Child Trafficking in Ghana

In Ghana, approximately 7,000 kids are being trafficked to work for fishermen on Lake Volta.  Children as young as 5 years old.  Mercy Project is working to find long-term, sustainable solutions that equip the Ghanaians to find other means of making a living. They are set to rescue a group of children this fall.  The video below is a short documentary about what Mercy Project is doing.

It breaks my heart to see these beautiful children away from their families, forced into slavery, with no childhood, no schooling, and no way out.  Please pray for the kids and for groups like Mercy Project to be successful in bringing a new way of life to Ghana.  Here is their Website if you want to learn more.  http://mercyproject.net/

Conscious spending

As you can tell, the human exploitation problem in this world is something that God has been impressing on both of our hearts.  But it is such a big, scary problem that it is overwhelming!  How can one, insignificant girl like me make any difference?

One thing that we have been convicted about is how we spend our money.  It turns out that a lot of common, mainstream brands are owned by big companies who are not socially responsible.  They sell cheap clothes because they buy their products from sweatshops in India.  They sell cheap food because they don't even pay minimum wage to their harvesters.  It makes sense if you really think about it, though up to this point, I never had.

When I first started thinking about changing what companies I buy from, I got all defensive.  First of all, how am I ever going to know how companies operate?  I still struggle with that.  Second of all, how is it my problem?  I mean, I'm not directly sending money to the owner of the sweatshop, or the guy that forces people to pick coffee beans all day for no pay.  Right?

It all came down to fear and selfishness. I was afraid that if I started looking into this issue, that I would have to stop buying some things that I like buying.  And I didn't want to do that.  I like my options and my comfort.  So I kept pushing it out of my mind. 

After a while I knew that justifying myself to God just wasn't going to work anymore.  So with hesitancy, I bought some books.  And I was right: I am going to have to stop buying some things that I like.  But now that I am informed about what my money is going to support, I can't ignore it.

So we have been slowly changing our spending habits.  And I do mean slowly.  It is overwhelming, y'all.  So I am just taking it one step at a time and asking God for wisdom.

For example, I bought Revlon mascara instead of CoverGirl mascara, because CoverGirl is owned by Proctor and Gamble, a company that has been known to source from sweatshops.

I bought Newman's Own salad dressing instead of Kraft.

But then I bought a whole bunch of other stuff that I have no idea about.  I doubt that we will ever get to the point where everything we spend money on is guaranteed to not hurt anyone down the line.  There's not a whole lot of information, and there is a whole lot of corruption and greed out there.  It is probably not possible to buy everything we need without supporting something bad inadvertently.  And some of the alternatives to the "really bad" companies are not 100% shiny and clean themselves.

But at least I am working towards it.  At least I know that those $8 for mascara went toward a company that (to my knowledge) is not exploiting people.

Here are some resources that have really helped me out.

The Better World Shopping Guide is a nifty little booklet that rates companies in all kinds of product categories.  If you want a quick, easy reference tool, this is a good one.  What I don't like about it is that while they rate the companies based on 5 different categories, they don't tell you why the companies received their grade.  You know it's one or all of the 5 categories, but not which one.  They seem to have a lot of research behind their analysis, but they don't share it with you.

This Responsible Shopper website goes more into depth about each company, siting complaints that have been filed against them and what they are known for.  However, it is not as comprehensive.

If I find anymore, I will post them.

Free the Captives conference

On Saturday, we went to the Free the Captives conference in Houston.  It was really neat to see a group of people come together specifically to learn more about social justice.  There were some really great topics including personal stories from two women who were exploited in this country, and an FBI agent who worked these kinds of cases here in Houston.  We heard from an organization called Redeemed Ministries that works with the victims of human trafficking in Houston. 

On their website is an eye-opening video about how prevalent human exploitation is in this city.  It really hit home for me when a man from Spring was talking about how he took his kids to their local barbershop and ended up stumbling on a massage parlor right next door in the strip center.

The video is here.

I signed up for more information about a group that ministers to girls on probation from the juvenile detention center, most of whom have been exploited and abused in their lives.

I don't know where God is going to take me on this journey.  But I do know that now my eyes are open and I can no longer go back to where I was.

This chapter of Isaiah 58 has been speaking to my heart lately.  (I know it's long, but it's so good!  Worth reading all the way through.)

¹ “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
   Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
   and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
   they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
   and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
   and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
   ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
   and you have not noticed?’
   “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
   only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
   and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?
 ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
   “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
   he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
   and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
   like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
   and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
   Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
 ¹³ “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
   and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
   and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
   and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the LORD,
   and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
   and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
            For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Wow.  Last year, before I learned about human trafficking and before I went through the Radical study by David Platt, I read through Isaiah.  I read this chapter and this is what I took from it:

God doesn't want us to pretend to be seeking after Him and yet living our lives just as we please.

That is true but there is so much more to that chapter that I completely skimmed over.  The passage goes on to describe that true spiritual discipline includes

loosing the chains of injustice

spending yourself on behalf of the hungry

clothing the naked

sheltering the wanderer

Do I do any of those things?  No.  I am no better than the Israelites, fasting and praying for God to hear them, all the while living as they pleased and ignoring the plight of the needy.

I am so grateful that God doesn't give up on His children and is constantly working in my heart to open my eyes and draw me closer to Him.

Isn't the Bible neat?  It is truly alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword, and I love how you can pass over a passage one time and then it jumps off the page at you the next!

Awareness

Warning: this post contains PG-13 topics.

Human trafficking.  What does that even mean? Where is it done?  How big of a problem is it? I had no idea until recently.

There are between 12 and 27 million people, most of the women and children, enslaved in the world today. In Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army raids villages and forces children to become brutal soldiers and concubines at young ages.  In Thailand and India, kids and women are forced into hard labor with little food and water and no way out.  In Europe, poor women are lured into sexual slavery with the false promise of good jobs in other countries.  In Peru, children are living on the street and often get kidnapped and forced into brothels.

What hit home the most is that this problem is not only overseas, it is in our own country too.  About 18,000 foreigners are trafficked into America each year to be forced laborers or work in brothels. Even American citizens, usually young and vulnerable, are kidnapped or lured into forced labor or sexual slavery with threats of violence and tight security measures to make sure they can't leave.  An estimated 200,000 American children are at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year.

In fact, Houston is one of the major human-trafficking hubs in the U.S. According to Houston Rescue and Restore, 25% of all human trafficking victims certified in the U.S. were in Texas and the majority of that was in Houston.

Go here to read an article on Houston's hidden problem.

Go here to read a shocking, eye-opening story about the "lost girls" of Houston.

If you're like me, you are reading this with your jaw dropped right now.  How could I live here my whole life and never hear about this?!

I thought slavery was abolished.  William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King Jr., and all the other abolitionists got rid of it, right?

There are more people enslaved in the world today than there were at the height of the civil rights movement.  The difference is that now it is in the black market and not widely seen.

I am shocked and appalled.

And I have to be honest here, a while back I heard on the news that police had busted a ring of brothels in Houston, and my first thought was "we have brothels in Houston?"  My second thought was "I'm glad those horrible women got caught."

It never entered my mind that they might actually be there against their will.

As soon as I began hearing about this, I ordered some books about it.  I would recommend reading:

Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone

Zealous Love: A Practical Guide to Social Justice by Mike and Danae Yankoski

We are attending the Free The Captives Houston Anti-Trafficking Conference on February 26.  And I am excited!  From the website, "You will learn about local and global human trafficking and discover practical ways to combat this injustice."

Also if you are like me, you might delay reading up on this stuff for a while.  I didn't want to learn about it because I knew it would change things up in my life and I didn't want that.  It seemed so overwhelming, so why even try?

But eventually, I couldn't ignore it anymore.  God was working in my heart until I finally said "ok, fine!  I'll read about it."  And I was right.  Now that I know about it, I can't sit by and ignore the problem.  But God prepared me so that I no longer want to ignore it! 

I may not start my own non-profit company dedicated to human trafficking victims, but I can help starting out small.  For me that means praying for those in bondage around the world, spending money responsibly on fair trade items (more about that later), and writing what I am learning here.

Awareness is the first step.

May God open my eyes to those hurting around me and convict my heart so that I cannot ignore them.  And may He give me the courage and strength to do something about it.