by helping cease oppression and by helping our brothers and sisters who are enslaved?

I will never be able to hear this song again without being reminded of what God wants for all of us. Freedom.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Love146's Craigslist Campaign Successful!

I'm excited to find out through the Love146 Blog that their Craigslist Campaign has worked!

From the Love146 Blog:

If you have been involved in Love146, you will remember our Campaign to end trafficking on Craigslist. It has been a long road, and so many of you have been involved. Out of our efforts a coalition was formed to combat human trafficking on the Internet (End Internet Trafficking Coalition: ). We received some good news today. Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, has been working with Attorneys General throughout the country, law enforcement, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Craigslist will be working together to fight predators, which includes verifying phone numbers, and charging the "erotic services" category. 100% of profits from this will be contributed to charity. An external accounting firm will be retained to track the details. Craigslist will not profit from this.

That is very good news!

ABC News reported about this momentous occasion here.

You can hear it from the horse's mouth (craigslist) here.

Great job Love146 and all those who helped out with this campaign.

Re:Light Campaign Store

I'm really excited about what's coming up - I'm designing an online store with shirts and other merchandise. Once it is setup, you will have the opportunity to buy "stop traffick" merchandise. Half of the proceeds will go towards the Cambodia 2009 missions trip that the student ministry of Life Church will be going on; the other half will go to support Love146.

Be on the lookout, the store will be open soon!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Interesting Tidbit...

From the Call+Response facebook page:

"Here’s another fascinating connection between slavery and “call and response.” Many American slaves used the call and response pattern so often when singing from the hymn book by Dr. Isaac Watts (the man who gave us When I Survey the Wondrous Cross) that Dr. Watts’s name became synonymous with “call and response.” Well, it was Dr. Watts who urged a man named Phillip Dodderidge to write and publish his book entitled, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. And it was this book that sparked the conversion of none other than William Wilberforce, the man who abolished the British slave trade."

Who knows what our actions will cause other people to do? It's amazing how many spiritual movements have happened in the world because of a few small actions that were the spark for another larger action which then sparked a large movement or revival.

My prayer is that this would happen with the anti-human trafficking movement.

Matisyahu - Redemption Song

In the movie Call + Response, Matisyahu does an incredible cover of Bob Marley's song "Redemption Song". I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD, I'm hoping to schedule a showing in Ohio at some point.

Anyway, spinner.com put out the Matisyahu video for Redemption Song. In the video, you can also some of the other artists who are featured in the movie: Natasha Bedingfield, Imogen Heap, Moby, Cold War Kids, and more, as well as Ashley Judd, Cornel West, Julia Ormond, and others. Here is the video.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Imagine...

This is a great video done by Love146. They showed this at the Ten Shekel Shirt concert I went to.

Monday, November 3, 2008

The Justice Mission

International Justice Mission and Youth Specialties have combined to put together a pretty cool student ministry curriculum. As the website states, "In The Justice Mission you and your youth group will discover:

How injustice works (and what they can do about it.)
How much God hates injustice (and how to hate what God hates.)
How to answer God's call to fight injustice (beginning where you are.)
How to trust God's resources (doing God's work, God's way.)"

There are five sessions in the curriculum. This is a good way to introduce students to the problems of injustice in the world. My prayer is that a revival will happen among the students in our churches, a revival that will spur them on to make a difference in their world by fighting injustice in the world.

As for what justice is, Cornel West in the movie Call + Response gives my favorite definition of justice: "JUSTICE is love out in public!"

The website for The Justice Mission can be found here.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Radiohead's Video For "All I Need"

Radiohead is one of my favorite bands, and their video from their song "All I Need" fits well within this blog. They produced a video of two parallel stories running, one of a little boy in the West and one of a little boy in a sweatshop in the East, and the boy in the West ends up buying the shoes from the sweatshop.

Here's a quote about the video from Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead:

"I think it's important for everyone in the West or on High Street to understand the consequences of our economic activity. You must be aware of the level of exploitation that's going on, It's part of our Western life, and one we should accept responsibility for. There's no such thing as a free lunch or a free ticket to another country."

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Ten Shekel Shirt

I remember when Ten Shekel Shirt came out with their first CD, Much. I thought it was an amazing collection of worship songs that were, too me, more personal than some of the other worship CDs that were coming out at the time. Songs like "Unashamed Love", "Healer", and "Peace" were so intimate, so intensely personal, that Much became my favorite "personal worship" CD that I would put in during my time with God. We ended up in my first youth ministry in Colorado doing "Meet With Me" and "Healer" regularly in our student worship times. When I lived in Dallas, we went to a Ten Shekel Shirt/Waterdeep concert at The Door down in Deep Ellum, and it was an amazing show.

Later on, when my daughter was born and we celebrated her first birthday, I surprised my wife with a DVD of pictures of her first year. The song I put with the slideshow? House of Memories off of Much by Ten Shekel Shirt. And actually that song has had a lot of meaning to me right now, considering that for half of this year I have been without my family due to sacrifices that we made in order to help plant a church in Colorado.

I had wondered after the release of Risk, Ten Shekel Shirt's second CD, what happened to the band, since they seemed to disappear. I decided to google Lamont's name (the singer of Ten Shekel Shirt), and found out that he had helped start an organization called Love146. This was my first contact with Love146, and now it has become my favorite organization fighting human trafficking and child slavery. THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES! The fact that I was already getting involved in the cause of fighting trafficking and then finding out that the Ten Shekel Shirt leader was also involved in the fight was an amazing thing.

This past month, Ten Shekel Shirt put out their third CD, called Jubilee. These songs were written over the last four years as Lamont worked with Love146 and helped lead it to where it is today. They are all songs that deal with the issue of human trafficking. I had the privilege of going to a benefit concert on Sunday night, and saw them in concert and got to pick up the CD. The money collected for the concert went to Love146 and a local organization called iempathize. I would encourage you to pick up this CD, it is great and powerful and very moving.

Here is a video about Ten Shekel Shirt.

Monday, October 27, 2008

A Heroine From The Brothels


Here is a fascinating op-ed piece by Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times about an incredible woman who is fighting in the war against human trafficking.

Two amazing things:

1) The woman's name is Somaly Mam, and she can sympathize with the victims of human trafficking because she was a victim herself. Somaly is from Cambodia, and one time when she would not back down from rescuing women in brothels, some brothel owners kidnapped her 14 year old daughter and brutalized her.

2) Kristoff was also featured in the movie Call And Response, a documentary about human trafficking that weaves stories and interviews with incredible music. Kristoff bought two slaves with his own money while out in Southeast Asia finding out more about this problem. One woman returned back to her life in the brothel, but the other woman stayed away.

Somaly's website can be found here. You can see an interview with Somaly Mam at on the left hand side of the op-ed piece above.

To see a trailer of the great movie Call + Response, you can go here.

HTAC Conference, Part One


On Saturday, I attended the Human Trafficking Awareness Conference at Greenwood Community Church in Greenwood Village, CO. I forgot how amazing the houses are in that area, holy cow!

Anyway, a brief synopsis and then I'll give you some notes I took from the three morning speakers. I am so glad I went to this conference. Not only did it renew and increase my passion for this cause, but it actually helped restore some of my faith in the people of God. I have been very cynical lately as I look at the church's purpose in this world. I feel like too often the Church fights over issues that are stupid, small and unimportant and too often fails to be the people of God in the world. If Christianity has 2 billion adherents, don't you think that 1/3 of the population of the world could be a little better about changing the world? Instead we fight over the color of carpet in the sanctuary or staff salaries or whether we should build a 10 million or 20 million dollar building. I am pretty battle scarred due to the churches I've been in the past fifteen years, and I was beginning to turn away from the idea of the church being the hope of the world. This conference helped at least for now to stem the growing tide within me to just leave the church behind.

The other main thing I took out of this conference is that I am on the right path. Fighting Human Trafficking and Slavery is my passion, my main goal, my "one thing" with God. I'm not sure when I get to Ohio if I'll be able to be paid for my passion, but my hope is that I can find somewhere to plug in and make a difference. I made contacts with several people at the conference, and although the focus was on what we can do in Colorado to combat human trafficking, I was also encouraged by other people's passions and skills to make a difference.

In the morning, there were three keynote speakers: Larry Martin from International Justice Mission, who spoke on human trafficking from an international perspective; Bradley Myles of The Polaris Project, who spoke from a national perspective; and Seth Donovan, who spoke from a local perspective.

Here are my notes from Larry's speech:

- "Approximately 27 million people are enslaved today": National Geographic

- Southeast Asia is the "capital" of trafficking.

- Nearly 2 million children are exploited in the commercial sex trade. (UNICEF)

- What are the factors in trafficking? (1) the huge population explosion over the last thirty years; (2) rapid social and economic change around the world (which includes the fact that the price of slaves has gone down considerably); (3) government corruption (in the rest of the world, the number one deterrent to livelihood is the police).

- The differences between the old slavery (slaves from Africa for 300 years) and the new slavery (present day):
- O.S.: legal claim to slaves, N.S.: no legal claim.
- O.S.: slavery was expensive ($300 now); N.S.: slavery is cheap ($85)
- O.S.: shortage of available slaves; N.S.: surplus of available slaves
- O.S.: slavery was a long-term proposition (because they were so expensive, needed to maintain); N.S.: slavery is short-term (they're expendable because they're cheap)
- O.S.: ethnic differences were important (white slave owners, black slaves); N.S.: no delineation of ethnic differences (thai slave owners, thai slaves)

- International Justice Mission is a collection of human rights investigators.

- Injustice - the abuse of power to take from others. 2 factors are included: (1) coercion; (2) deception

- IJM investigators look for the truth and investigate to expose the truth; IJM lawyers figure out if there is enough to convict, and then "speaks truth to power."

- IJM's four-fold purpose: (1) Victim rescue; (2) Victim aftercare; (3) Perpetrator Accountability; (4) Prevention (through training international police)

Here are my notes from Bradley's speech:

- In 2000, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which is a law that criminalized trafficking of persons.

- 1st Purpose of Polaris Project: Public Awareness (through books, movies, media)
- Books: Not For Sale, Ending Slavery, A Crime So Monstrous
- Movies: TRADE, Holly, Carissa Project, Call+Response, Very Young Girls, Playground Project, Not My Life, Slave Next Door

- still needed: increased public awareness; harness and leverage media; deal with issues glorifying pimping.

- 2nd Purpose: Law And Policy
- 39 states have passed Anti-Trafficking Laws in the past six years.
- still needed: lots of laws still need to be updated (pimping laws were passed ninety years ago)

- 3rd Purpose: Immediate Help For Victims
- established a National Hotline for Victims of Trafficking
- still needed: hotlines need more publicity; increased call volumes for hotlines, more coordination among hotlines

- 4th Purpose: Victim Services
- Working with the Department of Justice
- a few states have started up funded victim services
- still needed: increased services for both U.S. and non-U.S. victims; new state and local funding

- 5th Purpose: Shelter for Victims

- 6th Purpose: Law Enforcement

(he started going really fast during this part because his time was almost up)

And about here my notes make no sense, because I was writing too fast. However, a cool thing did happen during his speech: he talked about how Lexis Nexis, a corporation right down the street from my house, is doing some amazing things to help combat human trafficking. I talked to him about it afterwards, and he gave me a couple of names of Lexis Nexis executives who are in charge of that program.

Here are my notes from Seth's speech (the first girl I've ever known to be named Seth)

- Colorado has huge trafficking problems, with the I-25 and I-70 interstates connecting right in the middle of Denver. Plus there are migrant farm workers, mountain communities etc. where we find trafficking problems

- one third of the 1200 homeless youth in Denver have been propositioned for sexual exploitation.

- human trafficking doesn't exist in a box: racial injustice is still prevalent today, people are still viewed as commodities, and slavery is foundational to the U.S. economy.

- Human trafficking will not be abolished until the demand is gone:
- Until the U.S. gives up the demand to have cheap stuff, there will still be millions of slaves working for no pay to produce the cheap things we consume.
- Until there is no demand for sex with young kids, there will still be millions of slaves providing for that need.

- When our values come into conflict with our checkbooks, there will be a change.

These were some amazing sessions. Next post will be about the rest of the day.

Welcome To My New Blog!


This is the place where I will be posting news items, links, and my own thoughts about human trafficking. I believe that we can change the world if each of us as Christians would ask God to put a need on our hearts and then ask Him to show us what to do about that need.

As Frederick Buechner once wrote, "Vocation is where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need."

Hopefully this can be a place where you can be challenged and encouraged to take a stand against human trafficking. I would love this to be a place of interaction, brainstorming, and sharing ideas of how to make a difference, by relighting candles in the very dark places of our world where human trafficking exists.