Life in rural America with a kinda-crunchy, totally geeky, completely devoted mom
One of my favorite things about living in the country is the ability to own a sizeable amount of land for a reasonable amount of money. The purchase of our first home marked a noticeable change in our lives. We had never owned anything before and now we were the owners of land.
Since we bought the home in August of last year, we were unable to plant any flowers or trees; the yard was bare and needed a lot of work. Mother’s Day weekend, we really set to work.
Have I ever told you about my Mission Friends kids? Eight of the most adorable (course I’m bias), smart, well behaved children I have ever come across. Many of these beautiful kids have grown up with KG and have been her best friends and partners in crime. These kids have filled our church with the melodic sound of their laughter and the innocence of their prayers. I am a better person for knowing them. They have taught me more than I have them I’m sure.
I’ve been teaching Mission Friends at our church since 2005 and each month I am re-inspired by the amazing missionaries we meet. This month we are learning about Mr & Mrs Dorrell. They pastor The Church Under the Bridge in Waco, TX. The ministry started as a way to reach out to homeless and the less fortunate, but has quickly become a favorite in the area.
This week we are learning about how the Mission Waco Christmas Toy Store helps the Dorrell’s community. We are going to decorate the walls of our classroom with colored cowboy hats and boots. Since it’s so beautiful here today, we’ll be spending a great deal of our time enjoying it.
In observance of Earth Day, I plan to spend some time discussing the scripture references and how they can make a difference in their own home. Things like turning off the light when they leave the room and shutting off the water when brushing their teeth are tangible ideas that get kids involved and makes them feel like they too are making a difference.
We’re going to make croissants for snack time. The kids like to do all the work besides putting it in the oven and taking them out, which works for me because I am an excellent supervisor. The croissants will be served with fresh strawberry and grape preserves. The Durrells frequently have this with their weekly breakfast at The Church Under the Bridge.
I’m a bit lacking in the craft section, so I’m open to any ideas you might have for Western crafts that might fit in here…
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines trafficking as
“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”
On March 12, 2009, an UNODC report announced that they now believe there may be as many as 2 million victims of the human trafficking epidemic. 79% of the estimated 2 million victims are believed to be victims of sexual slavery.
For those of you who still think slavery was abolished in 1865, think again. Slavery is alive and thriving today, and yes, living right here in the United States. The Council of Europe reports that human trafficking markets top $40 billion in profits each year. In places like Russia, Hong Kong, and Columbia, human trafficking is a huge operation run by crime organizations dealing primarily in forced prostitution (sexual slavery.)
Women and Children
Women and children make up the biggest percentage of sex slaves worldwide with many of them tricked, abducted, or sold into slavery. Women make up over 70% of persons trafficked each year followed closely by children.
The abducted women are often tricked into believing they are receiving job placement, but upon arrival are beaten, robbed of their papers and passport, and raped before being forced into sexual slavery. Most of these women are from poor areas of the world, are ethnic minorities, runaways or refugees. They leave their country looking for a safe place to prosper, but when the illegal trafficking ring is busted, the victims are often arrested for illegal prostitution and promptly deported back to their home country. Eastern Europe is a major player in human trafficking for women and children; two-thirds of the women trafficked for forced slavery around the world come from Eastern Europe. In many parts of the world, women to traffic other women into slavery everyday.
Children are sometimes sold or leased out by their families for sexual slavery, forced labor, international adoption, or early marriage. Some children face being recruited as child soldiers, thieves, or being sold to religious cults. In Africa, thousands of AIDS orphans have been trafficked for recruitment as child soldiers. However, international adoption is the most documented cause for human trafficking. The Associated Press reports trafficking of children for forced labor on the West Coast is a direct extension of the way of life in parts of Africa today.
Human Trafficking in the United States
If you’re wondering what all of this has to do with you, let me bring it a little closer to home. Of 14,000 people trafficked into the country (US) every year, 46% of them are forced into sexual slavery*. The National Human Rights Center reports there are over 10,000 forced laborers in the US today. One-third of them are domestic servants, with the vast majority of those being children. The East Coast is flush with illegal sex slave brothels in cities like Raleigh, New York, Atlantic City just to name a few. Women, ages 14-35, are disappearing all along the East Coast and little is being done.
Recently in New York, a number of “spas” were raided and their owners prosecuted for sex trafficking. According to the FBI Human Trafficking website, an Anchorage Alaska man was convicted in February of this year for “recruiting young women—mostly runaways from other parts of the country—to work for him as prostitutes. He controlled them by getting them addicted to crack cocaine, confining them to a small closet for days at a time, and beating them.”
Who’s Making a Difference?
Born to Fly and @DianaScimone are working diligently to put an end to global child trafficking. Please stop by and see how you can help.
UNODC has launched the Blue Heart Campaign to rally public opinion against human trafficking. Join the campaign and help educate the populous about the human trafficking epidemic.
The Human Trafficking Project is doing it’s part to educate the masses about modern day slavery, “connect those working to combat the issue and support trafficking survivors.” Their blog is really well written and very informative, I love their writing.
“Free the Slaves liberates slaves around the world, helps them rebuild their lives and researches real world solutions to eradicate slavery forever.”
Edited to add: Love 146 is doing it’s part to educate, protect, and provide aftercare to child trafficking victims. Their vision is to see the abolition of child trafficking.
What We Can Do?
The very most important thing is just TALK ABOUT IT! The more we talk about it, the more awareness evolves and the less the fugitives can hide. Haven’t we been silent long enough?
Photo Courtesy of New Image Camps
If you haven’t been inspired lately, let me introduce you to the people over at New Image Camps. The wonderful people at New Image Camps, Camp Pocono Trails and Camp Vangaurd, are restoring confidence and self esteem to hundreds of overweight children every year. For the past two years, New Image Camps have held a contest to provide 10 children the chance to attend one of their camps for free! This year is no different. Starting on February 1 and running through May 25, New Image Camps is running the “Imagine Me! I’m up for the challenge at New Image Camp” contest.
Before jumping right into the details of the contest let me start off by telling you a little more about New Image Camps. New Image Camps focus on building weight loss into their campers lives, promoting “health, wellness, integrity and learning”, and giving each camper the individual attention they need to achieve their weight loss goals in a positive environment. They provide a nutritious meal plan that the campers follow, integrate the fun of summer camp with weight loss, and they promote lasting friendships.
Now on to the contest. This is take directly from the New Image Camps
Photo Courtesy of New Image Camps
Imagine Me! Contest Website:
What: Ten lucky children (5 males and 5 females) will win a three-week sleep-away camp experience this summer (called a “Campership”) at New Image Camp’s Pocono Trails location in Reeders, PA. New Image Camp helps overweight children lose weight and build self-esteem in a fun, nurturing and healthy environment. The retail prize value of a three-week Campership is $3,890.
When: The New Image Camp Contest is open to children ages 10-17, who are legal residents of the 48 contiguous United States or the District of Columbia.
The Official Contest dates will be from February 1, 2009 – May 25, 2009. Dates of the Campership are from July 27, 2009 – August 19, 2009. Transportation will be provided for each Winner to and from the camp at select drop-off and pick-up locations. All other transportation is the responsibility of the winners.
How: Entrants will submit an official entry form and a written essay of no more than 500 words, typed and double-spaced, titled “Imagine Me! I’m Up for the Challenge at New Image Camp.” The Contest will be judged by a panel of experts based on elements including compelling nature of the story, clarity and creativity. Essay entries must be accompanied by a photograph.
To download Contest Rules and an Official Entry Form, click here.
Entry form must be signed by entrant and his or her parent or legal guardian. No part of the entries will be returned to the sender, and the entries will become the property of New Image Camp.
I encourage anyone who meets these requirements, or knows someone who does, to enter! This is a fantastic opportunity and one I am proud to stand behind.
My five year old daughter and I pray about hunger daily. She feels children starving is more important than anything else for her to pray about. If a five year old can find hunger important enough to talk to God about shouldn’t we? Hunger claims the lives of 25,000 people each day and 18,000 hungry children die each day. How many more have to forfeit their lives before we as a community come together to say enough is enough?! As an obese nation, each person consumes somewhere around 1500 pounds of food a year.
Courtesy of BBC
Hunger is defined in Oxford English Dictionary as “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food.” While most of us wasted nearly $100 billion of food last year alone, over 800 million people were undernourished–that’s more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union. One in seven people on the planet suffer from hunger and more than 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women, which should strike most of us women as deeply disturbing…60% of 800 million people is more than 500 million women.
Courtosey of BBC
As a mother, I find this statistic the most heartbreaking: every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry. In the time it has take you to read just this far, nine children have died due to hunger. 9.7 million children under five died in developing countries in 2006 alone, think of how many more have died by now. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases caused 60 percent of the deaths; they contribute to deaths caused by diahreha, malaria, measles, and pneumonia.
How many more people have to die before we as humans, God’s Children, stand up and say ENOUGH? If we all helped out just a little, we could easily end world hunger. It takes standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves and it might even mean a little sacrifice from us, but isn’t it worth it. Help stop the hunger and death!
Sites like The Hunger Site make it easy, you can donate food for free with just a click of your mouse. I set an Outlook reminder for everyday to help remind me to visit. One click donates the equivalent of 1.1 cups of food, done daily you can contribute over 365 cups of food for FREE every year. If you want to do more, you can shop for beautiful gifts at The Hunger Site Shop. The more you shop, the more food is donated. For the last two years, we have bought many of our family’s gifts from here and Hubby buys all of my gifts from there. Many of the items in the shop are handmade, Fair Trade items; you can buy kits that directly help others. In 2008, The Hunger Site, thanks to their generous advertisers, donated over 8,000,000 pounds of food to Feeding America, Mercy Corps, Save Darfur Coalition, and The ONE Campaign.
FreeRice.com donates 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program for every word you correctly define. With every word you get right the words get harder, and when you get one wrong the words get easier. This is a great way to donate food for free and exercise your brain. There are so many different ways you can donate right from the comfort of your home, why are we not doing more?
Visit these sites for more details on how YOU can help:
We are all God’s people! and we must do our part to save those who cannot save themselves!
We started getting snow Sunday morning, by Tuesday afternoon we had added an inch or more of ice on top, Wednesday morning saw MORE snow and the loss of our electricity/heat. More than 300,00 people in Kentucky/Indiana lost power and as I write this more than 150,00 are still without power. All of Grayson County, KY is without power still. Please pray for that county. We had no way to get out of our driveway and to my Aunt’s house until Wednesday afternoon when my Uncle was able to dig out and get us. After a sleepless night there and more family time than one ever really needs, late Thursday we had electricity again; we packed up and headed back home to a cold house and more chores than I would like to think about. Hubby stayed in a hotel next door to the office Tuesday and Wednesday night, but he finally made it home last night. Boy, the girls and I were sure glad to see him! You’ll have to forgive me for my lack of posting Feature Friday and some other important posts for the last two weeks, but illness and Mother Nature have really worked me over. I am just thankful the Lord was watching over all in my family and keeping us safe and sane over the last few days.
In other news, we had a winner for the Slimpressions giveaway: #7 Donna K!! Congratulations Donna!
The Passpack contest ends Saturday and there are only 2 entries!! There are 5 licenses to giveaway, so it looks like I’m going to have some left over!!
Here are some pictures I took from our snow storm.
Monday’s Snow Fall
Wednesday’s Snow Fall
Icicles off the front of the house
Layer of ice under snow
When the refrigerator broke I couldn’t let all my food spoil, so I made some outdoors refrigeration instead.
You will have to forgive how bad the pictures look on the page, I was having trouble with WP getting the pictures where I wanted them. Sometimes it’s definitely a user error. While it’s pretty here, it’s also a MAJOR inconvenience not to be able to get out of your driveway! More pictures later:)
With more than 1700 people having already died and more than 35,000 already infected, according to the World Health Organization, in Zimbabwe from Cholera the need for clean drinking water becomes even more apparent. Cholera is a water born disease, caused by water infected with Vibrio cholerae. It causes severe diarrhea and dehydration in those infected. In an epidemic, like the one in Zimbabwe, it is usually spread through inadequate sewer systems and contaminated drinking water. When your entire country has inadequate sewer systems and contaminated drinking water where can you find hope? Where can you find relief? Enter PUREWATER PURELIFE.