A Thousand Questions...
Posted by Amanda , Tuesday, March 30, 2010 4:58 PM
If you're interested in seeing a touching, challenging, inspiring video...check this out:
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Creativity!
Posted by Amanda 4:47 PM
This past week, I did a teaching on encouraging children in their creativity. Helping kids express themselves, especially through creative outlets, is something I'm very passionate about. Kids are dreamers, full of imagination and unknown possibilities. I think it's a beautiful thing and as adults we can learn a lot from them. I found a couple links talking about child creativity, with some ideas for how to encourage it.
Here's what I found: It's the doing that counts
Fostering Creativity
Teaching Creativity
Also, this is our last week of classes and we are discusses attachment disorders. It's an interesting topic and something that many people aren't aware of. As we have been discussing this week, many kids are affected by it and if we are aware of it then we can help them in greater ways. Attachment is defined as the affectionate tie between two people. Attachment disorder is the condition in which individuals have trouble forming lasting relationships. I think it's possible that we have all come in contact with children/adults that have attachment disorder. It would be a really great thing to educate ourselves on this disorder, especially if working with kids.
If you would like to read more about it, here's a great website: Attachment.org
Rape Video Games? What's next...
Posted by Amanda 4:39 PM
I have never liked video games really. For all those people that enjoy them, I am sorry but I do not. I feel like they are a mindless waste of time, most of them being violent and disturbing. They desensitize you, making murder and grotesque images a normal part of life. Now, I have found a new reason to dislike them. I recently read that they have come out with a video game in Japan that is all about raping, assaulting and molesting women. You can even choose to impregnate a woman and then force her to have an abortion. The motive for this game is revenge.
Wow.
It's no wonder that things like prostitution, human trafficking and rude sexual behavior are running rampant in this world today. What makes us think these things are okay?
I can't wrap my mind around the fact that games like this exist. It's bad enough that things like this actually happen in our world--maybe this is the reason why. In the article, it debates whether or not these kinds of games should be banned. In my mind, I wonder how that is even a debate.
I'm almost speechless. I can't find any words to say. It makes me sad, angry, frustrated that women are used like that...and for what? Revenge. It makes me upset that people place no value on human lives and that video games are just reinforcing that. How is this happening?
Here is the article: RapeLay Video Game
Our last local outreach!
Posted by Amanda , Monday, March 29, 2010 2:14 PM
Friday was our last local outreach for our school and there were sad faces all around. We went to Metro Ministries and hung out with the same kids from last week. We started off playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” with the kids again and then started another game of “Red light, Green light.” I just love the excitement of the kids. They were thrilled with whatever game we were playing and got so into it. The little girls were always grabbing my arm and rattling off in Spanish (so of course, I just smiled and nodded and giggled). For our program, we were able to share several testimonies and play some fun games with them. Scott, the leader of Metro Ministries, told them it was our last week there and we wouldn’t be coming back. After that, many of the kids were just sitting with us crying. I feel like it’s one of the hardest parts of only doing short-term ministry. You get very attached to the kids and they get attached to you. Then, three months later you’re leaving and you find yourself not wanting to. It’s especially hard when it’s such amazing, beautiful kids full of life and joy. It’s like, in those two hours of ministry time, you forget everything else in the world exists except you and those kids. You just give them love and pour yourselves into them. It’s hard to leave them. But, the excitement is knowing that I get to spend so many more months living in Jaco and spending everyday with the kids there. I will get to know them so much more intensely and I know they will steal my heart just as much as the other kids I have worked with.
On Saturday night, a few of us went to Jaco again. Since our speaker this past week was teaching about human trafficking, we went with her to observe the nightlife. We headed downtown around midnight and were shocked by how busy it was. There was an amazing amount of people on the streets and about twice as many prostitutes. Ro told us that she started counting the prostitutes, but had to stop once she hit 50 because there were just too many to count. And that was only including the women that were on the street, in plain sight. As we were walking down the street, we passed an old man—probably in his 70’s—with a young prostitute who couldn’t be more than 18 or 19 years old. They were laughing and talking. It was such an odd sight. The amount of men that were on the streets was unbelievable. There were old men, young men, men from all over the world, locals…any kind of man you could imagine basically. I have a feeling I will have a hard time liking men while I am living there. Anyways, it looks like outreach will be a challenge, but I know I will learn a lot. I’m truly excited for what is going to happen in Jaco. It will definitely be an adventure!
What’s happening in your neighborhood?
Posted by Amanda 12:32 PM
Speaker: Ro Potter
Topic: Human Trafficking
Staring into the face of the nasty, gross injustices in this world is a hard thing to do, but that is exactly what we did this past week. My heart was a mess—some days I literally felt like it was ripping out of my chest. The pain and anger from hearing stories of girls who were trafficked, abused and beaten was overwhelming. The intensity of last week is difficult to explain with words, but I need to try. I need others to understand what is happening in this world. It is not pretty.
For those of you that don’t know what human trafficking is, it is defined by the UN as being the recruitment, transportation, or harboring of a person by means of threat, force or deception for sex, labor, slave-like exploitation or the removal of organs. There are an estimated 27 million people in slavery today. To put that in perspective, there are 20 million people living in New York. Imagine every single person in New York being enslaved…along with another 7 million on top of that. Crazy, huh?
Trafficking is a huge industry and pulls in at least $32 billion a year. If you buy a girl through a trafficker, you can make back the money within one week by selling them as a prostitute. People are pulled into the industry of trafficking because you can buy a person and use them countless times without having to keep paying or getting more resources. They use people in all spans of the world, not only in prostitution. People are being enslaved to make our clothes, our chocolate, our coffee, our household furniture and appliances. Do we know where our things are coming from? Children are used as soldiers, used to murder and kill against their will. They are used in other forms of labor: housekeeping, construction, casinos, strip clubs, hotels, nail salons, massage parlors. The possibilities of where they are being used are endless.
Trafficking is happening everywhere. It could be happening in your local town, a rest stop by your house, in your suburban neighborhood. It’s not just in the cities or in poor areas. This is a real problem and it’s close to our homes. People get trafficked into the United States all the time.
“Everyone can fight human trafficking. Knowledge is power. Talk to a friend about human trafficking. Watch a documentary, educate yourself. Talk to government representatives. Ask them what your city is doing to fight trafficking,” says Ro Potter.
Fighting this is probably going to cost us. If anything, it will break our hearts. But is it worth it? Yes.
It’s easy, at least for me, to feel disgust and abhorrence for these traffickers. But it’s important to remember that they are human too and something in their past has led them to this place. It’s also important to remember that this industry is fueled by the demand. Men want cheap sex, easy gratification—so they buy a prostitute. We want cheap products—so they force young children to work for free to make those products. Someone needs an organ—so they drug someone and remove the organ without their consent. We have the responsibility to know where our stuff is coming from.
There are a million things I can say about human trafficking. Mostly, I just think we need to realize that God has a huge heart for this issue. These people, women, men, children—they never escape God’s eyes. He can’t get away from the pain they are going through. And what’s close to God’s heart should be close to ours. God wants us to bring justice for these people. If we aren’t doing that, if we aren’t listening to what He is saying to us…He will find other ways to do it. We can see that through the many secular organizations that are doing amazing things to stop these injustices.
So…the question is:
Are we listening?
Letting children express themselves...
Posted by Amanda , Tuesday, March 23, 2010 3:33 PM
I read a recent article about the affects that losing a parent/both parents has on a child, even as they grow up. Adults still deal with their feelings and emotions of losing a parent when they were young. Many times children do not have outlets for their feelings after a parent dies. I find that when these tradgedies happen, we tend to overlook the children and their feelings. We don't let them process enough and think that maybe since they are so young, it doesn't really affect them. But it does and the results show up even in adulthood. I think it's also the same when it comes to divorce. Divorces are so common these days and I think we tend to forget the affect they have on children. They need healthy, productive ways to process their thoughts and feelings, or they will shut it inside. If they never have an opportunity to deal with their feelings and hurts, they will carry it with them for the rest of their lives and it will greatly affect what kind of person they turn out to be.
I just can't get over how easily it slips past us that our childhood affects who we are as people. We seem to forget the fact that most things that happened in our childhood have shaped who we are today. And so we forget that the children that are growing up around us are being shaped into future adults and that the everyday circumstances of their lives are important. How they deal with their feelings is important. How they are treated is important. It's important to let them be children, let them be vulnerable and open, let them be themselves.
If you would like to check out the article, here it is: Kids who lose parents still grieve as adults
Reality.
Posted by Amanda 2:42 PM
Stare ugly in the face.
Step up, stare at it.
Swallow it whole.
Does it scare you?
Does it make you cry?
Does it make you change?
Stare. Really hard.
Can you ignore it?
Can you fight it?
Is it tearing at your heart?
Ugly, hideous, revolting, repulsive.
Disgusting, sickening, nauseating.
Reality.
Injustice has a dirty face.
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