Not For Sale

I have decided that my blog is going to be about things that matter. Things that bother me, break my heart, things that make me happy and joyful, and things that I am passionate about.

This post is not going to be pretty or easy to understand. It, hopefully, will leave you thinking.

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I just purchased a book called 'Not for Sale' by David Batstone

The book broke my heart.

The book is all about the global slave trade, and how to fight it. The book talks about slave labourers, child soldiers, and sex trafficking.

Here are some of the facts

-There are over 27 Million slaves today.

-800 000 are trafficked across international boarders every year. <- that's at  least 2191 people a day, including the USA, and Canada.

-There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today.

- 1 Million children are exploited by the global commercial sex trade every year

Child soldiers don't join the army for fun. They are kidnapped, forced, brainwashed, drugged, and made to become killers. Children as young as 4 are forced into the army. They are made to do gruesome, horrifying crimes. Girls up to the age of 11 are soldiers, but then they become a soldier's 'wife'.

Children are sold into the sex trade. It happens mainly in Eastern Asia, but also in Romania, Africa, Ukraine and many other countries. They could be sold for as low as $20, or to pay off a debt of their parents. They are forced to sell their bodies, dance, strip and act like they enjoy it. The men using these women? They are mostly rich business men, or Westerners that go to the country just for the reason of using the women.

If the slaves don't comply with what the trafficker, owner, or customer want, they are threatened, beaten and even killed.

How do these things happen right under our noses?

In North America the average trafficked person come into contact with 7 people that have the ability to help them out of their situation. We need to become one of the 7. We need to be aware that slavery is happening in our countries, and get out of our comfort zone, and if we suspect, to ask if someone if they need help.

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God tells us to take care of the orphans and the widows.

His orphans and widows. His sons and daughters.

Its so hard to understand why people are are being treated so unjustly, while I sit at home on the computer, drinking tea, a kitty to my left, and my family to my right.  I have nothing to complain about. I have a happy life. All of my needs are met, and I feel safe.

This is exactly why I want to do something. I need to do something. I have been educated, nourished, cared for, treated with respect, supported, and LOVED.

Without even knowing, I had been in training to help people. I know how to care for people, to educate them, treat people with respect, support them, and to LOVE them. Since I was little, God has been shaping my heart and my soul to have a passion for broken people.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils: freely have you received, freely give.  

Matthew 10:8

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

   Micah 6:8

God has given us such clear instructions on what our life is supposed to be about. Freely we have been given, so freely we should give.

I hope that this post has opened your mind, dear reader,  a little about the tragedy that is happening in our world. There is so much bad. So much injustice.  Right now, in my life, God is stirring new passions within me. He is making me want to create change, and to open my mind. We need to grasp that we need to learn to love justice. To be justice.

 And hope that the rest of the world will catch on..