"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one..."

Sometimes it feels not worth the effort to attack the giant mountain when I'm only scattering its pebbles.
I'm encouraged by Mother Teresa's words, "If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." I think of a story I heard years ago of a man who lived on a beach. Every day he would walk along the beach during low tide and throw water-surviving crabs back into the ocean that had gotten stuck in the sand as high tide retreated. A man watching wondered why this man bent over for hours throwing crab after crab back into the ocean. After a few days of watching the same scene, the man who was watching approached the man on the beach and asked him why he bothered throwing the crabs back into the ocean when they would simply end up there the next day anyways. Why did it matter? It seemed pointless to save their life, only to have hundreds more take their place hours later. The man replied, "Ask this crab if it matters to him..."

I'm sure I didn't get that story right on, and I'm not even sure where I heard it. But the point remains, the point that continues to stir my heart: That could have been me living on the other side of the earth in extreme poverty, as a sexually abused and trafficked woman, or dying from a treatable condition that I didn't have access to treatment for. If I was then impacted by work and gift of someone partnering on the other side of the world, I would care that they put forth the effort. A pebble moved suddenly looks more like a mountain moved when I shift my thoughts from statistics to recognizing individual life. Ask the woman whose life after prostitution is affected by our work if it matters to her. Ask the child who got a safe night's stay if that night mattered to him.

That's my heart with Trafficking Tuesdays. No one may ever read this, but it keeps me accountable if nothing else. I can't seem to solve the catastrophe of sex trafficking, but I sure can take a night to bake and slowly but surely raise money to help those in the battle front of this war.  I will bake for the women and children that are being raped and abused and sold, and I will bake for myself as a reminder that if I have the ability, then I believe God has asked of me to take responsibility.

As an update, we've raised $220 so far since beginning Trafficking Tuesdays. Here are some of the delicious yummies that I have learned to bake through TT over the past months (from starting this as a hopeless case in the kitchen, it's exciting for me how much I've learned through the weeks!!):

We will keep baking and will keep posting periodically. If you are interested in baking, buying either the goods or the baking materials, or coming alongside in some other way, please email traffickingtuesdays@gmail.com 

Superbowl & Sex Trafficking

My excitement rose with Packer fans around the country as last night's win at the Super Bowl was announced. What a time of pure exhilaration for most of us ... but not for all of us (and I'm not just referring to Steeler's fans). Due to the high influx of tourists and visitors to the Super Bowl state during game time, unfortunately the trafficking rates also tend to rise to unbelievable amounts.  Last year, tens of thousands of women and children were trafficked into Miami during Super Bowl time.  Check out Project Rescue's article on the disturbing relationship between the Super Bowl and trafficking here in the U.S.

http://projectrescue.com/blog/2011/01/sex-trafficking-and-the-super-bowl/ 

Trafficking Tuesdays will be on a "break" until March. We'll be back in full swing after that!
Up to this point we have a total of $77 raised!! Way to go Eau Claire - let's keep this coming!

Change has begun...

Over the last two weeks, it's been not only fun to bake, eat, share and give in Eau Claire, but also inspiring to be reminded every week of the daily reality of others in our world. We've begun Trafficking Tuesdays & are excited to see what may come of it ...


Here's a recent video from CNN on one particular story of sex trafficking in Europe...
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/01/12/uk.romania.sex.traffic/index.html?iref=allsearch

Mini banana bread loaves - Week 1

So far, $45 has been raised - enough to give the child of a sexually trafficked woman a safe place to stay for 45 precious days. Each dollar raised carries much value... Whether you give a dollar or two, $5, $10 or even more, the value goes beyond the dollar itself in impacting a child living a tough reality and in danger of walking into the trafficking life him/herself. Each dollar brings a night of safety to one child.



Chocolate & peanut butter cookies - Week 2



Hope.

The devastating reality of human slavery is touching every country in our world today - including our own. UNICEF estimates that 2.5 million people are victims of human trafficking today - and it has become a $32 billion/year enterprise (other organizations estimate the numbers may be closer to 20 million trafficked people world-wide. Statistics range and it is difficult to get exact numbers because of the ways these crimes are hidden, the shame often involved in having a family member sold or stolen into these work places, and language barriers in the understanding of what exactly constitutes the trafficking of a person).  The sex slave trade has especially caught the attention of many in recent years - including mine. As I've read books, researched, heard first-hand accounts of those involved in the fight against sex slavery, I have become more and more drawn into the issue. I've had nightmares about being forced into this lifestyle, but the reality is that I wake up - for others just like me around the world, waking up and realizing it's all a nightmare is not a possibility. This IS their every-day reality.



I would love to be able to fly to Nepal or India and fight this first-hand. I would love to be able to pursue a career right here in the US working to create legislation that would affect this issue here and abroad. But, like most, I can't do that right now. But to say I can't do anything is simply ignorant.



Here's the short:

We're baking & eating in Eau Claire to make a difference around the world. Invite anyone you know to be apart of this. Simply email TraffickingTuesdays@gmail.com by Monday afternoons with your

• Name
• Address the baked goods can be delivered to
• How many servings you would like delivered (ie. 1 cookie = 1 serving)

By Tuesday night we will have the goodies delivered right to you! Give a donation of your choice (a few bucks, or a few more - whatever you want!) and 100% of the proceeds will go to Project Rescue.

• $30 provides monthly night-shelter care for a child of a prostituted woman
• $100 provides monthly care for a woman or child in a Home of Hope
• $90,000 helps provide a safe, permanent Home of Hope 

Want to be apart of the baking, delivering, or purchasing of ingredients? Email TraffickingTuesdays@gmail.com for that too!

If you're interested in learning more of the inspiration of this project,

and more of the issue, read on ...

I (a recent Eau Claire grad living & working in the area) have discovered a passion for justice, as well as a passion for Jesus Christ who brings healing to those of us around the world who are broken. Couple these two together, and action to knowledge inevitably follows. I love God's heart for justice and His call for us to make movement -



“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? 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...if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness..." (Isaiah 58)



"This is what God the LORD says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.." (Isaiah 42)



"The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene..." (Isaiah 59)



We have the capability to intervene in small and big ways - so let's do it! I am convinced there is hope in hopeless places and healing for the most broken of hearts. Quite frankly, if I was a girl being sexually abused day in and day out, it would seem absurd to me that people who knew the life I was in would only sit back and wonder at the situation. It would mean the world to me if I was the child that was benefited by the small amount of money provided for me to have a safe place to stay. I would sure want to believe that there was hope for a life beyond the doors of the brothel.



Some of us in the Eau Claire area will be getting together to bake Monday nights. Every Tuesday we will deliver our baked goods to people in the area who are interested in buying any amount of treats for any amount of money. 100% of the proceeds will go to Project Rescue - an organization that provides safe houses ("Homes of Hope") for women and children who have been rescued from a life of sexual slavery, as well as safe places for their children to be so that they can grow up outside of brothels and hopefully avoid the same lives their mothers have been chained to. Check out www.projectrescue.com to learn about the organization. 



Project Rescue also has some great resources if you want more information (http://www.projectrescue.com/resources.html).



Some powerful videos on sex slavery can also be found from the organization Love146 on Youtube - worth checking out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2UaymytjO4  & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb6vcPDJKpc&feature=related). Although Love146 is not the organization that this project will fund, it is an organization partnering in the fight against sex slavery.



Several authors, including Julia Pennington, a faculty menber from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, includes this quote from their research article "The Cross-National Market in Human Beings":

“The Commonwealth Secretariat (2003) recommends that trafficking victims be provided appropriate housing, counseling, and information on their legal rights in their native language, medical, psychological and material assistance and employment, and education and training opportunities. Non-governmental organizations that perform these services are constantly short of money, and require both governent grants and charitable donations to try to undo the damage that traffickers have done.”

This is the road Project Rescue has been walking down, and is the journey we hope to encourage.


We will continue updating this blog with information on our progression, upcoming events related to human trafficking, and more...