Too Dangerous to Try?

   There was a time that I was too afraid to raise my hand in class, let alone venture into the dark, dangerous corners of the earth.

 I think I'm overcoming that fear. But then that presents an entirely new issue because now there are times that I don't fully think through the situations I may one day find myself in. People have called me naive because I act like I'm invincible. People have called me crazy because I choose not to think about a lot of the dangers that my life work will probably place me in. People have told me that I cannot succeed and they don't understand why I even try to take on such an impossible injustice as human trafficking or orphans in Uganda. 

   Luckily, I don't really like to listen to people...especially when they tell me that I can't do something. So I will continue on this journey...wherever it takes me and into whatever situations it leads and to whomever I may meet along the way. Because, yes, it's scary sometimes to think about certain situations that I'm likely to end up in. And, yes, it's hard to think about the fact that I can't do everything and I can't save everyone I want to. But I also think it's worth it. Because if I can rescue one person and give them back the rights that were taken from them and show them love that they haven't known maybe ever before in their lives and introduce them to the King of the Universe...I've done my job and I will be satisfied. 

   And as to the dangerous part: I think Christine Caine says it best in this video. 

Mishpat and Tzadequh: Biblical Social Justice

***My devotional with the high school youth***

   How many of you guys have heard about or talked about "social justice"? 

   I often talk about "social justice" - my term to describe making things right with the world in areas where injustice resides. I'm going to school to be a social worker because I want to better society for the people living today and also for the next few generations that will be coming in. I don't want my children and grandchildren to have to worry about these injustices and problems in the world that I worry about today. 

   I've used the term "social justice" so many times, but I just recently discovered what it means in the biblical sense. There are two Hebrew words used in the Bible that are tied together over 30 times: mishpat and tzadeqah. When tied together, the English expression that best conveys the correct meaning is "social justice".
   Before we start talking about mishpat and tzadeqah, we're going to listen to a song by Sara Groves called "When the Saints". It's kind of like my theme song because it's really inspirational and encouraging even when I feel like I'm drowning in all the injustice of the world. 

(Listen to this song.)

   Also, if you guys have any questions while I'm talking, just let me know and we'll talk about it.  

   Mishpat simply means to treat people all the same no matter what. This includes both punishment and protection and care. If someone does something wrong, they should receive the exact same punishment as the next person and the person after that; no one should get a harsher treatment because they are not as important in the eyes of the world and no one should get a more lenient treatment because they are more important in the eyes of the world. Everyone must be given the same penalty. But mishpat also has another side: giving people their rights and caring for them. 

   When mispat is talked about in the Old Testament, there are four groups of people who come up time after time: widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor. These people were so often talked about in the Old Testament because these were the ultimate vulnerable populations during that time because they had no social power. Today, we could include the refugee, migrant worker, homeless, single parents, and older adults. Mishpat means taking care of them; if we were to neglect them, we would be violating justice because we would not be giving them the rights that they deserve. 

   Tzadeqah means being righteous in relationships; the way you conduct all relationships in your family and in society. They must all be treated with fairness, generosity, and equity - in short, being kind and good in your relationships with everyone. In your family, that may mean helping out around the house; in your friendships, that may mean keeping someone's secrets when they confide in you and not spreading it around to other people; in society, it means to speak up for those who cannot: the unborn baby, the girl forced into prostitution, the man receiving unfair wages...ANYONE who doesn't have the power to defend themselves. 

   Tzadeqah also means being in a right relationship with God. If everyone were in a right relationship with God, can you imagine what would happen in the world? If everyone had tzadeqah, everyone would treat everyone else with fairness and love, which means there would be no injustice in the world. If all injustice was eradicated, we would no longer need mishpat because everyone would have the rights that they deserve and no one would need punished. 

*  *  *  *  *

    So, how many of you guys have a group of people or a population of people who you are passionate about helping because they are vulnerable and cannot speak up for themselves?

(Make a list on whiteboard/paper.)

   Now that we have the people we're passionate about helping...how can we help them?

(Make another list on whiteboard/paper.)

   Okay, now I am going to share with you guys what my passion is and what I am planning to do to help. 

   Some of you who have known me for a few years might know that I am really passionate about helping those who are trapped in human trafficking. At first, it was all forms of human trafficking: labor, sex, and domestic. Over time, however, I have become more and more focused on sex trafficking and forced prostitution so now that is my first and foremost passion. 

   Before I tell you all what I am doing to help end this, I want to show you a short video that will show you what I'm talking about. This is a promo video for an organization called The A21 Campaign, which is the organization that I will be sending the money I raise to. The lady talking in it is Christine Cain who is the founder of the organization and a huge abolitionist. 

(Watch this video.)

   I love this organization because they know what they're doing. They have both the mishpat and tzadeqah; they have lawyers that punish the traffickers and they also have the safehouses where the survivors can go to be cared for and their rights are restored to them. 

   Does anyone have any questions about the video or sex trafficking before I go on?

   For a few years, I've just been talking to people about it, making sure the people in my life know about it and are at least somewhat educated about it. A couple of years ago, the youth group raised about $500 for the Loose Change to Loosen Chains campaign, which helps end human trafficking. And then I graduated high school and went to college and I kind of forgot about these people that I was once so passionate about helping. One day, I suddenly remembered the plight of these girls and women and my heart broke all over again. So, I talked to Josh about an idea that I had and the ball started rolling. 

   We are making Freedom Birds, which we will sell to help raise awareness and remind people to pray for those enslaved in the sex industry. If any of you would like to help sew these, please let me know. 

   So, I was pretty content to just do little fundraising things like this until Kathryn Sabine came to me and started talking about starting  nonprofit organization to raise awareness about sex trafficking and eventually open a safehouse to restore the survivors. We're really focusing here in Pickaway County, in Circleville and Ashville because we are convinced that it's happening here. The police may not know about it - actually, I know they don't; they told me it's not - but I want to teach them if I have to because I do not want people to have to live through this horrible reality any longer. When Kathryn told me about her idea, I actually thought she was crazy. I mean, both of us are social work majors, which is great, but neither of us know anything about running a business. But Kathryn thinks that nothing is impossible, so we are doing it! And I am really excited about it, though sometimes it still overwhelms me when I think about it. But I'm learning that big dreams are exciting and so worth the worry they may cause. 

   I'm telling you guys this because I want you all to find something that you're passionate about and do something about it. And don't be like me and be content to settle for something smaller because you think it's not possible - it is. 

   And if you aren't sure what your passion is, pray about it. Pray that God will break your heart with what breaks His; that's the prayer that I prayed and then I learned about human trafficking. He will honor your prayers.

  
  

Most of you don't even care...

   "You know what's a shame? That 50,000 people have died of hunger today.
    You know what's an even bigger shame? Most of you here don't even give a ****.
    And, you know, most of you are probably more upset that I said **** than you are about the fact that 50,000 people died today of hunger."

*  *  *  *  *

   My pastor told this story today at the end of his sermon on Acts 6:1-7. He heard Tony Campolo speak once and this is a quote from him. Acts 6:1-7 is about a problem...and a solution. 

   In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

   The problem: People were going hungry because of injustice in the area. 

   So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables."

   The disciples knew that they needed to help these people but they also knew that they could not let themselves be distracted from the task that God had entrusted them with: to spread the Gospel. 


   "Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them..."

   The solution: They chose people to make sure that these people would get food and not go hungry any longer. And, when they chose people to give this mission to, they had high expectations: for them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and have godly wisdom. They chose people that they knew they could trust. 

   "...and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

   They refused to be distracted from their calling...even by something great!

   This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, and man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 

   As my pastor pointed out, these names don't mean a whole lot to us because we don't know these people, we don't know what they mean. However, all these names are of Greek descent, meaning that all of the people that the disciples chose to oversee this mission to feed the hungry were Greek...just like those who needed help. They were so sensitive to the needs of the people they were trying to help and realized that they may have felt like outsiders and needed people who could identify with them!

   They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

   They did everything with prayer!

   So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. 

   As a result, they had SUCCESS!

*  *  *  *  *

   How tragic to think how true this quote really is... How often do we get stuck sweating the small stuff? We get hung up on denominations...the way people look and dress...pastors cursing during a sermon...kids playing (maybe a little too wild of) a game... There are so many things that are just not THAT important. When it comes down to it, the real question is: Are we showing people who God is and what His love is like? Are we living out our lives for Jesus? Are we being good examples of Christ? 

   The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

   This is Isaiah 61:1...and it is also Luke 4:18. When Jesus went to Nazareth, we was taken to the synagogue and stood to read. Out of all of the passages that he could have chosen to share with the people gathered there that day, he chose this. This...which told them that he had not come for the popular, the privileged...but instead for the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, and the prisoners. Because God loves and cares about those people, the least of these, that we so often brush to the side, to the far, dark corners of the earth. 

   But because God has a heart for the broken, we should as well. We should care for them and help them because we have been blessed with so much. God has given us more than some can ever even imagine...why? I don't believe that God wanted anyone to go hungry or live in such extreme poverty. So why are we so content to allow it to happen, day after day?

   And it isn't just those who are hungry either. That's not where God's love and compassion ends, and neither should ours. His heart also breaks for the unborn child about to be killed in that clinic; for the little boy in the orphanage in Uganda or Ukraine, or in a foster home only fit on paper here in America, with no one to love them and show them how wonderful and lovely he is; for the young girl who should be dreaming about being a teacher when she grows up but instead she is not even enrolled in school herself because her parents do not have the money to pay the school fees; for the 21-year-old young woman who has been raped more times than she cares to admit, to think about, because she's been enslaved by her pimp for the past 12 years. 

   These situations are so incredibly unjust. Some of them are too difficult for us to even imagine being in because we live in such extreme wealth, whether we realize it or not. But it's time to stand up and refuse to allow this injustice to rule our world. 

   We need compassionate generosity. We need to share what we have with everyone else. Why not? If we have to have a little less so someone else can stay alive? 

   Really, how big of a sacrifice is that?