by Donya Dunlap | Oct 31, 2012 | Modern Day Slavery
Photo Credit: kasiakay, Poland
These words may bring images to your mind of candy and costumes, but they mean a very different thing to the victim of modern day slavery.
(Warning: This post contains information that may be difficult for a sensitive or young reader.)
When a child or young woman (and often young men as well) is coerced or sold into sex slavery they are often forced to turn “tricks” many times a night. This means that their bodies are sold for another person’s pleasure to be used, abused, raped, beaten, strangled, etc. They are considered purchased property and therefore anything goes. If they resist their client, they may receive worse from their “daddy” when they come off the street for the night. If they don’t make their quota or do something else to make their controller unhappy beatings, torture, starvation and more can occur.
When a person is “treated” it means that they are severely degraded or insulted. This is a relatively minor and commonplace abuse these victims endure. I say “minor” not because it isn’t devastating, but as a comparison to other physical abuses. Emotional and mental manipulation is one of the ways owners or pimps wield control over their victims. This causes victims to experience high stress, depression, anxiety, Stockholm Syndrome, PTSD and other psychological distress.
Consider these facts posted in the research and resources section of the Girls Education and Mentoring Services website:
- CSEC is sexual activity involving a child in exchange for something of value, or promise thereof, to the child or another person or persons. The child is treated as a commercial and sexual object. CSEC is a form of violence against children.
- In New York City alone there are an estimated 2,200 children victimized by commercial sexual exploitation annually (OCFS 2007 Prevalence Study).
- The Department of Justice estimates the most frequent age of entry into the commercial sex industry in the United States is 12–14 years old (www.usdoj.gov).
- 100,000–300,000 children are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation each year in the United States (Estes & Weiner, 2001).
- 70–90% of commercially sexually exploited children have a history of child sexual abuse (Murphy, 1993).
So on a night when many dress up in scant costumes for entertainment, I plead with you to realize that so many hurting people will be walking the streets tonight in similar attire with more than a sugar high on their minds.
I encourage you to pray for those in the bonds of sex trafficking tonight.
Pray for their release and healing. Pray for their captors to come to Christ. Pray for physical, emotional and spiritual freedom.
Do you have questions about modern day slavery? Visit the modern day slavery page for more information or post a question in the comments section below.
by Donya Dunlap | Oct 28, 2012 | Guest Posts, The Spiritual Life
Several weeks ago I had the privilege of guest posting on the blog of the amazing Joseph Iregbu (To read that post click here.) Today I am privileged to have him sharing with us here. He has been an encouragement to me since meeting him through the book release team for Wrecked by Jeff Goins, and I know he will be an encouragement to you too.
Writer Joseph Iregbu
The Bible is full of extraordinary accounts of grace
like Ruth, Paul, Zacchaeus, Peter, Rahab and many more. What God did in their lives can often be described as:
Unfathomable
Unimaginable
Unthinkable
‘Absurd’
It’s a God Thing
But isn’t that what makes it a God thing?
Isn’t that what makes us a wonder to ourselves?
“A Holy God interested in the lives of unholy mortals, seeking to draw them to Himself, seeking to sanctify, purify and shape them…”
Grace is stupendous by nature. Whether we can fully understand it in this life, I couldn’t tell. And seriously I don’t want to – there’s eternity ahead to do just that. In the meantime, we should stand in awe.
Consider Rahab
Consider Rahab in Hebrews 11:31. Her story should continue to marvel us. There are some words you don’t naturally expect to see in the Bible, harlot being one of them. But Rahab would later be mentioned in the lineage of Christ. ‘Absurd’ grace!
This is good news for us. We are grace misfits in every possible way, naturally alienated from God but bought by the blood of Christ. This is beyond human wisdom but it’s good news. And good news are to be spread, shared and proclaimed.
Hope, Courage and Strength
Draw hope from the fact that God is the One that makes us ‘good enough’.
Draw courage from the fact that, being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
Draw strength from the fact that it’s not about your past record of shame and sins, but forgiveness by the One who shed His blood for you.
And if you haven’t experienced this wonder, I urge you to come in by faith. Come in and dine on this ‘absurd’ grace.
Do you remember when you first experienced God’s stupendous, ‘absurd’ grace? We would love to hear your story in the comments below!
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About Joseph
Joseph Iregbu leads on purpose and is passionate about raising the next generation of leaders. He blogs at http://josephiregbu.com and is a Coach and Mentor to young leaders. He is the author of a book (Even in the Well), husband of one wife and father to a gorgeous daughter. He lives in Germany. Connect with him on Twitter , Facebook and read about his Story of Hope that has inspired many to live bold.
by Donya Dunlap | Oct 25, 2012 | Art and Design, How Great is Our God, The Spiritual Life
As a beginning designer I knew very little about what artists call The Creative Process. When working on a logo, I might sketch out a few ideas, but then I would jump right into my design software and work on flushing out a solution. I skipped several important steps.
Before you can adequately summarize an organization, a person, a product or group into a symbolic representation, research must be done. You need to learn all the various aspects of the its goals, its personality, its people, its mission and more before you will know how to begin a design.
From there you need to brainstorm. Taking into account all the various things you learned in your research, you then begin to consider images that symbolize those concepts and how they relate to each other. You have to consider color and the color meaning, single shapes, complex shapes, and styles. You have to try out a multitude of ideas and from there refine and refine and refine until you arrive at a completed image that adequately represents everything your client is trying to communicate to their audience.
There is a similar creative process that happens in our relationship with God.
Often we are saved and become comfortable at a church then jump right into super-Christian mode and try to serve the Savior without really knowing Him. We skip the learning and meditating parts of getting to know God and try to make Him happy with us based on our performance.
This kind of mentality hurts us and our “audience” in several ways.
- We never know what it is like to have a true, deep, meaningful relationship with God
- We lack an understanding of who God is and how He views us as His children
- We are continually frustrated with our shortcomings, and translate that into a belief that God must not be pleased with us either
- We misrepresent God to others by not walking in the Spirit and therefore causing unsaved people to think that Christians aren’t any better than the world which also effects their view of God
I wrote of this in my soon to be released book, Forgetting the Fairy Tale:
We blissfully enjoy all of God’s blessing until He takes away a relationship, or allows us to have a terminal illness, or doesn’t allow us to get married, or anything else contrary to our picture perfect Christian lives, and then we turn our backs on Him. Why? Not because He doesn’t love us anymore, but because we really never loved Him. We never got to know Him. So when He does something that doesn’t match our image of Him we get angry… We become bitter.
God is so far above us and His ways are so much higher than our ways. We will never be able to truly know Him in all of His complexity because we are human and He is divine. But we can continually grown in knowledge of His person and His grace if we “do our homework” so to speak. If we stop the continual motion of our lives and simply sit at His feet, read His Word and listen for His voice, He will reveal Himself to us.
James 4:8 tells us to “draw night to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”
The reason that we struggle so much with what God does is that we don’t know who God is. We need to pause, rewind, and court our Savior. Just like any human relationship, understanding and love takes time.
I encourage you to pull out some paper and colored pens and hang out with Him for a while. Write out His characteristics and what they mean to you. Look up verses that talk about His majesty. Read through the Gospels and write down observations of Jesus’ character and personality that stand out to you. Draw picture graphs outlining truths of who God says He is and who He says we are in Him. Get creative!
What can you do today to get creative with your relationship with God? I’d love for you to share your ideas in the comments below.
by Donya Dunlap | Oct 11, 2012 | The Spiritual Life
Photo Credit: Jefferson Noguera
Let me guess, you’re not a “worrier” necessarily, but you’re a “planner.” Am I right?
How did I know? Because that’s what I say too. “Worrying” is wrong and there are a number of “fret not” verses in Scripture to remind us of this, but there’s nothing in there about “planning” is there? Or if it is, it’s a good thing, right? Jesus has gone to heaven to “prepare” a place for us, and that has to take some planning. Are you with me?
So you whip out your calendar, your day-planner, your iCal, your Evernote lists and you “plan” for the worst and hope for the best. You think of every possible scenario and what you would do about it if it happens. How are you going to pay for it? How are you going to pack for it? What are you going to do if this-and-such happens?
I’m a planner and I have to say that being organized and thinking ahead are good things. They really are. The trouble comes in when we substitute our preparedness for worry.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:34 to,
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
This doesn’t mean that we are supposed to live life flying by the seat of our pants. (Which is a really odd expression by the way. How does one fly by the seat of his pants exactly? Anyway…) What Jesus is saying is that we aren’t supposed to worry about things in the future, but trust Him to take care of them. The verse before this one gives us a very important caveat.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
If we are “planning” our schedules, our budgets, and our futures without any concern for what God would have us do, what would best benefit His kingdom, what will bring Him the most glory, and what will help to advance His gospel, then we are in a heap of trouble.
We can’t just cross our fingers and hope for the best and pay God no attention. We must seek first His kingdom and His righteousness AND THEN all these things shall be added unto us. (All these things referring to verse 31 in which it lists worrying about what we will eat, drink and wear, NOT “all these things” meaning the fabulous new pair of stilettos you just found at T.J. Maxx.)
Psalm 147:11 tells us that,
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
He takes pleasure in those that choose not to worry about what might happen. He takes pleasure in those that look to Him to be with them no matter what comes because they know that He is a good and merciful God that has our best in mind. Just like the picture above, sometimes we only see part of the whole. But God sees the end from the beginning and everything in between. Even the things that don’t look good to us now, He has promised will work out in the end. Trust Him to take care of both the every day and the “ever after” and you can enjoy a life of peace, even in times of uncertainty.
Do you sometimes have a hard time believing in your heart of hearts that God has good planned for you? What character of God or verse of Scripture helps you to remember that God is worthy of our trust? Please click comment to share your thoughts.
Are you on Pinterest? Follow me and the Forgetting the Fairy Tale board to pin the quote above and other quotes from the book for your encouragement.
