Concerning Obama On Inauguration Day…

          Like many, I’ve enjoyed the inauguration coverage, and before that the election season in general. There’s something about politics that seems less like politics and more like a sport to me. It’s addictive. However in this entire campaign, my research, and the news coverage, and out of all of the issues posed to the candidates and to Obama, not one time was human trafficking brought up… Why?!

          As I’ve said before, Human Trafficking is the 3rd, soon to be 1st biggest issue we deal with as far as organized crime is concerned, generating billions of dollars each year. A human is trafficked across international lines once every forty-seven seconds. And the U.S. is one of the biggest markets of the child sex trade, involved. And yet, nothing was asked?!?!

          I wish Obama the best of luck in office. I will support him with prayers and will submit to his authority. But honestly if the man doesn’t tackle this issue, or begin channeling some money to the people that do, I will be very disheartened. Politicians are usually more talk than walk. I pray he walks enough to aid this cause.

Some thoughts as I wait…

 

         I’ve spent most of my day e-mailing back and forth with employees from International Justice Mission, inquiring about their 6-12 month internships to foreign countries. Betsy, the volunteer representative I have spoken to has been very easy to talk to! Either way, the search for where to travel/help/volunteer/serve is still up in the air and it probably will be for a while to come.

          In the last blog with Jim Palmer, he said something that has really stuck with me… He said that instead of asking “Where is God in the midst of all the pain and suffering of this world?” We should ask, ““Where am I in the midst of the world’s suffering?” I’ve never looked at things like that and I believe it is a very thoughtful answer to the doubters and dissenters.

          Christmas is a few days away. I can only hope that some of the children being held captive will find some rest/solace/peace on Thursday. We know that their captors are barbaric and ruthless, but it will be my prayer that God will soften their hearts and even convict them of the sins they are committing.

          In other news, the UN toolkit that is posted as a link at the bottom of this page, is a very helpful PDF document that outlines everything involved with Human Trafficking. I found some of the laws to be very interesting, but the loopholes in some of the laws are a hindrance to the cause. When is the United States going to put as much effort into saving lives as taking lives? Call it as you see it, be you Democrat, Republican, or Independent, something just has to give. Our borders are too easily infiltrated, and our justice system is acting to slowly! This is a matter of life and death, and people are dying!

          This week as you prepare to spend the holidays with your families, make sure you say a prayer for those who aren’t so fortunate. Tell you kids about Human Trafficking, and your relatives, while you have conversations over the dinner table. People have but to know, and then the movement will begin. Like William Wilberforce, and Dr. Martin Luther King before us, we will fight and we will win the day, but only if we commit to making a difference. God be with us if we don’t…

Change we can believe in…

          It’s Sunday morning and I’m sitting on my futon, looking out the window. Mere feet away, birds are hopping around, trying to find a meal, and the sounds of kids playing on the nearby playground are drifting their way into my ears. It’s a sweet sound. A sound of happiness. A sound of hope. A sound of naivety and of contentment. This sound gives me a goal. It makes me want to hear rescued children as they get to play on a playground for the first time, or get to eat ice cream for the first time, or get to feel safe for a first time. After such torture would they even get to enjoy it? I have to think to myself. Yes. They would.

          I saw a documentary on rape in the congo about a month ago. On it there was an 11 year old girl who was lying in a hospital bed, still broken and torn apart inside, literally, after being raped by 13 men and then by gun barrels and sticks. When they first showed her and told her story I was on the brink of tears, and thought that surely this girl wouldn’t be a happy little kid. I was wrong. She was smiling, laughing and teasing the Doctor. But why was she so happy in this specific scene? Because the Dr. was telling her that she could take the catheter out of her because she hadn’t wet the bed in over a week and she was healed enough to go normally.  The little girls smile shined like mine when I see food, or a beautiful woman! It was angelic. I lost it, and bawled my eyes out for an hour, till long after the documentary.

          I’ve mentioned in my about me, a book called Divine Nobodies, by Jim Palmer. He writes a chapter about his work with International Justice Mission (who’s link is on the Resources section at the bottom of this page), and about the intensity of seeing little girls who would be sold into the Sex Trade, or were currently in it. It changed his life! In an interview that I conducted with Jim, for Wrecked for the Ordinary, I asked the following question, and he gave the following response. Check out the whole interview for some other great thoughts!

Q:        You have been to South Asia where you witnessed little girls who were being forced into prostitution? Where was God in all their pain and suffering?

A:       Religion tends to place God somewhere out there or up there in the sky. The religious logic naturally follows then for people to summons God out of the sky to intervene into human affairs, particularly to protect or rescue people from pain and suffering. This seems an odd notion to believe for Christians, particularly since Jesus Christ was divine life clothed in human flesh who saved the world from inside it. As mentioned, the metaphor of “the body of Christ” conveys that the divine life is still present on earth in and through us. Strangely, Christians sometimes fail to realize and live out the implications of the truth that the infinite God is dwelling within us and therefore placing God in close proximity to the needs and problems of humankind.

          I hear in Jesus’ words “the kingdom of God is within you” that the mind and power of God are within us to both conceive and give birth to his will “on earth as it is in heaven.” In the face of human suffering, we sometimes look into the sky petitioning God to come down and do his God-thing and solve it. Instead, I believe God replies by saying, “YOU fix it.” The reply, however, comes from within reminding us that we move in concert with God as God lives his life in and through and as us.

          One million new girls every year are forced into child prostitution around our world. I locked eyes with several of these little girls, moments before they were auctioned off to the highest bidder to be raped. To be honest, I sometimes wish I could just forget the whole freaking thing and go about my merry little life. I can’t. The God inside me loves these little girls and so they have found a place within my own heart. The common question is, “Where is God in the midst of the pain and suffering of the world?” Once I truly realized that God is present within me and present to the world through me, the question shifted to, “Where is Jim in the midst of the world’s suffering?” The “God and human suffering” question often drifts off into all sorts of theological, philosophical and theoretical debate, meanwhile little girls stand in long lines at makeshift clinics around the world to receive medicines for any number of sexually transmitted diseases.

          What the people at International Justice Mission taught me is that God shows up around the world to bring rescue to these girls and other victims of injustice through the intervention of people like us. I decided in conjunction with my books that I would speak out about this injustice and encourage people to become active in efforts such as IJM. I made a promise to myself about these girls that I would never forget them.

          Confronting oppression wherever it exists and bringing rescue to victims of injustice wherever they are is a reflection of the heart of God in our world. God’s kingdom is one of love, beauty, wholeness, freedom, peace, truth, and justice. Some people seem to be sitting around waiting for God to drop it on us. Maybe God wants to give birth to it through us.

          Thinking of those little girls in South Asia , the next time brothel doors are kicked down by IJM operatives, perhaps one of those girls will ask, “Where is God in my pain and suffering?” I believe the answer is, “God did not send your pain and suffering, but God enters into your pain and suffering and shares it with you. God is here now rescuing you, and God is able to bring deep healing and transformation from his life within.”

          Right now I’m sitting on my futon, looking out the window, and I’m trying to contain myself. Trying to hold myself back from cynical resignation. There are things I can do, and there are things you can do. The whole point to what I’m saying in this blog and in this mission, is simply this… Love one another. If I obey that spiritual mandate then I will be forced into action. Action that I pray makes some kind of difference. But regardless of ones faith, it is a universal truth that we can join hands in. Love these little girls and boys, love these victims of rape, disease, war and murder. Love them and help them. Take action against the people who have enslaved them and give them back their lives. There’s no time like the present!

          Trafficked Hearts was nominated for a bloggers choice award! Please vote for us by clicking the picture to the left and voting for us. Remember every vote is a vote for change! Hehe I always wanted to say that. But seriously, every vote is a vote for those little children being enslaved around the world. Please join with us!

A New Ally!

          Already I have had many responses to this blog and the message it represents! I was very overjoyed to see a very reputable blogger in the blogosphere had written about http://TheEvolutionofGod.wordpress.comand this site! If you want to check the blog out and what she says click the following LINK!

          Several others have also joined up! Please keep this up! The more people that link to this site, the more good that can be done. I will be posting several conversations between me and the top organizations fighting Human Trafficking in the next few weeks. Hope you will keep up and link up!

About Trafficked Heart, Preview…

         

To Whom it may concern,

           My name is Timothy Kurek, and I am just like you. And ordinary person. An average Joe. And as Jim Palmer likes to put it, a Divine Nobody. I am also beginning a profound journey, a journey that requires action and urgency. Lives depend upon it. The issue is Human Trafficking, and while you may have heard echoes of news reports while you cooked dinner, or watched a movie that briefly mentioned it, I assure you it is far more real than one could hope to imagine.

          In 1833 the British legally abolished the slave trade. In the 20^th century America too, believed it saw the last of slavery. But what we have forgotten is that issues this huge have to be maintained, or they will return again and again. Did we actually think that a world that has been built on the backs of slaves would never see slavery again? We were fools…

          Next to drugs and illegal arms trade, human trafficking is the most widespread crime on the planet. Whereas drugs and munitions are traded for high prices and are used once, the average girl and boy are sold for much less, but are able to service 30 to 40 clients per day. That means that while the drug dealer down the road is making a few grand a week, the slave traders are making the same, but residually….

To read the rest of About Trafficked Hearts, click the link below!

http://traffickedhearts.wordpress.com/about/

 

Human Trafficking: Evolution of God Post

          We live in a fallen world. There is no easier way to put it. And life seems to go in cycles, we seem to be mastered by them. What was once a regularity, will be again. Unless you decide to do something about it that is.

          Over the past several months, through many conversations with friends and experts, I have realized that my heart belongs to the cause of human trafficking. I shudder to think of those young people, taken against their will, and forced to do things that would turn even a porn-addicts stomach! One person is trafficked every 47 seconds, and we do barely anything about it! Shame on us…

          No more. No more guys! We have to be the ones to stop this, the average person. We have to become involved. Right now I am waiting to hear from some friend who are very heavily involved with human trafficking programs, that work with the families and local authorities. I can’t wait to throw my hat in the ring on this one… Until I hear from them I will be posting videos at the bottom of every blog from here on out… I hope that these videos might awaken the same sense of urgency within you that it has within me.

          Pray with me for them guys… Pray for the little girls right now being raped and beated by men in their 40’s and 50’s. Pray for the boys who are taken from their homes, given promises of work and money, but are instead forced to perform heinous acts on men when they have yet to have even grown into men themselves. Pray for the repentance of every worker involved in this business, so that they might repent and pay for the crimes they have committed. And lastly pray for the men who frequent these brothels and rape these young people. Pray that they never meet me face to face.

          We live in a fallen world, but we have a way out… Let’s show that to these kids and rescue them from the injustices they face daily.

http://theevolutionofgod.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/human-trafficking/