See the Need at Christmas

Here is a small taste of what a Christmas gift can do.

From Need: 
the humanitarian magazine

People are being enslaved, and entire families are forced to work to pay off debts they can never repay. International Justice Mission is freeing these slaves.

There are 27 million slaves in the world today. People are forced to work without pay, under the threat of violence and are unable to walk away. -Free the Slaves

It is impossible to know how many people in India are forced to work as slaves in brick kilns, silk factories, salt mines and rice mills. Justice organizations estimate that 10 to 15 million are enslaved throughout India and the number is growing. Poor people are forced or tricked into slavery through the practice of debt bondage. Slave owners offer loans that can be paid off through labor, and once the loan is accepted, the owners charge the worker for all kinds of living expenses and set insurmountable interest rates to ensure that even small loans can never be repaid. An individual's family can be forced to assume the debt, which becomes a vicious cycle that enslaves entire families for generations. Debt bondage has been outlawed in India for more than 30 years, but very little is done to enforce anti-slavery laws.

Families freed from slavery approach the brick kiln where they now work together earning fair wages.

Since 2000, International Justice Mission (IJM) has been fighting to free slaves in India. After uncovering evidence of slavery, it reports and litigates these cases and assists local officials in raids to liberate forced laborers. Once the former slaves are free, IJM assists them to obtain official government release certificates and receive the aid needed to rebuild their lives.

"The problem of slavery is obviously massive. There is much work to be done - but we believe that change is occurring. Ensuring that the millions of men, women and children held in slavery receive the protection that they are guaranteed by their country's own laws will create the structural change that will bring this brutal form of oppression to an end." -Sean Litton, Vice President of Field Operations International Justice Mission

Former slave families carry flags and banners in a mock olympic ceremony organized in part by IJM. "Many sang their national anthem for the first time ... as free citizen[s]," says IJM Communications Manager and photographer Ted Haddock.

IJM staff works undercover to find and document conditions of slavery. In doing so, they have been threatened by mobs and chased while working to end slavery. IJM staff then presents evidence of slavery to local police and officials encouraging them to enforce the laws against this practice, prompting local officials to conduct raids to free the slaves. Upon their release, IJM works to meet victims' immediate needs, providing food, temporary lodging, transportation and other vital support. The staff ensures that victims of forced labor receive the assistance that is available through the government. Children are enrolled in school, and adultsreceive the support they need as they begin to rebuild their lives. IJM monitors former slaves for several years after their release to ensure they stay free and secure.

To read the entire article please see Need; Issue 4: Work

For Christmas - a new gift

There are many gifts to buy or make during this month before Christmas. People we love will be touched that we thought of them. Of course, we hope they will actually enjoy the gift we took the time to find or make for them.

Here is a gift the person receiving it will be thrilled to get: the gift of Freedom.

From a recent letter from the International Justice Missions:

This Christmas, give a gift so precious that you wouldn’t dream of wrapping it: Freedom. International Justice Mission has meaningful gifts that bring hope, dignity and freedom to those in great need.

How it works:

1. You purchase a gift from IJM’s Holiday Gift Catalog.

2. A beautiful card detailing the gift is delivered to your friend or loved one.

3. Your gift is used by IJM to bring freedom to children, women and men in great need.

Featured gift: A day of Advocacy - $70

The poor are often left voiceless in the aftermath of violent oppression. Give someone in desperate need the priceless gift of a highly professional IJM lawyer who will bring the law to bear on their behalf.

Visit the 2008 Gift of Freedom Holiday Catalog today and give freedom to everyone on your list!

On the catalog page you will find various suggestions.

IJM Gift of Freedom Holiday Catalog

Rescue. Renewal. Hope.

This Christmas season, millions of children, women and men wait urgently for only one gift: Freedom.

As we celebrate the great hope of this season, consider sharing that hope by giving a Gift of Freedom to someone special – it is a gift that can bring rescue and renewed hope to victims of violent oppression.

Gifts of Freedom More Information »

INVESTIGATION

A half day of Investigative Work, $25 A full day of Investigative Work, $50

Mobilize IJM’s undercover investigators on the frontlines of justice work as they document evidence of trafficking, slavery and other forms of violent oppression.

More Information »

ADVOCACY

A day of Advocacy, $70 A week of Advocacy, $350

Empower IJM’s lawyers to represent victims of violent oppression in court and ensure that perpetrators of abuses are held accountable under local laws for their crimes against the poor.

More Information »

AFTERCARE

A day of Aftercare, $40 A week of Aftercare, $280

Equip IJM’s aftercare teams to provide vital care to IJM clients, from counseling to life-skills training, to ensuring children are enrolled in school and adults are prepared to begin sustainable careers.

Not For Sale and Proposition K

From their newsletter. Proposition K sought to make prostituion legal in the San Fransico district.

Horrifying to think this could have passed all in the name of allowing people the freedom to do as they want. The problem is, this "freedom" would have destroyed the freedom of many weak and innocent people.

Ensuring Victims of Human Trafficking are not Overlooked We at Not For Sale would like to take this opportunity to thank the voters of San Francisco for taking an analytical look at Proposition K and realizing the dangerous implications it contained for victims of trafficking. As an organization Not for Sale, along with the “No On K” Coalition actively worked to defeat this Proposition and on November 4th San Franciscans came out and voiced their opposition to K. Proponents to K attempted to hide the dangerous implications of K by downplaying the significant role human trafficking plays within the industry in San Francisco and characterizing the efforts of Not for Sale and other organizations as “racial profiling”. Upon first glance Proposition K, a proposition to decriminalize prostitution, might seem like a ballot measure that would increase the rights of individuals working within the sex industry. In reality this proposition, masquerading as a progressive measure, would have greatly undermined the efforts of local law enforcement to prevent and combat human trafficking. This initiative would have essentially tied the hands of San Francisco law enforcement when attempting to combat human trafficking. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris voiced her opposition for Proposition K stating it “would expressly bar the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking crimes... Many people in the commercial sex trade have been trafficked and forced to participate in commercial sex. This measure would attempt to provide safe harbor to their traffickers.” The dark secret about Proposition K, discovered by many San Francisco voters, is that Prop K would have created a legal loophole emboldening human traffickers within San Francisco by providing them with virtually free reign. Not for Sale, and many others, worked tirelessly to ensure that victims of human trafficking were not further marginalized by the passage of Proposition K. Lets continue to work together to ensure the victims of human trafficking have the rights and services they desperately need and deserve. Thank you San Francisco for your support!

What Does Surviving a Saline Abortion Look Like?

When Gianna Jesson's mother was 7 1/2 months pregnant, she decided not to wait six more weeks and give the child up for adoption. So she entered an abortion clinic. A strong saline solution was pumped into her uterous, and for eighteen hours her baby girl was subjected to chemical burns on the outside and inside of her tiny body.

At the end of the eighteen hours, her daughter was expelled -- alive. The child that was supposed to die, did not. Instead she survived, small and weak, and screaming from the burns. The abortionist was not there to strangle her, so the baby girl was put aside. Still, she did not die. Then a nurse has pity on her. That baby is now thirty-one year old Gianna Jesson. She has cerebral palsy as a result of the saline inflicted on her before she was born.

I particularly like the beginning of this second part of her talk before the Australian legislature. She says,

“So they looked at my dear Penny and said, ‘Gianna will never be anything,’ which is always encouraging. And she decided to ignore them and she worked with me three times a day and I began to hold up my head.

“And they said, ‘Well, Gianna will never this and never that….’

“Long story shorter, I was walking by the age of three and a half with a walker and leg braces. And I stand up here today with a mild little limp, and without a walker and leg braces.

"I fall gracefully sometimes and very ungracefully at other times, depending on the situation.

"But I consider it all for the glory of God. You see ladies and gentlemen, I am weaker than most of you, but this is my sermon. And what a small price to pay to be able to blaze through the world as I do, and offer hope "

With her statement, "I am weaker than most of you, but this is my sermon." I am reminded of the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians chapter three.

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

International Justice Missions Newsreel

International Justice Missions may be a small-ish organization, but they do a mighty work. This video shows clipage from NBC Dateline, Oprah, and President Bush talking about IJM. Gary Haugin the director of IJM says:

While you may not be able to do everything, you can take on the faces of evil, and prevail.

If this video does not work, go to

A friend of our family, Bob Mosier, is shown rescuing a little girl from a house where she was imprisoned. At the end he says:

If it's only one child that is saved, certainly it is worth it.

And they have certainly saved more than one child.

Rob Mosier rescuing child

Out of the Loom

From freetheslaves.net Out of the Loom

Rambho was tricked into slavery after his father died. He worked 16 hours a day weaving carpets. When his fingers bled - the slave owner dipped them in oil and lit them on fire. That was before the raid that changed Rambho's life forever. Rescued Rambho and 10 other boys were rescued by Bal Vikas Ashram - a grassroots organization in northern India that not only frees children from slavery, but houses them for six months as they recover from years of abuse, educates them and helps them learn to play again. Activists from the Bal Vikas Ashram also go to the remote villages where the traffickers sweet talk parents with false promises.  The activists explain what is really happening and help vulnerable parents organize to demand their rights and earn a living.   Back Home Today, after 6 months in the ashram, Rambho knows how to read and write. He is back home and activists have helped his mother reclaim the family home that was lost when her husband died. Rambho says he wants to be a guard when he grows up. He wants to keep other children free from slavery. "I won’t let anybody go there even by mistake. I’ll tell them that they hit you and they beat you and I would not let them go there ever."  Help other children like Rambho get free and stay free. You can make all the difference. To read the whole article and to help please go to Free the Slaves

On Total Healing

I was not sure whether to post this in "Thoughts On" or in "A Child's Brain Tumor."

The reason I might have posted it in the latter is because shortly after Heidi's diagnosis, a prayer and healing team came from Saint Margret's. A woman who would later become a close friend, Dottie Krieder said she felt lead to pray for total healing for Heidi. She said she rarely felt lead to pray that way because total healing comes about in two ways: either the Lord removes all vestiges of the disease and it's attendant problems, or He brings the person home to Himself.

I decided to post William Cool's comment in Thoughts because as well as total healing, he addresses the concept of miracles from a scientist's perspective. I find what he writes, fascinating. I wish my Dad were alive to read Bill's words. He would have enjoyed them.

With his permission, here is Bill's comment:

One critical aspect of the spiritual gifts is remembering that God is sovereign and not subject to our perspectives.

 I’ll mention one example. When my wife and I first arrived at St. Luke’s, Akron, one of the most amazingly joyful people we met was a woman named Miriam, who almost seemed to glow with smiles and joy that spilled out to all around her. Both her legs were in braces and useless. She got around using crutches. Early one winter, I was in a Bible study with Miriam, and as we left she said, “Bill, I know my healing is near - I’m starting to feel tingling in my legs.”

Not long after, at a parish-wide New Year’s eve party and dance (a way to evangelize those looking for a good party), our rector failed to show up until late in the evening. When he finally arrived, he said, “Miriam has been healed. She is with the Lord.” In fact her car had been smashed at a foggy intersection. We were, of course stunned and began praying as a group. In the midst of our prayers, a teenage girl spoke out that she had a vision of Miriam who was dancing with the Lord. I still get choked up when I remember her saying that.

Miriam was responsible for at least one witness after her death. The day following the accident, a member of the parish went to the scene of the accident and found someone clearing debris and sweeping the mess off the road. As they began to talk, the parishioner explained who Miriam was and something of her strong faith. The man sent to clean up the road said that who Miriam was explained what he had sensed when he came to the site. He said that generally when cleaning up such a site he felt a strong sense of destruction and chaos, but at this accident site he had felt an overwhelming sense of peace, which he had not understood until it was explained to him something about Miriam.

One last comment. I am a scientist with a PhD in the biological sciences. I know the principles of scientific evidence. What I have described here and in my previous comments requires a different kind of evidence. As Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” We don’t “see” wind, but we see and hear its results. And what I have described cannot be explained as merely a sort of focusing or speed-up of natural phenomena. Someone in a much earlier thread wondered if the Holy Spirit orthodontist work I witnessed (and described above) could have been merely an acceleration of natural actions. Since mineral metabolism was my area of expertise for my doctorate, I can give a pretty emphatic negative to that possibility. To focus that much metabolic energy into the space of a few seconds would have cooked the tissues and blood vessels in the jaw bones. At least in this instance, when the creator of the universe chose to straighten the young woman’s teeth in response to prayer, he chose to do it in a way that is beyond our understanding of how the world generally functions. [127] Posted by Bill Cool on 09-12-2008 at 12:41 AM

The whole thread can be found at

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/15860/

I want to include Bill's answer when I emailed to ask his permission to post his comment.

I can still remember coming into the then very small St. Luke's, Akron, sanctuary and seeing Miriam shining in the choir, and I can still remember as she and I headed out of the building after that Bible study and having her tell me that her healing was near. And I can also clearly remember the teen-age daughter of our choir director describing her vision, "I can see Miriam. She is dancing with the Lord."

 

At Truro, our new rector, Tory Baucum, has reminded us these past two weeks of God's emphasis on relationship - in the first creation story, about the close relationship in the Trinity - "Let us make man in our image (with that image carrying a need for such relationship), and in the second creation story, about the relationship of man and woman, as part of that image we carry.

Miriam carried that relationship with her Father and with Jesus wherever she went and the vision of her dancing was an encouraging reminder of that.

 

Bill Cool

The picture of Bill carrying the memory of the young girl's vision of Miriam dancing with the Lord touched me deeply. When she got to thinking, sometimes Heidi became sad because of the many abilities she had lost. Then inevitably she would reply, "But that's okay. I know when I get to Heaven, I will be able to (fill in the blank) again" Dancing was one of those blanks.

The Upper Room has published a devotional of mine, Dancing Feet, in this year's Nov/Dec issue. They tamed it down a bit (smile -- I never thought they would touch that one), so I am going to ask if they mind if I post the original version. If they do not mind, I will post it.

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 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 "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'. 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

Story about John and Elizabeth Edwards

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) --

Two weeks after a devastating revelation sent her husband into political exile, Elizabeth Edwards isn't getting the steady sympathy usually afforded to a woman scorned.

Elizabeth Edwards, pictured with John Edwards in May, has been criticized for the way she handled his affair.

Instead, she's faced criticism from dedicated Democrats who think she was too willing to keep the affair a secret to help John Edwards' political ambitions, as well as her own. At a time when she was expected to hold a prominent role in pushing an agenda of improved health care for Americans, she stands silent. While fellow Democrats converge in Denver, Colorado, to nominate Barack Obama for president, Edwards remains in seclusion in North Carolina. It seems an odd way to treat a woman with incurable cancer wronged by a cheating husband, the latest in a series of deep hardships in life that includes the death of a teenage son....In a post on the liberal blog Daily Kos, where Edwards has her own diary, she pleaded for privacy and later seemed to explain why she stuck by her spouse and his presidential ambitions.
For the rest see:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/26/elizabeth.edwards.ap/index.html

Amazing that it is the liberal blogs that want to tear her apart. So much for compassion. And forgiveness. If someone knows they have done wrong -- and an affair under any circumstances, by any measure, is wrong -- they stop doing it and seek to make it right, then we need to extend forgiveness. Under the circumstances, John Edwards affair is somewhat creepy and certainly frightening, but it is not unforgivable.

Elizabeth and John have a 16 yr old son who died, she has cancer, and he had an affair. Cheating on a spouse is wrong no matter what, but sometimes people do lousy things under severe stress they may not have done otherwise.

He ended the affair and sought to make it right with his wife. She decided to work towards forgiving him. Why does this disqualify him politically? No one can claim perfection. We venerate people like John F Kennedy who are believed to have had multiple affairs with no apparent remorse, yet we want to demonize John Edwards for an affair he ended. Worse — we want to demonize his wife for forgiving him.

Why?

For another take see http://seriouslyguys.com/2008/08/26/for-shame-elizabeth-edwards/#comment-642

Freedom at a Rice Mill

One story from the International Justice Missions web site.

 Freedom at a Rice Mill  

Families rescued from slavery from a rice mill hold government-issued release certificates, certifying their freedom. They now live in a village together where they have their own houses, visible in the background of this picture.

After trying for several months to gain access to the mill and meet some of the “second generation victims,” IJM’s lead investigator designed and executed an intricate mission that arranged for IJM agents to speak with the owner and to meet the new victims while the owner was occupied.

The owner made outrageous admissions to undercover IJM agents, boasting about how he trapped this new group through the bait of illegal monetary advances. He described how he would track down victims that escaped his facility, how he could not be touched and how there was nothing anyone could do to change the system. IJM agents believed otherwise and remained committed to bringing the owner to justice.

The second raid saw another eleven people receive release certificates from the government, certifying their new-found freedom. During the raid, the owner had to be physically restrained after trying to hit a police officer who had blocked him from harassing the victims. IJM’s intervention team, which has facilitated the rescue of hundreds of slaves, said they had never seen a group of slaves pack so quickly to leave a facility.

In recent raids to emancipate slaves, IJM staff members have been assaulted, their vehicles have been damaged by rioting slave owners and death threats have been hurled against both victims and IJM staff. These are the obstacles that give cruel slave-masters a false assurance that no one can touch them—that the system will never change. But the system is changing.

For the rest of the story, please go here.