Brutal. Devastating.

I think we ought to only read the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy, as you write?...We would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
- Franz Kafka, as quoted in To Be Told by Dan Allender

I am thankful that over the past few years, several great books have been written about human slavery and human trafficking. The two books that I have read by Gary Haugen are great because they biblically lay out the reasons why we should be concerned about this great darkness. And Gary Haugen can be trusted as an author, because he faces this darkness every day, along with his organization International Justice Mission. The book I just finished called The Road Of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam is a great book, because we get to read first hand from an actual trafficked sex slave what it's like behind the curtain, what the darkness contains and who are the masters of this darkness.

However, the book I am reading right now - A Crime So Monstrous: Face-To-Face With Modern Day Slavery by Benjamin Skinner is in its own class of great. It's not better than the above mentioned books, it's "great" differently because it shows us the totality of the situation. Just like Haugen, Skinner presents reasons why we should be fighting modern-day slavery (although they aren't biblical reasons like Haugen's...scratch that, they actually are because he appeals to the goodness of humanity, and the Bible shows us that the ultimate good that a human can do is love God and love our neighbors). Like Somaly Mam, Skinner takes us into the darkness and shows us many of the layers of human slavery - the main three being sex slavery, forced bondage and war slavery.

Sex slavery is the one I've read the most about. It's where (mostly) girls, some as young as five years old, are sold into sex slavery. Sometimes the salespeople are these girls' own parents - to pay a debt off, to escape poverty, whatever the reasons, it's a harsh reality. Sometimes the salespeople are traffickers who have kidnapped girls from their homes or the streets, or perhaps they promise these girls a job in a restaurant. These girls are then sold to a brothel and forced to have sex with "clients" - several times a day. These girls are stripped of their decency, privacy, and ultimately of their humanity as they become commodities for their owners. Their stories are horrifying.

Forced bondage is another facet of slavery. Again, there are many facets of forced bondage. Sometimes a family has incurred a debt to a landowner - sometimes these debts have gone back for generations - and so these families are forced to work for the landowner, all day, doing backbreaking labor for nothing - to someday pay back the debt. Other times men, women and children are kidnapped by slave raiders and trafficked to another country or area of a country and are forced to work.

If you saw the prequel of this season's 24, then you witnessed another area of slavery - war slavery. This is where warlords and rebel fighters will kidnap boys - usually very young boys - and after a period of humiliation, brainwashing, and terror - force them to fight for their army.

Skinner's book is hard to read. It's devastating. Personally, I can only read a few pages before I have to put the book down and contemplate what I just read. It's like when you were a kid and you had to take gross tasting medicine - you knew it was good for you but it was hard to stomach.

The different types of slavery isn't the only way that Skinner gives the total package of slavery. He also shows how hard it is to really make a difference in this dark place. There are a whole lot of politics that get in the way of being able to do something. I've never been a big fan of the United Nations - but after reading about some of the futility of fighting the system in the U.N., my respect for that organization is nil. U.S. politics gets in the way as well, as Secretaries of State and other State department workers press for other issues that the U.S. should be more concerned about - like war and oil. And of course in some countries you are dealing with centuries old discrimination and disdain for rights.

The good thing is we serve a God who can change the hearts of world leaders, who can call a group of people to make a difference, who can work miraculously in any situation to heal hearts, shine light in darkness, and overthrow tyrannical agents of destruction. After all, his own people were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. He understands the plight of the slave. He hears the cry of the eight-year-old girl in a brothel in Cambodia, the cry of the twenty-year-old forced prostitute in Romania, the cry of the family born in the caste of "untouchables" working for the last forty years in a rock quarry to pay off a $30 debt, the cry of the ten year old boy in The Lord's Army in the Sudan, fighting for a cause he can't hope to understand or care about.

As Kafka in the above quote said, this is a book that will wound and stab you.

The Road Of Lost Innocence

Last week, I finished the book "The Road of Lost Innocence" by Somaly Mam. This book is basically the biography of Somaly Mam's life - she is a native Cambodian (she is a Phnong, which means she is a minority in her country, which is mostly made up of Khmer people) who was sold by a man she called grandfather (who was not related to her) to a brothel. Her story is extremely heartbreaking yet amazing because once she got out of the brothel, she decided she wanted to help those still in that dark situation. So she founded an organization and a foundation in order to rescue girls and women from brothels and provide a place for their rehabilitation and recovery.

She not only endured so much when she was in the brothel, her 14 year old daughter was captured years later and was brutalized. Thankfully she got her back, but I can't believe that she can still do what she does. Her story is a testament to the human spirit and will.

I am also halfway through another heartbreaking and hard-to-read book called "A Crime So Monstrous." I have a lot to say about this book, because it talks about slavery in all different ways. It's one of those books that you can only get through a few pages each time because the stories and the information are too hard to take. But there certainly is plenty to talk about. Let's just say it's a very eye-opening book because it goes into the politics behind modern-day slavery.

Being Called And Being Released

I've been thinking a lot about calling and what's next in my own life. I feel like I'm called to do something in fighting human trafficking - there have been so many signs, so many reminders, that there is no way they are coincidences. Yet I feel trapped because I can't figure out how to make my calling a reality. We moved from Colorado, where there are a ton of opportunities to get involved in organizations that are doing something about human trafficking, to Ohio, where there doesn't seem to be any. So then I start thinking that perhaps I need to be the one to start something. Which is exciting, but where does one start? And is this something I'm supposed to be doing as a career? As a "hobby?" And what does that entail?

Mark Batterson is a pastor who has planted theater churches around the Washington DC area. I love reading his blog, and today didn't disappoint (although the post was from a few days ago). This is what he has to say about being called and being released:

In light of yesterday's post, I thought I'd share one of my litmus tests when it comes to discerning the will of God. I think the will of God is like a double-lock. You need to feel called to something. That's the first lock. But you also need to feel released from where you are or what you're doing. That is the second lock.

Here's where it gets complicated. Feeling called to and released from don't always happen simultaneously. In fact, they rarely do! If you feel called to something, but don't feel released from where you are, then you need to stay put. And God will honor your faithfulness! Where it gets even tougher, emotionally and spiritually, is when you feel released from something, but you don't know what God wants you to do next. It's like spiritual no-man's land. And that is when you need the courage to take a step of faith.

I remember reading a story about Peter Marshall, former chaplain to the U.S. Senate in the 1940's, before he moved to DC to assume the pastorate of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. He was approached by their search committee and asked to serve as their pastor. It was the opportunity of a lifetime. And he felt called. But he didn't feel released from he was. So he said "no."

This is an excerpt from the letter he sent to the chairman of the search committee.

While realizing that no man's work is ever finished, I am persuaded that there yet remains much work which I am to do at Westminster [the church he pastored in Atlanta]. I could not conscientiously say that I have done all that I could have done here.

I feel furthermore, that I am not yet ready for the responsibilities and the dignities which would be mine as minister of the New York Avenue Church. I am too young, too immature, too lacking in scholarship, experience, wisdom, and ability for such a high position.

God has not yet indicated that I am to leave here. I am aware, and keenly conscious of the call to Washington, but not, as yet, of any call away from Atlanta.

For the record, the search committee couldn't find a better candidate so they doubled-back eleven months later. At that time, Peter Marshall felt released from his current pastorate. He not only served at New York Avenue, but it opened the door to become chaplain to the U.S. Senate.

Peter Marshall once said, "a call of God is a two-sided call--there is a call 'to' a work, and there is a call 'from' the present work."

I guess I feel like I've been called to something - human trafficking, and that I've been released from something - the church I helped plant in Colorado. However, what is the next step?

IJM Meeting At Apex

This past Thursday night, thanks to Rochelle, who told me about it, I had the opportunity to hear a former International Justice Mission intern talk about IJM and show a video. I had seen part of the video that he showed, but it still was very impacting.

I thought Blake did a good job, especially considering he had an accident and had several teeth knocked out. I made some contacts with some people there, and hopefully we can start something up!

Here is a short video about IJM and what they face.

National Day Of Human Trafficking Awareness - This Sunday

Argh, I wish I was a worship minister right now - I could be planning an incredible day to raise awareness for human trafficking.

Maybe next year.

Anyway, this Sunday, January 11th, is the National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness. I found out about it from Kathy at Love146, and I checked out a bunch of resources from the American Baptist Women's Ministries web page.

This website gives several ideas for songs, readings and more for Sunday morning, and my hope and prayer is that there are churches here in Ohio who are going to at least do something in their service for this. (Kyle - the church you're at is an American Baptist Church, I hope you guys are doing something!)

I really liked this prayer of justice found on that site:

Prayer for Justice
We are the church.
We offer ourselves to you, O God, our Creator.

We offer our hands.
May we use them to extend a healing touch to comfort sisters and brothers and children, youth, and elderly who are afraid.

We offer our eyes and ears.
May we see and hear the signs and stories of violence so that all may have someone with them in their pain and confusion.

We offer our hearts and our tears.
May the hurt and sorrow of the abused echo within us.

We offer our own stories of violence.
May we be healed as we embrace each other.

We offer our anger.
Make it a passion for justice.

We offer all our skills.
Use our gifts to end violence.

We offer our faith, our hope, our love.
May our encounters with violence bring us closer to you
and to each other.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ who knows the pain of violence.
Amen.

--

There are also Bible Studies, a calendar to guide one through a year of learning about human trafficking, and more.

Whoa...

Okay, so I learned two things today based on this news article concerning human trafficking in Ohio.

1) Some of Ohio's lawmakers are concerned about this issue, since Ted Strickland signed a bill that would allow human traffickers to go to prison;

2) Human trafficking is a HUGE problem in Ohio. According to the article, Toledo is one of the biggest human trafficking cities in the nation.

Whoa, indeed.

Somaly Mam - The Road Of Lost Innocence

For Christmas, I received a Borders gift card - which is awesome - so I decided to go the other day and look for a couple of books about human trafficking.

They didn't have much.

But they did have the book by Somaly Mam, called The Road Of Lost Innocence. I'm sure that this is going to be a heartwrenching story, since Somaly Mam was kidnapped, trafficked, and sold to a brothel. She escaped and now is dedicated to rescue girls who are where she once was.

Her story was told anew this week by Nicholas Kristoff in his opinion column for the New York Times. Kristoff not has written about human trafficking, he did something about it by purchasing two women from the brothels in order to set them free. He was interviewed in the movie Call+Response, and he's fast becoming my favorite journalist.

The other book I was looking for is by another journalist, named Benjamin Skinner. His book, A Crime So Monstrous, came out this past year - I went to the University of Denver right before I left in order to go to a book signing and lecture by Mr. Skinner, but I couldn't find the place.

Hopefully borders.com will have his book - gonna go check now!

Call+Response: #11 on Paste Magazine's Best Movies of 2008!

I haven't seen very many movies on Paste Magazine's list, but I was excited to see Call+Response at #11. Here's what Paste says about the movie:

11. Call+Response [Justin Dillon]
Music from Matisyahu, Talib Kweli and Cold War Kids—along with the poetic musings of Dr. Cornel West—keeps this documentary about the estimated 27 million people living in slavery from leaving you paralyzed with depression. Dillon has created what may be the year’s most important film.

Disturbing News About Ohio

From the Columbus Dispatch, September 8, 2008:

If human trafficking were the offense in an Ohio case, filing a federal charge under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act would be the only option. Ohio does not have a human-trafficking law. At least 40 other states do, Lawson said. "Here, it's never made it out of committee."

Well, at least I can add that to my mission - to get Ohio residents motivated to encourage their lawmakers to pass a human-trafficking law.

Call+Response Quote

I was looking for a graphic on my computer, when I came across the one above. It reminded me of the movie Call+Response, which came to Ohio in November. The quote above came from the movie, and it made me curious about who this Cornel West guy is, because it was fascinating listening to him talk in the movie.

If you want more information on Cornel West, there's always good ol' Wikipedia.

And below is a short clip of Cornel West talking about the difference between the historical Jesus, and the Constantinian Jesus. Interesting.



EDIT: And in this trailer for the movie, you can see for yourself when Cornel West gives the above quote.