One of my passions is art and I love when I find ways that people are using art to minister and raise awareness. This week I found a really cool ministry called Kids with Cameras. The organization teaches art to children in poor communities all around the world. They use photography to empower kids, to capture their imaginations and to bring them hope. Their artwork is shared in exhibits, books, films and websites. They also work with organizations in the community to strengthen the kids’ education and general well-being. It’s so cool to me that these kids can express themselves through photography and that people can find ways to use that to help the kids in so many different ways. I would love to possibly do something like this in the future.
Posted by
Amanda
3:59 PM
Sometimes I feel like technology has taken over our lives in such a way that we forget about reality—we forget that humans are real, tangible, valuable. I read an article this week about two parents in South Korea who had a child with health complication. Instead of taking care of their real child, they made a cyber child and spent all their time looking after it online. They would only break away from their cyber child to feed their real child every once in awhile. Their child ended up dying from malnutrition and dehydration.
When technology takes the place of reality, we have to know there is a problem. If you are choosing to take care of a cyber child instead of your actual, in-front-of-your-face child…there is a big problem. An important point made in the article is that this isn’t just something that happens across the world from us. While people in the United States aren’t killing their babies because they are taking care of cyber children, they are constantly enthralled with their technology. Whether it’s the internet, texting, calling or watching television, we have become a society obsessed with communicating through technology and getting away from our realities.
It’s sad to me that personal communication has gone down the drain. We no longer know how to communicate with each other verbally, we don’t know how to act with each other in person and our friendships aren’t as rich as they could be. If we could put down our computers, turn off our televisions and limited our cell phone use, I think we would find that there are amazing, beautiful people around us, full of love and stories and intelligence. We could enjoy nature, the way that God intended for it to be. I think we are really missing out on a lot.
It’s such a big deal to me that we are missing this. I definitely want to keep praying for this and keep this on my mind. If you want to pray with me, just pray that:
· The South Korean couple would be able to realize the value of human life and be able to deal with their loss in a healthy way.
· We would learn the importance of limiting our technology use.
· We would spend more time interacting with people, spending time getting to know one another and love each other in a deeper way.
· Our society wouldn’t be working its way to total dependence on technology, but start building relationships in more fruitful ways.
Article: Baby Dies While Parent Plays Online
Speaker: Mati Gali
Topic: Street Children
If there is one topic I find incredibly hard, it would be street children. There is an unbelievable number of street children in the world today: an estimated 100 million to be exact. They are living on the street, with no protection, no security, and no love. They steal, sniff glue, have sex, fight and rummage for food. But these things don’t define them. That is not who God intended for them to be or where God intended for them to live. They come from broken families, but God wants them to have loving parents and a safe home. They come from all over: slums, middle class, the streets, and even Christian homes. These are children, between the ages of 0 and 18…living on the streets, sleeping on cardboard, and scared for their lives. When it comes to hope, they have none. They find themselves sniffing glue to take care of the emptiness in their lives. When it comes to love, they are alone. So they end up having sex with each other to make up for that hole in their hearts.
Who is taking care of these children? They are taking care of themselves. That was never supposed to happen.
One thing Mati said this week was that, “With knowledge comes responsibility.” Once we are faced with the knowledge of these situations, we have a responsibility to do something. Satan has a lot of ways of destroying children. We can see that through what is happening to these kids on the streets. One of the ways Satan destroys children is through the apathy of those who can help those kids. I think it’s important to take a look at what is holding us back from helping children all over the world and children in our own neighborhood. Is it apathy? If so, we need to kick ourselves in the butts. Kids need us.
We talked this week about following your calling and taking a risk to follow God even if we can’t see where we are going. Moses took the Israelites out of Egypt without having any idea where he was going, how he was going to feed all of them or where they would sleep. He had no idea what he was doing, except that God told him to do it. And he followed God’s lead to wherever it took him. Do I have that kind of faith, where I will step out and do something God tells me, even if I don’t know where I will sleep, where I will get food or where I’m even going? I don’t really know. I have had the faith to come here and believe that this is where God has taken me. But in some ways, I feel as though this is a safe place. Would I be able to step out and go somewhere else? To follow God, even if I can’t see where I’m going? I’m trying and striving and moving forward. I think that’s a good place to start.
Posted by
Amanda
9:07 AM
On Wednesday, a few of us took a nice, little journey to a daycare center about half an hour from the base. Instead of going to Casa Viva with the foster care kids, I think we will start going to this place for outreach every week. It was a really cool place, with kids ranging from about one to six years old. It’s funny how they all try to grab your attention, grab your hand and want you to play with them. A few of us girls went and helped out with the kids that were around one to three years old. It took them a little while to warm up to us, but in the end we were running around, playing ball and being silly. There were around eight children and only one adult to watch after them. The whole time we were there she constantly had her hands full, changing diapers, getting food, cleaning up vomit. It was an eventful day, but for the woman in charge it was just a normal day. It was nice that we were able to help her out and play with the kids while she did all of those things. The kids here are great and I’m excited for outreach, where I will be able to work with kids every day. I can’t even imagine the smiles I’m going to see, the stories I’ll have to tell and the kids that are going to touch my heart. I can’t wait for six months of that!
As I read or listen to the news, I can't help but feel overwhelmed by the chaos and crap that is happening in this world. I think a lot of people agree. It's hard to be faced with violence and injustice. Once we know about things, we are forced to either ignore them or do something about it.
Earlier today, I was reading some articles on human trafficking. It's crazy how many articles there are and how many of them are in the United States. One of the articles that caught my eye though was about Irap and how women there are selling their own daughters. Can you ever imagine selling your daughter or son, fully knowing what you were selling them into? That is what these women are doing. It told the story of a young girl who was widowed at the age of 19. Her mother and brothers told her they were going to sell her to a brothel near them. The girl informed police that she was friends with to raid her home and the brothel. The girl ended up going to jail for two years because that's how long it took to come before the judge and be released, but the girl said she would rather go to jail than to be sold to the brothel.
This is such a terrible situation, but the article also presented us with a side of hope. Another woman from the same culture had been raped when she was 16 and kicked out of her home because of it. After educating herself on the human slave trade, she is now an undercover pimp that collects information on sex trafficking in Iraq. It hasn't been easy for her, she's even started to get beaten as more people become suspicious of her. However, she inspires me because she says she will not stop doing what she's doing, even if she is killed. She will not give up on stopping the sex trade. To me, this is a challenging, inspiring and beautiful thing. How many of us are so passionate about something that we are willing to put our lives on the line for it?
I think it would be good for all of us to get some of that passion.
Let's pray for that passion.
Let's pray for more people to take a stand, speak out, take action.
Let's pray for woman and men to realize the value of human beings, the value of children.
Let's pray for the demand of prostitutes to end, for women and young girls to be restored, for families to reconnect and love each other.
Let's just pray.
Link to the article: Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers pimping Daughters
Here's another article from Time magazine about human trafficking: Human Trafficking Rises in Recession
Posted by
Amanda
12:46 PM
As some of you may know, I went to South Africa in 2007 to do a Discipleship Training School and work with children in need. I still have such a huge heart for the place and a desire to go back and do more there. I've also really been developing a great desire to become an advocate for human trafficking and help end the human slave trade.
Justice A.C.T.S. is a network of believers working in South Africa to bring awareness and combat human trafficking. They have a great group of people skilled in counseling, media production, photography, journalism and social work. They work with local churches and other organizations to go into "at-risk" communities and educate them on trafficking. We need more people to step up and use their skills to fight for justice. I think it's great what they are doing and shows how we can be advocates as well for these things.
Link: Justice A.C.T.S.
Posted by
Amanda
12:38 PM
This week, our speaker is talking about street children. He leads the Youth With A Mission base in Recife, Brazil and has been there for 20 years working with street kids. In Brazil, there is an estimated 7-8 million street kids out of a populations of 160-170 million. That's such a crazy amount! But, I absolutely love what the YWAM bases in Brazil are doing for street kids. It's so awesome the ministry that is coming out of there. They work to prevent children from having to go to the streets, as well as have houses to help restore kids that are coming off of the streets. In Belo Horizonte, they have homes that teach the kids different trades that could be useful in finding jobs and staying off the streets. If you'd like the check out the work they are doing, here are the links:
YWAM Recife
YWAM Belo Horizonte
