About Me

  Patricia Hammell Kashtock

Aka: Pat Kashtock. Mother of three, wife of one. BA in Social Work and Biblical Studies. Graduate work at Virginia Tech interrupted, then derailed by oldest child’s brain tumor...

My life has not followed the course I planned. But I am not complaining. Pain is to be expected in a world broken apart from its Creator.

The miracle resides in the ability to find joy when least expected...

 

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Blessings,

Pat

For What It's Worth

Each life is a journey. The voices of many guides try to direct us, saying, “This is the path – walk in it!” Yet each one leads in a different direction.

I believe only one Voice can be true. That Voice will lead us in ways most unexpected, into worlds yet undiscovered. It will lead us up the hill, around the river and through the forest. And sometimes, it will lead without mercy.

Or so it seems.

I have made listening for that Voice and following it, my life’s quest. I will share some of what I have heard that Voice say with you. But I am not in the business of telling people how to think or what to believe. Each has to decide for himself. Only you can decide if you find the truth of the Voice in these words. And only you can decide how much it is worth to know the Voice, and follow.

But for me, it is worth the whole world.

And then some…

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Entries in grassroot activists (1)

Thursday
Sep112008

Slave Dreams and Danger

It is hard to imagine how so many in today's world are forced to suffer. Slavery should have died centuries ago.

We thought it did. But it didn't.

The following article comes from Free the Slaves

Ramphal Dares to Dream






Ramphal - freed from slavery in the quarries

   Ramphal and his entire family were slaves in the rock quarries of India for as long as anyone can remember. Slowly - with the help of grassroots activists, Ramphal and the other slaves in his village realized that freedom was possible. Getting there was dangerous.


Life in slavery
Ramphal working in the quarries"If I would move in my house or out of my house, if I want to sit somewhere, get up, if I want to eat, if I want to drink - anything that I wanted to do - I required permission." The villagers of Sonnebarsa began meeting with other slaves across the area and demanding their rights. Violence broke out at a meeting. A slave owner was killed. Slave owners retaliated by burning Ramphal's village. What little the families had was gone. Nine slaves were jailed and charged with murder. Ramphal was one of them.

Land of the Free
Other freed slaves in the area took in the desperate families, still some babies in the village died. Legal activists worked to get the slaves out of jail. Grassroots activists applied for leases to mine nearby rock quarries. They won the leases. The men were freed. Finally the villagers were able to build a new village - Azad Nagar or 'Land of the Free'.

Ramphal's son free to go to school

Freedom
Today Ramphal is still giddy with freedom, "I’m just so happy with this new life that I’ve got and it gives me so much joy, the fact that I can control my own mind, my own thoughts, my own movements.  I can’t even look back at my earlier existence."  Ramphal's children are going to school for the first time. He has dreams of opening his own business but won't share the details. He is just getting use to the idea of daring to dream.


   To see the rest, please go to https://www.freetheslaves.net/NETCOMMUNITY/SSLPage.aspx?pid=238&srcid=183