SOLD - Construction Day

 "Sawdust flew around members of Bethel Church on Thursday as they gathered in an empty horse barn in Kennewick. They lugged and lifted sheets of plywood and nailed them together in what in about six months will become modules for an exhibit on the human slave trade.

Members of the church are working to raise awareness about human trafficking and how it affects lives in the Tri-Cities and around the globe.The exhibit, planned to be unveiled in May during a "Justice Weekend" at the Richland church, will tell the story of different facets of the human trafficking trade.

Each module will represent a different country and a different human trafficking issue facing that country's citizens -- sex trafficking in the United States, for example, or children being forced to serve as soldiers in war-torn African or Asian nations."

Via the Tri-City Herald: read the full story HERE. We had some great reporters come out who were well informed as to what else is happening in the area to combat human trafficking. We also had some great volunteers who came, built, let us use their barn, fed us, and didn't complain about the fact that we were building in an unheated stable at the end of December.

ARES Engineering donated work hours to put together our blueprints and Home Depot donated most of the delivery costs for the wood.

Now... we get to turn our giant wooden maze into an international experience. (More construction pictures HERE.)

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/12/30/1768994/church-building-human-trafficking.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

KNDU - SOLD: The Human Trafficking Experience

Thanks to our incredible media liaison, KNDU came by while we were just getting started this morning and filmed a story on the human trafficking exhibit. Actually, she got KVEW and the Tri City Herald there as well, just because she's amazing like that.

IJM Rescue

And They Shall Beat Their Guns into Goal Posts??

"Football's governing body, Fifa, is studying plans to hand out free or cut-price World Cup tickets to football fans who surrender guns to the Brazilian government.
Brazil's justice ministry submitted the plans for the 2014 event last month as part of a new disarmament drive in the South American country.
According to reports in the Brazilian media, the government's suggestions also include swapping official footballs and shirts signed by World Cup teams for weapons handed in to authorities.
Another proposal, part of a new "World Cup law" currently being debated by lawmakers in the capital, Brasilia, would see destroyed guns used to make goalposts that would be used during the World Cup in Brazil, and at other Fifa competitions around the globe."

 Via The Guardian: read the rest of the story HERE.

It's not quite beating swords in plowshares, but it certainly has that echo.

Google Steps Up

"Google Inc. announced Wednesday that it's providing $11.5 million in grants to 10 organizations working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
Gary Haugen, president and CEO of International Justice Mission, one of the grant recipients, called the move a "game-changing investment." IJM is a Washington-based human rights agency that works to rescue victims of slavery and sexual exploitation in about a dozen countries.
"This is the largest corporate step up to the challenge that is beginning to apply direct resources to the fight against slavery," Haugen said.
According to estimates by grant recipients, Google's support will free an estimated 12,000 people from slavery and prevent millions more from being victimized. Numbers vary widely, but policymakers, activists and scholars estimate the number of modern-day slaves at somewhere between 10 million and 30 million people worldwide."

Via CNN: read the rest of the story HERE.

Imagine

Find out more HERE.

Messy

There are some Sundays where mornings with the fourth and fifth graders are light and easy and everything that is wrong in their worlds can be fixed with a smile or a laugh or just a little bit of attention - when they are safe and alive and happy and our group feels messy in the way that creating art is messy. Crazy and hard to understand from the outside, but clearly in the process of becoming something beautiful.

Then, there are weeks like today, where we still smile, and we laugh a little, and we lavish on the attention, but it isn't enough. Weeks when they trust enough to come with their hurt hanging out in the open and we don't have enough time to bandage everyone's wounds - when I am half tempted to skip story, so that we can just sit down and get to the bottom of it all, as if we could talk and hug and chase everything away. These are the weeks when they come scared and angry and shamed and hurt, and they don't have the words for any of it. Weeks when I am suddenly aware of the fact that there are sixteen of them and one of me. And, our group feels messy in the way that a disaster zone might feel messy.

So, we run, and we memorize verses, we pray for each other, and we try new things. We talk about friends who are homeless or living doubled up - because, even though it isn't THE issue for any of them, it is an issue for all of them, one more thing that they are seeing and struggling to understand.

And, when it takes longer before they can force their bodies to listen, when kids who I know love Jesus don't want to pray, when they won't meet my eyes because I might see what they are trying to forget, we plow through it. Because, this is beautiful too.


Messy and painful and frustrating, yes. But, beautiful.

Beautiful: because they have discovered that you don't have to be perfect to be at church, because they are growing and changing, because they are living out the trust that we built last year, because they are raw and honest, because they are healing, because there is a God who knows their hearts more deeply than I ever could, because they are clinging to His promises, and because this mess is community.

Like most God things, it is totally and completely beyond my power, like standing at the sea shore with a bucket, trying to catch the waves. And, odd as it seems, I am okay with that.

(But, it might be time to draw another leader into our crazy community, so that the thirty-five kids on my roster have another set of ears to listen and another pair of hands to catch them when they are hurting and out of control. Because, easy days or hard days, if better shepherd to student ratios are possible within the small group, I am all for that!)

Fair Trade Christmas

Need some gift ideas this Christmas? Check out your favorite charities and non-profits and see if they have a gift catalog that you can shop from. Or... this blogger has put together a link up of smaller fair trade and US made gift ideas that you might not have seen before.

And... some pretty cool kids are selling crafts to raise money for a well in Zambia. Their products would make awesome stocking stuffers.

Tent

Typically, during childcare, the tents are reserved for the use of the children, but, occasionally, we let one of the high schoolers inside as well. :)

Report Card

Shared Hope has released a report card, ranking US states on the strength of their laws dealing with child sex slavery (domestic minor human trafficking). Do you know where your state ranks? Do you know why?

It is more than worth it to poke around on their website for a few minutes and see what you can find. Reality is closer to home than we often like to pretend.