Trafficking US

I recently attended a training hosted by For Such A Time Ministries and NH Traffick Free (a Project of Real Life Giving) in collaboration with the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking.

The Hands That Heal training has been so powerful and presented so well, it has been like drinking from a fire hose.  The information presented is both substantial in content and volume.  Our training is geared toward domestic trafficking, or trafficking in persons within the Continental US.

This is a heavy issue for anyone.  I knew it would be emotional for me, but I did not know that I was a trafficking victim, now a survivor, of course. When Lisa Thompson defined Trafficking In Persons, I was taken aback.  I fit the criteria, in every respect.  I had most of the risk factors as well.  It was quite eye opening.

I was conceived by rape, which would not be a risk factor, if it weren’t for the fact that I thought of myself as a product of rape and not a valuable person, created in the likeness and image of God.

Our family lived in great poverty at times.  I was sexually abused, neglected to the point of frequently going days without food and no one would notice.  I wandered aimlessly, just hanging around with nothing to do, smoked pot, drinking or doing any drug I could get my hands on to alter my reality.

All summer when I was 13 years old, a handsome body builder with the quintessential pimp car of the day: a shiny, black, two-door Cadillac with red leather seats, would come through my neighborhood and just visit.  I didn’t even sit in his car for about two months.  He gave me his phone number, didn’t ask for mine, he was sweet, unimposing and very gentle. His nickname mirrored his initials.  His friends called him ACE.

On my 14^th birthday, my mom came home from work and I reminded her of the day.  She gave me two crumpled dollars.  We hadn’t been getting along, but ACE was there for me.  He said he had a way for me to make money to get what I wanted.  That afternoon, I called, met him at the corner store standing in three inches of slush and went to his apartment.  There he sold me to a man in a full leg cast.  He took me across town many times and down to the illegal gambling place or the pool hall in the mill buildings and sold me again and again.

I lived, actually I survived, on the streets for four years and became a house pet for one of the men ACE had sold me to.  He was a powerful crime boss in the small city.  He insisted that I have an abortion when I became pregnant.

God gave me a dream of the abortion procedure in living color.  It was vivid and disturbing.  I was terrified, because I knew without a doubt, that he would kill me if I didn’t have the abortion.  So, I called Anthy.  She was a social worker that had tried to help me out.  I made the appointment in his presence and told him I would go without him.  He insisted we go to dinner that evening afterward.  I had to pretend to have had the abortion.  It wasn’t hard, because of the dream.  It evoked such strong emotions and feelings that I had no trouble acting it out.  I was very afraid he would discover the truth.

I said, “Something happened on that table.”  I just didn’t want to see him anymore.   I told him I had a cousin about 20 miles north of the city who could get me a job at a café.  I went 100 miles south to a home for unwed mothers.  He let me go. 

I survived.  That is an abbreviated version of my story of Trafficking US.

This is still happening in our own neighborhoods.  

Life, Liberty and the GOP

I recently attended a Republican event.  It was called Women and the GOP .  Sharon Day, Co-Chair Republican National Committee, was the keynote speaker. She was obviously having an ‘off’ day.  I love to listen to speeches.  As a speaker, myself, I am always looking for nuances that make a better presentation, a more effective draw and convincing prose. 

I wasn’t as much disappointed in the presentation as in the actual content.  Ms. Day brought up the topic of where she stands on issues.  She mentioned education, boarders and something or other.  As a woman intimately involved in the prolife movement, I was saddened by the fact that she didn’t even mention the issue of life or the lives of millions of children and hundreds of women killed in abortion clinics, the lives of the men in Benghazi or of a general disrespect for life from the President.  She said something about Republican values. In only a few days, I couldn’t tell you more than a few words she spoke. Clearly, not stellar.

Jennifer Horn also spoke.  She repeated that the Republican Party is the party of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.  She switched it up with Life, Liberty and Property. Ms. Horn’s speech was shorter in length, but I remember more of it, because she did mention the first issue first. 

Our founders were very thoughtful men.  They did not have the myriad of distractions we face every day.  From TV, Internet, making ends meet with work schedules and the demands of modern society, we have lost the ability to simply focus on a task, large or small, and consider all of the ramifications to a logical and potential conclusion.

Our Founders penned that wonderful document, The Declaration of Independence, with the infamous words: …all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights: among these are the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Surely, these men knew what they were writing.  Our laws are written with strict grammatical rules.  The rights delineated are consecutive, not concurrent.  This simply means that my right to the pursuit of happiness should never trump your right to liberty.  So, if I am happy to keep you as a prisoner, this is unlawful, according to natural law.  And, my right to liberty should not trump your right to life.  I cannot kill you, because you are in my way of freedom to do as I please. 

Life begins at conception, usually a week before implantation and often six or seven weeks before a woman even knows she is pregnant.  A baby’s heart is beating at 18 days and by 10 weeks he or she is fully formed, simply growing.  One’s right to liberty should not trump another’s right to life.

Pregnancy is temporary. Women, even those in crisis, will be released from pregnancy at a reasonably specific time.  Babies, brutally killed by abortion are dead forever. This clearly transgresses natural law and the laws our country was founded upon.

What kinds of logical discussions are you having about the first issue?

What! Wait! Why?

How is a baby conceived by rape so different from a baby conceived any other way and why are we more deserving of the brutal murders committed in late term abortion centers across the country?

Biologically no one could tell the difference.  Visually we are developing similarly. 

Our little bodies are essentially, in every way similar. Babies feel the pain of the chemicals burning them from inside and out, or the knife cutting off limbs, the forceps grabbing at their flesh, pulling and twisting arms and legs off, even the last excruciating attack of the abortionist: crushing their skulls.

In what world is it ok to do this to anyone? Shamefully, in ours. A most pitiful people we are: killing our own children for convenience of one kind or another.

When the gruesomeness of these events come to light, and the studies show that these tiny people can feel pain, there are some who would try to inhibit the suffering by any legal means available, including providing a statute to prohibit the murder of the innocents at late stages of development. HB1797 would ban abortions after 22 weeks, a  period of development wherein a pain response is well documented.  But some would make exceptions!

Except for children conceived by criminal acts!  The baby did not commit the crime.  The innocent are expected to pay for the crimes of his or her fathers. Disgraceful! No other place in our society requires innocent blood as penalty for crime. 

This most permanent solution to a temporary situation will never un-rape the woman.  Pregnancy is temporary.  No pregnancy lasts forever.  However; abortion IS forever.  Many women regret abortion for the rest of their lives.  It never leaves. It never fades. For some, it is never healed.

Rape has its own set of traumatic consequences. Especially if a woman remains silent for a long time and more especially if she remains silent until such time as she finds herself pregnant.  Then the shame and humiliation of the rape is exponentially compounded by the suspicion of others not believing she was raped, but that she was willing and now vindictive. The distrust is often palpable and destroys all kinds of relationships.

Tragically, many expect women to want to kill their children conceived by rape.  More women know instinctively that killing the child will not help them heal from the rape and the child is not responsible and that it is their child.  Remember that it is her child.  The baby growing inside of her is hers.  The baby inside of her is totally and completely protected by her alone, totally and completely dependent on her for survival, nurturing and growth.

I find it absurd to think a woman wants to kill her child under any circumstances.  Most of the women I have counseled tell me that they were pressured, even forced into submitting to abortion. Some, like me, had to physically run away to avoid the abortionists table. Some gave in to plans for the future or fear of the same, others felt they couldn’t provide for the child and saw it as an easy way out, only to find it haunting and very difficult to cope with as well as very physically painful.

Abortion is a permanent solution to a temporary situation. Women need a bridge of help to get them through and they need options for handling the fact that they have a baby.  We need to acknowledge that a pregnant woman is a mother. She can be the courageous mother of a child lent out to adoption or raised with family or she can be the mother of a dead baby, killed by her compliance.

A woman pregnant by rape is no different.  She is a mother.  She can be a mother of a live baby or a dead one. 

How will you help?

There is Some Crazy Stuff on TV

There is some crazy stuff on TV.

My daughter watches shows about animal control, wedding gown selections, women who didn’t know they were pregnant until they were in labor and infestations of buildings and bodies.  Some of it is so silly, some gruesome, some disturbing.

She works a lot, but has occasion to handle the remote.  There was a story on today about a woman who went into labor with her first pregnancy and did not know it prior to the doctor telling her they were headed in to labor and delivery.  She was horrified.  She was in crisis and had no time to process the information and deal with the situation.  This is unimaginable to most people. 

This kind of crisis is actually not all that rare. What I mean to say is that life changing events can happen in an instant.  Suddenly, everything we thought we knew is turned upside down.  It could be a car accident or sudden death or unexpected pregnancy.  It could be a natural disaster or a drastic change in financial status for better or worse. Instant dramatic change is a crisis.  For people with initial withdrawal, even minor change can be catastrophic, if only for a period of adjustment.  These people initially withdraw from any change and instantly find negative scenarios to new information.  They need time to process and may need help to appropriately evaluate a situation by talking through the implications.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a condition affecting many people.  From combat veterans to abuse victims and those who have come through natural disasters or great loss, some people have a really hard time processing events or navigating particular circumstances. 

There are a lot of tools available to help people rewire their brains and find new ways to cope.  Therapies may include medications and counseling or maybe training and virtual reality therapy with a trained psychiatrist.  There are also healing retreats and interventions involving animals: equine, canine and dolphins are just a few. 

In these days of crazy television shows and crazier reality, it is good to know that there is help available and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  We are able to heal and receive health and wellbeing for our bodies and our minds. 

Our Creator has made us resilient.  Our brains are able to change and reorganize, reorganize both information and pathways for interpretation .  Scientists call it neroplasticity.  It means that the nerves can reroute thoughts and we have the ability to change our own thought patterns on purpose. I usually say, "You need to train your brain."

Scripture tells us to renew our minds by thinking the thoughts of God Himself.  By reading and speaking the Bible, we can change destructive patterns and build new pathways of thought and coping.  For many people this process requires a great deal of medical, physical and emotional intervention, but for some the simple act of deciding to recite the supernatural words of the Bible is enough to change lives. 

Next time you are thinking in negative terms, ask yourself, “How’s that working for you?” If it isn’t building you and those around you up, change your mind.

Have you experienced such a time?

Define Everything

So, you think you’re ProLife.

What does that really mean to you? 

 In reality, to be prolife encompasses more than being anti-abortion.  It is a lifestyle of honor and kindness to all people, great and small, young and old, rich and poor and even those, whom the world considers undesirable.  It means being considerate of family and friends.  It means respecting coworkers and clerks in the marketplace.  It means driving carefully and making decisions with an awareness of how those decisions will affect others, both here and now and in the future.

In our culture today, nothing should be taken for granted.  None of us can be sure that others are on the same page, so to speak. 

We must define everything.

Liberal used to mean allowing others to exercise their God given liberty.  Now, it generally means an elitist attitude that stifles the right to liberty by asserting illogical controls.  Gun control, also known as controling the right of self defense, food consumption control, restrictions on travel and building, property ownership and business, but gratuitous violence and unfettered sex of any and all kinds with unrestricted access to birth control, including unlimited abortion for any reason at any time before birth or after if that is the intention, only at a completely independent, unregulated, specialized killing center.

Christian at one time meant Believers in Messiah.  Then, it meant Catholic with all the pageantry and ceremony.  That changed to mean crusaders, pillaging and granting indulgences and disallowing the common man access to the scriptures, as in the Dark Ages.  After a long time there was a period of enlightenment and a protestant reformation, when to be a Christian meant one who believes in the salvation of the soul by the sacrifice of the one and only Son of God called Jesus.  And after a time a great many different denominations sprang up, divergent, but still holding that the Holy Bible is the Word of God. And now, Christian can mean a great many beliefs, usually based on the Bible.

Republican, at one time was rather specific.  If one was called Republican, there was a platform one would have stood on firmly. There are a number of planks or statements to which one is to espouse.  The only problem is that many people do, what I call, the platform dance.  Picture a person, skipping back and forth on a deck, stepping on only the planks that they like and never touching others.  A candidate may choose a party to run with, but completely abandon the principles that are key to that party.

Sadly, our economy is in such disrepair that many people are busy working to put food on the table and keep a roof overhead that they can hardly look up to examine the positions of those running for office. 

I know that our house is one which hopes to get enough information to vote with a clean conscience.  Taking the time to interview candidates and plug in to the think tanks can be overwhelming when you are in survival mode. 

Of course, if more people were observant and knowledgeable, especially about history, we wouldn’t even be in this position as a country.  History bares out, time and time again that socialism doesn’t work.  We also know that cultures that permit the wholesale slaughter of humans, especially infant sacrifice, do not last.  A few people exercising control over many is inconsistent with freedom. This is just part of natural law. Our Creator made us for life, because He wants to love us.

He loves you.  Without a doubt, He is sovereign.  He makes the rules and determines the consequences. 

When you are talking to people or listening to broadcasts, do you question the definition of the terms used?  Do you wonder if they are speaking a different language?  Are you sure others understand the context in the same way you do?  How might we be sure?

Who Wants That?

Who wants a god that is in control of everything?  Really, would you think a god that controlled abuse, brutal murders or even stealing is worthy of your adoration?  These are just a few of the many atrocities we live with on a daily basis.  They are all around us and what about car accidents, cancer and weather calamity, which are also seen every day.  Then, there is the question of free will?  If God is in control of everything, who has free will?  No one could, because everyone would be controlled by this god.

I certainly have no authority in which to form this opinion, just a few passages of Scripture.  Most honest people will tell you, one can make many concrete arguments from Scripture. This is mine.

The Bible says that God created the whole world and made mankind in His own image, in His likeness and it was very good.¹  The Bible is 66 books full of the manifold revelation of Himself², of His relationship with people³ and with historical events and teaching about Him,⁵ us and the rest of creation.⁶  It says He knows the end from the beginning.⁷  It talks about His will and how we can submit to it.⁸  There are even times when He intervenes in natural or supernatural ways without a specific request.⁹  Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.¹⁰  To know His names and attributes is a great privilege and essential to getting to know Him.¹¹

According to Solomon, said to be the wisest man to have ever lived, the whole of our purpose is to know and love God, to worship Him.¹² Is He some “great and powerful Oz” who does whatever pleases Him at the moment? The Bible says He is the same yesterday, today and forever¹³. So, that doesn’t fly.  How would one worship Him, unless we had access to reason?  “Come and let us reason together,” the Scripture says in the book of Isaiah, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”¹⁴   

The reason is because He is good.¹⁵ God gave people free will.¹⁶  Adam disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil¹⁷. This apparently stripped Adam and Eve of the glory that covered them.  They saw that they were naked.¹⁸  When God came for a visit, they hid n shame.¹⁹ God then made clothing for them from animal skin and drove them out of the garden, so that they wouldn’t live in that state forever.¹⁹  God had set up all the laws that govern the universe; laws like gravity, lift, refraction, motion and sin.²⁰  The law of sin states that the soul that sins will die.²¹ 

Like other laws, the law of sin has a complimentary law: the law of sacrifice.  There had to be a perfect sacrifice to supersede the law of sin.²²  Only a perfect man could die for the sins of all mankind.   God sent His only begotten Son to be that sacrifice.²³  Science tells us that the blood of a person is determined by the parent’s contribution to the DNA, the blueprint for one’s body.

The Scripture says that the Holy Spirit of God hovered over the earth during creation and that at an appointed time, He hovered over a legal descendant of King David, a virgin girl named Mary.²⁴ She agreed and brought forth the perfect Son, completely free from the tainted bloodline of people.  He was perfect.  He lived here on earth without sin.²⁵  He was the embodiment of the God of the Bible.²⁶  He went around doing good: healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, comforting all who were oppressed. He went around doing good.²⁷

I don’t claim to understand the complexities, I just believe the ancient Book.  It says the Only Begotten Son of God then fulfilled all the requirements of the law and provided the perfect sacrifice to redeem people, so that we could again have a relationship with God.  Considering the alternative of death and hell, the act of that one sacrifice makes Him worthy to be praised.²⁸ 

There is more though.  Free will, our greatest gift is also the bane of all life.  Because some use it for evil purposes, causing no end to the harm and heinous crimes and some out of ignorance, charge God to have control of everything and that makes people believe He is responsible for the bad; undeserving of our worship.²⁹

The Bible is a big book.  There is a lot revealed in it and it is readily available. There are more than a few passages that indicate we can submit to God and give Him control over situations or circumstances or even people.³⁰  Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for us.³¹ He will perfect that which concerns us.³²  He is the door of the sheepfold and everything hinges on His goodness.³³

How have you seen God’s goodness in your life lately?

1. Genesis 1:31

2. Psalm 46:10, Psalm 76:1-9, Jeremiah 31:34, Ephesians 33-11, John 35-41

3. Deuteronomy 6:1-8, Job 9:4-14, John 10:14-18, Ephesians 2:4-9, there are so many more…

4. Genesis 5:1-32, Matthew 1:1-17

5. 2 Timothy 3:10-17

6. Genesis 1:1-31, Ecclesiastes 8:10-17

7. Isaiah 46:10, Revelation 1:8

8. 1 Peter 1:1-2:3

9. Judges 13

10. James 1:17, Matthew 7:12, Luke 11:13

11. Exodus 3:6, Psalm 8:1, Psalm 23:1

12. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

13. Hebrews 13:8

14. Isaiah 1:18

15. Psalm 11:7, Psalm 18: 1-3

16. Deuteronomy 30:19

17. Genesis 3:6

18. Genesis 3:7

19. Genesis 3:21-24

20. Hebrews 11:3

21. Ezekiel 18:20

22. Romans 5:17-19

23. John 3:16

24. Matthew 1:1-18, Luke 1:26-38

25. Hebrews 4:15

26. John 8:42-43, 9:4, 10:15, 36-38

27. Acts 10:28, Matthew 4:23-24

28. Romans 10:9

29, Romans 12:1, Ephesians 5:6-7, Colossians 3:12-17, 2 Timothy 3:1-15

30. Deuteronomy 30:16, Psalm 34:7, Revelation 22:7and 12

31. 1 Peter 5:7

32. Psalm 138

33. John 10:9-10, Psalm 86:5, Genesis 15:1