Great Song for the Start of Lent

I stumbled upon this song when chasing down a song I heard on the radio called "These Hands." The lyrics and vocalist impressed me so much, I ran to my computer to find out what I could about the artist. Her name is JJ Heller, and she is produced on an independent label. Part of a press release highlights why hearing this song on the radio startled me.

"It's a rare moment when a song that is so instrumentally raw, simple and slow-tempo can blow up at radio,” says Ingle, “but the emotion and vulnerability of JJ's voice presents a 'real-life' quality that instantly resonates with listeners. Stations spinning the single cross-country are already getting calls from listeners saying, 'I don't know who that was, but it was the perfect song at the perfect time for me.'”

When I searched the song on youTube, I came across "Only Love Remains." Perfect song for Lent.  See the lyrics below the video.

For the raw church recording view this:

Only Love Remains

BY JJ AND DAVE HELLER

Scenes of you come rushing through
You are breaking me down
So break me into pieces
That will grow in the ground
I know that I deserve to die
For the murder in my heart
So be gentle with me Jesus
As you tear me apart

Please kill the liar
Kill the thief in me
You know that I am tired of their cruelty
Breathe into my spirit
Breathe into my veins
Until only love remains

You burn away the ropes that bind
And hold me to the earth
The fire only leaves behind whatever is of worth
I begin to see reality
For the first time in my life
I know that I’m a shadow
But I’m dancing in your light

Teach me to be humble
Call me from the grave
Show me how to walk with you upon the waves
Breathe into my spirit
Breathe into my veins
Until only love remains

To visit JJ's website go here   JJHeller.com

 Oh -- and how does this song get onto a website dealing with slavery?

We are all slaves in one way or another, to sin, to ourselves. And Jesus came to set the captives free. That is why we work to free others.

Another wonderful song of JJ's that has gotten a good bit of radio play in our area is "Your Hands."

Child Rescued on the Eve of Rape Initiation

From The International Justice Missions: 

MUMBAI - On the night she was supposed to be raped for the first time, young sex trafficking victim Lona*was plucked from the brink of initiation into a life of forced prostitution by police officials working with International Justice Mission in Mumbai.

Police rescued the child from the exploitative grip of a Mumbai husband-and-wife couple whoThis is not the girl in this story, but from a video I will post. IJM contacted me concerned because "Indian law forbids the publication of images of victims of sex crimes without their expressed consent." It woiuld not be right to give the impression IJM photographed a victim without her consent. had allegedly purchased Lona from a relative in West Bengal for a paltry 1500 rupees—less than $35 US. They intended to exploit the girl’s virginity for a sum of 30,000 rupees, and then sell her to a dance bar or brothel

The girl was only thirteen years old, her age confirmed through an age verification test at a local hospital. She has been placed in an after care with other young girls who came from similar situations.

Read the rest here.

Ronald McRipper Attacks Fundraising Teen

I’m irked. Or as one friend corrected me, McIrked.

Three years ago, 16-year-old Lauren McClusky and a friend who also sported a Mc-surname came up with a plan to raise money for the Chicago area Special Olympics. They pulled together a group of high school and college bands to perform in a festival they dubbed McFest, as a spinoff of their own names.

The Scottish/Irish heritage in me takes pride the use of such a name.

McDonalds did not.

Instead, they are bringing legal action against this now nineteen-year-old who has managed to earn $30,000 to give to charity. A huge undertaking for someone so young. I applaud her.

McDonalds does not. They seek to empty the coffers designated for the Special Olympics so they can “protect” their “property”. Seems like some hare-brained judge granted them the letters Mc as a trademark.

Huh? So some Hamburglar Bully owns the names of people who are Irish and Scottish? To quote theFrom _skynet on Flickr.com blogger from “A High Dose of Insanity,”Image by _skynet on Flickr.com

” This is one of the dumbest thing I have seen in a while. Since when does anyone own letters of the alphabet? Let alone the fact that this girl has them in her name. I mean really. Is McDonald’s hurting so much that they would take on a 19 year old, who might I add is trying to do some good?” To see her story go here: http://highdosesofinsanity.tumblr.com/

I am disgusted. And McDonalds is stupid. NO one likes a bully. They have willfully cast themselves in the role of Bully. They have done this before, and sometimes gotten away with it. But that was more under the radar. This time they took on a teen who was working way beyond what most of us can conceive of to help this poor world or ours.

The Chicago Sun Times published a list of previous suits brought by McD’s over so-called infringement:

Stats from the Sun Times “OTHER MICKEY D CHALLENGES

* In 1994, McDonald's battled 9-year-old entrepreneur Joanna Amron over the trademark of the phrase "Nothin' But Net," a line used in a series of McDonald's commercials featuring Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

 * That same year, McDonald's forced Elizabeth McCaughey of California to change the name of her coffee shop McCoffee, which had operated under that name for 17 years.

* In 1988 the company won a case to stop Quality Inns from naming a chain of hotels "McSleep."

* In 2001, McDonald's lost a nine-year legal action against the owner of McChina Wok Away, a small chain of Chinese takeout shops in London.

* Last September, McDonald's lost a long legal battle in Malaysia against a small restaurant named "McCurry."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2011307,CST-NWS-mcfest26.article#

I am glad judges in other countries have more sense than ours appear to. I can only hope this time, a judge turns up that has a head that thinks and cannot be bought by big business.

To protest, boycott them, and tell them what and why you are doing. Here is the form you can fill out http://www1.mcdonalds.com/contactus/navigate.do?link=mcbiz

Post to social networking sites.

But as far as a response from McBurglar, I'm warning you, you'll likely get a weasel reply. I did. So I'll write again.

Chinese Official Says Gao Zhisheng "Went Missing"

From CHINAaid:

Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, disappeared February 4, and was last seen being taken away by a dozen police officers. Your voice is vital to this international outcry.

From the CHINAaid newsletter:

Act Now to Help Gao's Family Learn the Truth!

Since mid-December, 2009, ominous rumors have circulated about Gao Zhisheng, hinting that he has died after brutal torture in prison. However, no reports have been confirmed, and the Chinese government continues to refuse comment on his condition and whereabouts.

Gege, Gao's daughter, had been reportedly "pale and tired-looking" with worry for months. After hearing a rumor of Gao's death just before Christmas, Gege became so emotionally distraught, she was forced to be hospitalized. She remains fragile and under medical watch in a New York hospital.

This week, after searching out the policeman who originally detained Gao Zhisheng back in February, 2009, Gao's brother Zhiyi was told that Attorney Gao allegedly "went missing while out on a walk" on September 25, 2009. Gao's wife refused to comment, but was reported to be extremely upset after hearing the news.

This is the first time a Chinese government official has hinted that they no longer have Gao Zhisheng in their custody, leading ChinaAid to believe Gao's condition has taken a turn for the worse.

"It is totally unacceptable for the Chinese government to lose track of their own prisoner," said President of ChinaAid Bob Fu. "It is absolutely clear that he was forcibly taken from his home in February 2009. Nearly a year later, the Chinese government now says they do not have him."

Though the rumors of death cannot be confirmed, Bob Fu remains extremely concerned for this new development.

"We have every reason to suspect that the Chinese government has something very serious to hide. Gao's family has every right to know what happened to him. It is unbelievable that a high security prisoner would go missing while "out on a walk," without suspecting that there is a major cover up of his condition."

The Chinese government can no longer hide their actions from the world and must be held accountable for their treatment of Gao Zhisheng. Now is the time to act!

Sign the Petition to Free Gao Zhisheng, and encourage your friends and family to join the effort.

Contact your U.S. Representative and call for them to pressure the Chinese government to disclose the true condition and whereabouts of prominent human rights Attorney Gao Zhisheng. Even if you have sent a letter in the past, this new development calls for renewed action.

Gao's family deserves to know the truth, and so does the world! For more ways to help Free Gao, visit www.FreeGao.com."

 Read Gao's account of being tortured by the Chinese government:

http://www.chinaaid.org/downloads/sb_chinaaid/HumanRightsLawyerRecountsTorture.pdf

Day two: The Bible Permits Sex Slaves!!!

Day two: The Bible Permits Sex Slaves

Seborgarsen raises this issue:

‘The following passage describes the sickening practice of sex slavery. How can anyone think it is moral to sell your own daughter as a sex slave?”

He quotes this scripture to back up his premise (my emphasis added):

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

Then he makes this conclusion:

“So these are the Bible family values! A man can buy as many sex slaves as he wants as long as he feeds them, clothes them, and screws them!”

I am glad he feels passionately the immorality of selling one’s child as a sex slave. The US has reeled in horror at a recent possible such case in North Carolina where a five year old girl may have been sold into prostitution by her mother. See: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5667820n

Here is a video from CBS on modern day sex slavery: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/23/48hours/main675913.shtml 

For more examples of modern day sex slavery see:

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=46316

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=2834852&page=1

http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/10

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2760391/Sex-slave-sold-for-3k-on-Londons-Oxford-Street.html

These are horrifying beyond words.

And have nothing to do with the bible passage Seborgarsen quotes.

There are a couple of main reasons people may misunderstand a passage such as this. 1) They haven’t read it carefully enough to see what was actually said, and 2) they do not know/understand the historical context.

To deal with #2: the historical context would necessitate immersion into Ancient Near Eastern history beyond the scope of an article such as this. For those who would like to read a short (54 page) article addressing this issue more completely, please see: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html

A few outstanding differences between societies now and in the biblical time frame gleaned from his article, follow.

1)    The difficulty of surviving meant that family units had to pull together.

2)    Slaves/servants were very much a part of the household, unlike in our era.

3)    Add those two together, and it meant one had better not anger the slaves/servants. They were an integral part of the family and needed for the survival.

4)    “Debt slavery” encompassed by far the largest share of slaves. A person could sell himself and or family members into slavery in order to work off an unmanageable debt. This automatically ended in the seventh year of the calendar whether the debt was paid off or not.

5)    Debt slavery did away with the problem of starvation and extreme poverty

6)    When a father sold his daughter into “slavery” he procured a bride price while the girl was too young to marry. She would work for the family – everyone in the family worked for the family.

1. The owner was permitted to marry her, or marry her to his son
2. If the second, he was to treat her as a daughter
3. If the first, he was to treat her as his wife – in all ways, and never demote her under any circumstances to less than a wife
4. If neither of those suited the situation, he was permitted to allow another Israelite to redeem her, ie pay the bride price for her and marry her

7)   Slave/servants could have their own property and their own slave/servants.

^“17 A thousand other men from the tribe of Benjamin were with him, including Ziba, the chief servant of the house of Saul, and Ziba’s fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed down to the Jordan to meet the king.” (2 Samuel 19:17”

Interestingly, the very passage Seborgarsen feels advocates sex slavery, puts restrictions into place to insure this will not happen. First as we’ve seen, the woman had the rights of a contract of marriage.  Provisions were made for her protection if the “owner” could not fulfill his obligation towards her.

Second: The woman was to have full rights of marriage. If the man took a second wife, scripture did not allow him to reduce her status in anyway. She was to retain the full rights of a wife. “If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.” He had to provide for her physical well being, and her marital well being. The Lord knows how he created us and has/had a realistic understanding regarding sex. In the New Testament, He talks about the need for husband and wife to avoid denying sex to one another. Seems He believes women also have desires, not just men.

Add to that, children were very important in that society. A woman’s status to some degree rested on how many children she had.

To conclude: the passage our friend fears promotes sex slavery is actually the total opposite. It contains the regulations to prevent such an abomination.

More later….       

“The Bible is so full of endorsement of slavery it makes me sick”

I received a most interesting "comment" about the bible and slavery. The commenter asks a number of intriguing questions, well, after panning me for being a "cherry-picking hypocrite" :0 (To read his entire comment, go here.)

I suspect a number of people may wonder about the ideas he raised so I thought I would take the time to address them. If scripture is given a quick read through, one can get some pretty weird ideas about what the Lord wants or doesn't want. There is also the difficulty of understanding any thing written millennia ago. We need to place it in the context of history to understand what actually was happening, and in some ways, more importantly, why it was happening. That larger global issue may be more than I can handle on a website like this as it needs a good deal of scholarly references, so I will probably only touch on it at some point.

Anyway, if I am going to begin to answer some of the questions raised, the issues are involved enough, that I will break this down into a series of articles. I may only answer one question per post. Here is the first one.

Hello Seborgarsen .

You raise a number of interesting questions. These seem based on either you misunderstood what was said, or you have removed the passage from the context of time and its surrounding passages. To understand ancient writings, we have to place them in their historical context. To understand any communication, written or spoken, we have to keep the various sentences in context of the whole statement.

Then of course, some prefer to distort intentionally. They need healing for their anger. I can’t imagine a simple post would help a person in that condition.

For now, I will assume you fall into the first category. I believe people deserve a fair hearing. Because I do not know you, personally, I will not presume to judge your motives.

As your thesis you state, “the Bible is so full of endorsement of slavery it makes me sick.” If I understand what you have written correctly, you have presented what you believe are five examples that support your thesis.

I will start with the more apparently horrifying ones. But first, I want to touch on the need to understand individual statements as they are set in the whole body of a writing. More later, but for now, let’s look at two statements, one each from the Old and new Testaments that address the Lord’s view on the matter.

From the OT, Exodus 21: 16

““Kidnappers must be put to death, whether they are caught in possession of their victims or have already sold them as slaves.” (NLT)

Here He states that slave-traders deserve capital punishment. Hardly an endorsement.

The NT states the same, lumping slave traders in with murderers. 1Timothy 1: 9-10

“We also know that law^[a] is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine” (NIV)

No endorsement of slavery there, either.

On to your specific questions. You ask:

1) What does the Bible say about beating slaves? It says you can beat both male and female slaves with a rod so hard that as long as they don't die right away you are cleared of any wrong doing.

You use this scripture to back up your statement:

²⁰ “If a man beats his male or female slave with a club and the slave dies as a result, the owner must be punished. ²¹ But if the slave recovers within a day or two, then the owner shall not be punished, since the slave is his property.” (Exodus 21: 20-21 NLT)

Taken that way, it sounds pretty bad.

One problem. You pulled it out of context.

The scripture you cite is from a section of law dealing with penalties and restitution for personal injury. You left out the preceding verses:

Cases of Personal Injury

¹² “Anyone who assaults and kills another person must be put to death.* ¹³ But if it was simply an accident permitted by God, I will appoint a place of refuge where the slayer can run for safety. ¹⁴ However, if someone deliberately kills another person, then the slayer must be dragged even from my altar and be put to death.

 ¹⁵ “Anyone who strikes father or mother must be put to death.

 ¹⁶ “Kidnappers must be put to death, whether they are caught in possession of their victims or have already sold them as slaves.

 ¹⁷ “Anyone who dishonors^[b] father or mother must be put to death.

 ¹⁸ “Now suppose two men quarrel, and one hits the other with a stone or fist, and the injured person does not die but is confined to bed. ¹⁹ If he is later able to walk outside again, even with a crutch, the assailant will not be punished but must compensate his victim for lost wages and provide for his full recovery.**

 ²⁰ “If a man beats his male or female slave with a club and the slave dies as a result, the owner must be punished.(See verse 12*) ²¹ But if the slave recovers within a day or two, then the owner shall not be punished, since the slave is his property.”(See verse 19**) (Exodus 21: 12-21)

Nowhere in scripture does it state slaves are not people. The punishment for killing another person stated in verse 12 is death. Ironic that death is also the punishment for enslaving another person, verse 16.

The one difference between slave and free, is that one doing the injury must pay the free man for his lost wages and for it appears, the needed medical help. If he injured his own slave, he already has lost the “wages” by losing the slave’s (or servant’s) productivity. He is also the one who needs to provide medical care.

So, your statement that “the Bible says” it is okay to beat slaves is incorrect. Same penalty if the slave dies. If the slave recovers, the man already bears the cost in lost productivity. The only punishment for beating a free man who subsequently recovers, is to compensate the man for time lost at work. Both are basically the same thing.

More tomorrow…See

Day two: The Bible Permits Sex Slaves!!!

Beautiful Slave: a true story in song

If you want to feel as though your heart has been torn out, watch this video.

Beautiful Slave was written by a band called Take No Glory after reading about a little girl who was sold into slavery and forced to have sex with men. If you have ever watched the Dateline series on child sex slavery in Cambodia, just seeing the size difference between these tiny girl children and the grown men who use them increases the horror beyond belief. These are LITTLE children. And they are so horribly abused.

 All of Take No Glory's music is available from the group as a download for free. Click here for their official website with MP3s, videos, and chord sheets.

Picture from Aim4Asia

From Take No Glory's YouTube page:

This is a music video about human trafficking and child slavery. Take No Glory wrote "Beautiful Slave" after reading a true story of a little girl that was trafficked and forced to be a child sex slave. We hope and pray this song will bring awareness

27 MILLION PEOPLE ARE ENSLAVED TODAY

80% ARE WOMEN 50% ARE CHILDREN

EVERY MINUTE TWO CHILDREN ARE TRAFFICKED
FOR SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The Oppressed Will Be Set Free. Jesus Christ

Please share this song and video freely with others. Use it as a tool to stop this injustice.

To download this song along with all of Take No Glory's other visit websitehttp://www.TakeNoGlory.com All of our music is available free on the site!

Beautiful Slave Lyrics

i dont know where i am
theyve taken all that i had
smuggled in for a lucrative trade
beaten, bartered
broken in, until i obey
i used to be childlike
innocent and safe
now im someone else's treasure
a strangers pleasure
smothered in shame
succumbed with drugs
but Im not numb
all I feel is pain
is this all a dream
will i ever be the same?

can anyone hear me?
will anyone break these chains?
who will free me?
from this dark place?
does God see me?
what is His name?
will He help me?
im just a beautiful slave

my worst fear is my fate
im getting older each day
every girl too old in years
mysteriously just disappears
they never mention her name
they take away piece by piece
i dont think i have any left
ive slowly given up all hope
given in to this sleepless bed
inside these bars
i feel so seared
by each new face
how could this ever be
every memory be erased?

He can hear you
Hes seeking you, 
He wants to heal you
Jesus knows the real you

Jesus Loves The Little Children
All The Children Of World
Red & Yellow, Black & White
Theyre Precious In His Sight
Jesus Loves The Little Children Of The World
Hes Got The Whole World In His Hands

For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival: NY Times

The Polaris Project sent this article.

RUNNING IN THE SHADOWS For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival

By IAN URBINA

Published: October 26, 2009, New York Times

ASHLAND, Ore. — She ran away from her group home in Medford, Ore., and spent weeks sleeping in parks and under bridges. Finally, Nicole Clark, 14 years old, grew so desperate that she accepted a young man’s offer of a place to stay. The price would come later.

They had sex, and he soon became her boyfriend. Then one day he threatened to kick her out if she did not have sex with several of his friends in exchange for money.

She agreed, fearing she had no choice. “Where was I going to go?” said Nicole, now 17 and living here, just down the Interstate from Medford. That first exchange of money for sex led to a downward spiral of prostitution that lasted for 14 months, until she escaped last year from a pimp who she said often locked her in his garage apartment for months.

“I didn’t know the town, and the police would just send me back to the group home,” Nicole said, explaining why she did not cut off the relationship once her first boyfriend became a pimp and why she did not flee prostitution when she had the chance. “I’d also fallen for the guy. I felt trapped in a way I can’t really explain.”

Most of the estimated 1.6 million children who run away each year return home within a week. But for those who do not, the desperate struggle to survive often means selling their bodies.

Nearly a third of the children who flee or are kicked out of their homes each year engage in sex for food, drugs or a place to stay, according to a variety of studies published in academic and public health journals. But this kind of dangerous barter system can quickly escalate into more formalized prostitution, when money changes hands. And then, child welfare workers and police officials say, it becomes extremely difficult to help runaways escape the streets. Many become more entangled in abusive relationships, and the law begins to view them more as teenage criminals than under-age victims.

Estimates of how many children are involved in prostitution vary wildly — ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. More solid numbers do not exist, in part because the Department of Justice has yet to study the matter even though Congress authorized it to do so in 2005 as part of a nationwide study of the illegal commercial sex industry.

But many child welfare advocates and officials in government and law enforcement say that while the data is scarce, they believe that the problem of prostituted children has grown, especially as the Internet has made finding clients easier.

“It’s definitely worsening,” said Sgt. Kelley O’Connell, a detective who until this year ran the Boston Police Department’s human-trafficking unit, echoing a sentiment conveyed in interviews with law enforcement officials from more than two dozen cities. “Gangs used to sell drugs,” she said. “Now many of them have shifted to selling girls because it’s just as lucrative but far less risky.”

Atlanta, which is one of the only cities where local officials have tried to keep data on the problem, has seen the number of teenage prostitutes working in the city grow to 334 in February from 251 in August 2007.

The barriers to rescuing these children are steep: state cuts to mental heath services, child welfare agencies incapable of preventing them from running away, a dearth of residential programs where the children can receive counseling.

After years of abuse, trauma and neglect, the children also tend to trust no one. The longer they are on the streets, experts say, the more likely they are to become involved in crime and uncooperative with the authorities.

“These kids enter prostitution and they literally disappear,” said Bradley Myles, deputy director of the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization based in Washington that directly serves children involved in prostitution and other trafficking victims. “And in those rare moments that they reappear, it’s in these revolving-door situations where they’re handled by people who have no idea or training in how to help them. So the kids end up right back on the street.”

For the rest of this chilling article that also talks from the pimps perspective, please go here

The Weekend to End Slavery - Nov 14-15, 2009/ Extended

This has been extended for as long as you need. Not just for the 14 - 15th. The only difference is instead of watching the webcast live, you would download it. I'm glad because this gives more flexibility. Especially now when a number of people seem to be getting sick.

A side note -- my kit came, and it is very nice. Of the $15.00 total cost, $4.95 was straight postage (no handling). My guess is that IJM is sending them either at or below cost.

A practicle way to help fight slavery, today. Please consider it. The cost is minimal -- two movies and house party kits for $15.00 USA

From the International Justice Missions:

"At the End of Slavery" contains undercover footage and first-person testimony from for mer slaves and respected experts expose the enormity of the crime — but a remarkable strategy and the courage of today's abolitionists offer hope for a final end to this brutal trade.

Shot on location in the Philippines, India, Cambodia and the U.S., At the End of Slavery takes you to the frontlines of today's battle for justice and includes true stories of former slaves and undercover footage from police operations to rescue children from brothels. International Justice Mission's investigators, lawyers and social

workers and their clients, along with other leading abolitionists and anti-trafficking experts, show that there is nothing inevitable about slavery. Law enforcement success in finding and rescuing victims, and prosecuting perpetrators, demonstrates the real possibility of an end to this trade."

The Weekend to End Slavery will be two days of united effort across the United States to educate communities about slavery and mobilize the movement to end this abuse in our lifetime.

During the Weekend to End Slavery, November 14 and 15, people around the country will learn about modern-day slavery, teach others about this injustice, share the message of hope that change is possible, and advocate with members of Congress to use their power to bring slavery to an end.

The movement will continue beyond November 14 — you can help build lasting momentum by hosting your event after this date as well. Gary Haugen's live Webcast will be available for download after the weekend.

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

Saturday, November 14: Individuals, families, churches, students and community groups across the country will host house parties on Saturday evening to share At the End of Slavery and begin the discussion of how we can come together to end slavery. Host an event!

That evening, IJM President and CEO Gary Haugen will address those gathered at house parties across the nation via live Webcast at 8:00pm EST. The webcast will be available for download on attheEndofSlavery.com after the live webcast is over. (Details on how to view this live Webcast to be announced on the At the End of Slavery news/updates page).

Get your House Party kit and start planning your own event today!

Sunday, November 15: Churches across the country will share the message of biblical justice and engage people of faith in the struggle to seek justice and rescue the oppressed.

View more resources for churches and learn how to involve yours in the Weekend to End Slavery.

IS NOV. 14 THE ONLY TIME TO HOST A PARTY?

You can host a screening at any time! The Weekend to End Slavery offers the opportunity to join with thousands others across the U.S. to propel the justice movement forward in a unified effort.

But growing the movement is extremely valuable at any time, so if you can't host your At the End of Slavery house party this weekend, please host another time! Those who host their parties in advance of November 14 can encourage guests to host their own screenings on November 14 as one of their first action steps.

 

 Please go here to find out how

Group 1Crew on Forgiveness

Just for fun. I fell in love with this group when their first CD came out. This is one of my all time favorite

songs. Similar theme to The Motions. Another favorite from Group 1 Crew is "Can't Go On"

Not only are they a wonderfully innovative group with great messages embedded in fantastic lyrics, they still allow people to embed their videos =]. A number a groups do not. I only wish I was musically adept enough to pull out the parts to some of their songs and put them together for the kids at church to do as an offertory.

Forgive Me - by Group 1 Crew

Father, I'm going through some heavy things
It seems like this world ain't getting any better
The more we try to get closer to You
The farther we run from Your throne

I've spent so many nights wonderin' when will it end
When will the day come when happiness begins
I'm running the race but it seems too hard to win
I'm sick of mourning my stomach is throwing up in the morning

I'm calling for help and watching it melt away
My heart's been put on display and put away
In many ways, many times I told myself it was ok
And anger was the price that was paid
While these faded dreams just screamed to bring them home

The burden was too heavy I kept running from the throne
I can't take it any longer
I can taste my spirit hunger
God please help me get home

[Chorus:]
Lord though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I'm not scared cause You're holding my breath
I only fear that I don't have enough time left
To tell the world that there's no time left, Lord please
Lord though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I'm not scared cause You're holding my breath
I only fear that I don't have enough time left
To tell the world that there's no time left

I've come to terms that I'm burning both sides of the rope
And I'm hoping that self-control would kick in before I'm choking off
The sin that be destroying every fiber I got
I need the Lord in every way I'll never make it I'm not
Going back to the way I was before Christ in my life
I couldn't do it I would lose it there's no point to the fight
And I'm writing this song, for the people who don't belong
I pray away the pain you feel from all the things that went wrong
Inside a life that's filled with anger and disappointment
Cause daddy treated you weaker than all of the other kids
It's annoying and I feel for all of you who wanna give up
You feel stuck I feel the same way Lord help us stay up
You couldn't pay me to abandon the idea of true hope
That I could make it through this life into a place where there's no crying
I'm dying to find You with open arms when I go
Knowing You love me and You waiting to give rest to my soul

Lord I don't know what I'm struggling for
There's go to be more
Than this life I know
But still I'm here fighting to never give up
I find strength in Your love
And You will see me through

Their website is here: http://www.group1crew.com/